So...where to start. As evidenced in a couple of replies to my post, we are now having a debate on who is most at fault in this endless confrontation. First,
@Birdsnest, I will address your comments about the rules/guidelines for posting. The rules are available in the General Open Forum and they are not "free floating," but it is impossible to create a "rule" for every possible scenario. If we were to literally apply the rules in the most strict manner without warning and trying, as we are right now, to have members adjust their behaviours through this dialogue, the vast majority of the people who regularly post in the FF threads would be gone. We have tried on multiple occasions to have all of you come to the realization that, if you want to keep commenting, you need to rein in your confrontational posts and behaviour. It would make running this forum a whole lot easier if this FF debate didn't exist but we are trying to keep it alive. And, although the endless repetitive posts are annoying, the biggest problem is the
pot stirring, name calling and constant attempts to drag other members into a fight, that will ultimately lead to more banning. At the end of the day, we will do our best to keep threads open but it is up to all of you to find a way to keep your posts respectful and move away from the constant badgering of each other as described above.
One "regurgitated" theme, that has come up on a few occasions and is getting tiresome, is the assertion that we are biased against the pro FF members. If this were true, we would simply use the posting guideline that states- " The owners of SportfishingBC.com Forum reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any content item for any reason. Any forum member in violation of the policies listed or any other act perpetrated by a member that is deemed detrimental to the operation of said forum and SportfishingBC.com will be subject to sanctions or a permanent ban from said forum. These actions shall be taken at the sole discretion of the owners, Administrators or Moderators of the SportfishingBC.com Forum,"- to ban those members at the first sign of trouble. Instead we offer up warnings and opportunities like this to try to have members adjust their behaviours and stay active. However, when someone does not heed these warnings, they most often end up being banned for good, which is where we have arrived at now that this disrespectful treatment of each other has reached a boiling point. If it continues there will be less people participating in the debate.We are not going to waste more space here by pulling examples of text from offending posts. We believe you are all intelligent enough to figure out which ones cross the line.
We have heard from both camps about how the "other side" are the worst perpetrators in this never ending argument, but the truth is both sides have engaged in this nonsense far too often and it needs to stop now.