Forum phobia, fishing Macnab no MacBook

I have a ton of work to do before heading for Scotland and the fishing, so what do I do? I sit down and write a blog. I may blog from Scotland if I can find wireless access but a break from blogging might be worthwhile.

I have just bought a new laptop. I really, really wanted a MacBook but bought a Dell instead. Why? I don't know; scared of Macs I suppose. It has the new Vista system installed which I didn't find exciting. In fact I hate the way Dell sticks lots of "free trial, buy in 60 days software" on its computers.

Getting a new computer used to be an event and a bit of a challenge to wire up everything. Now it's like getting a TV: plug in, switch on and start. Irritatingly it doesn't have Word for Windows. All new computers using the Microsoft operating system should have Microsoft Word.

Forum addiction

But it wasn't the computer that prompted this note. It was forum phobia. I'm worried about the addictive nature of forums (fora? I think forums is OK). I was drawn on to a fly fishing forum the other week after finding out that there had been a debate there on something I'd written.

I'd written a very tongue in cheek piece for the FT and there were these fishing geeks poring over the details and, frankly, taking it all far too seriously. Yes you get geeks in fishing too and geeks visit forums. But I visit forums too (Deesider on the flyforums.co.uk). Does that make me a geek? Perhaps, but I would like to consider myself as a general all-round regular Joe. Anyway you get just enough solid types with a sense of humour to make it worth the visit.

You can get really good advice too. One chap was telling me about a good spot on a river where I'll be fishing in two week's time. In the past you had to be standing on the river to get that kind of detailed advice.

But there is a lot of unpleasantness in forums too. There's a lot of intolerance that I mentioned here in my latest FT fishing column (out today in all major newsagents etc!). One chap who had written loads of stuff about sea trout fishing in the sea, removed the entire content after falling out with people over some nasty remarks. There must have been something about his approach to the site that attracted those comments. You need to be really careful how you write things.

Ruffled feathers

For example, I wrote one thing yesterday, based on my knowledge of fishing salmon beats, only to be told in the next post that I was "completely wrong". Now that ruffles feathers. The poster could have said I was "possibly mistaken" but no, he had to wade in with a two-footed tackle. So when I say in a later post "you may be right" you can imagine what I'm thinking.

People are less restrained on forums - particularly when hidden behind a nickname - than they are when you meet them face-to-face. It's not quite like car-based behaviour where all too frequently normally mild mannered people resort to showing their middle finger in response to some minor irritation. But there is a need to take care all the same.

Anyway, in for a penny, as they say. I have just posted a note mentioning a Macnab-style fishing challenge I established some time ago. I'll see what happens.