Fishing, Baits and Catching competition – Myfishmap.com

Fishermen from all over the world have several things in common. They want to catch as many fish as possible, they want to do it as fast as possible and they want to have good fun doing these. Jens Persson is a typical fisherman. Once, he and his friend decided to try fishing at a lake they had never fished before. They faced a lack of information on this lake.

"I and my friend went fishing in a lake where we never had fished before. We tried to Google to find information about when, where, and how to catch fish in the lake, but no good information was available," explains Jens.

This is when the idea came to create a website for fishermen around the world that would provide information on fishing places. They wanted fisherman to share data on catches in their favorite places.
Then, software search started.

"We looked for a community platform which included a good base for extending with a catch-report system. When we found Dolphin (which included Ray suite), we decided to make a complete fishing community instead," says Jens.

Dolphin

"chose Dolphin for several reasons: it's based on PHP + MySQL, it has a great extendable admin interface, it is integrated with Ray, it is open source, and it has a reasonable price," continues Jens.

Dolphin was a perfect match for such a community, and it could be easily remade into specific needs. Myfishmap.com made a lot of changes to the default version of software.

"We did some changes to the core files, but mainly we extended with new custom made functions. We added and integrated a bait database, which includes over 30,000 baits from all over the world. We also added and integrated a fish species database with over 1100 species and 25,000 local fish names from all over the world. Then, we added integration with Google Maps both on member profiles and in the upload catch function, to be able to position the catches directly on the map. And finally, we added a function called "Fishing contest" which allows members to compete against each other based on the information in the catch report (for example, who takes the biggest Pike during March)," delights Jens.

Currently, the site hosts 595 members who reported about 1531 catches and sports a database on pretty much every fish there is anywhere in the world. The site is also home to 48 fishing clubs. Myfishmap.com operates in the English and Swedish languages, and every month there is a fishing contest.

"We are planning to release a new version before this summer based on v.6.1.4 or hopefully v.7. The new version will include movie-uploads. My goal is to build the first global and the largest fishing community in world. The system is ready - we only need to inform the world of fishermen," plans Jens.

Dolphin

After studying the software functionality Mark decided to stay with it.

"I found it to be exciting and clean and very adaptable to what we wanted to do, but we could not afford it since we are on a very limited budget," says Mark

Due to the charitable nature of the project and lack of funds, Mark decided to negotiate special terms with BoonEx. One of the BoonEx sales team members volunteered to donate software to the project.

"I wrote to the staff there, and presales contacted me. He at first was planning on donating the free version, but then I guess after talking to the powers that be, and the fact that we needed two licenses they decided to donate 2 sets of Dolphin licenses for our organization (one for adults and one for kids site)," explains Mark.

"This meant we could run the kids and adults site on the same platform but with different .com addresses. We were excited, since this was making us viable now for the first time," continues Mark.

The software, connected with persuasive skills, helped Mark move much closer to implementation of his idea. After minor changes to the default version, the sites were up and running.

"The only thing we have changed is the layout and some of the wording since we are not a dating site," remembers Mark.

Using Dolphin Mark's sites run live chat sessions as well as live interviews. They also host their own radio show.

"We like Dolphin because it is clean and gives us options that no one else has. Like video chat and video messaging plus posting a video profile. No one else does that and it makes us stand out from the crowd," summarizes Mark.

Currently, the sites are still in testing mode. There are about 35 members for the adults' and 50 for the kids' site. Mark already has agreements with about 100 members to switch to his sites from other communities.

"Our expectations are that everyone will want to switch over to this format in the future and we will be known as the leaders of that. We are encouraging everyone we know to switch over now, since this software is so easy to use and so great with service. The people would really be happy on here," hopes Mark.

Interview

Tell us more about yourself and your team. What do you do? What are you good at?

My name is Jens Persson. I work in Sweden as a freelancer in the areas of graphic design and programming (PHP, Javascript, Actionscript). My main skill is graphic design and creating user-friendly and logical designs and information structures.

What did you use before? How did your idea come to mind?

My dolphin-project is a global fishing community - focusing on fishing reports and statistics. The idea came up when I and my friend went fishing in a lake where we never have fished before. We tried to Google to find information about when, where, and how to catch fish in the lake, but no good information was available.
Therefore, we looked for a community platform which included a good base for extending with a catch-report system. When we found Dolphin (which included Ray suite), we decided to make a complete fishing community instead. :)

What is the current status of your project?

We released the fishing community in Sweden during 2008. This version is based on dolphin v.6.0.0003. We are planning to release a new version before this summer, based on v.6.1.4 or hopefully v.7. The new version will include movie-uploads.

Why Dolphin?

We chose Dolphin for several reasons: - Its based on PHP + MySQL. - It has a great extendable admin interface. - The integration with Ray. - Open Source. - The price.

What did you change in the default version?

We did some changes to the core files, but mainly we extended with new custom made functions: - Copied the upload photo function/db table and rebuilt it to an upload catch function. - Added and integrated a bait database, which includes over 30,000 baits from all over the world. - Added and integrated a fish species database with over 1100 species and 25,000 local fish names from all over the world. - Added integration with Google Maps both on member profiles and in the upload catch function, to be able to position the catches directly on the map. - We changed the group functions to a fishing club function. - Extended the profile with: My latest catches, My top list catches, My fishing box, My catch statistics and also created a great new function that we called "The Fishing Wall". - We extended the group pages (fishing club) with Latest Club Catches, Top list (summarizes the all club members catches), Catch Statistics. - Added global top lists over: the most effective baits based on the reported catches, the most popular baits based on what members have in their fishing boxes, the most popular fish species based on number of catches reported. - Added a function called "Fishing contest" which allows members to compete against each other based on the information in the catch report (for example, who takes the biggest Pike during March) - And some more nice features like searching catches directly on map, browsing fish species and bait statistics including graphs over weather, date, time, wind speed and direction, temperature water and air etc.

What are your expectations?

My goal is to build the first global and the largest fishing community in the world. The system is ready - we only need to inform the world of fishermen. :)