Your not having a great day I see.

I guess someone should explain what this forum is and is not.
These forums are bulletin boards, the format has existed as long as dirt, well not really; but it goes back to the early days of the internet. A overly simplified explanation it functions on more of a serial base, like talking on a walkie talkie ... One person types, you wait for the transmission, another person reads the message and may formulate a response, they type, you wait for transmission, you read their response. And it repeats the cycle. In the olden days the cycle of time for transmission could take more than a few minutes. It's faster today but still the same.

Every time someone responds to a message or creates a new thread, it pushes everyone else's threads down the line. As you can see, creating 10, 20, 80 new threads makes it difficult for everyone to go through each one to see if there is content they may wish to respond to. Using 1 word slang gets to be annoying for those of us that are older than dirt. First because it's a meaningless response and second because it forces us to look elsewhere to determine what it means.

These forums are not the chat channels you may be used to using like: Messenger, Whatsapp, Teams, Snapchat, Tictoc, etc.or what ever young people use today that are interactive. All people are saying to you is take your time, formulate what you want to say or ask. Make it coherent. Do your own research to find your own answers to questions and then ask for further clarification or opinions. There are a great many resources here in the archives. Yes, there may be differing points of view on a topic; but that is because not one way works in all circumstances. You have to decipher what will works for you in your situation. Familiarized yourself with the SEARCH function. There a many forums such as ADC, Wilderness Trapping, Strictly trapping, Lure making, Kid's forum, etc that Paul has created to steer information and questions toward specific topics. So for example, if you have a specific question related to trapping raccoon, go ahead and post it in the Strictly trapping forum. There is even a forum for chat if you just are looking to interact with people on a ongoing basis. Introduce yourself, be respectful and engage with thought. Trapper Talk is a general catch all forum with mostly discussions of current events around the world.

If you aren't up to being challenged, have a thin skin, and need a safe space; this may not be the place for you. Trappers are stereotyped, and for good reasons, as being gruff, not politically correct individuals which don't particularly care what other people think of them, are fiercely independent and immensely resourceful. In reality we are more or less Gentle Bens, but we will speak what is on our minds. Trappers can argue all day long, throw insults at each other and at the end of the day shake hands and go have a drink together. A trapper in trouble is going to get help from another trapper. There may be insults along the way, but a trapper won't be left unless they just give up! In one of the threads there was a reference to Jeremiah Johnson. He was an early trapper, Hollywood made a movie of his growth as a trapper and mountain man. It is worth watching to get a perspective.

Trapperman is, if not the oldest, certainly one of the oldest trapping websites. In the early days before the internet, trappers didn't share information, it was all kept close to the best and protected as trade secrets. Greenhorns learned by the school of hard knocks, trial and error. Trapperman was created as a tool to change how information was shared. Many of the old timers here learned the old and hard way, and have a vast amount of information on numerous topics. Be respectful! Threads do get locked be moderators, and even go bye-bye, when they feel the responses within the thread have diverged to far off topic. Yes there are also topics which are forbidden and not discussed publicly; ask by private message if you have a particular question. After you have been here a while you'll learn what is ok; just ask yourself, is it the type of topic you would discuss in a room of people that hate trappers and trapping? Use common sense.

I would have sent you this by private message, but you have them turned off. I hope that does not mean that you have left again.

With all respect,

Scott

Thank you Scott I totally agree.. Jon

Scott nailed it.

Great post.

I hope Scott saved his excellent post so that it can be used again and again, as needed.

It would be a shame to waste that much thought and typing on some one that might not care. Copy and paste is a great feature.

Good Job!!!

Nicely done, Scott!

Moosetrot

I agree wissmiss. I had the same exact thoughts. There’s a very large gap between old trappers and new ones that have had the internet way all their lives. I can’t very well articulate it but they even see trapping itself, in my opinion, much differently than those that love it. It’s all about numbers ( like six coons) or look at me what I did. I’m torn between trying to accept what this new trapping has become and what we know. I see, with all the online stuff, the very essence of trapping being very foreign to many of us in 20 years. Again, very well thought out attempt to try to help and many “newbies” would do well reading this.

im back hopefuly nobody gets mad at me again

Nobody’s mad at you they are willing to help you just don’t make them work harder then yourself to learn what you need to know. Lots of hashed out information is in those archives to be absorbed by a mind that’s willing to work for it.

No one is mad just read what he wrote most of us are older guys and are not familiar with the modern chat stuff these forums don’t work like that

You could spend the next month reading the archives and never post during that time. I STILL go back and read them from time to time. There are some folks that have passed and some that have gotten tired of the BS and no longer post, but their knowledge is there. Some things might work for you, some may not. Just read through them all and try it.

I’ll bet you anybody on this forum can pick up something new in there….tis a fountain of knowledge!

Great post! I was an instructor at some of the hardest schools the U.S. military had, retired, than was a contractor and later a instructor teaching some very high speed dudes. One thing that I learned over the years is when someone quits, gives up, or says they are out of here...Shut up, pack your trash and leave. This "I'm back" crap is not a way to live your life, or to gain attention. Be a man, listen to how business is conducted, how you are to carry yourself, and learn from your mistakes. This leaving when your feelings gets hurt and then coming back, well, its not the path to learning or making something of yourself.

Real trapping, I'm talking getting our there and running a 100 traps, living on no sleep and caffeine is hard life and it takes years to become proficient, All the really good trappers I know are lifetime students, who are open minded and always are learning. If you want to play dress up and pretend you are a trapper, catching a possum a season because you think its some kind of romantic role playing, you are in the wrong place. You want to learn to be a trapper do your research, keep your ears and eyes open, and learn to roll with the punches. Learn to channel your enthusiasm and how to observe, learning all you can.

Won't b long and Savell will be adopting you as a nephew

My advice is instead of posting on a forum get your boots on and hit the creek bank scouting your quarry. T-man is good for asking questions but nothing will teach you better than boots on the ground.

My advice for TrapCoonsForFur would be to spend about two years just exploring the forum and trying your hand at trapping before you even get a username and start asking questions. When I started out I didn't even know enough to ask non-ridiculous questions. Get out there and make a bunch of mistakes and get a few wins under your belt too, and learn all you can from this site. You can learn just about anything you want here, without even having to ask.

Thats the thing I most miss from the old trapperman days was the chat room. I started trapping right when this place got started, actually started talking to guys here on the Otter Creek chat room. Then Paul got the IRC chat going, IIRC the channel name was #dobbins. Heck I cant almost remember the server address.

My boys were watching a u tube guy the does some trapping. Myself I didn't like him to start and thought well.... anyway I sat down and they had it on and he was showing a coon in a trap that had been lossy wired off to a tree with big loop. Well you know where the coon was and how ir would be after it lost its footing. I emailed him and explained why that happend how to avoid it and to not shoe his mess ups on lime to be ammo for anti trapper.

I got the I post whats real ect.. responded I'm sorry clicks are more important than the future of trapping that always under attack. Posting your mistakes puts trapping in a bad light. My boys will not be watching your Chanel again have a good day.

Ther was no geting through to him. My initial views were he was a moron and why I didn't like his Chanel. He proved it to me.

It's the same with hunting videos. I quit watching them several years ago. Too much Hollywood stuff. Coon creek is really good nd he's really carefully about stuff. I try to do a lot of what he does and it works.

Anybody can post a YouTube video I’m saying anybody is the problem. It’s no different than a first catch guy thinking he can be a lure maker by mixing 2 things no matter how weird that maybe has never been mixed before into a formula and retiring. It human nature to want success as quickly as possible.

The same with photos it takes very little time to present a respectable photo but some folks don’t take the time or think it’s manly not to clean up before it’s taken. A bad photo with a well intended story is just a bad photo and even worse with a lie tacked onto it by our enemies.

Years back wolfdog pointed out some clown on YouTube that used his trapping platform to be a racist fool and he got away with it not sure that garbage would fly today.

Like all men and women we can all do better tomorrow.

Yup!