# Attention All Charter Captains/Members - Please Read



## ShakeDown (Apr 5, 2004)

Due to recent activity in this forum, it's necessary to address some issues that have been brought to our attention.

With spring coming and ice out around the corner, there have been and will be a lot of posts by members looking to book charters. *OGF endorses and highly recommends the charter captains that support OGF through their advertising dollars, all of which are listed here.* It's because of their support, that OGF is able to maintain operating expenses and remain a free resource.

The problem we are seeing, is that non-advertising charter captains are stepping on toes and posting their info, which is a clear violation of our Terms of Service. Those infractions will be handled as defined in our Terms of Service. However, since OGF is built on the sharing of information we do allow members to suggest captains based on their personal experiences (even if they are not OGF advertisers), provided they are not promoting their own charter service.

Since this poses a potential conflict with our advertisers, and we want you to be able to share your experiences with captains that aren't necessarily advertisers, we are tightening up our policy in that regard. Effective immediately, we are defining our existing TOS as follows:


Only charter captains that advertise with OGF are allowed to post their own info in their posts, replies, and signatures (this includes their rates, contact information, links, and availability)
Non-advertising charter captains are not permitted to post their info or solicit business in the forums. We don't police private messages, however if it becomes an issue where an inquiring member gets bombarded with PM's and complains, we will take appropriate action as defined in our TOS.
Members can discuss their experiences with charter captains regardless of their status on OGF, however we will not allow members to post specific charter info (phone numbers, website links, email addresses) publicly in their posts/replies. You can mention the name of the captain/service, but can't post contact info publicly.
If you are a charter captain and are solicted via PM by a member (advertiser or not) then you can reply and communicate privately with no restriction.
All members/captains are permitted (1) link in their signature, provided it adheres to our terms of service.
All members/non-advertising captains are permitted to post pictures of their trips/catch provided the photos do not contain contact info for the charter service (logos/info on fish boards, shirts, etc.)
We hope that this provides some needed clarity, and that you continue to support the proven captains that support OGF.


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