Be Very Careful Where You get Hunting Recommendations From

[Dean2]

This won't be a surprise to anyone who has been around hunting for very long but so many people now rely on the internet for recommendations and research that I thought this was worth mentioning. Almost all of the hunting websites/forums are commercial enterprises. They cater first and foremast to their sponsors. The membership is strictly a way to increase advertisement and sponsorship revenues.

A prime example is Africahunting.com. While it does not say it anywhere on the site, they will delete any and all posts that are in the least bit critical of a site sponsor. Even something as innocuous as questioning the excessive cost of posted hunts, or providing cost effective suggestions and alternatives will be eliminated. In addition, if you post anything complimentary about a non-sponsor outfit, they will hound the outfit to join the ranks of paid sponsors. If they fail to sign up the positive post will often be deleted.

I use this site as an example because I have direct experience that verifies these comments. There are however a whole raft of other sites that fit this scenario. Trip advisor, Google and Expedia are other prime examples of sites that regularly delete negative posts at the request of the reviewed establishment, particularly if they are site sponsors. Google is also the home of a ton of bogus positive reviews, you can actually hire firms to place a large number of positive reviews about your business. On the other side of the equation, Yelp will not remove a post at the request of the establishment reviewed. Only the person that posted can delete it, as long as you follow the rules about language etc.

My only point is to make sure you don't just rely on Forums for your hunt research and know what kind of forum you are dealing with. As great as the internet is for dissemination of information it also has a ton of very biased posts and a ton of fake news; all of which is getting worse very quickly.