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What do boaters do when
they’re not boating? Surely one of their favorite pastimes is talking
about boats and boating. Look down any dock at the end of the day, and
you’ll see agglomerations of men and women—many with a drink
in their hands—embroiled in conversation, if not controversy. Edge
a bit closer, and you’ll find any number of subjects being hashed
over, from how to care for an engine to where to find an undiscovered
place to drop the hook.
But where does a boater
go to chat when it’s dark, cold, or rainy? A yacht or cruising club
is a great place if you happen to be lucky enough to belong to one. For
everyone else there’s the local waterfront watering hole, which is
sure to be populated by a few colorful, if not necessarily knowledgeable,
nautical types. But the environments of many such establishments aren’t
always conducive to informed discourse, especially as the evening wears
on.
I’m happy to announce
a better and considerably healthier alternative for those of you who like
to hash over maritime topics. PMY has just gone live with four
online forums, which can be accessed through our Web site, www.powerandmotoryacht.com.
Each deals with a specific subject—design and surveying, electronics,
maintenance, and megayachts—and each is moderated by a PMY
editor who’s an expert in that field. George L. Petrie, Ben Ellison,
Capt. Ken Kreisler, and Diane M. Byrne, respectively.
For those readers who
are unfamiliar with online forums, it’s a surprisingly simple concept.
After you log on, you can search out any number of conversations, or “threads,”
within each forum, or you can start a thread on a subject of your choosing.
If you find an existing conversation that interests you, you can add your
comments or just read what’s been posted.
An important aspect
of this is the role of the moderator. Comments input by participants are
not directed at the moderators, but are instead just “put out there”
for anyone to respond to. Thus the moderators are not constantly online
and so do not monitor everything as it is posted. They do, however, periodically
check the site and read the discussions with an eye toward offering useful
information or looking for anyone who is abusing the site. So, for example,
Capt. Ken Kreisler might read a string about an engine problem and interject
a comment based upon a bulletin he has just read, while not commenting
on other threads.
The forums are open
to anyone, and they’re free, but you do have to register. Fortunately,
that’s painless. Simply go to www.powerandmotoryacht.com,
click on the Forums link, and follow the prompts to the registration screen.
You’ll find a series of required questions to answer, such as your
user name and password (which you create), e-mail address, name, birth
date, location, and boat information. Fill in the blanks and hit the “save”
button, and as soon as you receive your confirmation, you can log on and
start typing.
The best part of these
forums, besides the fact that they’re free, is that if you don’t
find a topic that strikes your fancy, you can simply create a new discussion
based on something you are interested in. So in that regard, they really
aren’t PMY’s forums, they’re yours. What are you
waiting for?
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