Thought policeLike most anglers I suspect, I am a member of a number of fly fishing related internet forum’s [sic] and while I would not say I am a massive contributor, I find it very interesting reading about others experiences with fishing generally, how places are fishing, etc etc. I tend to keep out the arguments that inevitably rear their heads as life is too short to be honest. Its meant to be a hobby to relax, not to get stressed about. I have also benefitted from, and given benefit to the many charitable causes that anglers find themselves involved in via such forums. The guys at riverclydefishing.com and flyforums.co.uk were particularly generous last year when I raised over £1200 for MacMillan, and to them I am eternally greatful. In return I have supported such causes as “Lets Tackle Cancer” and the River Dee trust.
One forum, which will remain nameless ( I wouldn’t give them the benefit of a link from here now), has eluded me as a place to go, as I have tried to join a number of times, but this one seems to “vet” the participants before allowing them actual access. Thats fair enough but for whatever reason each time I have tried to join I have had the initial mail saying my account is under consideration but never received an activation or joining approved link/mail. I have no idea why this would be.
Anyway, this week I saw a large burst of traffic coming to this site from the site in question, and it was fairly apparent to me that there was something here on theunfamousfly that was clearly raising discussion. ( I do see this from time to time from a few sites- often Angling club sites) but as the site in question uses fairly crude dynamic links it wasn’t obvious in my stats what page was being the target of attention (it was quite a busy day traffic wise generally here, so it could have been a number of landing pages). I had no way of seeing where the links were coming from on the site so it sort of prompted me to try ( I think for the third time) joining again.
Imagine my surprise when I got an approved mail! Anyway I duly logged on and as per the site instructions I made my first post introducing myself, and I admit to putting a link to this site in my signature (imagine the audacity of it!)
A few hours later I was on again and happened to notice the link was gone. ” Odd” I thought- but not for long, I received a rather curt email warning me not to do this and pointing me at the site T’s and C’s. Now I have to hold my hand up here and admit that I never read them in much detail, as generally speaking they are all much the same: ie. don’t bad mouth others, don’t post porn, blah, blah. Hidden in the legalese was a condition that you were not allowed to post links to your blogs etc. I admit I never noticed/read it so I was wrong and admitted as much. However I did point out to the admin via email that one of the reasons I was interested in the site anyway (other than the fact that I have tried to join a few times before and failed) was that clearly someone was linking to me from the site (other than me) as I seen a large spike in traffic from the forum. I wasn’t concerned at all, more nosey to be honest what was arising the interest. I did a bit trawling and found the links in some of the discussion threads to this site and it was all fairly innocent stuff that I am pleased they found useful.
However the admin replied back via email that he understood why I would be concerned about the spike so had blocked the url of this site completely from the forum!!!!! Quite why he had taken such an attitude was beyond me! I never asked this to happen and certainly never complained. The whole working of the web relies on freely allowing links to wherever you want to go (within reason- ie kiddy pr0n etc.) If I want to block traffic from this forum I am perfectly capable of doing it myself, I have the necessary knowledge. I also as a way of consolation put up a link on this site to his to show no hard feelings!
Anyway having taken part in a few threads and got some really good helpful replies a “correspondent” of this site, welcomed me to the forum in the intro thread, commenting he wondered when I would turn up. I flippantly replied I thought I was “persona non grata” round there as it took me so long to join it and then had had got a row almost as soon as joining.
I was summarily dismissed! I went to login that evening and my account had been removed and all my posts- all perfectly legit non controversial (as tends to be my way on BB’s) have been removed.
What a bad boy I must have been. The board is clearly run like a Stalinist state and you mustn’t say anything not following the line (whatever the line is- truthfully I am unclear) of any sort…. thats me told.
The admin has not had the courtesy to even mail me about what I have done- not really sure- I suspect the flippant comment might have tipped him over the edge! I dare anyone to chap a fish and mention it there- I suspect it might be the firing squad, or your name might go in the little red book for future reference!
Anyway I could not be arsed even emailing to enquire as to the problem and if I want to rejoin the site at sometime I will- like he could stop me! Unless they are going to prevent all future requests from everyone, they have no idea who you are or where you are coming from domain wise.
Its a shame as I hoped I might find some like minded anglers to maybe share the odd trip with in pursuit of Brownies and Grayling. Anyway part of the reason for posting this is, is that I suspect the site in question has a block on this site. If you find this is the case and want to link to material here – go right ahead, you can either use one of the short link services to create a link (like bit.ly) or I will be creating for you a handy shortlink below every page or post I think might be worth linking to- use that and beat the thought police! If you want to use a photo or whatever from the site, again you can but give credit and a link back here in return.
oh…. and mention you seen it here! 😉
You can link here via this shortlink: http://wp.me/p1jWVp-oU
