Posted by:
W von Papineäu
at Mon Sep 26 14:29:41 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by W von Papineäu ]
Erico;
Thank you for the kind words .... and if you'll indulge the length of what follows, this is how I do Herp Press postings ...
Herp Press Postings
Dear Herp Friends;
My herp press postings are the result of a 1994 mailing of a toad-related clipping to Ellin Beltz … then the ‘Herp News’ editor for the late-lamented Vivarium magazine. I got into the habit of sending her clippings from local papers, a vice that accelerated with the arrival of the Internet. Since about 2001, I’ve been posting herp-related press items to a variety of e-forums and magazines/journals; of which Kingsnake.com is the dominant target, as I find them and time allows.
I have one of those unique careers that serve two functions: it puts food on the table AND lets me support my hobby ... sort of. One of my morning tasks as an Army staff officer in the headquarters is to skim through 60 English-language on-line newspapers (as well as some French and German ones) to determine where the next international crisis and possible peacekeeping commitment is coming from. So, while we're skimming for Chechnya, Iraq, PNG, Bosnia and Sierra Leone; we also pick up everything we can on snake, reptile, frog, turtle, alligator, caiman, etc ... you catch the drift.
The herp-press items which appear to be most 'newsworthy' in this modest newt-keepers personal opinion or forum-experience get posted to various internet forums immediately as I find them ... the idea being that if the appropriate, specialist community hears a rumour of a herp-event on the old-boy net, they can get the original newspaper item in good time and be able to react accordingly. Besides passing information, I hope it can be used as a warning tripwire for "geesh, here it comes again *bad news* herp items" that can affect the whole community. A specialist forum is probably the best place to discuss the good/bad elements of any press story, and to offer our concerned but less experienced herping-peers a good, reasoned and (hopefully) scientific response to any press initiative.
Within Kingsnake.com’s unique venue, I try to post ‘general herp news’ to the Herp News forum, and items that ‘feature’ a specific species to the appropriate forum for ‘specialist’ discussion. (A python escape and reaction story may find it’s concurrent way to the Burm Python; Herp News and Herp Law forums).
The press - good or bad - is already out there in the open-non-herp-keeping community. If we have the original item, we are all working off of the same problem and can discuss the 'facts' of the matter (as much as the press have given us anyway) and avoid trying to talk to each other about "a friend of mine heard from his boss that xxxx " ... you get the idea.
Please note, I have been accused in various internet forums of only posting 'bad news' or ‘depressing news’. I stand guilty, but please note that I could only post what is printed ... and I tried not to editorialise or cull items. Naturally, with internet forums specializing in python/venom/crotalid/elapid's, the press only tends to print "Seven year old's pet caiman eats Volkswagen full of lawyers" stories ... unlike Frog and Turtle forums that tend to get a lot of good or scientific press. Some forums, like Gilas, get almost no press at all! (Which is not necessarily a bad thing). If I seemed to be on a run of bad news in any particular forum, it’s generally because of either the subject (when was the last time somebody wrote something nice in press about ‘Puddles the Python’ or ‘Snuffles the friendly, Oz salti’?) or maybe there’s been something dramatic that the press has jumped on lately.
And if you’ll allow me a side-note on posting protocol. My modest experience with press and newspaper organisations from 1994 is that, and this is important, the stories do fall under copyright laws of at least the US, UK and Canada, and are the private property of their respective papers and services. Reposting their items is frowned upon … and reposting photos is a distinct no-no. However … my communications with various press authorities in the US and UK have resulted in an ‘indulgence’ … as long as I attribute originating paper, press service, author and URL and don’t post for my own or another’s personal gain, my press postings are viewed as an educational effort and will be ‘tolerated’ (or at least benevolently ignored).
Basically, I’m a newt keeping paperboy … my modest expertise lies with critters other than yours, but I do consider myself turtle ‘friendly’. I’m just trying the ensure that specialist forums have timely notice of what is in the public venue about their unique charges.
Respectfully;
Wes von Papineäu
Gloucester, Canada
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Blush! ... The Tao of Herp Press Postings (Long-ish) - W von Papineäu, Mon Sep 26 14:29:41 2005
