Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Yes I agree with this standpoint. I even agree with this standpoint now that KS has made the foolish mistake of deleting yet MORE users and another forum. It's totally true a private business is not obligated to allow you to say what you want. For sure.

BUT.

There is a big differance between a business running how they want, and a business thinking they are so hot they don't need valuable customers anymore.

If I owned say an ice cream shop (total out of the blue example), and although a large portion of my clientel might want me to stop using paper cups I could of course say "This is my business I will run it how I want and I am using the paper cups and no one can stop me since its my buisness"

But guess what? No one wants my paper cups. So they leave. It doesn't matter if they are allowed to say they want the cups or not. The bottom line is when a large portion of your "clients" i.e. board users/classified account holders are saying something to you, and you ignore it, it's not a good business pratice in the long run.

And by the looks of how these forums are going, and the general feel from the rest of the reptile community and on the other internet forums, most people are really not interested in the way things are being run over here. so yes you are right, free speech is not entitled. But it won't matter when so many complaints are ignored that this forum turns into nothing but blind leading the blind and useless drivel.

Just because they don't have to allow free speech doesn't mean people have to keep coming here. And if that's how they want it, apparently thats what they are going to get. Less users, less support, less classified account holders. If they were to work with these people and take note of their complaints and stop acting like the Soup Nazi, then maybe things would be better at this point.

mousebreeder1

If one day you had 50 customers sitting inside your ice cream store, screaming, "Stop using paper cups!" Would you allow them to continue to do so? Valuable clientele or not, they are creating a disturbance in your shop, and the people who are trying to buy ice cream are not able to because of the people yelling and taking up all the space in the shop. Would one solution be to temporarily close down the shop until things calmed down? Yes, I think so. Why would KS let that continue? Isn't the point of a "protest" to get someone to notice, and change something? Well, guess what, they did notice, and they did change something. Very few posts were deleted, and a few big mouth shepherds got all the sheep worked up, and they all followed mindlessly along, thinking it was all a big game. Bye-bye, sheep, your fearless leaders led you to a point where the landowner decided he didn't want that particular flock of sheep or shepherds anymore. KS had little choice but to delete the forum. I doubt it is permenent, but who knows? I'm sure the shepherds will be siccing some more sheep on KS for quite a while, if the forum comes back up.
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Randy
www.ball-pythons.net

that you need KS exposure to sell your product while you have almost stolen the snakekeepers web address to do so.
Some of the big shepherds actually are paying clients on the classifieds.Nerd, the Barkers. And they have a business by word of mouth and will not lose a dime because of lost exposure on a forum. You probably have.
So to delete an entire forum including the top names in the business probably isn't a good business practice.There are other forums where freedom to enjoy the hobby is allowed.
Everyone will probably muster at Ralphies. A few might think they are at ballpython.com when they stuimble on to yours.It won't take long for them to leave when they discover it is a cheap imitation of a successful business,

A) I don't sell any product.
B) Ball-Pythons.Net is not my website
C) "Some of the big shepherds actually are paying clients on the classifieds.Nerd, the Barkers. And they have a business by word of mouth and will not lose a dime because of lost exposure on a forum." ---Then why are you defending them? And why did they feel the need to fire off a troll attack on KS?
D) I have not lost a dime---see A and B.
E) There is a link to Ballpythons.Com on the Ball-Pythons.Net website. I submitted it. If anyone asks where they can buy snakes, I will gladly refer them to the Snakekeeper website, SINCE BP.NET DOESN'T SELL THEM!
F) Thanks for playing, but you are in the wrong game.
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Randy
www.ball-pythons.net

too!??
I am also a little lost as to the rest of the deluge of diatribe you are posting.
And I am currious as to why you carry someone elses web link next to your name as it were your own moniker.
But all I am actually wondering at this point is what game you feel I am playing? I am not playing a game. And trust me, the attitude you are expressing as a superior intelect can only be impressing one of your other personalities.
Removing the clients from a forum is not a good business practice. Period.
I should have realized you are not a breeder or keeper. Your just here to pick the bones and impress your other personalities with that incredible intelect of yours
Give yourself a break Mr Plank.You are doing here exactly what you are acusing others of doing on the ball forum. Difference being, you have no appearant claim to ball pythons. Just the attachment to others web sites and an eagerness to stir the pot.
What game are you playing Mr. Plank? Or do you even know. Actually,I won't bother lookig back at this post. I'm going to Ralphies and talk about Kev :-0
And explain to Den that it isn't polite to leak confidential info.The real ball python community can be found there. Good night and good bye.

You are right. If a bunch of people in my ice cream store were yelling about plastic cups then I would be able to kick them out because they are disturbing my store.

I.E. kingsnake getting rid of users and boards.

Either way, in both cases the end is the same....a store with no customers.

Mostly everyone in the herp community already knows its going down the drain anyways from the past years stunts that have been pulled by the Soup Nazi mods here and often discuss it with humour because it could be SO EASILY turned around and become the great site it once was again. But nope. Pride is too strong I guess. Funny how out of the other reptile internet forums, even ones with more hits than this one, this is the only one with such ridiculous moderation policies which it also refuses to change. hmmm. wonder why things are lame here now? Seems all the other forums, ESPECIALLY the one which the members here aren't allowed to talk about, are doing just fine, if not far better than this one. Maybe they can just for once take a lesson?

mousebreeder1

going down the tubes. It doesn't affect me one way or the other. I personally have never seen Mod abuse, although some of the words used in the one post were inappropriate. If anything, I have always thought KS was UNDER-moderated. I have rarely seen mods in the forum.
Whether they are slitting their own business' throat or not, I really don't care. My main issue is with the attack of the trolls that started over a personal issue between members, and the subsequent reactions. People (wrongly) thought they had a right to post whatever they wanted, and got offended when KS moved/edited stuff as they saw fit.
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Randy
www.ball-pythons.net

My husband's post was totally appropriate in response to Rick of Ball Boutique......there was no name calling and it was done as tastefully as could be considering the person involved.

I'm sorry if my post was unclear. I was referring to the inappropriate words used by the mod, not by your husband. I agree, your husbands post was done tastefully.
>>My husband's post was totally appropriate in response to Rick of Ball Boutique......there was no name calling and it was done as tastefully as could be considering the person involved.
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Randy
www.ball-pythons.net

I totally get what you are saying about it not affecting you personally. And I DO see where you are coming from in your "defense" of the site/mods but only IF this situation which just occured was the sole incident. It was not. And over moderation has been and continues to be at the very heart of the issue which has been growing steadily since they introduced these moderators.

I think at this point everyone agrees that we need sites like kingsnake.com to educate the public. Everyone agrees some sort of conduct level must be upheld. But the real problem is the general public being ignored when they complain about issues going on in the forums in regards to over moderation. The true problem is a lack of communication, negotiation and attention to specifics in each case of "forum abuse" IMHO and people are feeling ignored when they bring these issues up. Either way in the end, its terrible because people are losing a once great site because of over moderation and everyone involved in that site just doesn't seem to care about what the general public is saying.

mousebreeder1