This forum has become the best horse racing community around. I feel that with growth, comes the need for periodic reviews to ensure that we aren't missing any opportunities to make improvements or that it does not start to decline due to apathy on my part. I also believe that there is no point in changing things just for the sake of it. The only way to discover how things are going is to do a health check amongst all members. It is important to get the views of everyone rather than just a small portion. I'll start a simple POLL just to get a broad idea. The POLL will be anonymous so please vote how you feel. All comments are welcome but if you prefer your comments to remain private please send them to me via Private Message. Thanks for your time. Ron
I'm pretty happy with things Ron. It would be good though to find an easy way of locating the daily naps without trawling through pages of comments. I'm not a punter, so it doesn't mean that much to me personally, but I can how it would help those who do like the information. A stated before, this place is about as good as it gets when it comes to looking for well thought out race reading. The only thing that gets me, is the inability to post a "banner headline" in capitals. That's not much to complain about though.
Sometimes the thread seems like it is only aimed at the experts who know a lot about racing - of course the thread needs these guys as the are incredible tipsters but as a complete novice i sometimes feel like an outsider - i also think that the amount of work put in by thread creators/moderators is hugely underestimated
Anti don't worry, keep reading and you will learn more about racing,believe me there is more to horse racing than just tipping ,I personally don't bet much but folow the racing ,you don;t have to be a big tipster to enjoy the sport.Cyc for instance enjoys finding about history of racing and writing his threads,we discuss time from time about Harness racing in private messages because we would be laughed at in public on the forum.It comes down to ,do you enjoy horse racing, if so you probably get more out of the sport than the " gamblers". So you have to decide for yourself, are you a lover of horse racing or a gambler.
cheers for reply - i love watching the racing and often go to meetings here in ireland - i just don't seem to be able to take in all the technical terms of the sport - sometimes sounds like a different language - when at the races i often hear blokes going on about weights and penalties as if they are experts but i know that they have serious gambling problems and have lost fortunes - i love racing but i hate the so-called experts who seem to think i am not a race fan unless i can speak the language - again thanks for the reply
I think on the whole it is a really good forum and some niggly things from 606 have been eradicated, the main one for me being able to post at an time of day. I do think you personally are doing a great job Ron. When i first came aboard after 606 closed i could see it was a good forum and then when i saw how many of the old posters were here i thought that was great but also feared it becoming like the worst of the other board with all the childish bickering and point scoring. I have been really pleased that by in large that has not been allowed to happen. I agree that it would be nice to be able to see members tips for the day at the top of the daily thread but that is difficult unless someone adopts it and puts in a lot of work throughout the day. Maybe a soloution is a sticky of Members tips on which we post in the morning our bets for that day. It would need to be kept purely to the selections without long reasoning although one line would be ok for each selection i guess (although i love to read reasoning on the daily thread) so as it did not get bogged down, also if we avoided the well done messages as well on this thread so those who like can go to the post and see exactly who is going for what that day very easily. We can still do the reasoning and well dones and did you see that ride stuff on the daily thread but if we had an easily viewable one i think it would be well viewed and appreciated. The problem with the daily thread is that if i dont get online for a few hours because work gets in the way i cannot be bothered to read 60 posts but i would however like to see who everyone is going for today. I liked the ask Princess sticky and hope that will keep getting used and also i know someone did a good post about a yard visit a couple of weeks back. This sort of stuff stuff as well as the tipping posters and the competitions are making it a fantastic forum on the whole, so thanks for the part you play in that.
Excellent forum, pleased with the way that the bitching is removed with out interfering with the general feel of the daily thread, well done ron and others who appear to be doing a lot of hard work with a soft hand kep it up please
Islanderpei: Well said, I bet just occasionally nowadays and then not in great amounts. You can still enjoy horseracing without the need to gamble, but have to admit that when one is on a winner it's still a great feeling. Some of the tipsters on here are very very good, but surely the real enjoyment in racing is working it out for oneself? Then the infrequent (for me) winner is something to savour? Good forum, run well by Ron, a lot better than the old 606 which got totally out of control at times.....................
Hi Ron, This forum is much better than the old 606 and getting better all the time. Dont get much chance to post, but really enjoy reading what others think. There's some very knowledgeable people on here and prepared to share their thoughts. Keep up the good work.
I thoroughly enjoy the site and glean loads from it. Overall it is good humoured and affords all of us an opportunity to express opinions in a balanced and cogent manner. The effort that Ron puts in is greatly appreciated...However,I do miss a certain marathon running glove puppet meister..<run>....<fast>
Rough Quest,interesting moniker,I met Sarah Casey,niece of RQ's trainer in Poerstewart 3 weeks ago.Also played Rosapenna golf course in Donegal where his brother Martin owns a pub in nearby downings,where the caseys are from.I'm 25% irish and Mummy and Daddy have now retired to Portstewart...great golf course,Davis Love has his Open prep there every year,complete gentleman...Rory could do worse than take lessons from him before he disappears up his own.......well you know the rest...
I felt the same way on the old 606 and although I put a fair bit of work into my write ups I'm still a novice and have been properly putting in this much effort for about 9 months. I found, and this is me personally and I can't say for anybody else, that I learned a lot from people who did write ups in terms of what to look for and I know for a fact it has made me a better analyst as a result. I value everyones contribution, no matter how big or small, as at the end of the day we're all here to share our thoughts and opinions and to help each other. Thankfully there is only a minimalistic amount of bickering that was rife on 606 and I echo your sentiments regarding the efforts made by Ron + Co to make this forum as accommodating as possible to all. Its also great to see posters like PN, Cyc, Bustino etc who share their knowledge of the non gambling aspects of racing as I really enjoy reading it as I have been brought up around horses all my life.
I'm in the satisfied category so this is an extra comment. I like the mechanics of the forum. A big plus is that the most recently commented thread goes to the top of the 'un-sticky' pile. Old 606 was a nightmare. The stickies are a good idea, although I think they should be used sparingly and refreshed (some weekly such as naps (so week 33 naps), and some monthly such as ask pN (October's pN)). Eddie's sticky did him no favours at all, so hence my comment on using them sparingly. But there's little else to fault. I think there is a good mix of posters and a good deal of respectful commenting made between posters. Old 606 got ugly at times, and I left for months at a time because of that. I do miss a couple of posters such as Stick, In the Groove, NJS, CaptainChristy and of course Captaincarrantuohil ....but maybe they'll join one day.
I'd just like to see a bit more variety on not606 ie. a few more Articles, Quizzes, Humour, and anything original. That's just a personal view but overall "The man from Del Monte says YES." Well done, Ron!
Ron: Personally i think it works well enough and you go to great efforts to make this a successful forum. It's nice that there is banter too. Andi: The way to look at it is this, every one of us on here had to start out somewhere at some stage. The good thing about this forum is you can gain knowledge and ask questions any time you want and there is always someone there to reply with an answer. If the reply is unsuitable Ron will remove it As for not discussing subjects (ie harnessing) you should go ahead and speak openly, ignore anyone who takes the proverbial, that's the good thing that not606 has that 606 did not. Overall a great forum and enjoyable
Ron - Its as good a forum as any other sport forum ive been on. Good characters, good debtes and of course the occaisional winner is predicted...!!! A thankless task but keep up the good work, its very much appreciated...
Ron, I would love less of these self gratification threads Keep up the good work the place is running really well and its a good place to be
Im fairly new to the forum and I looked around at numerous other racing forums before deciding on which one to join... this one was by far the best I saw!! Great forum!
