Treasure Hunter,
I see you have the Stars and Bars in your avatar! That's not very PC! HAHAHA
I completely understand what you say. Now, those sponsors in Ryan's Video are unpaid sponsors. They provided them with binos, a rangefinder (Leupold), clothes (Carhartt), and a detector. Does that make a difference? But then again, you have to rely on the honesty of the poster that they aren't getting money from their sponsors.
.......and like I stated previously, without a fairly substantial amount of moderation, things can break down VERY quickly into insults, name calling, and threats. I have seen it happen many times before, and have also seen it kill forums completely. If someone insults or threatens me, I don't complain or back away. I go full broadside, and I know I have pushed the boundaries at TNet more times than I can count. My biggest saving grace is that I almost never am the instigator. My attacks are almost always in response to what someone else did.
While many times, I have to admit that it appears you folks (mods) are experiencing what's called "Big Fish Little Pond Syndrome". I know I have accused y'all of it on several occasions. Just know that when all the fat is boiled down to gravy, I do know that it is difficult to moderate a forum with tens of thousands of members, and y'all don't have the time to spend investigating each and every nuance of every video or argument. and many times you have have to make quick decisions based on reading a couple of posts, so things might not always seem fair to everybody. Just do what you do, and if anybody finds it too much to deal with, then we can take our marbles and go play elsewhere. That is the benefit of the WWW. HAHAHA
Take Care - Mike