Popular Post geeviam Posted September 22, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 This is a selfish suggestion for all of us, and a concept I need to improve on more than most... Since I have become a senior citizen (didn't want to, but time slips by and s#!t happens), I have the ability to see how things have changed, and more importantly, remember how things used to be. The internet is a double edged sword. On one side, it is a powerful tool for search and research, commerce, communication, and learning. We can DIY almost anything with the help of a Youtube tutorial! The other side of the internet is the antithesis, or dark side. I won't dwell on all the particulars of this side, on this forum, but we know what most of them are. The reason for this post is to comment on the part of the internet that teeters in the middle of seeming to be a good thing, while it also brings about unintended consequences. That part is Social Media. My wife loves Facebook, for keeping up with friends and family, sharing photos of the young and old, etc. If the whole world can see that stuff, and it brings people together after being apart - great! To get to the point of this long post... With so many of us who are anxious and willing to share knowledge and experience with others, we may need to take a deep breath and a step back and think about what is happening as a result. All the best kept secrets are vanishing. That favorite peaceful and quiet spot you used to go to is now noisy and overrun with crowds of people. You now have to share your best fishing spots with a half dozen other boats. You now have to deal with a circus at your favorite boat ramp, and pray you can find a parking spot. The sleepy little motel in the Keys with a sunset view is now booked a year in advance, with a waiting list for vacancies. Your favorite restaurant now has a two hour waiting list for dinner. That product you love is always back ordered or out of stock. The town you live in, that attracted you to move to years ago, is now experiencing a boom of growth, with congestion, urban sprawl and traffic problems - all because it is on the national "Ten Best Places to Live" list, and everyone wants to brag about it on the internet. So, again, this is me being selfish and offering a simple suggestion to everyone on this forum: Don't hesitate to help someone out if they ask for tips, advice, suggestions, places and products if you want to, and it brings you joy. Just be mindful of how and what information is being shared, and whether it should be shared publically for the entire world to find, or just to the person asking, in a private message. 😊 6 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolinadrifter Posted September 22, 2020 Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 Preach!! The pandemic has only made things worse as the carpetbaggers flee the big northern cities and move south. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradM Posted September 22, 2020 Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 I bet you can't find too many "how to" or "test" threads that I started. I felt this shift a little while back. It's unfortunate. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCTribute Posted September 22, 2020 Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 Yep, a section of my neighborhood has a small lake that is private to those whose lots are on it. A few guys have permission to fish it from a land owner and post on a local site. Keep telling them to just say a private pond/lake rather than naming it, several of the land owners I know have said the trespassing keeps getting worse and worse, well no wonder if people keep posting pictures of big bass and numbers. Also know of people posting fake reports about areas, just to get them to go there and reduce the people where they actually are fishing. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveC Posted September 22, 2020 Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 Well said! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mangroovin Posted September 23, 2020 Report Share Posted September 23, 2020 Well said. Agreed.👏 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Dave Posted September 24, 2020 Report Share Posted September 24, 2020 Highly recommend the Netflix documentary called "the Social Dilemma" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradM Posted September 24, 2020 Report Share Posted September 24, 2020 1 hour ago, Big Dave said: Highly recommend the Netflix documentary called "the Social Dilemma" I watched that the other night. Pretty interesting and scary at the same time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanaflatsfish Posted September 25, 2020 Report Share Posted September 25, 2020 On 9/22/2020 at 12:17 PM, geeviam said: With so many of us who are anxious and willing to share knowledge and experience with others, we may need to take a deep breath and a step back and think about what is happening as a result. All the best kept secrets are vanishing. That favorite peaceful and quiet spot you used to go to is now noisy and overrun with crowds of people. You now have to share your best fishing spots with a half dozen other boats. You now have to deal with a circus at your favorite boat ramp, and pray you can find a parking spot. I'm not sure I agree with you that sharing on fishing forums and facebook is resulting in a change of enjoyment or vanishing spots. Several factors have taken place - 1.) FMT has completely changed how the back country and shallow water fishing takes place. Used to be, unless you are a human GPS like Conocean who has 25 years experience of running the 10k's, very few would navigate into areas unknown The COVID has fundamentally changed our lives for now and I feel, into the next 2-4 years. Thousands - NO, Millions and Millions of $ are being spent in the USA vs abroad on vacations and other activities. Try and rent a RV or a house / Condo in the mountains - NO WAY unless you booked 6 months ago. Boat sales skyrocket - Truck sales the same as people upgrade to pull trailers etc. On this forum, and for the most part, information given here is fairly selective, or given in a PM for details....we all know in Chokoloskee, look for clean running water on a point. There are not many specifics given other than DIY info. Mass media and fishing shows also have contributed....used to be you'd wait for Sunday morning to see your favorite - now, you just go on line and watch 100's of hours of CA Anderson, Mogan Man, rick murphy, the list goes on....people have begun to enjoy this past time and as many offshore anglers get older (I'm one) you can't take the hardcore pounding of a day on the water let alone the $$$ for an off shore trip these days.... I think this will cycle through in the next few years....and when it does, you'll see a plethora of boats, probably 3+ years old for sale as the owners will be upside down on their 10+ year loans, probably in nice shape from minimal use and stored in a garage....Don't know if I'll ever sell my mistress the Holy Ghost (only paid $11K for her) and she got new shoes (Ameratrail)....but, there will be some bargins...at least that my prediction. So, long post....enjoy the sport....and I think we all need to remember, we were all newbies at one time..and I was anxious for knowledge and this forum has been one of my favorite sites to meet new friends and help others with DIY......I was a newbie for sure.thus my name Wanaflatsfish from my first RF18 in 2003. dc 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuddyBottomBluz Posted September 25, 2020 Report Share Posted September 25, 2020 I gotta admit, Dino practices what he is preaching. He sold me his old Garmin GPS with his tracks from Choko still on it. However he did say something I am still confused about, something about "good luck, maybe you'll get lucky and catch fish on those spots"?! Now when I bought Coto's old GPS for my Jon boat he cleaned that sucker out and put back all the factory defaults, everything!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanaflatsfish Posted September 26, 2020 Report Share Posted September 26, 2020 15 hours ago, MuddyBottomBluz said: Now when I bought Coto's old GPS for my Jon boat he cleaned that sucker out and put back all the factory defaults, everything!! That's because he actually catches fish at his secret spots and I don't (LOL) DC 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Troy Posted September 27, 2020 Report Share Posted September 27, 2020 Cat is already out of the bag. Too many people and more coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DavidG Posted September 27, 2020 Report Share Posted September 27, 2020 Amen! I consider this site as a place to learn as well as meet others that share our love for fishing. No I won’t give numbers but I’d be glad to take anyone here out for a day of fun fishing!.....David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCFD rtrd. Posted September 27, 2020 Report Share Posted September 27, 2020 Holy Crap, I just watched The Social Dilemma last night. Please spread to word to anyone who has kids. This is a must see for any parent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geeviam Posted September 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 On 9/27/2020 at 5:34 PM, SCFD rtrd. said: Holy Crap, I just watched The Social Dilemma last night. Please spread to word to anyone who has kids. This is a must see for any parent. I watched it a couple nights ago too. A real eye opener! I agree that all parents should see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubble Posted September 28, 2020 Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 On 9/24/2020 at 1:36 PM, Big Dave said: Highly recommend the Netflix documentary called "the Social Dilemma" Just watched today. Crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quest4reds Posted September 29, 2020 Report Share Posted September 29, 2020 I agree that we should be careful of what we put on social media, I'll go so far as to say very careful with personal information. I'm sure this is information that is already known, but things like posting that you are on vacation or planning a trip out of town including dates is a bad idea. Posting names of children or spouse or pets can also be used against you. Posting where you work or where you live can be detrimental as well. I won't go into it any more, but I'll say this: It is terribly frightening, infuriating even, when a complete stranger can tell you about where you live, whether you're married or single, if you have kids, how many, ages, sexes, their names and even where you live based on open source information found on social media. I have experienced this and it took everything I had not to fly across the table and strangle this person. This type of information can, and does get people killed. As the OP mentioned, giving tips and techniques for others to try, or mentioning a product that has worked well for you, or giving a shout out to a company that offered you amazing customer service all seem to be harmless. It may have some second and third order affects like a higher demand for a product so you may have to look harder to find one in stock or perhaps pay a slightly higher price. But I also feel that certain details should be left out, such as locations, names and dates. I have had several experiences where a good fishing report seemed to lead to others being on a spot or a drastic increase in netters in the area. For those reasons, I leave locations and dates out of my reports. A reader may be able to tell the general time of year it was or that I was fishing in stained water from the pics but that would be about it. I may slip and mention 'yesterday' or 'last week' in my report so one could pinpoint a date, but the location would be a mystery as I don't mention it, and I also crop my pics so there are no unique features that may identify the spot. I don't ask for spots, I want to earn them. I'm not saying I won't ask for general areas to try or a technique that works on a certain body of water that may be new to me, but I ask in private. The long and the short of it is, I think the OP has the right idea. Be conscious of what information we put out, and be aware that it can't be taken back. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanaflatsfish Posted September 29, 2020 Report Share Posted September 29, 2020 1 hour ago, quest4reds said: I won't go into it any more, but I'll say this: It is terribly frightening, infuriating even, when a complete stranger can tell you about where you live, whether you're married or single, if you have kids, how many, ages, sexes, their names and even where you live based on open source information found on social media. many years ago I was a expert witness in a law suit....the opposing counsel researched my facebook page.... Let me just say, within one hour of that deposition I deleted my account and just rejoined and I have no friends and limited posts to be able to search and lurk fishing stuff...it was a unique awaking of what a lawyer will do to denigrate your testimony.....interestingly, we won the case.... FOUR words won it for my client in the arbitration - FIT FOR INTENDED USE DC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MuddyBottomBluz Posted September 30, 2020 Report Share Posted September 30, 2020 13 hours ago, quest4reds said: I agree that we should be careful of what we put on social media, I'll go so far as to say very careful with personal information. I made a mistake of having a sole proprietorship as an A/C contractor and then when workman comp. laws changed I became a corporation in Florida. I had to use my house as the business address because I had a home office, they would not accept P.O. boxes, etc. they wanted a physical address. Big mistake! I closed the business 13 years ago but the Florida DBPR has it on their site for all to see, just by a google search of my name. Now that I work for the county they put my information on-line, where I work, salary, my phone numbers, etc. because I am a "Public Servant". and all this is "public information". If someone googled my name (if you have not googled yourself, try it, you might be suprised ) they would have enough information from 1-1/2 pages of information about me to steal my identity. Got that @$$h0le neighbor down the street that speeds in front of your house, go the the property appraisers web-site for your county, find out who owns the house, their names, then google them. Are you a thief and like that vet that Joe Pretty boy drives, look up his name as well and chances are 90% of the time you will be provided an address of where that person lives and all people related to them and where that vet is parked! Our privacy is pretty much no longer ours. I do not have any on-line accounts like Facebook, Tik-Tok, Tweeter, etc. but you can still know all about me by searching on-line! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polliwog Posted September 30, 2020 Report Share Posted September 30, 2020 I've never been on social media for all the reasons you all have listed. It bothers me that our grand children and family use it all the time, I just hope it doesn't bite them at some point. I don't see the need to be out there sharing family or experiences with the world. Sometimes less is more. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imsnookyrd Posted September 30, 2020 Report Share Posted September 30, 2020 I agree with polliwog, this site is as close as I get to social media. I would love to live out my life as a ghost, but that is not possible any more. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdemott Posted October 2, 2020 Report Share Posted October 2, 2020 Do not use social media. Don't really care what others are doing each day on a minute by minute basis. Keep low profile and enjoy my family and fishing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason p Posted October 2, 2020 Report Share Posted October 2, 2020 Tweeter😄 I don’t want to turn this into a THT political rant, this forum means too much to many of us, including me for that, so nobody get upset please. For some background I spent 23 years active duty in the military with the last 13 years, 2002-2015 involved fairly heavily in the Global War on Terror, at home and abroad, mostly abroad though. We did lots of R&D with private companies and OGAs in the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance field which led to advancements in a lot of handy things like PLBs, ePIRBS, etc... so I think I can speak somewhat intelligently on information gathering on micro and macro levels. The fact of the matter, well not fact but my opinion based on experience is, the cats out of the bag as Capt. Troy alluded to earlier and if you’re truly worried about your information being “out there” (which I’m personally not because I believe there’s nothing I can do about it) than Facebook maybe, should be the least of your worries. It doesn’t take more than a quick gander at the Patriot Act, it’s 132 pages (I wish I didn’t know that little fact) to see where you really stand on privacy, civil liberties, etc... Again I don’t really care either way and the Patriot Act was passed, upheld, and continues to be extended by both parties for 19 years and still going strong, I think, I don’t really pay attention to anything but my son and moon phases nowadays. I’m just offering up a little different perspective from a different set of experiences, not trying to freak anyone out. Now if you have some time to kill and really want to freak out... https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/united-states-of-secrets/ https://www.congress.gov/107/plaws/publ56/PLAW-107publ56.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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