When one of us leaves, we all lose a little. Regardless of rancor, ill-will, or whether you agreed with Gemrod or not…we all are losing something.
When you come into any chat room/bulletin board there are rules. When you break the rules you get called on it. If you will not act with in the rules you leave or are sent away it is each of our decision to follow the rules or not.
The rules are what keeps FAOL a great place to be. The rules keep this a place where I am comfortable with my 13 y/o daughter reading the board. There are hundreds of boards out there. A place for everyone. I wish anyone who isn’t comfortable with the rules here luck in finding there niche in the fly fishing web. But I wouldn’t change the rules here because that would then put me on a search.
Eric
I understand rules, and agree wholeheartedly. I am just saddened when one feels such a need to leave over a disagreement
I agree, I don’t know what exactly happened as I wasn’t following the thread in question. I don’t have an opinion on specific posts threads etc. Gemrod in my experience is a knowledgeable member of this board, I hope he reconsiders and decides to come back. I have watched others leave FAOL for much the same reasons. Some have come back some haven’t. But I do firmly believe that it the strict adherence to the no flaming, politics etc rules that keep FAOL such a great place to hang out.
Thanks to the MODS and Management its a job I’m sure they hate doing.
Eric
Maodiver and Eric,
I’m one of the ones who was ‘warned’ in this latest incident.
I wholeheartedly argree with both of you.
Losing a valuable member of the forum is sad.
But we do need rules.
I broke one of own personal rules here (much more important to me than the boards rules) about not openly insulting an individual on this forum.
I missed what happened after that. Apparently something nasty got started.
That it resulted in warings and some feeling the need to leave the board deeply saddens me and I’m ashamed of my part in it.
I do apologize.
Buddy
Rules are rules. They need to be followed and the interpretation of those rules is not the member’s discretion. It is the moderators. They are the judge and jury and I would think their decisions are final. If they make a mistake I would think they would step up and acknowledge it. It is the member’s responsibility to live with the moderators decisions whether we feel it is correct or not. Now, with that being said if one feels the need to move on that person decision is solely their own and should be respected also.
My only issue with any of this is when the one leaving announces to the rest of the board that they feel they were unfairly singled out and tell everyone they are leaving. For criminy sake, just leave or take it up with the moderators privately. When you announce to the rest that you are leaving it sounds more to me like a child that is taking their marbles to some other play ground because they can’t get along with the other children. Grow up and deal with it. If this were a coffee shop full of customers would you stand up and announce to the entire place that you were offended by your server and are leaving for good? Perhaps, but I would bet most of the other customers would shrug, wonder who put a burr under your saddle and move on without giving any more thought to it.
I don’t think anyone here is debating the need for rules. I don’t think anyone is debating Gemrod’s actions.
I think most of us involved in those two threads, whether we were warned or not, are feeling a bit sheepish for letting our passion get the best of us and let the whole thing go to the point that one of us felt the need to leave. Generally, we are a friendly and helpful group. This is not typical of our group at all and it is bothering us.
There are a couple points we all need to consider.
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Exercising the right to free speech does not mean without consequence. Just because he/she is not exiled or put into prison is no reason to believe there will be no other consequence. In this case, a couple guys got a warning from the moderator.
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The right to free speech does not extend into another man’s home. A person can say anything they want unless they are sitting in my living room. At that point, I have the right to tell them to stop or tell them to leave.
FAOL is in a way, Ladyfisher’s living room. She owns the forum and we are guests. It goes both ways, without the participants, the forum would quickly die, but at the end of the day, it is not our living room and as guests in someone else’s home, we must abide by their rules.
I’m sorry to see gemrod go and would hope he reconsiders. If not, FAOL community will continue although minus one of its members.
Jeff
No harm in “calling a spade a spade” --evidently Gemrod erred by calling it a “bleebing shovel.”
It usually is all in how you say it, not so much what you say.
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You have to agree to this to obtain your login ID. You must agree to play by the owners’ rules when you sign up. It doesn’t make sense to me to be offended when a warning is issued for violating them. And we certainly don’t have the right to say anything we want in any way we want. After all, we all agreed to that from the beginning.
So anyone have any good fishing info? Or maybe a joke or a hot tip?
It’s 8 below zero and I’m going to tye some flies. Sorry about Gemrod,but that’s the way things go .
Buddy,
You’re a good man for what you just said. I have no idea what happened on the thread in question, but I for one accept your apology and think you a better person for offering it up.
I’m speaking to gemrod at this moment and h wants to come back and apolijize for getting his dander in a uproar. and want to say he is sorry for what was done.
Charlaine -
Speaking for myself only, tell Jim I’d like to see him come back and be active on the BB. Whether he decides to come back or not, please pass along my best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to him. And the same to you.
Thanks for being a bearer of good tidings.
John
Hi Charlaine - If possible, tell Jim he’s got family here, and we EXPECT him to show up real soon!
There isn’t a family on Earth that doesn’t have their little squabbles…
H.A.
So what are you going to tell him?? Tell him to get his tucas back here immediately, if not sooner!!
he is trying to but it is not allowing him to post.
Well, thank you Charlaine. I think I am back. I simply had to reply to a message in my public email to reactivate my account. Done deal. I will be making a full apology and post later…after we get off the phone.
Gemrod
Hi,
I missed the threads in question, but like others, I would like to accept Buddy’s and Gemrod’s apologies as well.
- Jeff