Yes, Karl (Starwatcher) the dock spiders are often out on the rocks and I love to see them/photograph them.  I am currently looking for a photo I took of one that seemed to live on the latrine at one of our campsites.  It was the biggest one I had ever seen, and I will admit it would give me pause when I had to visit the biffy.  I did, however, make its acquaintance and learn to adjust to its presence. . . . ;)  

As I recall, we stayed at that site for two nights and it was still there when we left.  I have a rule that I don't kill any insect in the canoe country unless it is on my body, in my tent, or is a mosquito/tick/blackfly.   ;D

I don't believe that the webs like in today's POD's are made by the dock spiders, but I could be wrong.  Spartan1 was a dear to work with me to get the web photos--they were taken from the canoe and involved a bunch of "hold it more still!", "a little closer", "a little more to the right", etc.  It's really hard to photograph a web without having the camera on a tripod.  And that was before I had an IS lens.