I'm planning a rebuild of parts of FG over the next couple months (actually some of it has already started) and want to make sure I include what's most important to you! thanks for taking the time to vote, your support is greatly appreciated.

The site is really nice already. What it needs is a lot of content. People posting interesting questions and interesting people with good answers or opinions. How to get that ?????
I still say gear review is the driver. I still suggest you work a deal with rondo or gfs etc to send gear to you for review. Maybe members could have new purchases sent to you first for review and the vendor could increase the return window.

I've spoken to Jay before and he's of the opinion that loaning equipment for review would make people question the integrity of the review and thus be counter productive. To be quite honest, he's gotten more than enough free publicity from us so what would his motivation be?

Rondo has offered up gear for review but has elected not to going forward due to him not receiving any feedback that his exposure on FG has had any impact on purchasing. And again, they've gotten so much free publicity that they just aren't motivated.

And there in lies the dilemma. I do have relationships with a few companies who provide loaner gear, but if I only feature their gear than I'm seen as a shill for them. On the other hand, I simply can't go on self funding the venture. I need to find a way to expand content which can self perpetuate and the only way to do that is to expand the end user experience.

going with the better site intergration. it's the one thing on the list that can both improve the site and not be a variable with potential issues or bias

the user reviews have the potential to be extremely well done, and they have the potential to go completely pear shaped as well. if there was (for a lack of a better way of putting it) a dedicated review team consisting of people on this forum who have a track record of being as unbiased as possible when reviewing then this would go off without a hitch and would add significantly to the site

Well, I thought the forum was gaining enough momentum to warrant some big overhauls of the site in general. Based on the low voter turn out (looks like HC is back up and running), not really sure its worth the effort to build a user review section. Anyone can of sourse post reviews of their gear in the forum to their hearts content. Additionally, I'm always looking to expand the Frugal family. If your interested, you can contact me and perhaps work something out for publishing on the main page.

So, site integration it is. As you can see the forum is now better integrated into the site and the blog will be soon. Our sister site/shop will be opening hopefully next month.

Thanks to the few of you who voted, I really appreciate it.