posted 05-11-2010 09:13 PM ET (US)        

I really do not see that owners of Boston Whaler boats are particularly affected in any special way by the events of the past few weeks in the Gulf of Mexico. For many years I have tried to convey the purpose of these discussion forums: to be focused on the general topic of Boston Whaler boats, their history, their use, their maintenance, and their performance, as well as the motors, trailer, electronics, and other equipment associated with them. I do not think that a general discussion about the drilling for oil in deep offshore coastal waters is going to yield anything particularly related to those general goals of the website. Accordingly, I have cut off discussion on these topics and deleted the two threads begun on them.

I did this because based on prior experience with hot topics like this, the end result is these discussions are usually thrown out after they sink into an exchange of insults between participants. In this case, I thought I would save everyone the trouble of getting all worked up and insulting each other.

I informed the two authors that their articles were gone, and I was surprised to get a reply from one that implied there was a hidden agenda here, and that my rejection of their articles was to protect the hidden agenda--that being of course to greatly profit from sponsorship. This is absurd. First of all, there is no sponsorship in THE GAM, so it is hard for me to profit from a sponsor that does not exist. Second of all, There is no direct relationship between me and any of the advertisements that appear elsewhere. The advertisements are placed by an automated process and neither I nor the advertiser ever speak. So it is impossible for me to be influenced by a advertiser with regard to website content.