Community House Rules

FISH SMARTER COMMUNITY GUIDELINES FOR ALL MEMBERS.

The Fish Smarter Community is a place to connect, learn, share, and inspire. It’s up to us to keep the Community a safe, accepting and encouraging space for everyone.

All of our knowledge bases, Facebook study groups and pages, webinars, blogs and comment pages are governed by the following principles.

Be kind. We have a zero-tolerance policy for negativity, bullying, drama, or gossip. If you disagree or have an opposing viewpoint to share, do it with respect. Spirited debate about ideas or concepts is awesome, personal attacks are not. If you can’t be kind, be quiet. Violation of this rule is grounds for immediate and permanent removal from the community and in the case of paid participants, without a refund.

If you have a gripe or need to vent, either about us or another member, please contact us here and we will do our utmost to resolve the issue.

Kid-Friendly. Please keep swearing to a minimum.

Be generous. Give more than you ask. We don’t suggest you share your hard-earned favourite fishing spot, however, do share insights and support and encourage others, that’s what community is all about.

Course Membership Boundaries. Unless you’re enrolled as a paid student, please don’t ask participants of paid programs to share course information. It’s not fair. Conversely, participants of paid courses, please refrain from posting questions and answers relating to paid course content in any general use areas. Each premium program has an associated private Facebook study group. Please address your course specific questions there.

Don’t spam or violate privacy. Never email or contact other members outside the community forums, pages and walls without their permission.

Do your due diligence. If you decide to hire anyone or create any contractual relationship (verbally or written) with someone you’ve met through your Fish Smarter membership, you do so at your own risk.

Opinions, advice and all other information expressed by members in discussions or comments are those of the author. You rely on such information at your own risk. Members are urged to seek professional advice for specific, individual situations and not rely solely on advice or opinions given. For example, a member may post that you can get in and out of an area at a particular tide. This may or may not be the case. We are not responsible for any loss of revenue, damages, breach of contract, or any other unfavorable circumstance as a result of that advice and/or relationship.

Buy sell or swap. Examples include your home made lures, second hand outboards and boat painting services. At this stage self-promotion and sharing of services is allowed, however if the community gets overrun we will revise this permission.

Brand arguments. I added this one for all members but specifically for the Sounder Skills Inner Circle members. I understand that on some pages the mere mention of another fish finder brand or transducer is worse than a religious war! We have no issue with loyalty to a brand and shouting from the rooftops the unit you love and why, nor do we take issue with mature discussion around pros and cons. But we WILL NOT TOLERATE any comments that do not adhere to the Be kind point above and that includes comments about different brands.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Our community is not a place to get technical support for Fish Smarter courses. If you see a fellow member asking for technical support or any program related support, please direct them to contact Team Moody directly here. If you have any issue with course content, videos not playing, your membership etc., again, please contact Team Moody directly as we can help you faster and more efficiently one on one.

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ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES FOR PREMIUM COURSE STUDENTS (Barra Basics, Threadfin Tactics, Finding Fingermark, Wonky Holes, Locating Livies, Catching Coral Trout)

Each premium course has an accompanying private knowledge base and limited access to a private Facebook study group.

The Facebook study group has been established as a convenience to you and other Course participants. However, all and any third party websites and material – such as the Facebook study group, are not part of the Course and may be withdrawn or terminated at any time without notice to you and without any liability to Ryan Moody Fishing.

Each private community is strictly for paid members of the associated course.

Each private course community is about connecting to your classmates, sharing ideas, and supporting each other.

Remember, all our programs are self-study. Ryan is committed to assisting where he can and he really enjoys interacting with students, however we cannot guarantee that he will be able to answer every question from individual students.

We encourage you to assist each other. A rising tide lifts all boats.

===============HOW TO ASK A QUESTION=============(from Ryan)

In order for me and our Ambassadors to give you better feedback I want to place a framework around questions:

1) Please don't ask a question that would take me 4 webinars to answer, i.e. how to catch a barra in the northern territory?

2) Ask a specific question you know I could answer, solve or clarify in a few minutes and you'd be able to take immediate action on. PLUS, give me a couple of options for what you think you might be solutions or ideas you have.

i.e. I'm struggling finding barra on large tides in my local creek which is… I’ve looked at the framework and the 2 options I've been thinking about are A) Search closer to the mouth B) Change the settings on my sounder from… to….

Thoughts?

The more specific and actionable questions we get, the greater the library of quality advice we'll have in the community for people to reference.

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ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES FOR CHOICE COURSE STUDENTS (Sounder Skills 2)

Each choice course has two options for purchase.

Course only
Course and Inner Circle subscription membership.

INNER CIRCLE SUBSCRIPTION

Inner circle subscription is charged monthly and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Inner Circle includes a bonus video module, knowledge base of common questions housed onsite and a private Facebook study group.

Each CHOICE private community is strictly for paid members of the associated course coupled with a valid subscription.

Each private course community is about connecting to your classmates, sharing ideas, and supporting each other.

Remember, all our programs are self-study. Ryan is committed to assisting where he can and he really enjoys interacting with students, however, we cannot guarantee that he will be able to answer every question from individual students.

We encourage you to assist each other. A rising tide lifts all boats.

===============HOW TO ASK A QUESTION=============(from Ryan)

In order for me and our Ambassadors to give you better feedback I want to place a framework around questions:

1) Please don't ask a question that will be impossible to answer without additional information i.e. What sounder should I buy?

i.e. I'm struggling to identify a (specific) fish on my sounder. Here is a screenshot taken at (location: inshore/offshore, creek, country/state). I think this is? but I'm confused about? Settings at the time were? Thoughts?

3) When posting screenshots the more info we can get the more helpful we can be. Please remember we were not with you on the boat.

The more specific and actionable questions we get, the greater the library of quality advice we'll have in the community for people to reference.

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THINGS OUR LAWYERS MAKE US SAY

You must not post anything:

– if the copyright is the property of somebody else

– that might cause a breach of any law or other obligation

– that might be defamatory, offensive, pornographic, in breach of confidence or a similar obligation, threatening, abusive, liable to incite hatred or a breach of privacy

– that might be considered as spam

– that infringes any rights belonging to another person

While we hope that this group will last a lifetime, we may alter or cease the operation of the group at any time in our sole discretion.

If Facebook changes terms, we will try to find an alternate space for members, but cannot be held responsible for Facebook’s change of terms.

We may terminate your membership of the group without notice if the terms are breached.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON’T FOLLOW THE GUIDELINES?

We really hope that this never happens. But here’s what might go down if you slip up.

We might delete your post without notice. If something is deleted, it’s probably not an accident – either too many people reported it or Team Moody found it unsuitable and removed it. (The reason we say without notice is that we really want to put our time and energy on creating more amazing things for you and hope you’ll understand and learn from the experience.)

We might reach out to you to say that you’re in violation of our terms (we will give you the benefit of the doubt but we take this program and its members very seriously).

We might remove you from your paid course and/or the Fish Smarter community.

If you have any questions about our guidelines, or if there’s a question we haven’t answered here, please contact us here.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES: PRIVATE FORUMS FOR PREMIUM COURSES BARRA BASICS, THREADFIN TACTICS AND WONKY HOLES.

A series of private forums were created for paid members of all Fish Smarter courses in July 2016.

Prior to that the community of our only course at that time, Barra Basics, was housed on Facebook.

Unfortunately, we don’t own Facebook. If they change their terms, remove our content or charge for access, it may limit or remove our ability to keep your class’s Facebook group open and running.

This is one of the primary reasons we created the Fish Smarter website community. So we wouldn’t have to rely on Facebook while providing a similar service to our students.

Unfortunately, it soon became evident that forums were not the big hit we had hoped and after consultation with several members, a decision was made to create a whole new community of private study groups for each course on Facebook. The reality is no-one was using the forums much and we were missing that vibrant community we had on Facebook.

So… the Facebook study groups have been established as a convenience to you and other Course participants. However, all and any third party websites and material – such as the Facebook study group, are not part of the Course and may be withdrawn or terminated at any time without notice to you and without any liability to Ryan Moody Fishing.

In addition, the management of so many Facebook groups is time-consuming and we have had to hire a community manager. As such these additional costs will eventually need to be borne by community members by way of a minimal subscription fee.

To allow you to take full access of the community and the benefits it provides, if all things remain equal, 12 months from your course registration date will be provided free of charge. You will then be able to make an informed decision about whether the study groups are worth subscribing to.

You will still have full access to the videos and course content for life as promised and we apologize for any inconvenience this changeover will cause

Community Guidelines updated 19^th August 2024