Articles

I felt a little sorry for Match Fishing editor Alex Bones for the mauling he got in response to his editorial in the January issue of the magazine. If you didn’t read it, he was critical of a number of postings on various forums, which were, not to put to fine a point on it, simply rude, or ill-informed.


The Internet is a wonderful vehicle and used properly it is a great source of learning and communicating. We (DHP) were the first angling publisher to launch an active angling forum (www.total-fishing.com) in the mid 90’s. We attracted a fair share of loonies, but for the most part the banter was good and the debates interesting. That was until one weekend somebody put up a post on the subject of fish stealing. An emotive subject at the best of times. It became even more emotive when the writer posted “I’ll bet that thieving bugger xxxx xxxxxxx is involved.” I won’t tell you the name, but I will tell you that the statement was an indefensible libel. There and then I realised how dangerous the Internet could be. Had it not been for my good relationship with the angler who had been libelled and the fact that we were able to pull the offending statement within a matter of hours, that simple posting could have resulted in us being forced out of business with the loss of 40 jobs. I closed the site down immediately and sold it to Gareth Purnell the very next day. Who continues to host the site to this day.

The real problem is that the Internet is not controllable. Anybody can post anything they wish, often hiding behind an assumed name and I think that was the point Alex was trying to make. Honest debate is good, but when half way through the debate somebody posts “You don’t see white dog turds anymore,” credibility is lost.

Unlike consumer magazines, which enjoy the benefit of a cover price, the Internet sites rely entirely on advertising for their livelihood. I once asked Gareth why the big players in the industry didn’t advertise on his web site, he replied, “Because they get fed up of being slagged off on the forums.” I checked it out and he was correct. Posts like “Just more Chinese crap.” Or “My mate bought one, it was rubbish.” I am often asked why we don’t have forums of any DHP web sites. Need I say more?

The Internet is not going to go away, it is a fantastic medium. In fact I can’t think how we managed without it. But it is subject to abuse and I sometimes think that if the few offending anglers realised the damage their postings can do, to the extent of bringing down a company, they might just be a little more thoughtful before pushing the GO button.

David Hall