Off Topic forum at crappie.com

[backtocrappie]

I will be completely honest here. I am of the firm belief that the C.C OT forum is by far the best forum on the web. I say this because:

I have attended other forums of no relation to fishing, and I have posted in the “Off Topic” forum according to the rules as written. My posts alerting folks of things that could harm them or their children have been axed. Why? “Keep it on topic”. Ahhh what? What was the point of an “Off topic forum”? Don’t even bring up words like Jesus, God, Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Allah or the Civil War. Then why did we have the darn forum in the first place? I posted in here once, a health warning about kids on Singulair, and got a warm and gracious response, from concerned parents who didn’t know this drug was so harmful to kids. I posted the exact same thread in 2 other forums. One was a model train forum, who flat out told me to keep the “Off Topic” on topic. They left me so bewildered and ticked I dropped my membership and told them they could go on worshipping trains, nice knowing ya.

At C.C we have the luxury of being allowed a true to life OFF TOPIC forum. It lives up to it’s title (thank you Ed and CK). It sure is a warming feeling to know that I can post a topic according to rules and not get the ax for being off topic in the off topic forum (actual common sense, imagine that). I can post and get support from people or get debate, and sometimes even get flamed by the facts. None the less there is a sense of family at C.C that is unmatched across the web, trust me. If you really want to see hate and venom go to Craigslist Rants and Raves. yet here we are allowed one last vestige of the 1st amendment.


While there are certain folks who staunchly disagree with me and others, I don’t see hate and venom. And I get the feeling that given an opportunity most of us would fish together, and not even discuss politics, maybe Crap King’s afro avatar, but not politics or religion. I have a friendly rivalry with a member here and we go back and forth in the threads like two kids throwing snowballs at each other. But behind the scenes we have had some very deep discussion about market issues and I rely on his advice. This is typical good C.C membership relations while having an immense amount of fun bouncing lunacy off each other.

Frankly, the OT forum would be dead boring and vastly unused if it weren’t for a few provocative posts now and then. If there was never any debate once in while we would all get tired of each other always agreeing with one another and there wouldn’t be anything to discuss and we wouldn’t use it. In fact we would probably go back to our state boards and the main board and sit around twiddling our thumbs waiting for the next “what’s the best line crappie” post, as DB4D put it.

There is a common denominator among us, we fish, we love it. That factor lends to our family at C.C . When someone asks- hey what’s a good truck tire for under 150 bucks? We all jump in with our recent purchase and an opinion, no arguments. We don’t lead that person to believe that a bad tire is a good purchase no matter who they are. There is a tremendous amount of human decency in this forum and the entire board. Look at the overwhelming responses to prayer requests. Where else do you go online and get what we have here?


Lastly, look at the pure genius of the rules. Nothing a kid can’t read or see. This is exactly the kind of place a youngster could come and have friendly debate over politics, Ford vs. Chevy, Skins vs. Dallas etc. and not have to worry about assaults and attacks, or exposure to harmful material. It really is a stroke of genius. Fisherman with beliefs and ideals have a place to express themselves or unload, spark thinking and debate, a touch of controversy and provoking without personal attacks among their own kind, and we all get up in the morning and go straight to it. The instant it gets warm in here the C.C OT forum becomes like a drug we can’t stop and injecting, admit it. I also will say that if I see a thread that doesn’t look inviting to me, or its re-news, I pass it over and move on, I HAVE A CHOICE. If a member gets beyond reason with their thread/post I don’t go back to it. I routinely pass over numerous posts. I find this particular forum to be the most captivating of them all. Aside from the nuttery in the Va board, I don’t venture far for appeal and camaraderie. We may have differences of opinion, but when it comes time to throw the rope for a tow you know full well not one of us is letting the other guy sit dead in the water. You’re a good bunch and a family.

Be grateful we have this forum, because you won’t find another like it anywhere.




My tackle box is always to you, no matter who you are.
backtu

[zinsurance]

Nice post backtu, we are lucky to have this forum, I too have been to other forums who weren't as accepting. You had to prove yourself and if you had less than about 1,000 you were typically ridiculed. Here when we see a new member we welcome them with almost everyone jumping in to say, "good to have you here". After being to other forums I have to say this one is my favorite as well.

[Outlaw1&2]

Backto I agree 100%, it's a good thing, thought provoking responses on this board are great,excellent way to vent and discuss.

[crap-king]

My Hairdoo Is Compliments Of Horseshoer...only If I Had That Much Hair

[CrappiePappy]

we don't seem to be able to have a "friendly debate". We've lost members and had members banned, simply because they felt like the rules were too stringent, felt like the rules were meant for everyone else but them, or they took a good natured ribbing as a personal affront.

I never cared much for debates, myself ... You can be as right as possible, have all the facts you need backing you up, and the other side still sticks to their side of the matter. I've yet to see a debate change the minds of anyone involved in the debate. Nobody really wins a debate. It's just a bunch of finger pointing, he said she said, and misinformation & information spun to that person's advantage. And, when it's in an open forum, like this one, and anyone can chime in ... whether they're being serious or silly ... there's always going to be somebody that starts some mudslinging. Then, "they" get hit with mud ... and decide to up the ante a notch ... and pick up a rock .... and so on (if you catch my drift).

One other very popular site has a off topic forum, called "Everything Else". They allowed members to use that forum to discuss/debate Politics, Religion, Sexual Orientation, etc. It got so out of hand, that the site managers changed the site rules, to the extreme. Here's the current site rules (copied from that site) :

__________________________________________________ ______________
Posting Code of Conduct:

"Due to the constant problems, fighting, name calling, etc., effective immediately, there will be no Political Discussions of any sort, or topics of a Racial, Religious, or Sexual nature on ANY Board of the BDO Fishtalk Forum.

Any Member(s), of any age, that displays a bad attitude and/or disrespects any other Member(s) of the BDO Fishtalk Forum, will receive a harsh/severe penalty up to, and/or including, being banned from the Website..."
__________________________________________________ ______________

Yep ... that's straight off the Bill Dance Outdoors website/Fishtalk Forum

Let's hope that we can avoid such drastic measures. The easiest way to do that, is to self-moderate what subject matters we post about. Just leave the Political/Religious/Sexual Orientation debates out of the posts.

... cp

[fishinRod]

I'm glad you started this thread...A while back when some of the posts were getting hot and getting axed, somebody said that there were other forums for that stuff, well I was kinda absorbed in the campaigns and decided to look at one (C.C.) was the only forum I had ever partricpated in. I did some searching and found one called debatepolitics.com. It has rules and stuff but personal attacks are ok to a certain extent and the mods give a warning before chopping it. Its fun to read some of the going back and forth. They even have a "off topic"............I went there to see if anyone was talking about crappie fishing LOL. Anyway C.C. is still the best but thought soem of you guys would like to check it out.

[BULLFROG-1]

To be fair about it if politics are off limits then that should apply to everyone all the time,,,it should not go on until somebody points out alot of negative about the politics in current post.........then the moderator jumps in and starts cutting the negative comment even though they are the truth and reality..........I say rules are made to be respected and the only way to do that is be fair.....No means no to everybody not just people who think bush jr lack of leadership has hurt this country and the world in the worst way.............

[CrappiePappy]

To be fair about it if politics are off limits then that should apply to everyone all the time,,,it should not go on until somebody points out alot of negative about the politics in current post.........then the moderator jumps in and starts cutting the negative comment even though they are the truth and reality..........I say rules are made to be respected and the only way to do that is be fair.....No means no to everybody not just people who think bush jr lack of leadership has hurt this country and the world in the worst way.............

If Political posts aren't made, in the first place, then there wouldn't be any negative reactions to deal with. That was the original idea behind Ed's rules ... don't start no stuff, and there won't be no stuff
The Off Topic Board was not meant to be a sounding board/soap box for Political/Religious/Sexual Orientation debates. It was meant to take the pressure off of the Main Board, by allowing a place to discuss non Crappie fishing related subjects, so that the Main Board was more easily navigated and replied to by the membership (while still following the posted rules).

If you'll notice --- the Off Topic Board has a Site Rules post, directly from Ed, from back in Feb 2006 ..... it was 9 months later, before I posted the site rules on the Main Board. The trouble started on the Off Topic Board, & that's why the rules were implemented, and why they were first posted there. The Main Board post was simply added to give new members an idea of what kind of behavior we expected out of them (and a reminder to the other members).

I understand that Politics, Religion, and Sexual Preferences are hot topics, and that they are deeply wound into our everyday lives, affect us in one way or another, and that everyone has their own opinion/stance in regards to them. But, this is not the place to discuss them, let alone debate them. This is not a "public forum", this is a private (members only) forum ... concerned with Crappie Fishing & fishing in general, and all the components of them. And, yes, there is more to life than just fishing ... but, there's also plenty of websites that deal with those things.

... cp

[horseshoer]

My Hairdoo Is Compliments Of Horseshoer...only If I Had That Much Hair

I thought you'd take a little better care of it than that CK. It could use a little touchin-up. Christmas is right around the corner, will have to send you a
tin of Afro-Sheen.