Hello folks,
Well I read through this thread and have the following to say....
In the past 10 years of doing Fish-Hawk, this is not the first time that I've seen these types of posts, it's not the first time I've heard that there is a lot of crap talk on Fish-Hawk, and I'm positive it's won't be the last time I hear this...."as long as people continue to take such approaches".
It's very easy to "blame Fish-hawk" for the way people act, and that's fine if you feel it's mine and the moderators jobs to babysit everyone and make sure they get along, but that's very far from reality. You guys all essentially are responsible for the content which is posted here. This site, as well as others, are indeed tools that enable this content and behaviour, but the only things we (myself and the moderators) can do is to do our best to make sure the rules that we have in place are followed. They "are" there for this reason, and if everyone followed them we wouldn't be having this conversation right now.
After reading this post, I see there to be a few flavours of conversation, which I've addressed before in the past, and I'll give you my 2 cents on them again....
1) Too many rules - The rules we have in place are there so that everyone who comes here understands what is expected of them. If we all read the rules, we should be able to clearly see what is acceptable and what is not. Now, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink...so if you have not read the rules, then please take some time to do so. They are also there so that we (myself and mods) can remain as consistent as possible in the way we moderate the forums, and can be fair to every participant. We will not disable someone just cause we don't like them. They need to clearly exhibit that they have crossed the line and deserve to be removed, and there are a lot of people who "walk that fine line", but don't cross it enough to warrant removal. We do this so that we are not interpreted as having the "god like banning power" without good reason. Sure...I can ban a lot of people, and have considered it on several occasions, but they..in the end...are just having some fun which if interpreted incorrectly, results in an incorrect ruling on what should be done with them. It's simple, READ THE RULES AND FOLLOW THEM.
2) Remove Troublemakers - The problem here is that those perceived as Troublemakers by some are seen as entertainment by others. Some are actually good friends who poke fun at each other all the time, and it has become the root of their relationships. Those who are not in that "circle" can perceive their comments as being negative, and because of their own personalities, feel they need to chime in and give their advice or stand up for the person who the posting is kidding with. This of course results in the snowball effect and it all goes down hill from there, having more and more chime in on the negative and post their 2 cents, thus the feeling that the site has a lot of crap on it....all because 2 buddies were simply carrying on.

Now this isn't the case all the time, but from the ones I've seen, I'd say about 75% of the posts which "seem to diss another", are actually just a couple of lads having a good time. How do you stop this type of stuff? If you're not in the know.....JUST IGNORE IT. If you feel compelled for some reason to respond because that's just your personality, then try to do so in a manner which simply provides your oppinion...or better yet, send the "victim" a PM and see whether or not they are "actually offended" by any comments posted at them. If you still feel there is a need to remove troublemakers, send me a PM with whom you feel are the culprits and I'll look into it to see if indeed a suspension is warranted.
3) Sarcastic Posters - With the many people who frequent this site, there comes many different personalities that need to be managed. Some people "thrive on comedy and sarcasm". It's what entertains them and they feel they are making statements, sometime is a smart butt manner, but still they are making statement. Sarcasm between friends is common, as mentioned above, but there are others who look at this site as a joke, but still participate sarcastically because it entertains them. So be it really, whatever turns their crank. Responses to their sarcasm by people they don't know is like cocaine to a drug addict. How do you cure a drug addict? STOP FEEDING THEM THE DRUG. This is a very simple one to fix in my oppinion. If someone is being sarcastic, and you feel they are being sarcastic....JUST IGNORE THEM. Don't give them a stage upon which to perform and they won't have an audience to perform in front of. Respond to the topics that you enjoy, educate, and entertain you, and just ignore the ones that don't. If everyone did this, I would quickly be able to tell who the group of people are who love this drug...as they would all respond to the same meaningless topics and conversation threads and feed off one another. This would make it easy to decide who needs to go.
Once final note on this before I get back to more important things....
What Big Jim has done, in my oppinion, is shown everyone how words can be misunderstood and mis-interpreted. I could be wrong, (I don't think I am), but Big Jim is really not serious with the words and messages that he's using here. You wouldn't know this if you didn't know Big Jim, and everyone does. If you didn't know this, then I'm sure many of you would be jumping all over him and saying that he is one of these troublemakers. Has anyone done that....nope! Why, becuase we all know Big Jim and we know he is trying to make a point. If we all took the same approach with each other, then once again we would avoid a lot of things that give Fish-Hawk a bad name. Again I'm assuming Big Jim is just kidding in his remarks, but Jim..if you're not...them please accept my apologies for being the source which enables such messages. I do respect Jim in more ways than I believe he knows, and Cancer is no joking matter in my books, so if his words are legit and he is serious, then I would be serious enough to consider shutting this site down and removing the tool which enables this kind of discussion.
The bottom line folks is that I'm here to provide a site where everyone can enjoy the sport of angling online and meet new people. I pay the bills, I keep the site mechanics going, and I participate in as many fishing shows and displays as I can to promote the sport. I do this becuase I absolutely love it. The moderators do their best to keep things clean, respectful, and on topic....and in my oppinion they've done a tremendous job in the environment we have here. I could not keep this site going without their help, so please show them your support and gratitude. They don't get paid for this...it's purely a voluntary thing for them (to which I still owe them all an evening out on me, which I "will" do for them, now that my move is settling down and my regular job is back to normal)
For those who still think this site is a joke, then as Markus said, just don't participate anymore. I'd be more than happy to give you the URLs of other sites you can try and see if the grass really is greener on the other side, just send me a note and I'll remove your account, say thank you, and you can be on your way.
For those who do want to participate in what I consider to be the best fishing site on the planet (I'm biased though

), then please take the words and advice I've provided above, don't be afraid to post messages, tell us your stories, show us your photos, give us all some useful tips, and most importantly have fun and meet new friends. That's what it's all about in the end.
Now I have to get back to my regular job before I get fired.
Bobber out!