Membership Information
The Everglades Exploration network is a gathering place for those who wish to discuss, ask questions, and share information about exploring the South Florida wilderness, and we ask that you join with the intention of becoming an active participant in our discussion forums. If you only wish to view discussion postings and blogs, then you are still welcome to do so without becoming a member. All of our content is publicly available and does not require membership to view. If you do choose to join please take a few moments to read the General Guidelines, and you will be required to introduce yourself in our Introductions forum within 7 days of your membership approval.

 

General Guidelines
Needless to say, please refrain from using strong profanity, and show respect for the opinions of the other members of this network. While all discussion is welcome, any network activity that knowingly encourages or promotes any illegal or other unauthorized use of National Park Service or State Park resources and facilities will be summarily removed from the discussion forums and blogs without notice, and the poster may be subject to banning from the network if the activity persists. These activities include:

• The unauthorized cutting or clearing of foliage. This includes trail-clearing that is not specifically authorized by the proper authority.
• Camping in areas where it is not permitted.
• Trespass on private property,
• Harming or harrassing any wild animals that are not covered under hunting regulations.
• The possession of firearms in areas where it is not permitted.

Please remember that we as a group are promoting the use of a stressed and fragile ecosystem, and that we want to be recognized by National and State Park administration and law enforcement officials as exemplary citizens that can be counted on to make use of these natural resources in a proactively responsible manner. All state and federal resources are protected by law, including all plants and animals.

Discussion Forum Guidelines
Please read and follow these guidelines that govern the posting of discussion topics before you post. At this time discussions should be limited to the areas that lie within or connect to the Everglades watershed. These areas include:

• Everglades National Park and all public areas that lie within its boundaries
• The Wilderness Waterway paddling trail and Florida Bay
• Big Cypress National Preseve
• Biscayne National Park
• Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve
• Picayune Strand State Forest
• Rookery Bay and Cape Romano - Ten Thousand Islands Aquatic Preserves
• Collier-Seminole State Park
• Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
• Lake Okeechobee
• Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
• Fisheating Creek

These area restrictions are by no means written in stone, and if there is sufficient interest and demand, we may include other South Florida wilderness areas as fair game for discussion.

All discussions are limited to travel by human-powered or small sailing craft, and by foot or bicycle. This includes canoes and kayaks (with or without sail rigs), poled skiffs (no motors) and rowboats. Motor boats used as 'mothership' shuttles for paddle craft are ok, as long as they're not the primary exploratory vehicles. We do not welcome any other discussion regarding primary travel by motor boat, airboat, off-road vehicles (ORVs and swamp buggies), and personal watercraft (Jet Skis, Sea-Doos, etc.). There are other outlets on the Internet where you can discuss these subjects, and I feel very strongly that we who enjoy our wilderness experiences minus the noise of internal combustion engines and the smoke of their exhaust deserve to have a place of our own. I don't envision any circumstances where these restrictions will be lifted, so please don't ask. These restrictions don't apply to personal blogs, private photos, or messages (see below for Photo, Blogging and Messaging Guidelines), but they do apply to promoting your blog posts and photos in the open discussion forums.

Photo Guidelines
All photos should be in JPG format to keep the size down, and it would be much appreciated if you would re-size your large digital photos and scans so they are under 1 MB in size. The Ning Mini network service that we subscribe to provides us with a lot of space, but it is still limited, and by keeping your photos small we can keep your photos available for a longer period of time before we have to retire them to make room for more. The topic and area restrictions that apply to the discussion forums also apply to posting your photos, and your photos should be clearly captioned or commented to indicate the location.

Blogging Guidelines
Blogs are personal accounts and journals that reside under your profile page (My Page) and are not part of general community discussion, so there are no subject restrictions on blogs. So, if you have a burning desire to relate an account of your swamp-buggy hunting trip, or talk about your new 250 HP, twin-engine fishing boat, this is the place to do it. Your blogs may be read by others on the network, however, so we would appreciate if your blog posts are free of strong profanity or inappropriate sexual content, the promotion of illegal activities, and any other content that could be considered objectionable by reasonable community standards. Please remember that promotion of your blog posts in the discussion forums is subject to the restrictions placed on those forums, so if you want to make your off-topic blog posts known to others, you may want to send them a message instead (see below for Messaging Guidelines). Any complaints made by members regarding blog content will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Messaging Guidelines
The Ning service provides the ability to send messages to individual members. This allow members to communicate with each other outside of the discussion forums. The same restrictions that apply to blogging will also apply to messages, in other words, there are no restrictions except those that concern respect, privacy, and common decency. If you choose to send rude or inflammatory messages to other members, and if those members complain, it may get you banned from the network.