6 ms·

Reeling It In: A Social Network for Anglers Won 7M Users (2018)

55 points by kamphey 8y ago

tapland 8y ago
Fishbrain is great. Used it a few years ago and being able to see where people fish and what they catch with what lure saves me a lot of time since I seldom get out to the water. Also friendly comments on catches =)
- lawnchair_larry 8y ago
  This seems like a bad thing from a conservation standpoint. 10 years ago, there was natural rare limiting due to the high time investment and knowledge/skill floor required to locate and catch fish. You’d have to trade tips with others you ran into around the area, and half of the time it was probably misdirection. Now, everything is just swarmed directly and overfished quickly.
Tronno 8y ago
I wish they had gone more in-depth on what strategies they used to grow the social network in the early days. I have a feeling that's relevant to a lot of folks on this site.
- llamataboot 8y ago
  Yes, the chicken and the egg problem seems huge - both for user acquisition and retention. I have at least 30 ideas that would be great "if a lot of people were using it" :D
danmaz74 8y ago
It's great to see that it's still possible to create specialised social networks outside of Facebook...
- kamphey 8y ago
  I see this in enterprise. For example: Sellerscrowd
jpswade 8y ago
Interesting because the common thinking is that "The Facebook of X" is Facebook. Is Facebook finally losing its stronghold? Possibly.
- GoRudy 8y ago
  A lot of facebook for x communities have existed for years before facebook did. Think back to the original vbulletin type forums, many of which still exist in some capacity today.
  - jbarberu 8y ago
    I hang at least weekly on bimmerfest to find help with whatever is troubling my 16 year old car. I think there is huge value in having these highly specific forums where all the people who know their stuff hang out. It implicitly also means you don't get a bunch of <!bmw> owners yelling at us to go f*ck ourselves, which you might on reddit or facebook...
    - Scoundreller 8y ago
      At least with facebook, we can count on them never deleting the photos for step-by-step DIY jobs, unlike multiple image hosts of the past.
- kamphey 8y ago
  Similar to how craigslist has led to many marketplaces it does seem like Facebooks current version has better alternatives for some groups. I also see YouTube For X and Reddit For X as well. YC backed Tingles, an app for ASMR. Cruise Critic could be considered Reddit for Cruisers.
jezclaremurugan 8y ago
Misleading title - this doesn't go into the "how" part at all.
- b3orn 8y ago
  I've seen this often, maybe there is a need for a new law, "Any article with a headline claiming how something was done is not about how but that it was done". Compare with Betteridge's law of headlines, "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no".
  - dang 8y ago
    We wrote software to strip a lot of leading Hows out of titles. It doesn't work perfectly, unfortunately, but on balance I think it improves title quality.
lawnchair_larry 8y ago
The older fishermen I know (small sample) really hate this. They say their usual spots that they and other locals in their community have worked out after decades are now blown out, overcrowded and overfished. The new generation seems to have this thing where they don’t feel that it’s necessary to put in the work to earn things like this, and shout them down for “gatekeeping”. I see the older view of it, but I’m not sure how legitimate that is.
- asark 8y ago
  I guess people who've put that much time into it must really enjoy the hobby. It probably does suck to have folks who are way less into it come along and mess up their fun, with the magic of technology. It's not like mass media—too many people knowing about some great thing in the real world can ruin it. Especially when those most into whatever activities are associated with those places might be so in no small part because it's a sparse community of people who, if you encounter them at all, are almost guaranteed to behave sensibly and respectfully.
- osrec 8y ago
  I assume the older generation would not hesitate to pass on their spot information to their kids or grandkids for free. In a sense, they ARE gatekeeping a resource they probably don't even own. I personally don't think this is fair.
  - anitil 8y ago
    I gate keep a few spots. I've spent hundreds of hours exploring different spots, and worked out the timing of certain species to within a couple of days at a specific section of reef at a certain time of day. Given that, I have two (slightly contradictory) thoughts: 1) Most people fishing a spot don't understand enough to make it work, so just knowing the spot is basically irrelevant 2) I have worked hard 'my' spots and simply don't feel the need to share.
    - osrec 8y ago
      You not sharing is your prerogative, and that's cool. However, if someone else was to turn up and use that spot; perhaps even "discover" it for themselves, I don't think you should feel any ill will towards them, right? I mean, it's a public space, and as long as they're being respectful, I don't see a problem with many people enjoying it. Sometimes good things get crowded, but that's the nature of public stuff - I don't think it's fair to claim public areas as your personal area just because you found it first.
lotophage 8y ago
> The aim is to make Fishbrain the most popular angling app not just globally, but in every country as well. What?
- darkwizard42 8y ago
  I think this implies that while there may be a general global community, they want to help it take off and form more local communities. Imagine, Reddit vs. /r/cityNameHere (a little too generic maybe)

55 points by kamphey 8y ago

Fishbrain is great. Used it a few years ago and being able to see where people fish and what they catch with what lure saves me a lot of time since I seldom get out to the water. Also friendly comments on catches =)

lawnchair_larry 8y ago
This seems like a bad thing from a conservation standpoint. 10 years ago, there was natural rare limiting due to the high time investment and knowledge/skill floor required to locate and catch fish. You’d have to trade tips with others you ran into around the area, and half of the time it was probably misdirection. Now, everything is just swarmed directly and overfished quickly.

Tronno 8y ago

I wish they had gone more in-depth on what strategies they used to grow the social network in the early days. I have a feeling that's relevant to a lot of folks on this site.

llamataboot 8y ago
Yes, the chicken and the egg problem seems huge - both for user acquisition and retention. I have at least 30 ideas that would be great "if a lot of people were using it" :D

danmaz74 8y ago

It's great to see that it's still possible to create specialised social networks outside of Facebook...

kamphey 8y ago
I see this in enterprise. For example: Sellerscrowd

jpswade 8y ago

Interesting because the common thinking is that "The Facebook of X" is Facebook. Is Facebook finally losing its stronghold? Possibly.

GoRudy 8y ago
A lot of facebook for x communities have existed for years before facebook did. Think back to the original vbulletin type forums, many of which still exist in some capacity today.
- jbarberu 8y ago
  I hang at least weekly on bimmerfest to find help with whatever is troubling my 16 year old car. I think there is huge value in having these highly specific forums where all the people who know their stuff hang out. It implicitly also means you don't get a bunch of <!bmw> owners yelling at us to go f*ck ourselves, which you might on reddit or facebook...
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    At least with facebook, we can count on them never deleting the photos for step-by-step DIY jobs, unlike multiple image hosts of the past.
kamphey 8y ago
Similar to how craigslist has led to many marketplaces it does seem like Facebooks current version has better alternatives for some groups. I also see YouTube For X and Reddit For X as well. YC backed Tingles, an app for ASMR. Cruise Critic could be considered Reddit for Cruisers.

jezclaremurugan 8y ago

Misleading title - this doesn't go into the "how" part at all.

b3orn 8y ago
I've seen this often, maybe there is a need for a new law, "Any article with a headline claiming how something was done is not about how but that it was done". Compare with Betteridge's law of headlines, "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no".
- dang 8y ago
  We wrote software to strip a lot of leading Hows out of titles. It doesn't work perfectly, unfortunately, but on balance I think it improves title quality.

lawnchair_larry 8y ago

The older fishermen I know (small sample) really hate this. They say their usual spots that they and other locals in their community have worked out after decades are now blown out, overcrowded and overfished. The new generation seems to have this thing where they don’t feel that it’s necessary to put in the work to earn things like this, and shout them down for “gatekeeping”. I see the older view of it, but I’m not sure how legitimate that is.

asark 8y ago
I guess people who've put that much time into it must really enjoy the hobby. It probably does suck to have folks who are way less into it come along and mess up their fun, with the magic of technology. It's not like mass media—too many people knowing about some great thing in the real world can ruin it. Especially when those most into whatever activities are associated with those places might be so in no small part because it's a sparse community of people who, if you encounter them at all, are almost guaranteed to behave sensibly and respectfully.
osrec 8y ago
I assume the older generation would not hesitate to pass on their spot information to their kids or grandkids for free. In a sense, they ARE gatekeeping a resource they probably don't even own. I personally don't think this is fair.
- anitil 8y ago
  I gate keep a few spots. I've spent hundreds of hours exploring different spots, and worked out the timing of certain species to within a couple of days at a specific section of reef at a certain time of day. Given that, I have two (slightly contradictory) thoughts: 1) Most people fishing a spot don't understand enough to make it work, so just knowing the spot is basically irrelevant 2) I have worked hard 'my' spots and simply don't feel the need to share.
  - osrec 8y ago
    You not sharing is your prerogative, and that's cool. However, if someone else was to turn up and use that spot; perhaps even "discover" it for themselves, I don't think you should feel any ill will towards them, right? I mean, it's a public space, and as long as they're being respectful, I don't see a problem with many people enjoying it. Sometimes good things get crowded, but that's the nature of public stuff - I don't think it's fair to claim public areas as your personal area just because you found it first.

lotophage 8y ago

> The aim is to make Fishbrain the most popular angling app not just globally, but in every country as well. What?

darkwizard42 8y ago
I think this implies that while there may be a general global community, they want to help it take off and form more local communities. Imagine, Reddit vs. /r/cityNameHere (a little too generic maybe)