I don't know how everyone feels about the moderated forum. I for one don't think it reflects the intent of this board. My understanding of the intent of this board is to share information about fishing in general and crappie in particular. The moderated board doesn't allow new people to participate. You must establish yourself on the public board first with a number of posts and a number of days as a member, once you have satisfied the requirements your post is scrutinized to determine if it is worthy of posting before it is posted to the forum. If the intent is to have an exclusive club that trades information that you would like to keep from the general public then you have succeeded. By forming this protected forum you have automatically excluded people that:

1) don't or can't fish enough to satisfy the entry requirements
2) people with handicaps that limits or prohibits there participation
3) new people that don't have the time or posts on the public board
4) most people who don't have boats and aren't able or willing to satisfy the entry requirements
5) I'm sure you can think of more reasons on your own

This is my personal opinion. I have the time and posts required to participate in this forum if I wish to. I do look at it from time to time. I enjoy reading and looking at the pictures of other peoples successes. I don't fish as much as I would like so most of it doesn't help or hinder my success. I don't post a lot here because I do very little crappie fishing. If this would have been in effect when I joined I would not have joined because of it. Thank you for reading this and have a crappie day.

..Mark..