Fishing forums are wonderful. Many of us have learned much of what we know about fishing from forums like this. That having been said, there are Rules.

Be nice. We're hear to talk about fishing -- and many of the people here are new to the sport. Read the stuff you write before you click the "Submit" button.Treat others like you wanna be treated. Not everybody is the same, so remember that when you participate. Fishing is a commonality -- more specifically our love for fishing is a commonality. You'll find people you love and people you're not so 'fond' of. But we're here for the same reason: to learn and be treated like human beings. Nobody is better than anybody else or does one thing or another so much better than another that they should say bad things about them.

Be helpful. These forums exist for two primary reasons.  First, as a place people can come and get answers to fishing and outdoor questions. Secondly, it's a place to answer those questions. While hanging out is cool, if you're gonna hang out, help somebody. You might think you know nothing about catching a snook after three years of trying and only catching four. But you're two years -- and maybe three snook -- ahead of somebody else on our forums. Help them.

Meet people. Go fishing with fellow forumites. You would be amazed at the number of people on these forums that met on fishing forums around the state. And the more our community gets to know each other, the bigger and healthier it -- in turn -- becomes. Help us grow it. It's the community that protects itself; not politicians in Talahassee nor lifetime politicians in Washington, DC. It's us.

Volunteer for things. There are plenty of conservation and fishing-related organizations The Online Fisherman is involved with. If you know about something we should know about, or think you can help do something for somebody, let us know. A good place to start would be by visiting The Blooming Place for Kids, Heroes on the Water, Make-a-Wish, or the Coastal Conservation Association, for example. The "Organizations" link on the main top menu lists plenty of groups you can help -- on your dime and with your time. Trust us -- it makes you feel good and helps the fishing community.

Interested in Fishing? Enjoy!

We have a good deal of experience with forums. Forums are fun, but they can be toxic. If a forum member becomes more focused on judging other people, than they are into judging the best bait for the season and the target species, it is not healthy for any of us.

Those of us responsible for what appears here intend to keep the subject matter focused on the forum subject-at-hand. Other forums say you can ONLY talk about fishing. We don't. There are a lot of things that affect our fishing other than hook size or cold fronts.

We don't mind talking about Politics on the Online Fisherman. Particularly fishing politics. But considering the role the current administration seems to be adopting relative to controlling sport fishing (and toilet paper usage), fishing politics are politics, pure and simple. Some of the people that contribute to these forums -- guys like Captain Scott Moore, Vance Tice and Travis Palladino and others are our lifeline. Hang onto them.

That said, keep political discussions where they belong, on our political forums. Talk about Wade fishing on the Wading forums, and Flyfishing on the Flyfishing forums. Other than that, you're on your own.

Above all, this is a family site.

People fish with their kids. Be nice to everybody that might visit -- not just the ones you know. The problem with forums like this is that once somebody's posted 3,250 times, they figure they've reached some plateau in their lives, and their importance to forums. They didn't. If fishing and conservation education is something you really want to pass along without private agenda, then you'll know that somebody with 21 posts should be who we care most about -- not the just 'old-timers'. Old-timers are OK -- don't get us wrong (we ARE them) -- but if you've been fishing for 40 years, and have the enjoyment of checking a fishing forum a couple-of-times a week, your importance is measured by what you do with the time. If you spend it "lurking" and judging people that ARE helping by how they phrase their answers to the newbies,  find somewhere else to sit on the bench.

If you have two hours a week to answer questions to newbies? Then our community owes you, the newbie whose questions you're answering owes you, and we owe you.

We know where the fish are likely to be, too. So be nice, be helpful, and don't judge others -- especially if the only encounter you've ever had with them was in an anonymous discussion about a dock somewhere and whether or not snook hide there.

Legal stuff...

TheOnlineFisherman.com went "live" on March 23rd of 2010. As such, it's not a very old website. The site's gone from 9 visitors the first month 'she' was alive to hundreds of thousands soon thereafter.

The first two months we ran the site, we didn't "turn on" the Private Messaging feature. The reason was legal; if a site like this starts getting toxic on the public forums, you can bet that the Private messaging is even worse. It's not nice to talk about people. Martin Luther King identified bad words as a form of violence. So do we. There's not way we could ever express our gratitude for your coming around to talk fishing with us and our readers. We only ask that you consider the fact that we can get sued easily, and so can you, for being mean to people.

The legal side of it is that PMs aren't court-proof. If a lawyer asks for so-called private messages in a "discovery" event, where they're looking for potentially damning discussing, the court opens them up. Being called private doesn't make them so. The publishers here don't want to look into your stuff (short of your bait well, to see if you found bait and we didn't), and never, ever will violate your privacy in any way. But the courts don't see it that way. So protect the place and protect yourself.

Rules for us

The one rule we have to follow is to work as hard as humanly possible to make this site fun and healthy for you and your family. And we will always follow that rule.

Those of us responsible for this site thank you very much for even bothering to read the rules. But they will be strictly enforced. Forums are wonderful resources, and don't really belong to anybody BUT the people that use them. A lot of our members are regulars on four different forums on four different sites. That means they're better resources on every one of them. There will never be a rule that says that if you do work here, you can't do it anywhere else. That only limits the people contributing; it has nothing to do with our ability to attract respected authors, guides, manufacturers, organizations, or anybody else that will help you in your fishing efforts.

Your contributions

As we've noted, some people don't bother going to forums, while others don't care about reading articles. That creates a unique challenge to us -- as publishers -- that you might not encounter on the other forums you love. It has to do with the quality of things you find on forums. For the most part, forum Threads -- and the resultant Posts -- are short comments between a group of people. That said, some of those threads exceed to 'norm' in structure, content, and value to those readers that don't get to read them because of where they are.

What we need to do in those cases is take the "thread", edit it, and turn it into a real "article". Editing is required, because the structure of a formal article requires components that weren't needed to make the collection of words a viable Forum post. Without providing a few semester's classes in sports writing, suffice it to say you often put stuff on these forums that -- with a little work -- can become a 500-or-600 word article in no time. Add a few pictures, and it could get 5,000 reads the first 72 hours it's available.

So this Rule isn't a rule, really, it's a legality. You agree to let us use your threads as articles, and you grant us the permission to make edits. Our edits will never turn your 'voice' into someone elses', because we're formally trained and ethically bound to keep your writing your writing.

Thanks again,

David M Rieumont Gary Poyssick, and about 30 other people who work on it and want this to be fun for all, entertaining, and protective of our own.