Open letter to Rick Bin ------------------ Dear Rick Bin:
Thank you for providing a forum for hunters and shooters to discuss their hobby and buy, sell and swap equipment. It is a commercial website to promote McMillan gunstocks, and has other sponsors in the optics, truck, ATV and gear businesses.
The problem is that the discussion is unmoderated. Like many such forums on the Internet, the lack of controls attracts individuals whose intent is to disrupt serious and friendly conversation, and to fraternize with similar trouble makers. They are like the losers in school who become bullies, and here, they can avoid growing up. A few ringleaders try to provoke explanations which they can degrade into argument and name-calling, then invite the gang in to pile on. They even stalk and personally attack other posters who stand up to them, to drive them out of the web site.
Sadly, this is condoned and even encouraged by some of those who write articles and earn a livelihood by writing. Outfitters and guides with solid reputations are defamed here daily. Professionals like myself are defamed by falsehoods about our work by anonymous posters who do not even know us.
I spoke with an attorney who is a close friend, specializing in First Amendment cases, libel, and slander in public media. He was especially concerned about a tactic used by these disruptive individuals to subject others to hatred, ridicule and contempt.
Photos of real people are posted and the audience is falsely told that this is so-and-so, the target of the gang. Many of these people are mentally retarded, handicapped, or otherwise chronically disabled. Some are just innocent hunters and fishermen who never heard of, or visited 24HourCampfire.
Targets of this hatred whose identities are unknown, are accused of being someone on another web forum, or some person whose name or career loosely matches them. The names of unrelated people in other Internet forums, business people, engineers, architects, and other professionals have been posted on 24HourCampfire for the purpose of subjecting them to hatred, ridicule and contempt.
After just one minute of observing posts and the demeaning soft-core pornographic images of women posted here, my attorney said he not only would never join this site, but would never visit it again.
The website, 24HourCampfire, has become a public nuisance. At some point, these innocent people outside this forum may become aware they are being used, ridiculed and attacked with vicious falsehoods, and some of them may take legal action against the owners and businesses sponsoring this website. No one can blame them for that.
I do not want to be, in any way, the cause or excuse for these social misfits to defame and abuse others, and to bring harm to the owners of this enterprise and the underlying businesses which use it for marketing and public relations. Nor do I want to be caught in the middle of such litigation. Last night, I decided to stop reading and responding to these attacks on me in an attempt to defend my opinions and my reputation. Today, I am ceasing to post anything here. Please close my account and remove my personal information immediately.
Thank you for your noble ideas in starting this web site and your efforts to make it work. I hope you clean it up before a few trespassers ruin things for everyone, including 24hourcampfire.com, Inc and its sponsors.
