Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Someone said there are only a couple people posting on the subject of floridana morphs. Personally I feel it is great that you few are posting regardless; it is a disagreement or everyone is agreeing.

Maybe a lot of people aren't posting but a lot are reading these posts. They are learning more and more everyday by these posts.

I just have one suggestion (and I will probably be boooo'd out for this). Keep your post simple. A lot of people either don't understand the scientific terms (brumate, allele, phenotype, neonate, etc.) being used or they are reluctant to post in fear they might not use those terms correctly. If layman's terms are used possibly more people will join in. Don't get me wrong, the people who use these terms have every right to, you all have put in your time, done extensive research and more than qualified.

I see 2 solutions to this that would be helpful to the layman. 1. just use layman's terms so layman don't get discouraged and just give up reading or 2. somehow have kingsnake could link all the words in their glossary so the layman doesn't have to do an extensive search and try to understand what these words mean through definitions that don't just cater to reptiles.

Just my 2 cents.
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B

This site should help many understand most of the terms and words used in herpetoculture(breeding reptiles). This is the same site also recommended just a few posts down.

http://www.kingsnake.com/articles/Glossary.html

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

On the other hand, the use of the correct terms in the correct context by more experienced herpers/breeders will only serve to help educate the laymen. Alot of the terms become familiar with repeated use. Its not hard to eventually figure out what each means when you see it in use. Im not a fan of lowering the bar so more can pass with less effort. I say raise it and expect people to step up.
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Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

I'm with you on this one.

-Cole

I agree in raising the bar, not lowering it.

There usually is no simple "layman's term" for most of this technical nomenclature. For example. The "layman's term" for "Allelle" would probably take several sentences!
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

I also agree with you, Craig. When I first started learning about genetics and snake care, all those terms intimidated me too. But after seeing them used several times, and joining in on the conversations, I quickly learned what many of them meant.

If nothing else, there is always the dictionary!
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Aubrey Ross

©
www.SlipstreamSerpents.com

That could also apply to the public education system... No child let behind = let's not teach them anything hard so we don't lose our funding when some kids that don't get it fail the standardized tests...
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~Maggie~

"Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious."
1.1 Cal Kings
1.0 Mali Uromastyx
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Red Belly Piranha
1.0 Quarter Horse
1.0 Australian Shepherd

Np

I think people should want to learn these things. We don't all start out knowing what these things mean. When I first became interested in reptiles I didn't expect people to speak differently for my sake. I simply researched and looked up what they were talking about. I don't see a problem with people asking questions and educating themselves.
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Diego

A BOOOO!!..LOL!

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

No offense, If the subject requires those terms, then they must be used. As they are the actual discription of what is being discussed.

If you do not understand them, then you ask a specific question, like what the heck is an allele or what is phenotype. Or you can google those words or terms. But if you do that, your answers will most likely be a little out of context, as most of these terms are normally used in other areas of science. They can be sorta refit here.

If you ask the folks using them, what they mean, you will stay in context and within the thread.

If one person has it wrong(for here) then others will be quick to help define those terms.

How you learn is taking your understanding up to these others, level, Not having them talk DOWN to your level. Good luck and please the key to this area of science is ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS, its not necessarily the answers. Cheers

I have had reptiles most of my life but I am a newbie to all the scientific terms but I think just reading through all these post, forums, and such I am starting to kind of understand some of them at least, and trying to figure out some others. Again I agree with some of the other MORE INFORMED people here, we all need to learn from them, NOT expect them to lower any kind of standards of describing something that is actually SCIENTIFIC like Breeding and such. Just my two cents..
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