I cannot believe nobody noticed. But unless I am mistaken RBO is 6 years old as of June 12. Happy Anniversay to the best rod building website on the internet.

While most other rod building sites are primarily focused on people snipping and snapping at one another while talking about anything and everything except rod building, RBO has remained committed to keeping the topics focused on rod building. Just last week I saw another site that had a lengthy topic string on how bad this and that was and all sorts of personal attacks and flaming. They even took some potshots at RBO. And yet they wonder why their own forum traffic is so low. All the while this site was focused on actual rod building topics and getting a ton of participation.

So Happy Anniversary to the best and most informative rod building website in the universe. I hope for another great 6 years. If you are a custom rod builder in search of great information and ideas, RBO is the place to be. Thanks to Tom for his efforts, time and money in providing this site. I for one, enjoy and benefit from it more than I would have imagined way back when it first went online in 2001.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2007 01:52PM by Richard Kuhne.

100% in agreement Richard!!!!!

Bill in WV

Yes, Thank you very much Tom. This website rocks!

Congradulations Tom, great site - many thanks.

Congratulations Tom and to RBO and to all that respect and protect this great Forum. I for one, do not visit any other forum for I do not wish to be a part of the bickering and arguing . RBO is the only one I need. RodMaker Magazine and the help I have received from Tom all the great guys and sponsors on this Forum have caused me to loose out on a lot of good fishing because I have so many rods to build. Sounds like I'm complaining doesn't it !!! Happy Anniversary RBO !!!!

I ditto all the above ....
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TOM and RBO...YOUSE ARE DE BEST !!!!!

Tight Lines
Tight Wraps
Fishin'Stix by Fred

I TOTALLY disagree with the statement that most other rod building forums focus on other than rodbuilding. Rather than whine and moan about other sites the way you claim they do about RBO, why not read as many sites as possible and learn as much as you can. The one thing you don't get from RBO is localized information and feedback from people who are actually fishing the rods we build. It's nice to wish the best to RBO, but not at the expense of teh many other forums out there...several which Tom himself browses and posts (not as much now as he used to though).

I was not whinning or moaning, only stating a fact. One little used forum recently spent over a week with a running topic on how bad this site, Rodmaker magazine and its owner are. In fact that thread got more traffic than any of their rod building topics did. It was the probably the hottest topic they had seen in a year. Another site recently spent days on end blasting companies on issues not related at all to rod building. I did not see any point to it. I wonder it those site owners really think that these are the subjects that most rod builders want to read about. I sure do not.

I doubt I have done anything at the expense of any other website. And I do not wish to put anyone or any site down, but I would suggest that many of these sites get very little use because their main subject topics are usually something other than rod building. Obviously each person is free to use any and all the various sites. I have found little to interest me on most of the others so I no longer spend time on them. I cannot claim to know all the other rod building sites, but the three or four I used to browse are no longer on my favorites list.

No single site will please everybody. Different folks look for different things. I have some rules and wishes here that a few didn't like when the site came online. They left and found places more suited to what they were after. Others liked the tone here and stayed around. I'm not so naive to think I could do anything that would please everyone. But what we've managed to do here has pleased many more than it has displeased. I only have a certain amount of bandwidth and prefer to keep things focused soley on rod building. Again, more like it this way than not. But there is always a choice and that's a good thing.

I used to visit a lot of other rod building forums and tried to participate as much as possible. My time no longer allows that. I did take a look at the Stripers Online forum a few weeks ago and it appeared as good as ever. I just don't have the time I used to for participating there.

It doesn't seem like it's been 6 years since this site went online. I guess I've been too busy to notice. I didn't even remember the original June 12th 2001 starting date. Good thing I'm not married - that sort of oversight wouldn't be conducive to a long union.

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Richard Kuhne Wrote:
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> I was not whinning or moaning, only stating a fact.

"While most other rod building sites are primarily focused on people snipping and snapping at one another while talking about anything and everything except rod building,"

MOST and MANY other sites, is not 1 other site or 3 or 4 others. SOl, Noreast, Allcoast, & a few others all have their niche and are not usually littered with teh stuff you mention. None recieve the traffic or reaches as many rodbuilders as this site does, but there is a ton of local knowledge for specific types of fishing on each of those boards + several others. Bringing up trash from another site only stirs up muck that doesn't need to be stirred up. WHy bother mentioning any of that here...all you are doing is the exact same thing that occured elsewhere. And I'm sure if you look around the othe rsite (whatever it is, I dont' even know) - there's some valueable info to benefit from.

Kudos Billy. You are right there is information to be had at all the sites and things that can be shared. Trully this site is by a wide margin the most active but that is not to say the others dont have value. I like the "take the high road" attitude you have here Billy.

I've always liked RBO the best for localized rod buliding information. With this many builders, no matter what local information or rod building trend you're looking for somebody here will be up to speed on it. You just can't have this many builders from around the world all using the same resource without them bringing a ton of experience in here on their own local fishing and rod building styles. This place rocks! Happy anniversary .