Caresheet site

[Zoe]

If anyone remembers, I was planning on making a site with just reptile caresheets.

I bet you all thought I wouldn't go through with it, eh? EH?? ;)

Actually though, I have been working it. I've found lots of caresheets - but I got sick of doing that so I started working the layout:

http://www.indiepool.com/privateftp/archermultimedia/zoestevens/hc/

Keep in mind, only the Boa page and only the Amazon Boa caresheets and the comment form thing are working. I want to know what you all think of that sort of layout (of course, the header and the eye will be fixed up to be a little nicer).

Thanks!
Zoe

[Herpkingdom]

First off, the layout is great! Like you said the header and the eye could use some tweaking, but overall very nicely put together.

Now for the criticism......

You cannot reprint someone elses webpage on your site without acknowledging them as the author of said material. Also, you need their permission. Having a link at the top that just says "Origianl URL" isn't cutting it, I'm sorry to say. Also, who wants to read 7 different care sheets that basically say the same thing. And if they are different, who is to say which one is correct?


The way I put my sheets together is to gather a bunch of different care sheets on a species or a species ssp to get a feel for the general layout (in which order the headings should go in, etc.) I get together with several friends, either online or in person, and go over what should be put into each care sheet and what should be left out. I have generalized caresheets pertaining to substrate, furnishings, etc. This way you don't have to keep typing in these items. I have links from each care sheet to these generalized sheets.
I browse through a lot of herp forums to see what are the most asked questions about husbandry and this is the info that gets put into each sheet. It is not an easy project. I have only put together several sheets out of the several hundred I have proposed. The biggest caresheet I have put together is for North American box turtles. Due to the similarities of all species, it was easier to group them together then to do one sheet for each species. The same can be said for most kinsnakes and milksnakes as well as corn snakes and rat snakes. All from North America of course :)

You can see how I worked out the layout of each sheet and other stuff to at:
http://www.herpkingdom.com

Just click through to the caresheet section.

Right now I have been working on the Herpedia.com (http://www.herpedia.com) site and haven't been putting in as much time to the care sheet section. I have several dozen sheets put together on paper, just haven't gotten aroud to creating the pages for them yet.


Good Luck.

Jim

[Zoe]

Jim - actually, I like to read lots of caresheets. When I'm researching a new animal I read as many as I can possibly find online. Now, there are hundreds of species and ssps to go on this site. I haven't worked with all of them, I can't really read 10 caresheets for each one and then write my own.

Of course I will ad author and site name in the future (provided I can find it), but right now I just wanted to make the layout.

On a few caresheets I saw "do not copy without permission". So I didn't use those. Should I recieve an e-mail from someone asking me to remove their sheet, of course I will. However, I'm not going to e-mail every single author of every single caresheet I find. There are way too many for me to do that.

Zoe

[JeffT]

lol, where ARE the caresheets? All I can find is stuff about music.

[Zoe]

lol jeff ignore that indiepool thing, just click on Boas :)

[Herpkingdom]

Unfortunately, if you snag a carehseet from a site with a Copyright notice at the bottom or even on the front page, you can get ionto some legal troubles.

I agree offering the many different pages to read is good, but if you encompass all of the relavent information into your sheet it will eliminate others having to go through all that work. You know what needs to be put into each sheet, so just put in the data yu know to be correct. This way it will be your caresheet.

[JeffT]

Ohhhh now I see. Great job Zoe! That earned a spot on my *favourites* list.

[CyberGhost]

I think it is great and pretty much agree with what everyone else has said!!!

[Tim and Julie B]

Very good work. Very simple lay-out so the care sheets are easy to find. I also like that there are several to look at for each species-great idea!:D It's important that people get as much info as possible so that they can provide the best care for their herps. I give it a 9/10. It'll be 10/10 once all the care sheets are up and running:D

[Zoe]

Thanks!

Tim and Julie - lol, that little 1 tenth represents a loooot of work! :)

Zoe

[V.hb]

I know if i went through the trouble to create a caresheet i would be quite annoyed to see someone else posting it without permission to use it. I wouldn't want to have to go through the trouble of emailing the individual who put the site up to ask him or her to take it down. It's a common curtosy to ask someone to use their work, before using it. Considering most caresheets on the net are published one way or another in a reptile book of some kind.

Also, just out of curiousity, you are using other peoples caresheets. These methods worked for them but whos to say they arent outdated? You cannot possibly say you have kept every species you are going to add to your site. I feel you should either stick to the individual species you keep and know about, or email the people who made the caresheets and ask them to use them and make sure they are up to date.

Iam pretty against the whole idea of posting caresheets on species that you have never worked with on a personal level. This is why most people have others submit caresheets of their own observations with the animal in question.