Tuesday, July 15, 1997
Fishing on the Message
Boards
or
Maybe I Need A New Worm
by
TMF Runkle
One of my favorite past times is fishing. All you need is a fishing pole, a sinker, a hook, and some bait. You put the bait on the hook, drop it in the water, and wait for fish to bite. I understand that fish see or smell the bait, bite it, and you reel them in. I wouldn't know; fish usually don't usually bother me when I'm out fishing. When they do, I just take them off the hook and throw them back. That is usually the last time that fish takes bait; they do learn. Then they stop bothering me.
Some people aren't into fishing like I am -- in water. I noticed they fish the message boards. How do they do that? They put out a comment on the boards that is the cyber equivalent of a worm. Not all of these are bad bait, like it is for the fish I catch occasionally (well, rarely is a better word); it's just a free meal. Such types of bait might be questions about a certain company's competition, earnings possibilities, and so on. This isn't bad bait to go after.
However, not all the bait is stuff you want to swallow. Some people fish for keeps, and the poor fish finds itself right in the frying pan. Some of the comments on the boards are just like this. Respond to a nasty comment? Ooooh, you swallowed the bait. I've had that happen to me with comments I felt "deserved" a response. The result? The fisherman threw out more "bait" (more idiotic comments), and I got the feeling that I'd been hooked, scaled, and filleted.
Like some of the wiser catfish you'll find in every river, we can learn it isn't necessary to go after every bit of bait in the stream. It's better just to let those fisherman drown their worms, like I will this weekend.