How to use this site
The Angler’s Life List can be used in several ways. If you don’t want to register, you can still view much of the content, but you can not save your own information or interact with other users.
If you’d like, you can simply use the site like a personal notebook of your own trips with a handy map function.
Ultimately, though, this site is designed to foster a community of anglers who are passionate about catching and restoring native fish. And for that reason, the site has been designed as a social networking site.
Once you have created an account, your home page will change. There are several sections:
- My Messages contains a personalized list of comments and posts on the site that are of interest to you. By default you will automatically be notified if someone posts a comment on one of your posts. You can also subscribe to other content. At the bottom of every forum page and trip report, you will have the option to subscribe to that post, to all posts of that type, or all posts by that author. These subscriptions can also be managed on the My Account page under the Notifications tab.
- My Life List contains a list of all the types of fish you have reported catching. You can report fish(es) by entering a trip report. If you want to get fish onto your life list from previous trips but don't want to upload any photos, notes, or maps, just enter a blank trip report and select the fish. (You might want to note in the notes section that this is what you are doing.)
- Recent News contains a list of recent news stories about native fish. If you are interested in recent news stories pertaining to a particular taxon, please visit the page for that fish.
- Eye Candy contains a picture of a fish. It will change every time you revisit the page or hit refresh.
When you register at the site, some of the information you submit is private, like your email address and password. Other information, though, is public. You have the option to enter things like your real name, the place where you live, a picture, etc. All of this will be visible to other users, so only enter information you are comfortable having in the public sphere.
If you want to edit this information select the My Account tab. Just below your user name, you will see four boxes. The ‘view’ box simply shows you your profile as it currently exists.
The ‘edit’ box allows you to change this information. Selecting it will open up other boxes below it where you can change things like your email address, password, location, personal information, etc. It should be self-explanatory.
The ‘Track’ button allows you to track your recent posts.
The ‘Community’ button allows you to create and maintain a network of friends, fans, and people you follow, as described in the next section.
The Angler’s Life List, is a social networking site just like Facebook. Select the community button on your account page and five more buttons will open up underneath. ‘Friends’ shows you a list of all your friends, ‘Following’ shows you who you are following, and ‘Followers’ let’s you know who is following you. The ‘Sent’ and ‘Received’ buttons show you new friend requests that you have sent or received, respectively.
If you want to follow somebody (aka become their fan) or become their friend select their username from one of their posts or go directly to their user profile at http://anglerslifelist.com/users/USERNAME_HERE If you want to become a friend, you must send them a request. You can become a fan automatically.
Clicking on the My Journal tab will take you to a page where you keep track of your own fishing trips and life list. At the top of the page you will see a button labeled 'Add trip report' for doing just that.
The next section contains a list of all the trip reports you have submitted. At the bottom is a list of all the fish in your life list. Note: the only way to add a fish to your life list is by adding a trip report. Here you can see how many of the cutthroat subspecies you have hooked, or whether you have caught all the members of a particular genus. This is where the fun is. Trying to catch that last Oncorhynchus may require a trip to Nevada’s Ruby Mountains or the Flathead River in northern Montana. When you’re on a mission like that, catching a 6 inch native can often be much more fun than another 18 inch rainbow.
The add trip report form has seven sections.
- Title: You must enter a title for any trip.
- Location: You can enter the location of your trip in one of two ways. If you know the latitude and longitude you can simply enter them in the appropriate boxes. Otherwise, you can use the Google map to select the location. You can zoom in and out on the map with the + and – buttons on the top left corner. You can move the map either by holding down the left button and dragging or by clicking the arrow buttons in the top left corner. And you can select different types of maps in the top right corner. If you put the marker in the wrong place, simply click again in the proper position. The old marker will be automatically replaced.
- Who can see it: Here you can select who will be allowed to view this report. You have three choices: everybody, friends, or followers.
- Notes: Enter as much information about the trip as you want in this section. Your flies, the weather, the number of ouzels you saw. . .
- Date: This should be the date of the trip, not the date you entered the report. Enter it from the keyboard or select it from the popup calendar.
- Pictures: You can upload as many as 8 pictures to the page. The pictures must be smaller than 750kb and anything larger than 800x800 pixels will be automatically scaled down. Enter a title and description for each picture if you wish.
- Fish Caught: Select the type of fish you caught. This will be automatically entered in your life list. You can select more than one using the shift or control buttons.
When you are done, make sure you click the save button at the bottom of the page or you will lose all your hard work.
This page has two sections.
On the top is a list of all the posts that have been entered by you and other users. Only those posts you are privileged to see will appear, i.e. your own and those that other users have opened to you as a friend, follower, or member of the community.
The blog contains excerpts from several blogs on fishing for native fish.
The forum is where you should go if you want to ask questions or hold discussions.
This tab will take you to a list of all the fish that currently have profiles on the site. It is currently limited to the salmonids, but we anticipate adding more over time, so check back occasionally.
