Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am posting this here because I seem to notice that in this forum it happens more often than in others. Let me start off by stating that this is a great forum and the members are great and almost always give great help. My complaint is that even though this is a great place to obtain the information needed, I feel that many use this as there only source of information. A responsible owner should take the effort to learn as much as they can through as many means as possible. All of the answers shouldn't be just handed to you. It is so rewarding to gain knowledge by personal means. I am not suggesting that this forum should not be used to ask the questions but it is not hard to search the net or read a reliable book and find the answers to most questions. Also, I think it is extremely irresponsible for people new to the herp world to answer others questions with what they think is right. I have seen a lot of poor guidance given by people that don't have the knowledge and shouldn't be answering questions in the first place. For the people that are new to the herp world I encourage you to use this forum for it is a wonderfull forum but not to use it as your sole source. Do your own research and you will find it rewarding. Sorry for the rant but I had to get that off my chest, Sorry if I offended anyone, Todd

How right you are! But the fact that you posted this right after my most, hmmmm?! Do you mean anything by that?.....

I by no means intended tis message towards you and for the ones I did I will not mention by name. They hopefully will take my words to heart and experience the joy of doing their own researching. You gain so much more information by reading. You might need to just know something like what temp you should keep your snake at and by reading a well written book or article you will come away with so much more information. Anyway, like I said I was not refering to you you jsut happened to be at the top of the page when I posted the new message. Thanks for reading, Todd

I too really despise when posters (posers?) offer up information on a subject that they either know little about, or nothing at all. But even worse than that I really loathe when someone comes off as a know it all with information or knowledge just learned from me and passed off as if it is their own. Case in point: About a year ago some amoeba brain in another forum was emailing me and asking me a lot of questions and gleaning information from me about the herp hobby and breeding pythons & boas. He was new to the herp world and had only had a single baby ball python, but was intending to expand and breed many other species. So as always I was eager to help the guy out. I am always very giving and helpful when someone needs my help. So I even took a couple of days to carefully draw out for the guy my personal cage designs for my multi-unit rolling towers that are easy to build and cheap to make, but great cages. Heck, I didn't mind, I wanted to help the guy out. A couple of weeks later I see this chump posting about my cage designs and stating that they were his and anyone was welcome to email him for cage plans. This low down dirty manuever was just dispicable and it made me regret ever helping him out. When I emailed him about it he claimed that because he had moved the position of the latches that it was not technically my designs any more. In addition to this, by this time (a month or so) he had acquired a few other pythons with his wifes welfare money and was coming off as a long term snake expert spewing forth all the information I had taught him as if he had been keeping snakes for YEARS! It was comical,... but annoying. The funniest thing of all was that before he got any new snakes he asked me if I would take pictures of some of my big snakes on my BMW 328i so he could post the pictures as if they were his snakes on "his" BMW to impress the other forum members. I began to raise an eyebrow here and of course declined. I suggested he photograph his ball python on his motorcycle, lol.

So yeah, I agree Todd, it is very annoying when someone that doesn't know jack about snakes is out and about posting advice,. but trust me,. it is 10 times worse when the same lop is using the advice he got FROM YOU to attempt to lend himself credibility. lol.

>> Also, I think it is extremely irresponsible for people new to the herp world to answer others questions with what they think is right. I have seen a lot of poor guidance given by people that don't have the knowledge and shouldn't be answering questions in the first place. For the people that are new to the herp world I encourage you to use this forum for it is a wonderfull forum but not to use it as your sole source. Do your own research and you will find it rewarding. Sorry for the rant but I had to get that off my chest, Sorry if I offended anyone, Todd

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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores." Mia Miselfani

Hey Brian, Thanks for the addition. I didn't even think about the concept of others stealing your knowledge and passing it off as there own. You are right it is dispicable. If it was taken from any other means then it would be copyright infringement or plagiarism but because it is word of mouth or e-mails then it is ok. That is what the world is coming to and it is a disgrace. Anyway, thanks for the add on and for reading my post in the first place. And on a side note I am modifying my plan I asked you to read but I will e-mail you about that later. Thanks again, Todd

This has always been a long time rant of mine as well. Some of the advice I see coming from inexperienced keepers is absolutely horrendous; particularly when it comes to the proper husbandry and management of large constrictors such as burmese pythons. As a professional herpetologist who keeps many large herps (and on a long term basis) and having worked with many large herps, even I wouldn't say that I am the end all/know all in terms of giving advice; not by a long shot. I continue to learn new things because I take the time to converse with other facilities and keepers, learn about what types of field research is being done and what they are finding, and working closely with my animals. It is a never ending educational process. I see so many knee jerk reaction questions and responses that I can see why so many burms become either sick or abandoned at some point. We can all learn from inexperienced keepers, however, those same people must guard against coming off as some long term "expert". Uh oh, I'm starting to rant again, sorry. Rob Carmichael, Director/Curator of the Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm (City of Lake Forest Parks & Recreation, IL)