remove the reporting feature from this site

Would you like to change the website's title and domain name as well?

Valid discussion topic. Here is my two cents...agree or disagree, it's a free country.

1) Considering this site is called Stoke Report, I think it's pretty essential to the spirit of the site.

2) I'm skeptical that reports on SR are correlated to the crowd surge following a hyped-up report. (It's also a long beach and there are usually uncrowded peaks for the taking.)

3) With 9 out of 10 reports being post-surf and the fickleness of SFOB, most of the reports are irrelevant by time they are posted. This isn't like Surfline, SurfPulse where they post conditions in the morning that might sway people to go surfing.

4) With a zillion other surf reporting sites, surf cams, surf forecasting, tide/wind reports, buoy readings, etc, I doubt eliminating reports from SR is going to have the desire effect you're looking for.

5) I like reading reports from others, not so much on the conditions, but about their session. I surf alone 99.9% of the time and I have only 1 friends that surfs occasionally. So, i suppose I like to share/read about other experiences to those who can relate.

PS: Linda Mar is always crowded....if you're talking about those reports.

Thanks, Purp. My sentiments exactly.

@TinyTrim have you considered starting your own site with more of an editorial focus? These days it's easy to knock something up in wordpress or tumblr

Even though this is in the garbage & may not be resurrected, some quick points from a reporter & fan of others' reports:
1. You're confusing correlation & causation when you see crowds at the Beach after a hyped report. Well before this site existed, the Beach would be jammed after a good day.
2. As @purp says, I really enjoy hearing about others' experiences. It *is* one of the reasons I regularly visit & participate on this site.
3. This question is well-travelled territory & likely got voted down b/c people are tired of discussing it.
4. Finally, reports are almost always the highest voted content on the site, so I think that's your answer right there.

Cheers.

I generally agree with the peanut gallery but I think TinyTrim raises a fair point: in at least some small way, SR probably contributes to people getting out after positive reports come in. To me, that's a good thing.

Two suggestions:
1) Could we simply have a general +report and remove all the regions (OB/LM/Bo etc)? People can continue to be vague about locations beyond that and the peanut gallery can help enforce.
2) Does the site use some magic to automatically #### out any surf spots or is that based on human reaction? If latter, would anyone know how / be able to help make the former happen?

@rozenswag: it's the former:

$patterns = array('/\bkc\b/i', '/######/i', '/that\ pier\ thing/i', '/north\ ob/i','/rodeo\ beach/i', '/muir\ beach/i', '/\bcron\b/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/middle\ sfob/i', '/sfob\ middle/i', '/middle\ of\ the\ beach/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/\bthe\ rock\b/i', '/######/i', '/mid\ beach/i', '/######/i', '/kelly\'s/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/la\ playa/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/south\ end/i', '/north\ end/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/the\ fort/i', '/fort\ point/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/######/i', '/taco\ bell/i', '/\bvfw\b/i', '/beach\ ######/i', '/######/i');
$output = preg_replace($patterns, "######", $text);

There are several years of opinions archived on this site regarding this topic. Most of us are just sick of rehashing it every time someone new to the site suggests that we do. You'll see what I mean.