You're really sort of embarrassing every member of ORCA right now. One of the things we advocate is environmental preservation, or at least thats what Matt our president has said at the last two meetings I've been to. It is one of the things that makes me so passionate about this hobby. In a way we're all a little bit of a hypocrit as we probably have stuff in our tanks that has been wild caught, but at the same time we have beautiful things growing in our tanks we are able to share with others.
When it comes to breaking the law that is a very very bad thing. If this happened in the keys, and someone caught you, Seth, and they probably would because of how much trouble its been down south, you could be sitting in a jail cell right now.
That isn't to say that you should be a perfect model citizen and I think the criticism and embarrassment you've faced here is easily punishment enough that I am pretty sure you wouldn't do what you did a second time. That is good, learning from mistakes is the way we grow, and I'm sure we've all had a stupid impulse we've acted on sometime or another - legalities our outcomes aside, we're human.
However, there is absolutely no reason to take it beyond that and resort to name calling. I'd like to think that the members of this club as well as forum are here for everyone's benefit, not just personal gain. We help each other out in times of dire emergency, give good deals on tank related stuff when we can, and provide a unqiue social aspect other clubs can't really offer. Not only does a background in the saltwater hobby stand as an automatic unifying theme we all have in common, but most people actually have an ounce of compassion in them toward animals as well as fellow man.
It sets you apart from sororities, fraterneties, clubs, bars, and other perhaps more common events we use to socialize.
To that end what you can do now is to make a choice to drop this and if you need to communicate about it use the PM system or even call each other on the telephone and have an actual conversation.
Arguing and debating in a calm manner can actually, sometimes, hash out whatever differences you have and if not you can at least agree to disagree.
Please, for the sake of our club and all of the wonderful new members leave it be here in the forums and take it up personally if you must. I would hate to see this turn others off to this wonderful club as this really is an isolated incident and we had all been getting along so well a few hours before
