WSF has had more new looks over the years than David Beckham, right back from when we started with Sea All The Angles 9 years ago – the site has undergone a series of design changes. Whilst I appreciate that this new look may not be for everybody I believe it is better that what we have had before as well as easier to navigate and use for our readers and members.

WHY THE CHANGE?
WSF has been re-skinned many times but it has always had the same basic structure behind it. The old site and structure did not have enough capacity for what we want to do in the future including items such as Video, Audio and higher resolution images.

WHAT’S BEEN DONE THEN?
Well – lots. The boring stuff is that we have re-engineered the back end of the magazine, this means that our Forum, Gallery, Classifieds and user generated content is now run independently of the magazine, which (fingers crossed) should lead to a more reliable forum and gallery over time. We’ve also brought back our old skool’ naming sequences so www.worldseafishing.com/shore/ will now take you to the shore fishing section instead of News/blah/blah etc. that we had before, much better I’m sure you will agree. In keeping with older WSF incarnations we have moved our navigation back to the side – the most requested changed by our readers.

World Sea Fishing is the most visited angling web site in the UK (HitWise April, 2007) and with that we have always had to make considerations regarding how we use our bandwidth, until now. We have increased our bandwidth across all of the site sections which will enable us to add much richer content to all of our articles and site sections. Our most modern articles now have much larger, higher resolution images on them, and this will be rolled out throughout the rest of the site over the coming weeks. Bandwidth will also be opened up for the WSF Gallery so in a short time you will be able to upload much bigger and better pictures.

Our increase in bandwidth will enable us to use much more video and audio content which will be added to our new WSF TV Section. We have a number of videos in production which will be released regularly over the coming months. All of our “how to” articles such as rigs, knots, baits and anything “technical” will be given video content and much better picture sequences and diagrams.

Our site data shows that 93% of you are accessing the internet via Broadband so we will begin to integrate content into WSF that enables you to make full use of your connection speed!

NEW FEATURES
Scottish U21 International, Gold Medal winner and all round top bloke, Shaun Cumming, has agreed to provide us with a stunning set of regular articles, detailing his fishing exploits around the coastline of Scotland. In addition to this Shaun, Myself and the rest of the WSF team will be out creating new WSF On Tour features for the new look WSF Adventure section! There is so much to do, but so little time! If any of our reader’s fancy writing a feature or reporting their own “WSF ADVENTURE” then don’t hesitate to get in touch!

The WSF team will also be producing regular diaries and columns designed to keep you up to date with how we are doing in our own fishing as well as a place where we can rant about whatever it is that needs ranting about this week! The new WSF Blog will detail any changes or new additions to WSF. “In New Tackle We Trust” will be a web log that details any news on quality tackle developments and releases. If the thought of spending over £40 on a rod or reel gives you nightmares – you are best off avoiding this section!

Due to popular demand (thanks to all of those who have requested this feature) we are working on a WSF Pin Map. This will allow you to add in your location and then a pin will be added to the map, this will make it easier for you to find like minded anglers in your area. This is very much in the pre-production stage at the moment, so don’t expect it too soon!

There are simply tonnes of new ideas and features that we want to add to WSF but there just isn’t enough time to do them all at once. So keep checking back at this web log to get the latest info on what’s changing and what’s improving on WSF.

As a final note - redesigns are always a pain to get right first time especially as there are so many viewing experiences of a large amount of people to consider. There will also be things that we don’t like and change during the first couple of weeks. If we find anything that we don’t feel is right or doesn’t work – it will get reworked! If anybody has any problems with the new site or suggestions, feel free to contact me.

Tight Lines,

Mike Thrussell Jnr