I look at it this way:

Almost all of us that are members of this site share a common bond.... Nope, it isn't crappie fishing either. No matter if you are in the Ohio board, Arkansas, Michigan, Wisconsin, or any other one, we all have the same love for fishing, learning, and teaching. In other words, "we are like minded individuals".

I joined this site in 2009 to help me become a better crappie fisherman. I don't like to go to a lake and just catch fish (anyone can do that). I like to go and target a species. My success is measured not in the numbers I catch but if I caught what I was after, if I figured them out that day, or I found them after they dissappeared from another spot. A few years later and I am able to pass on information to others.

I carry a Crappie.Com sticker on my boat and I tell people all the time that I feel as though I have an obligation to represent crappie.com the best way that I know how. Whether it is helping someone from out of town find a spot to fish, giving someone pointers on baits, or even giving some fish to unsuccessful fisherman. I tell people about our site all the time and I encourage them to join. But, I encourage them by treating them the way I would like to be treated. They go to a place I reccomend, they catch fish, they remember the sticker, they join the site because of how they were treated by me. That is how I view it in my mind.

Yes, people are always going to be looking for the easy way out. But, most of those people are not members of our site. Basically because of what I said about "we are like minded individuals". Their minds don't work like ours do. I am a member of other sites and I see everything that has been mentioned in this thread all the time. From name calling, bashing, you name it.

We're fisherman, always guarded by nature. Hey guy, where did you catch that fish? In the river......

I'll leave you with this food for thought:
Salmon fishing in the late 70's and early 80's on lake Michigan was like a boom town. Fish were everywhere and gobbled up by the masses and lax bag limits. Soon, fishing became harder, gone were the people that fished every weekend. This was way before the internet. When they did fish, the only source of information was local charter Captains. Obviously, there were not many fish to be had and the captains were tight lipped so what did people do.... they followed the captains. Soon you had a mess on your hands. Tangled lines... fights at the dock. All over fish. Eventually, the captains went further off shore (where the others couldn't go). Fast forward to the late 90's into the new millenium... fishing returned yet people still followed the charter captains. This time, the captain got together, started local web sites that related to fishing success, how to catch fish, what they were using, what to look for, and how to do it. They were educating the public. In short order, your fleet became more knowledgable of WHY the fish were in a certain spot, what to look for and so on. Instead of taking a man fishing so they could eat for a day, they taught a man to fish......