Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I asked a day or so ago in a post that had "Bleeps" in it, if it was considered a violation of the TOS to type the name of another site that had classified ads in it. I can't find that post to find out what the answer was (maybe it was farther back then I thought, or maybe the fact that I can't find it means that it was taken off the forum) Is it a violation to mention one of the others?
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Well, seeing that I got several emails on this and no one wanted to post directly about this subject I will just make a simple note to this Forum Monitor. It used to be Bonnie, I don’t know if it still is or not, she was a fun gal to talk with but I am sure this comes down from the Kingsnake.com Bosses (that used to be Jeff I think)
But here are my thoughts on this, and I mean no offenses or to violate the TOS, just call it constructive criticism.

I have been using Kingsnake both the forums and the Ad service for at least the last 4-5 years, I might even say since it started, but I don’t really know the opening date. I switched over from the old Herp Auction to sell my animals to this site, mostly because I had better control over what I wanted to sell my animals for. In the last couple of years, kingsnake has suffered from being too big, I know that they have tried to work this out by having all these sub groups for both the forums and the classifieds, but it still is not working in the ad section. I can post my ads in the Boa Constrictors for sale section and within a couple of hours it is either buried at the bottom or off the front page, out of site and out of mind. The same is working at the forums, make a post come back the next day and try to find it, if it was not deleted.
Back a few years ago these forums were used to exchange information, “Hey look at this boa, I just pick him up from www.bleepbleep.com for only $35.00 and he has more.” Or “I just read at www.bleepbleep.com about a knew feeding strategy that they say it seems to work!” Now because the constant censorship of those kinds of posts, the ineffectiveness of the classified ads due to being too many of them and the increasingly higher advertising rates people are looking for different venues for their information and sales. Kingsnake has actually created the market for its own competition to thrive.
I post ads at two different sites kingsnake and the bleepbleep.com site that I am not allowed to mention a couple of years ago I would get little to no feed back from the ads at the bleepbleep.com site, now I actually sell more from that site then I do from the kingsnake site. Its crazy because I know kingsnake has three times the usage, but its ads are too crowed. A few years ago Kingsnake had 10x the usage of this other site, but it is catching up due to the above mentioned restrictions and problems with the ads.
Please don’t be offended by this post, think of it as free advice from a guy who has been around the block a bit and has been around long enough to see the changes, not for the better, in his favorite reptile site.
Respectfully,
James Hopkins
PS. One more thought, it should speak volumes to you that I received many emails over this subject but all of your forum users chose not to post about it in fear of losing there posting privileges?
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

are you still allowed to ask people if your site looks good or are those being deleted now too. Could kingsnake have software running that auto deletes posts with other sites on it. Just curious Paul

>>Well, seeing that I got several emails on this and no one wanted to post directly about this subject I will just make a simple note to this Forum Monitor. It used to be Bonnie, I don’t know if it still is or not, she was a fun gal to talk with but I am sure this comes down from the Kingsnake.com Bosses (that used to be Jeff I think)

Bonnie is off being busy being a new mom. Her playtime on the forums is limited to what her personal schedule permits. The moderation of the boa forum is now mostly handled by PHAlex.

>>But here are my thoughts on this, and I mean no offenses or to violate the TOS, just call it constructive criticism.

>>Please don’t be offended by this post, think of it as free advice from a guy who has been around the block a bit and has been around long enough to see the changes, not for the better, in his favorite reptile site.
>>Respectfully,
>>James Hopkins
>>PS. One more thought, it should speak volumes to you that I received many emails over this subject but all of your forum users chose not to post about it in fear of losing there posting privileges?

As with any online community, our community has a terms of service contract (TOS: http://www.kingsnake.com/shared/tos.html ) to protect both us as a business and you as a user on our web sites. By registering for a Pethobbyist.com User Account, each individual user has agreed to abide by this Terms of Service.

We reserve the right to remove, or edit content posted or published on our site. If members violate our terms of service, pethobbyist.com staff may remove or edit their messages. We will not edit forum posts simply for content, grammar, spelling, layout, or meaning, but reserve the right to edit for violations of the TOS, triggering our profanity or URL/email filter, the inclusion of identifying personal information about others, technical problems, and other unforeseen complications.

While occasionally a host or staff member may inform a user about a violation, or post a general warning to a forum, we have no policy guaranteeing that anyone will be warned about violations on their account, nor any specific number or type of violations that may result in action against their account.

If a user has had their ability to log in, post to the forums, or upload on/to the site rescinded, or had posts or images removed, or had their access to chat rooms blocked, they may contact the site coordinator of the appropriate site and appeal the action. Any public discussion of actions that may or may not have been taken against a specific user's account will be removed, and we will not discuss anything about a user's account with anyone but that individual himself or herself.

Having said that, when you see words or URL's bleeped out on our site, they are done so for a reason. Most people can understand the need to place profanity and other vulgar words into the filters. What most people don't understand is that there is also a good reason to put some websites into the filters as well. You are asking me to explain why some sites are bleeped out. I cannot do this. We clearly tell folks in our tos that we will not discuss another person's account with anyone but that individual himself or herself.

Regards,

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PHWyvern

PetHobbyist.com Forum Coordinator
Site Coordinator/Forum Leader for:
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* ExoticHobbyist.com

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