To the People of sSnakeSs

[hhw]

Well, the mods can be considered a clique... being an exclusive club that most of us can not join ;P Of course, anyone with mod/admin experience could tell you there's a lot more responsibility than there is power to it.

Personally, I don't think people are prejudiced against new members. Now, some people may say there's no such thing as a stupid question. I disagree. As far as I'm concerned, any question that you can answer for yourself with a modicum of effort is a stupid question. Why should people spend time and effort to answer your question when you can't be bothered to spend it before asking?

I think this tendency more than anything that may cause older, more experienced members' patience to wear a little thing. How many times have you seen people start a new thread about something when an identical thread already exists on the exact same page only about 2 or 3 threads down? It's one thing to not know how to use the search button, but another not to even take a single glance at the page right in front of your face.

[Slannesh]

I had a lot to say about Mods, newbies, favoritism and what not here:

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showt...5&pagenumber=8

It's a long read so consider yourselves warned now

Now just in case it wasn't totally obvious before....

The reason I came off as such a **** to Rikki was twofold.

1) He outright lied about how old he was. In light of the fact that we now know he's 14 I'm a LOT more skeptical of his supposed knowledge on the multitude of subjects that he's got 'years' of experience in. Definitely struck me as the type to hype himself up to sound 'cool'

2) Get facts correct if you're going to stand by them. From the "murder" of crocodiles to copyright stuff he was just clueless and unwilling to adjust his view in light of actual facts instead of misquoted webpages and actual facts. Considering the amount of bad info out there it's no wonder someone gets jumped on for trying to perpetuate falsehoods.

The first couple of times i'll be civil if not polite when trying to correct someone when I know better. If I don't know better? Then i'll usually not comment at all or make sure it's clear that i'm offering an opinion or am flat out guessing. When facts are met with attitude? Well then I get much less civil. Anyhow, it's sucky that we've lost a member over this, but i'd rather have that than the next new person read wrong 'facts' and believe them.

[spidergecko]

Originally posted by hhw
...Now, some people may say there's no such thing as a stupid question. I disagree. As far as I'm concerned, any question that you can answer for yourself with a modicum of effort is a stupid question. Why should people spend time and effort to answer your question when you can't be bothered to spend it before asking?

Things change in this and all hobbies. What is true today may not be tomorrow. You may be running around thinking the answer you hold in your head is the right one and anyone asking the question is asking a stupid one. Maybe one day you will browse a thread about a stupid question and realise that what you thought was the right answer is no longer so. Therefore, I do not believe that (in the obvious context of this topic) there is such a thing as a stupid question. When we stop asking "stupid" questions, we stop learning.

All that aside, I have learned a great deal about snakes from this board (I don't keep them). If someone were to throw a "rescue" snake at me I think I would be able to care for it rather well. I owe this to the multitude of "stupid" questions that people ask. You see, "stupid" questions don't just help the people who are asking the questions, they help the people researching to answer and the people who just happen upon the questions without even asking.

Didn't you ever ask a classmate the answer to a question just before a test even though you could have looked it up yourself (or even though you knew the answer already)?

[HeatherRose]

I'm tired, so I'll be brief...

No one gives a crap about your age. *I* could care less if someone says they're so many years old, are from a certain place, or say they are a busty blue-eyed blonde when they're something completely different, on these forums...

No one gives a crap if you're 'new' to the forums, or a 'newbie' to the site... we were all newbies once, we all asked the same 'newbie' questions.

It's the content of your posts, what you say, and how you react to what other people say that creates the reputation you have on these forums that influences how people see you and how they talk to you. Being ignorant, hypocritical, and contradicting yourself on the forums leads to a general negative stigma around you.

People can be extremely passionate about herps, as it's a really cool hobby and livelyhood in some cases. If you say things that threatens or offends that, (ex. supporting organizations that rally against pet ownership, or mentioning you want to find a place to mass order reptiles from) WILL get you hostility from others, and come on, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize what you should NOT say on a public forum. It constantly amazes me what people say on here with no concern for how people will perceive them afterwords.

[spidergecko]

Originally posted by Slannesh

2) Get facts correct if you're going to stand by them. From the "murder" of crocodiles to copyright stuff he was just clueless and unwilling to adjust his view in light of actual facts ...

In Rikki's defence, he did stop arguing the copyright issue

[Slannesh]

Dropping out of the convo isn't the same thing as admitting or even acknowledging you were wrong. This was his last post on the subject:

What the hell is this about? Why are you diiginh into my business in the first place? I have been a reseller of ExcellHosting.net though just switched to hostgator, though it is none of your business what so ever.

Who are you to tell me what I do and do not know? I provided links to LegalZoom.com, worry about your self.

That's a big part of the reason I took issue with the guy. An almost pathalogical inability to admit when he's wrong. Offhand I don't think he ever did... about anything. But i'm not going to go through 300+ posts of his to make sure

[spidergecko]

Well, in defence of Rikki again , you did follow him into the copyright thread with unrelated info/ammo that was a little personal. Even I was a little confused as to where it came from; I hadn't read the precedent threads prior to reading this one.

Anyway, I don't care what you do. Lot's of people do background searches on people. I do it, too. (I can't find the right smiley face to show I'm not attacking you.)

I always assume "dropping out" of a thread means conceding. We know he read the rest of the thread since he responded to your post and chose not to respond to mine.

[Wrath]

I think most of the people here are nice. Sometimes I get short seemingly mean answers, but those are few and far between, and probably because i ask stupid questions. Sometimes I'm a little thick headed....but I would never go to the "other" forum. People get chewed over there.

[JAdkins2451]

I am stilla newbie and only been on here for about 2 months, and I have not had any kind of problems with anyone. Any questions I have asked got answered. So maybe Rikki you just really got on peoples nerves.

[Slannesh]

No worries SG... i'm not quite as thin skinned as some... I do dish it out so at the very least I should be expected to take it yes?
And if I thought you were attacking me Well.. you'd know. hehe.

By the time the copyright thing came up i'd just become long tired of his antics and saw yet another thing where he was flat out wrong. Definitely not the upstanding mature thing to do, but hey, i'm not a Mod so I don't have to be impartial or anything. I fully admit that pretty much the only reason I kept chiming in was to annoy him.

[Swampwalker]

Originally posted by Slannesh
I fully admit that pretty much the only reason I kept chiming in was to annoy him.

Then how does this make you any better than him? Doesn't this just cause more problems and flaming?

[Slannesh]

Hey Swampwalker,

I've never once claimed to be 'better' than anyone else.

If you take a look at the posts I made all I did was call him out on factual inaccuracies. I haven't done anything that's against the site's rules. When I first started interacting with him I was at least civil, the PETA thing really makes my blood boil in real life because of all the BS and propaganda they use not to mention the borderline terrorist activities that have been observed by the more fanatical of the group. So no, I really don't take a good view of people who support an organiziation like that. After being told to shut up and mind my own business on a public forum I took it upon myself to keep tabs on him. You'll notice if you look that in the rare instances where he wasn't talking crap, I had nothing negative to say about or to him at least untill the end.

I'm certainly no saint But like everyone else I have buttons that can get pressed and he manged to hit a couple. I got what I wanted, either for him to shape up... or barring that, to ship out.

[hhw]

Originally posted by spidergecko
Things change in this and all hobbies. What is true today may not be tomorrow. You may be running around thinking the answer you hold in your head is the right one and anyone asking the question is asking a stupid one. Maybe one day you will browse a thread about a stupid question and realise that what you thought was the right answer is no longer so. Therefore, I do not believe that (in the obvious context of this topic) there is such a thing as a stupid question. When we stop asking "stupid" questions, we stop learning.

Didn't you ever ask a classmate the answer to a question just before a test even though you could have looked it up yourself (or even though you knew the answer already)?

My point didn't so much have to do with what would constitute a stupid question or not; rather, it's whether people are willing to spend a moment of their own time before asking other people to spend theirs. If new discoveries are made, I'm quite certain that those would also be discussed and would also turn up on a search of the topic. If not on this board, at least somewhere on the Internet. For instance, take the following examples:

"What's a good temperature for a ball python"

as opposed to:

"I have been reading several different caresheets and there seems to be some conflict as to what temperature gradient ball pythons are best kept at. I've seen suggestions for the low end as widely varying as anywhere from 75 to 85. Likewise, I've seen people suggest basking spots around 95 yet some say to not go over 90. I was just curious as to what temperatures have worked best for people here out of personal experience?"

They're both asking the same thing, but it would seem that in the former post, the person hasn't done much reading nor has bothered to look in the FAQ. In the latter post, the person would clearly have done a fair bit of research and put a lot of thought, time, and effort into the question before asking the board. Therefore, I would say the former post is a stupid question whereas the latter is not, despite them asking the exact same thing.

And about asking a question before a test; yes, I have... because it would've been right before the test when I didn't have time to look it up for myself, lol. If I had actually done my work the whole time and studied like I was supposed to, I probably wouldn't need to (not that I've ever been in this position myself, LOL!)

[Slannesh]

I think you've definitely hit the nail on the head with that last post hhw.

The first basically wants everything handed to them while the second has obviously done some reading and at least made an attempt to figure it out themselves.

The one that always makes me go is when you see 3 or 4 threads on "what temp should my BP be kept at" on the front page of the BP Forum. Granted i'll still try to answer them all... but c'mon... if you can look hard enough to find the 'post' button you can at least look at the thread titles and see the other three on the exact same topic

[Rikki]

Look who is acting childish, you cant even talk in a calm manner.