Ouch!!! In the MN Federation Nation Tournament of Champions, Rich Lindgren caught the fish to finish 2nd. However, Rich did a bit of "tweeting" status updates during both days and was disqualified for it.
The MN Federation Tournament Rules State:
During the official competition days of the tournament, a competitor may not use a CB radio, a VHF marine-band radio, a cellular phone, or any other type of communication device for the purpose of locating or catching fish. Contestants are permitted to transmit by radio or telephone only in the event of an emergency.
Honestly, I do not think this rule envisions, nor touches on what Rich did. To transmit by "telephone," you have to call a phone#, which is something I don't think Rich was guilty of doing. A smart phone is essentially a computer and telephone and he was to my thinking using the computer, not the phone. Sending a text message to another phone is using a telephone. Sending a message via computer to another computer is NOT using a telephone. In my mind the Tournament Director wrongfully erred to the side of caution, when neither the actual letter or spirit of the law was being broken.
That said, Rich probably should have gotten a clarification and ruling from the Tournament Director prior to Day 1 blast off.
Update: Another thing I really don't understand. Why is an infringement of a rule like this, if it was really an infringement at all, penalized with a disqualification? The degree of punishment is absurd. In my view the penalty shouldn't have been anything worse than losing a single place in the standings or losing 1lb from his total weight, taking which ever punishment is greater.
15 comments:
It was clearly stated at the pre tourney meeting "Do not use your cell phone unless it is an emergency". Completely stupid to even try to do such a thing when you are doing that well.
Rich tweeted on Day 1 before he was in the running. Yes it was stupid to do without prior permission. If I was Tournament Director I would have ruled differently because a smart phone is more than a cell phone and without making a phone call, it wasn't used as a phone.
If someone used their cell phone to keep time, should they be disqualified too?
Read the last sentence in the rule again. "Contestants are permitted to TRANSMIT by radio or telephone only in the event of an emergency." Reading the time on your cell phone does not have you transmitting anything. Tweeting is transmitting data with a telephone (or cell phone in this case) as is texting or making a phone call. Hate to see such a great couple of days of fishing go to waste too but, he was warned and I don't think there is any excuse for doing it.
The part about "transmit" is a good point, but still beg's the question of the difference between a cell phone vs. computer.
To "transmit" via telephone you have to call a phone#. A url is like a phone# but still NOT the same.
I can understand why the TD ruled the way he did, but if it was me, the outcome would most certainly have been different.
You have to look at the intent of any rule....as a tournament director for over 12 years all rules are not black and white. The intent of the rule as stated "...the purpose of locating or catching fish". The intent of the rule was not violated.
Very true that some of these rules are left open to a bit of interpretation and not completely black and white. But, if the TD did say in the pre-tourney meeting that you are only to use your phone in an emergency, he obviously violated that rule. This also looks to be stated in the second sentence from the rules noted in an earlier post.
As technology evolves, this is probably going to become a more slippery slope. Would it have been OK for him to send a text message during the tourney to thousands of people giving out updates on how his fishing day was going? This is essentially what a tweet or face book page allows someone to do. A lot of people can then be immediately aware of his current situation. At this point, something even worse could happen such as people tweeting/texting him back with lure or location suggestions. By enforcing the "you are not allowed to use your phone unless there is an emergency" rule it tries to squash any type of communication that may benefit an angler.
Another thought is that his tweeting puts the person he was fishing with that day at risk. As a partner in these tournaments, you are an observer for the person you are fishing with. You have to sign a slip at the end of the tourney saying the person you were fishing with caught his fish fairly and followed all the tourney rules to the best of your knowledge. If your partner sees you punching stuff into your phone all the time when you are fishing, he's got to think something, excuse the pun, fishy is going on. If his partner finds out that he was using his phone for non-emergency communication and does not report it, both anglers are disqualified. So now, Rich's partner gets put in a tough situation of being looked at as a snitch if he reports him or getting himself DQ'd if it is found out he saw Rich tweeting and didn't report it.
All in all, too bad on both ends of this. Rich had to get DQ'd and the TD was forced to have to make such a ruling.
"At this point, something even worse could happen such as people tweeting/texting him back with lure or location suggestions."
I guess I can see this point, but there is no allegation that this happened with Rich.
So do I get to enter my 5.84lbr for the BP Derby? Or is that DQ'd?? :)
Since you have a history of cheating, it is no surprise that you wouldn't see a problem with "stretching" a rule.
Past History- Since people probably don't know what your talking about I'll bring them up to speed.
I used to be in a small bass club that does a once a season guy/gal tournament where no points are on the line. Not until the end of the day at weigh in did I even know there was cash on the line in this tournament.
The tournament had an hour later start than normal and I think it also had a shorter fishing day for the lady's as well. The tournament was held on Sylvia/Twin, the lake I've spent more time fishing than any other.
I arrived early in the morning and decided I would do a little fun topwater fishing before the tournament at a spot close to the ramp. Fishing before the tournament day is a club rule violation under normal circumstances, but I didn't think the Guy/Gal tournament was normal circumstances. So yes I broke a rule.
The thing is several club members saw me fishing and none of them protested that day, so they must not have thought it was any big deal either because it was the guy/gal tournament. My ex-sister in law and I finished 2nd and got trophies and a check for $100.
It wasn't until I did my tournament recap on a blog 8 months later that one of the club members got their undies in a bunch over it. Anyways, this individual made a stink (something apparently they can't get over even 5 years later.)
You would think the statute of limitations had run out because people did see me in violation and no one protested. Anyway this person was apparently adament that I be sanctioned. The Club Tournament Director banned me from fishing the first tournament of the next year. I told him that I was not planning on fishing that tournament. He said, well that's your punishment and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned.
Now that everyone knows the story they can be the judge whether or not the Tournament Director thought the protest in and of itself was lame sour grapes.
PS- Seriously, if I would have come in out of the money in 4th Place through last Place , would this person of even bothered to make a stink?
Sour Grapes!!!
Using a phone for other than "emergency" situations includes texting, or updating your twitter account.
Come on, a phone is a phone. Don't use it on tournament day and avoid these issues entirely.
Good discussion here. I missed this earlier.
BP, you asked about "trackbacks". A real life example is I quoted this blog entry in one of my blog post. In many blogging platforms your blog would automatically be notified of this (trackbacks are frequently called "pingbacks") link.
Some blogs will automatically list trackbacks in the comments section.
Maybe blogger.com doesn't support trackbacks...IDK.
Speaking of, do you know a way I can link to a specific post on your blog versus general homepage? --Bo
PS: Looked it up because I am a dork. Apparently blogger.com has something similiar to trackbacks called backlinks. I don't know details though...That does half of what a trackback does(ie, not reciprocal).
Bo- I believe you can get a link to an individual post for Bass Pundit by either clicking on the time or the link to get you into comments, which is at the bottom of all my posts.
Both of those bring up a page which I believe can be linked too.
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