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VerticalScope Inc Aquires WorldSeaFishing

44K views 203 replies 88 participants last post by  Nick Phillips 
#1 ·
On Christmas Eve of 2015 I agreed a deal with VerticalScope Inc of Canada that would ultimately see them acquire the forum assets of WSF Media. As of today VerticalScope Inc owns the WorldSeaFishing.com domain name, the WSF Forums, the SeaAngling.org.uk domain name and the SeaAngling.org.uk Forums.

On Monday the 1st of February I permanently removed the WSF Webzine from the WSF Site creating a standalone sea angling forum site, the largest sea angling only forum in the UK. As part of the acquisition deal reached with VerticalScope Inc, I will retain the WSF Webzine content and will be launching a new, separate online sea angling webzine away from WSF. Whilst this is a separate entity from the WSF Forums, WSF has been my life for almost two decades, so the new webzine will continue to provide a link back to the WSF Forums.

It was important for me that any new owner would be able to take the forum in its present form, foster continuity and in the long term provide the capital and resources to push the forum on to greater things. There was no question in my mind that VerticalScope Inc was the ideal partner for this. VerticalScope Inc passionately run forums just like WSF in a number of industries. Their founder and CEO is an avid forum user and The WSF Forums will join an illustrious group of angling websites owned by VerticalScope Inc. including the Allcoast Network, Noreast.com, TidalFish.com, boat.com and other outdoor brands. With the resources VerticalScope Inc have at their disposal, I’m excited to see what the future holds for the WSF Forums.

It is important to stress that VerticalScope understand forums and their communities and it is their wish that the forum carries on "as is” with the best interests of WSF at heart. With the same ethos and mantra that we've always had, to provide the most up to date information to the most amount of sea anglers possible.

As for myself, well, my time with forums will come to an end. Once the transition and final handover procedures have been completed within the next few weeks I will be resigning from my position as Head Administrator of the WSF Forums. After 17 years I feel it is the right time to step down and let somebody else take on the mantle of running the UK’s largest and busiest angling forum. I have agreed with VerticalScope Inc to stay on as Species Hunt Co-Ordinator for 2016, so I will still be running this competition and sending you out your stickers and badges.

It’s been an exciting adventure full of hard work, difficult moments and the odd wildcard member, however, despite this, I’ve enjoyed every second of running this forum. I founded the site with what was effectively pocket money in 1998 as a project during a wet and windy summer holiday break from school. It was never my intention it would become the most popular angling site in the UK and reach over 250,000 anglers a month. It’s amazing it got to that level and I’m proud of our achievements in pioneering online angling over the past 17 years.

I will forever be indebted to the guys who have helped run the site over these past 17 years, many of whom have become good friends. Their tireless dedication to moderating the forum often goes unnoticed by the rest of the forum community, but without them, there would be no forum.

I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the members of the forum who have supported the site over the years and who continue to contribute with catch reports and helpful advice to anglers new and old. I doubt there is another website in the country that carries the breadth of knowledge and content that the WSF Forums has amassed over the years.

With that, I must sign off. I look forward to chatting with you, contributing and posting my own reports in the future, not as an admin or a moderator but as a member, a contributor and an angler.

My Very Best Regards and Tight Lines,

Mike Thrussell Jnr
 
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#98 ·
Wow.

The only real experience I have had of this sort of thing is when pistonheads was sold by petrol Ted to Haymarket.

PH is a very different place now and sadley that special feeling of community was one of the first things to go imo.

Here's hoping for the best for WSF

Mo.
A community is created and maintained by the members and the team looking after it. Rob and the mod team are still all here, so as long as the members still are, it will not change. Besides, some are so long in the tooth and set in their ways, they wouldn't let it. :D

As a nation we don't like change and mistrust the reasons, we got through the change of forum software with not to many problems though, and we will get through this change too.

There is a single point of contact with Phil at the new owners, and larger financial clout then Mike could ever manage to promote the sites. I don't know if there is cross site promotion of other sites owned by VS, but there is the potential for true international membership and 'the rest of the world' having to be divided up into continents or even counties.
 
#99 ·
On Christmas Eve of 2015 I agreed a deal with VerticalScope Inc of Canada that would ultimately see them acquire the forum assets of WSF Media. As of today VerticalScope Inc owns the WorldSeaFishing.com domain name, the WSF Forums, the SeaAngling.org.uk domain name and the SeaAngling.org.uk Forums.

On Monday the 1st of February I permanently removed the WSF Webzine from the WSF Site creating a standalone sea angling forum site, the largest sea angling only forum in the UK. As part of the acquisition deal reached with VerticalScope Inc, I will retain the WSF Webzine content and will be launching a new, separate online sea angling webzine away from WSF. Whilst this is a separate entity from the WSF Forums, WSF has been my life for almost two decades, so the new webzine will continue to provide a link back to the WSF Forums.

It was important for me that any new owner would be able to take the forum in its present form, foster continuity and in the long term provide the capital and resources to push the forum on to greater things. There was no question in my mind that VerticalScope Inc was the ideal partner for this. VerticalScope Inc passionately run forums just like WSF in a number of industries. Their founder and CEO is an avid forum user and The WSF Forums will join an illustrious group of angling websites owned by VerticalScope Inc. including the Allcoast Network, Noreast.com, TidalFish.com, boat.com and other outdoor brands. With the resources VerticalScope Inc have at their disposal, I’m excited to see what the future holds for the WSF Forums.

It is important to stress that VerticalScope understand forums and their communities and it is their wish that the forum carries on "as is” with the best interests of WSF at heart. With the same ethos and mantra that we've always had, to provide the most up to date information to the most amount of sea anglers possible.

As for myself, well, my time with forums will come to an end. Once the transition and final handover procedures have been completed within the next few weeks I will be resigning from my position as Head Administrator of the WSF Forums. After 17 years I feel it is the right time to step down and let somebody else take on the mantle of running the UK’s largest and busiest angling forum. I have agreed with VerticalScope Inc to stay on as Species Hunt Co-Ordinator for 2016, so I will still be running this competition and sending you out your stickers and badges.

It’s been an exciting adventure full of hard work, difficult moments and the odd wildcard member, however, despite this, I’ve enjoyed every second of running this forum. I founded the site with what was effectively pocket money in 1998 as a project during a wet and windy summer holiday break from school. It was never my intention it would become the most popular angling site in the UK and reach over 250,000 anglers a month. It’s amazing it got to that level and I’m proud of our achievements in pioneering online angling over the past 17 years.

I will forever be indebted to the guys who have helped run the site over these past 17 years, many of whom have become good friends. Their tireless dedication to moderating the forum often goes unnoticed by the rest of the forum community, but without them, there would be no forum.

I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the members of the forum who have supported the site over the years and who continue to contribute with catch reports and helpful advice to anglers new and old. I doubt there is another website in the country that carries the breadth of knowledge and content that the WSF Forums has amassed over the years.

With that, I must sign off. I look forward to chatting with you, contributing and posting my own reports in the future, not as an admin or a moderator but as a member, a contributor and an angler.

My Very Best Regards and Tight Lines,

Mike Thrussell Jnr
A huge HUGE thank you and very best wishes to you Mike. Joining WSF made an incredible difference to my fishing life. I have made new friends, been to new places and caught fish I could never imagined previously. My avatar picture shows the direct result of using WSF and I will never forget that evening of fishing in Cuba. It would never have happened without having joined WSF! All the best for the future Mike and thank you again. Tight Lines. Steve.
 
#100 ·
Re-introducing the Small Boat Tests would be a good move. If that well known yellow coloured sea angling mag can produce less than 500 words of repetitive each month (does it still do it?) then NEW WSF should be able to do 10x better
Any links to that ?
It was part of the old webzine, I think they were cut from it about two years ago.

It's not prudent of me to go into details but the new project I have detailed in the opening post to this thread is pencilled to having a "boating" section - of which boat reviews and boating kit and electronics are to feature quite heavily.
 
#102 ·
Best wishes for the future Mike and hope you find more time to fish. I suspect you've spent an awful lot of good fishing time on here sorting stuff out. I don't think anybody would argue that the site has been a massive success (and will hopefully continue to be) and is a huge credit to you. No doubt in my mind that your new projects will be every bit as successful

For me personally its been a real help for business but more importantly I've made loads of new friends as well as being able to keep up with some very old friends that I've known for 40 odd years in some cases. I think that is the strength of the site ... it has become a meeting place for us tortured souls when we are not able (or allowed) to fish. Thanks again Mike :)
 
#106 ·
Never had one, but often end up re-reading something after a while and realising that something had gone wrong. When I was running WSF and of course, on Tuesday night, I was quite often spinning 10 plates at a time so speed and efficiency was always the order of the day. Get it done, get it out there and move on was always the way I had to work. At anyone time I'd be answering 50 or 60 emails a day as well as sorting out whatever was going on here. It was a tricky balancing act.

If there is one thing I'm looking forward to, it is the ability to not have to rush to do things anymore! I can take my time.
 
#111 ·
Thank you for making such a great forum Mike. There are so many knowledgable people on here and so much great info. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

With this new ownership I really hope that all of the archived threads that can be accessed through the search facility should be kept as they are such a wealth of knowledge.

Secondly, I think the return of a WSF app would be a good addition, so maybe this could be looked into?

All the best
Tom
 
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#113 ·
On Christmas Eve of 2015 I agreed a deal with VerticalScope Inc of Canada that would ultimately see them acquire the forum assets of WSF Media. As of today VerticalScope Inc owns the WorldSeaFishing.com domain name, the WSF Forums, the SeaAngling.org.uk domain name and the SeaAngling.org.uk Forums.

On Monday the 1st of February I permanently removed the WSF Webzine from the WSF Site creating a standalone sea angling forum site, the largest sea angling only forum in the UK. As part of the acquisition deal reached with VerticalScope Inc, I will retain the WSF Webzine content and will be launching a new, separate online sea angling webzine away from WSF. Whilst this is a separate entity from the WSF Forums, WSF has been my life for almost two decades, so the new webzine will continue to provide a link back to the WSF Forums.

It was important for me that any new owner would be able to take the forum in its present form, foster continuity and in the long term provide the capital and resources to push the forum on to greater things. There was no question in my mind that VerticalScope Inc was the ideal partner for this. VerticalScope Inc passionately run forums just like WSF in a number of industries. Their founder and CEO is an avid forum user and The WSF Forums will join an illustrious group of angling websites owned by VerticalScope Inc. including the Allcoast Network, Noreast.com, TidalFish.com, boat.com and other outdoor brands. With the resources VerticalScope Inc have at their disposal, I’m excited to see what the future holds for the WSF Forums.

It is important to stress that VerticalScope understand forums and their communities and it is their wish that the forum carries on "as is” with the best interests of WSF at heart. With the same ethos and mantra that we've always had, to provide the most up to date information to the most amount of sea anglers possible.

As for myself, well, my time with forums will come to an end. Once the transition and final handover procedures have been completed within the next few weeks I will be resigning from my position as Head Administrator of the WSF Forums. After 17 years I feel it is the right time to step down and let somebody else take on the mantle of running the UK’s largest and busiest angling forum. I have agreed with VerticalScope Inc to stay on as Species Hunt Co-Ordinator for 2016, so I will still be running this competition and sending you out your stickers and badges.

It’s been an exciting adventure full of hard work, difficult moments and the odd wildcard member, however, despite this, I’ve enjoyed every second of running this forum. I founded the site with what was effectively pocket money in 1998 as a project during a wet and windy summer holiday break from school. It was never my intention it would become the most popular angling site in the UK and reach over 250,000 anglers a month. It’s amazing it got to that level and I’m proud of our achievements in pioneering online angling over the past 17 years.

I will forever be indebted to the guys who have helped run the site over these past 17 years, many of whom have become good friends. Their tireless dedication to moderating the forum often goes unnoticed by the rest of the forum community, but without them, there would be no forum.

I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the members of the forum who have supported the site over the years and who continue to contribute with catch reports and helpful advice to anglers new and old. I doubt there is another website in the country that carries the breadth of knowledge and content that the WSF Forums has amassed over the years.

With that, I must sign off. I look forward to chatting with you, contributing and posting my own reports in the future, not as an admin or a moderator but as a member, a contributor and an angler.

My Very Best Regards and Tight Lines,

Mike Thrussell Jnr
Thanks for creating such a great forum Mike! All the best in your future endeavours.
 
#117 · (Edited)
Cor,
I've just read six pages of stuff for the thread .

" All Change " ,

On arriving at the next stop , I suddenly I find I've unknowingly opted to get advertising from thousands of associated advertisers .
It looks like I'll have a busy morning doing opt outs as the vast majority are of no interest to me . I wonder what Google will make of my declared interests as Killing Bass the pest , Billy Liars sea fishing tales , Treacle Bending & Hand Signing language for the dead.

I'm throughly disappointed that there was not room in the SEX box for, " Yes please , with a straight happy heterosexual "

On a lighter note, has all the slow site and difficult connections over the last few weeks after about 23.40hrs UK time now come to an end or will it persist due to the updates etc being done from the USA ?
 
#118 ·
Have you not got an AD BLOCKER app David?
Available in Google Chrome App
I run Ad Block and Ad Block Plus

BTW in an early post the new admin confirmed thet their use was not aproblem to the new Site owners.

In answer to your ? re slow speed server the answer is No its still a pain in the aris.
 
#119 · (Edited)
Aw shucks GF.,
I had hoped it was due to our changing over to super fast broadband at BT a wee while ago and that perhaps they were doing their updates for the local area after 22.00 hrs each day till the whole area came live & had settled down etc.

" ublock for fire fox " is now in place .
I can see the whole screen again and don't get lost in the dyslexic fog as I did before when flashing images occured .
 
#120 ·
Aw shucks GF.,
I had hoped it was due to our changing over to super fast broadband at BT a wee while ago and that perhaps they were doing their updates for the local area after 22.00 hrs each day till the whole area came live & had settled down etc.

" ublock for fire fox " is now in place .
I can see the whole screen again and don't get lost in the dyslexic fog as I did before when flashing images occured .
Here's another little tool for you David. A BB Speed Checker that runs on a clean line to the server.
http://www.supportal-test.co.uk/ Unfortunately you cant keep records of the tests except yu using your snipping tool with a copy / paste into an Excel (my preferred) worksheet.
 
#125 ·
I've never had a problem with AdBlock. In operation it is "silent" to the point that I don't even know that it is working. The only clue that it is operating is the total lack of Ads and certain Sites asking me to turn it off!
To repeat the guts of my earlier post to Dasvis, I run AdBlock and AdBlock Plus in tandem
 

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#127 ·
I stopped using it as it was becoming as bad as the stuff it was meant to be blocking. I've been using it a lot of years but it caused really bad problems on here and Ebay in particular. If your on windows you might find it different but on Linux it is really noticeable! Having said that, Linux tends to make Windows seem like a Three-legged mountain goat with asthma trying to go uphill :) I find Windows utterly unbearable to use tbh.
 
#130 ·
Well , the ublock has certainly separated the girls from the ladies. I like the ladies that's for sure.

The rate of up of selection speed is amazing .
I too have re booted every stored favourite as well as putting in new passwords of a different form for all 12 sites that were stored in my favourites folder.

Prior to using ublock it was taking 14 seconds to open up on a site , now it's almost instant.
When I took the other blockers off there was a really noticeable increase in speed as well .

Had a bit of a panic Thursday morning .. no internet connection ..... Wahhhhha,! I had to actually telephone a friend instead of sending them an email ....... I positively felt like a caveman .
This loss of connection puzzled me .. the other wifi stuff in the home worked as normal save for my computer.

I was getting ready to press the panic button for I've gone through every aspect of the computer that I could think of and still zilch.. began to think , "OMG that blocker has blocked all internet access as well " .......... ARRaaagh ! ( LOUDLY ) .
Just about ready to work out how to remove the ublock and do a reboot when I noticed that the wifi dongle signal light was on continuously ( Yes wifi dongle ....this is an 8 yr old laptop ) . Hmmmm disconnected it left it whilst I had a cuppa and then replugged it in .

Haa haa the internet came back on .... so suspect that it became overloaded and ended up locked either at the dongle or inside the laptop .
 
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