Heads up! :) CONTENT GUIDELINES :)

[CapnK]

All -
I added the following to the Forum/Site Info topic up above, where new members will be able to see it easily. I also wanted to post it down here too for a bit, so that everyone can see it and be aware of it. If you'd like to discuss this, lets do so in this thread.
Sorry I didn't get something like this up sooner - chalk that up to inexperience and the site growing a lot faster than I anticipated. I hope that these guidelines are easily understood and acceptable to you all.

Thanks!
Kurt
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We have a loose policy about what can or can't be posted here at sailFar.net, but I've never really defined what is consider acceptable/unacceptable as regards the means and intent of this site. Below you will find our Guidelines. Please join us in making sailFar a resource for people of all ages. :)
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There's this kid I know, a high school student in landlocked small town America. Although he's mostly like the other kids in the school, there is something that is different about him, too. Nothing that you can see on the outside, yet this difference fills him up on the inside. It's that he knows, knows without a doubt, that he is a Sailor.

He's never yet been on a sailboat, but he has most definitely been bitten by the bug. He's read book after book with tales from men and women who have braved the high seas, he has memorized the names of islands he wants to visit that are thousands of miles away. He's studied sailing vessels and how they work, can tell you the difference between a ketch and a yawl, and knows that there are only 3 ropes on a boat. He hasn't yet actually sailed, but he knows, from books at least, the hows and whys of what it takes to harness the power of the wind.

The kid has a Dream. He wants to cross oceans, under sail. He wants to see sunrise a thousand miles from land, he wants to know that feeling of accomplishment which surely comes when an accurate landfall is made after crossing the ever-changing sea. He wants to follow in the wakes of all of his fellow sailors that he's read about over the course of his own young years. He is learning as much as he can about how to make his Dream come true.

If you look into his bookbag, there among the classroom texts and composition binders with sailboats sketched on the cover, you'll find a dog-eared, somewhat tattered world atlas. Open it to the marked pages, and you'll see lines drawn across the maps, across the great oceans, lines he's drawn in as The Route He's Gonna Take, one day. Some day in his future.

There's a word he knows, a word he thinks about constantly. It's a word that probably almost noone else in the whole school knows. It's a magic word to him, even so.

The word is "circumnavigation"...


In the past few weeks, I have been immensely gratified to see our still-small community growing it's own life, it's own style, it's own cast of characters. Y'all are great. :) I really didn't expect sailFar to grow this fast, or this well, and I'm *very* happy that it has done so.

It makes me feel good to see the friendships that are developing here, to see the dialogues that are taking place, and, perhaps most, to find that I am not alone in my "small boat weirdo" frame of mind.;D I know that I started this, but already I am becoming just a small part of it, and that is as it should be, how I wanted it to be. I think that sailFar is going to continue to grow and become the resource and community I envisioned, and that is all Thanks to *you*, the contributors who make it what it is.

Partly because the growth here has been much more rapid than I anticipated, and partly because I am relatively new to running a site like this and didn't think of it, there is something that I neglected to do from the outset - establish a clear set of guidelines about what types of content you can expect to see on the sailFar.net website, and what type of content we *don't* want to see. That's what this post is about.

This is *not* about "Free Speech", this *is* about kids, like the young Sailor I wrote about up above, and our doing what we can to make both his and our Dreams come true.

In a nutshell, I want that kid, or any like him, to be able to come to this site unhindered, to be able to visit and learn and take something away that will help him realize his Dream. I would absolutely hate to find out that our site was blocked from a learning environment due to "objectionable material".

To that end, I've made the decision that what we post here needs to be the type of content that his school, and/or his parents, will not be able to raise any objection to.

This means we can't post naked or racy pictures, that we have to watch our language a bit, that we act like adults should when there are others children about. We don't need to be total prudes, we just need to be conscious of what we write and say in order that young Sailors can be exposed to the joy we have in our own favorite endeavour.

I think we can easily continue to grow and thrive as a community and as a resource while doing that. I don't see any reason that this guideline in and of itself could be seen as objectionable, although I will discuss it if you, the members, have questions about it.

I hope that you will do your part to see that the kids can come here easily from anywhere, to learn about the sheer magic that is cruising under sail in a small boat.

And, BTW, that kid? That was me. :)

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So, Welcome to the sailFar.net Forum, a discussion area for anyone who has anything to contribute about boats, cruising plans, the site, and other SB/LD related topics. Feel free to add comments and posts as you see fit, and suggestions for topics/improvements are also welcomed.

I'll try an Off Topic area and see what develops. Please, keep it legal, political *only* if there is no other way around it, and post no pictures of naked fat people or extremely deviant behaviors. ;) Sailing/boating-related is best, but a good guffaw that doesn't fall under these is just fine, too. :)

Other than that, this area will be a wide open sailors forum catering to a niche of folks who enjoy small boat cruising, so have fun!

[CapnK]

PS - The sailFar Moderators and I discussed this quite a bit, just so you know I'm not coming out of left field with it. :)

Also, during our discussion, the subject was raised that we need a Guidelines/Policy on the posting of copyrighted works. We'll have that up soon for you all.

And last, Craig on s/vFaith posted this, which I thought was really nifty and will probably wind up on the sailFar website homepage:

Support small boat cruising
Assist others in 'downsizing'
Inform small boat Sailors of new products, services, and ideas
Lend a hand in buying/selling small boats and gear..

Further the knowledge and understand of safely cruising in small boats.
Arrange meeting other small boat Sailors
Resist '2 foot itis...  :D

What a clever guy he is! ;D

[Coastal Cruiser]

And for all of that fine writing, you get one of those Karma things from this end.  :) [plus a smiley too]

[CharlieJ]

Laura and I could not agree more.

[Joe Pyrat]

Aye aye Captain...   :)

[starcrest]

man that pretty much counts me out.guess ahll hafta be mo' kehful boutz' howai say tingz.

[hearsejr]

  :D this mean no more nekkid pics of me sail'n...lolololol

  Bill

[Pixie Dust]

Awesome Plan.  I could not agree more!  Very well put Capt.  I think I can stay between the navigational bouys.   :D

[Skipper Dave]

Ditto

I come here to talk and listen sailing.  That's why I have enjoyed it so much.  I haven't a problem with what I call the three "p"s...Politics, Porn and Preaching I just don't care to mix them with my love of sailing.  To that end I say "Fine Job" Capt.K.

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Skipper Dave

S/V "Tina Marie" Cal 2-27

[Gulfmermaid]

Ahhh, yes!  A sailing site I can share with my kiddo!  Thanks!

[ThatBoatGuy]

--"...that we act like adults should when there are others children about"


Heh heh!  I love the way you worded that one.  Agreed. 

Kerri and I qualify also as downsizers, for the near future anyway, I guess we will be kicked out when we go from the Dana 24 up sizing to a big cat but that's years down the line.  We also own another 24... an Allied Greenwich. 

George

[Captain Smollett]

Welcome aboard, George.  :)

I don't think anyone gets kicked out for upsizing, but you may have to help haul the grog around, you know, since you have a bigger boat and MORE ROOM.   ;D

[AdriftAtSea]

Too much grog is a bad thing...and so is too much boat.  :D

[Shawn T W.]

Rules are good, and necessary.

Awesome when they follow common sense too!

Thanx!

Shawn

[dnice]

Funny, I joined Sailfar.net without reading this post...

But now that I've read it, its really everything that encompasses what i am here for.

The 'story' reminds me of a book 'The Sailing Life' by Jan De Hartog. that book really hit home with me. It was written as a response to a letter written to the author, (if that makes sense) from a kid who asked the question "what do I have to do to become a sailor"....

I wish I could explain the book, but its really one of those 'you just gotta read it' things.
But for the most part, its about getting bit by 'the bug' and how impossible it is to turn back.
(and everything you needed to know but where afraid to ask)

I am a noob sailor, and I can't express how greatfull I am for those of you who have gone before me, and have taken the time to help me learn (and continue to do so).

I have searched the web for months, and there are indeed plenty of 'learning' resources, but there are very few social outlets to express this 'thing' inside me. sailfar.net is exactly what I was looking for.

Anyway, I don't mean to be too sappy :p but you guys are really doing a good service for people like me, and it is well appreciated.


(edit) it might be "A sailors life" or something similar, I found it in my local library, but I cannot find it on amazon or anywhere else on the web.

[chris2998]

nice write up I feel like that kid in school well a much older kid. I work as a aluminum welder near Lake Ponchatrain which leads out to the Gulf of Mexico I feel like a kid everyday dreaming of owning a sailboat oneday and to just sale out of my lake

[lecker68]

Can someone please email or PM my password to me or reset so I can access from my other computer Thank you

[Tim]

Can someone please email or PM my password to me or reset so I can access from my other computer Thank you

You should be able to go into your account settings from whichever computer you are posting from and change you password

[lecker68]

I need to have the original password that I forgot to be able to change I had this computer remember or I could not ask for help

[Tim]

I sent you PM's ignore the first one