Hello friends! We're going to get right to the point to try and keep this from getting too-long winded.
I'm sure we've all noticed an up-tick in political, culture war, and other such divisive posts lately. We've been trying to moderate this with a light touch as we know and understand that the weather has turned, fishing opportunities are slim for many right now, and these are things we see front and center with any media or social media we plug in to. With it being election season, it's a perfect storm for strong opinions to clash.
We started this forum to keep a FISHING community together. We love that we can bond over non-fishing topics, too. It's what makes this a community and what makes this a more interesting place to partake in discussions than other social media. We 110% support going off topic within reason, and love seeing civil, grown up discussions that happen in those threads.
Now, what we are NOT excited to see is a return of the blatant trolling, provocations, and baiting in to "us vs THEM" debates. The type that backslide in to personal attacks (both to other forum members or public figures) and fueling more divide between us, much like all the other media is doing. Unlike them, who do it for ratings and ad revenue, we're not going to promote or tolerate it.
We are not in this for ad network revenue, clicks, or impressive metrics to up the value of our platform. It's what sets us apart. We're here fully to keep a community thriving, and these divisive posts are getting in the way of that.
We don't care what your political "leanings" are, what "side" you're on, or anything of the sort. In fact, plenty of the content we have moderated or deleted are things we as admins may personally agree with. What we do care about is how you go about partaking in these discussions. If you have a knack for being a troll and trying to get a reaction for your post vs contributing to a legitimate discussion, then we've decided that it's time we step in and clean up the mess. This can and will include time outs, outright bans, and/or possible forum tools to quarantine problematic posters/content. The bottom line is, if you use this site as a place for shitposting instead of posting about fishing, we're probably going to ask you to leave because that's not what PNWFF is about. There are many other places on the internet you can troll and argue to your hearts content. Twitter, Facebook, WFF, hell, start up your own "Fishin 'n Shitpostin" forum. It's not that hard, the software is out there for anyone who wants it. But don't do it here.
Remember, the three of us have full time jobs, full time families, and busy lives outside our community here. We also don't get paid for this. Despite all the generosity from our members to support us, there's no paycheck showing up for us. And unless our paid membership doubles, it's not likely there ever will be. Money is not a motivator, especially since our full time jobs pay far, far more than this ever will. What is our motivator is a healthy, fun community. So we will do all we can to keep that idea supported.
So in short: We don't want to set guidelines for what we can and can't discuss here. We know there's topics that are important to us all, and many do have a venn diagram where they cross over in to affecting fisheries. But, we ARE going to set guidelines for how our members behave when discussing these topics. Any and all actions taken will be unanimously decided on by the three of us admins, and will be because we feel someone's actions are hurting our mission to keep this place a healthy community.
We're happy to hear concerns and answer questions.
-Evan/Billy/Josh
I'm sure we've all noticed an up-tick in political, culture war, and other such divisive posts lately. We've been trying to moderate this with a light touch as we know and understand that the weather has turned, fishing opportunities are slim for many right now, and these are things we see front and center with any media or social media we plug in to. With it being election season, it's a perfect storm for strong opinions to clash.
We started this forum to keep a FISHING community together. We love that we can bond over non-fishing topics, too. It's what makes this a community and what makes this a more interesting place to partake in discussions than other social media. We 110% support going off topic within reason, and love seeing civil, grown up discussions that happen in those threads.
Now, what we are NOT excited to see is a return of the blatant trolling, provocations, and baiting in to "us vs THEM" debates. The type that backslide in to personal attacks (both to other forum members or public figures) and fueling more divide between us, much like all the other media is doing. Unlike them, who do it for ratings and ad revenue, we're not going to promote or tolerate it.
We are not in this for ad network revenue, clicks, or impressive metrics to up the value of our platform. It's what sets us apart. We're here fully to keep a community thriving, and these divisive posts are getting in the way of that.
We don't care what your political "leanings" are, what "side" you're on, or anything of the sort. In fact, plenty of the content we have moderated or deleted are things we as admins may personally agree with. What we do care about is how you go about partaking in these discussions. If you have a knack for being a troll and trying to get a reaction for your post vs contributing to a legitimate discussion, then we've decided that it's time we step in and clean up the mess. This can and will include time outs, outright bans, and/or possible forum tools to quarantine problematic posters/content. The bottom line is, if you use this site as a place for shitposting instead of posting about fishing, we're probably going to ask you to leave because that's not what PNWFF is about. There are many other places on the internet you can troll and argue to your hearts content. Twitter, Facebook, WFF, hell, start up your own "Fishin 'n Shitpostin" forum. It's not that hard, the software is out there for anyone who wants it. But don't do it here.
Remember, the three of us have full time jobs, full time families, and busy lives outside our community here. We also don't get paid for this. Despite all the generosity from our members to support us, there's no paycheck showing up for us. And unless our paid membership doubles, it's not likely there ever will be. Money is not a motivator, especially since our full time jobs pay far, far more than this ever will. What is our motivator is a healthy, fun community. So we will do all we can to keep that idea supported.
So in short: We don't want to set guidelines for what we can and can't discuss here. We know there's topics that are important to us all, and many do have a venn diagram where they cross over in to affecting fisheries. But, we ARE going to set guidelines for how our members behave when discussing these topics. Any and all actions taken will be unanimously decided on by the three of us admins, and will be because we feel someone's actions are hurting our mission to keep this place a healthy community.
We're happy to hear concerns and answer questions.
-Evan/Billy/Josh
