I've decided to make this post mainly for new people, and to help everyone use the board more efficiently. These are purely made up by me and not part of the KS TOS, and I am in no way a Mod. Most of what I have posted I have heard were the reasons that so many good resources left this forum and no longer post here. Please feel free to add anything I may have forgotten. Please read it in full. I don't really want to hear negative comments unless they are constructive.
"Unofficial" Rules for posting here:
BEFORE YOU START A NEW THREAD:
1) READ PAST POSTS
Go through AT LEAST the last two or three pages of posts and see if your question has been previously answered. If you post a question and do not get an answer, chances are it was recently asked and answered by someone else. A simple 5 minutes of reading could have saved everyone a lot of time. Hell, you might even learn other stuff about leos in the process.
2) READ CARE SHEETS
This probably could have been number one, simply because the type of info in care sheets is pretty basic. A simple yahoo search for "Leopard Gecko Care Sheet" should suffice, and a lot of basic questions will be answered. A simple $10 book on Leopard Geckos should also help in this area.
If you have a new question that has not been answered here or other common sources:
3) INFORMATION
If you are asking a question, list ALL information that you have. This includes (but is not limited to): age, sex, size, tank size, temps, substrate, equipment used, housing arrangements (how many of each sex together as well as sizes), current conditions, what type of food you are using, what kind of supplements. Pictures can also come in handy, but keep it down to a reasonable size so it doesn't take forever to load. Any and all information you have on the care, condition, and activity of the leo can be used to help.
4) LETS KEEP IT POSITIVE
Don't get angry if the response you get is "take it to a vet". Don't get pissed off at the people who are just trying help. If you cannot afford to go to the vet, you should not have a leopard gecko. Most of the people here want what is best for your leo, and if that means an extra $50 for an exam, $15 for a fecal, and a lot more for treatment, then that's the way it has to be. If you can't handle the bad parts of being a leopard gecko owner, then you should not be allowed to enjoy the good either. Don't get upset when you don't get the answer you want. Sometimes there isn't a home-made miracle cure, and I'm sick of people being pissed off at the people they asked for help.
5) TRY TO BE CONSTRUCTIVE
We don't need a lot of wasted posts and negativity flying around the forums. Think about what you're posting and if it will really help people or get a necessary question answered. If you're posting for the sake of posting, please don't. If you can ask 5 questions in one thread, do that instead of starting 5 different threads.
6) THERE ARE PRIVATE LINKS FOR A REASON
Please do not post solely to get someone’s attention. There are private e-mail links by clicking on the user’s name. We don't need to hear about specific transactions here.
7) READABILITY
Note that when you post a thread with half words, non complete sentences, and horrible spelling, you are not going to get as many responses. I think twice about buying from someone or getting advice from someone who is like “wat is up wit dat leo dude, he be lookin good”. You will get a lot more responses and people will be more willing to help if you ask a full question and ask it coherently. If you have problems spelling, copy your post into word and edit it before you post it (copy and paste). Also, try to avoid using all caps for posts or subjects.
Sorry if any of this came across in a negative fashion, but I thought there were some things that needed to be addressed. I hope to see this place stick around as a resource, and I know many people have stopped using this forum because of the issues mentioned above. So let's try to revive it and make it a place worthy of checking every few hours (like I try to do.. lol). I also think I (or someone) should repost this every few weeks to keep it near the top.
-----
Brian Skibinski
Milwaukee Reptiles
Brian@MilwaukeeReptiles.com
KS needs to stick something like this at the top of the thread page (yeah, like Terms of Service, which no one reads, either!).
