I am posting this message as a global announcement in all forums to ensure all active members see it.
As many of you who have been here for quite some time know, during the summer months you see less of me here personally, as I'm usually out fishing or spending the school holidays with my son and family. Once the colder weather sets in, this is when I spend more time doing Fish-Hawk stuff. This year has been more on the exceptional side for me personally, taking care of things not only with fishing, but in my personal life and regular job.
Fish-Hawk has always been intended as a forum for anglers to come together and share information. It should really not need to be hand held and every message reviewed. We are all adults here, and should act in that manner. That being said, I was really hoping that I could take care of the "other" things I had to, and have the site run on its own for a little while. I was wrong! Based on some of the removed posts and words from members whom I thought knew better, I now realize, despite all attempts, that an Internet website that fosters opinions and encourages people to share their experiences will "never" be able to run on its own and must be monitored closely in order to keep it clean and respectable, at ALL times.
For my absense during the last month or so, and the inappropriate stuff that has been posted which was not taken care of quickly enough, <b>I do sincerely apologize.</b>
The moderators I have....had....here, have done a fantastic job in quickly removing things away from the eyes of the general public, however it is sometimes hard to catch "everything" in time, particularly during these months when we are all taking vacation or out floating in boats rather than monitoring messages posted on Internet boards. I do thank them for all the work they've put into keeping things clean and attempting to keep the peace. It's not an easy job to monitor everything, it's very thankless, it is only recognized when they don't catch something, it puts a target on their backs, and it does take a toll on people after a while. I once had 4 volunteers helping...and now I'm down to 1...thanks to recent activity that I am just now finding out about.
It is true that I have not been around as much as I should be, and that has resulted in things getting out of hand.
It is also true that I have documented a "zero tolerance" rule, which I perhaps have not enforced as strictly as I should be enforcing it. This lack of enforcement can be attributed primarily to me wanting to give people the benefit of the doubt, and only remove members from the site if it becomes absolutely necessary to do so. I have also tended to give what some may say is preferential treatment to those who have been here since day 1 of the board. I do this as their ratio of positive posts have far out weighed those which are of a negative tone, and again give them the benefit of the doubt. I now realize this is wrong, and every member should be treated in the same manner...according to the rules. I'm getting older and tired now, and my level of patience seems to be getting shorter and shorter, so this will now change.I've realized the error in judgement here, thinking things could run without the need for moderation, and will strive to dig Fish-Hawk out of this hole that has apparently been dug in my absense. Again, I do apologize.
Starting immediately, any members whom I feel are not positively contributing to discussions, are hijacking threads, are posting inappropriate things, or are in any way not respecting the general rules that are in place, their message will be deleted without notification or their account will be suspended. Suspended members can request re-enablement of their accounts if they want them back, and I will review each request on a case by case basis. There will be no exceptions, no matter how long or short a member has been here, or what they have posted in the past. I need to enforce the rules, as they are the foundation upon which we've tried to build a clean site, and I need to get better at it. Once again, I do apologize!
I have also received several complaints from some members, that the signature lines of other members are not following the guidelines that we have put in place. I really don't have the time or the energy to listen to or do anything about beefs that people have with other people's signatures.
For this reason, I am disabling signatures once again, will be reviewing the guidlines for signatures that I have in place, and only enabling them on a case by case basis, after a re-visit of the signature rules. To those who respected the requested guidlines for signatures and really enjoy having them, I do apologize
Finally, I never wanted to be, or come off as being the "enforcer" on an Internet message board, however it seems that if I am to continue to offer Fish-Hawk as a vehicle for Internet discussion, it is mandatory.
Over the next few months I will be re-visiting the time that is required in order to run such an Internet board, determine whether or not I think I can invest such time, and will either make a decision to continue Fish-Hawk into 2011 or simply shut it down. I really need to think about this more, as I do have a vested interest in continuing with what we've worked so hard to build here, and I just don't like to let it go so easily. I have been doing this for about 10 years now, and I really enjoy it when things are running smoothly and everyone is getting along. It's only the times where people start to lose their perspectives on things, dis-respect others, and dis-respect the rules that are in place that causes a heavier workload. Unfortunately there is no way to flag only those things which are wrong to post, so every single post needs to be read and re-read as it grows to ensure all members are conforming. If you think this is not a lot of work, then I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken.
In any case, over the next little while there'll be some changes in an attempt to bring the site back to where it was, and even better, than when the summer first started.......and once again....I do apologize!
Cheers,
