Giving Bad/Incorrect Advice

[mohawk]

Lately I have noticed a lot of bad/incorrect advice being given.
Also, a lot of people that have recently got their first snake, and have had it less than a
couple of months, giving (not always correct) husbandry advice like they are an expert.
There are a number of very experienced snake keepers/breeders on this forum
that have a wealth of knowledge to share, but it is hard for a new snake owner to pick through
all the crap advice, and find the useful good advice. Just because you have owned a Ball Python
for two weeks, and have read a couple of care sheets, does not give you qualifications to diagnose a possibly
ill snake. And Yes, everyone has an "OPINION", but an opinion is not always a useful piece of information.

Below is a post written by another forum member, that gives some good guidelines to follow before you throw
out "OPINIONS" as facts.

Here are some general rules to abide by when answering questions:

If you've read about something that works - resist the urge to post.

If you've been practicing something for a short period of time and are ASSuming it works - resist the urge to post.

If you've been practicing something for a long period of time, have had long term success with it - share it with the group.

If you practiced something for a long period of time and it worked, but no longer practice it - discuss it as a viable option.

Refrain from discussing anything you aren't 100% familiar or experienced with.

Then a lot of bad information and confusion will cease to exist.

People who never have done something, people who parrot bad advice and people who seek to convert people to only one way of doing things just need to shut up.

In most cases, there are many effective ways to meet the husbandry requirements of most captive reptiles. If you are intent in making sure everyone does things your way and your way only...then you better make sure you've got thick skin.

Remember - many of the things people advise against doing can be done...they just may take more skill and experience. That does not mean you can't do it.

When you aren't talking to someone face to face, it's very hard to determine tone, humor, etc. This makes forums prime breeding ground for a lot of bruised egos and hurt feelings. Any emotional or interpersonal baggage tends to come out fairly quickly.

People often perceive insult where there is none, mainly because of insecurity.

Likewise people often get deeply hurt because they bring their low self esteem to the forum.

The best advice I can give you is to refrain from talking when you don't have something to say.

Refrain from talking unless you are sure about what you're talking about...and leave your emotional baggage at home.

..and refrain from ASSuming your snake likes anything other than being properly kept and cared for.

[MarkS]

This is certainly nothing new. I'm not sure you can fault someone for honestly wanting to be helpful but I certainly understand your irritation and I wish that people would stick to giving examples from their own experience instead of parroting what they heard somewhere else.

People with little or no experience have been handing out bad advice since the beginning of time and just because you can now do so much more efficently on the internet doesn't mean that will be ending anytime soon.

I think that the best thing to do is if you see someone giving bad advice to simply give them what you consider to be the correct advice. As long as it's done in a polite and civil manner it will generate discussion and you can often find that there are many correct ways to do the same thing. Lively discussions can be a learning experience for everyone. Of course you'll often find people who are just plain stubborn and will not take advice from anybody, but time has a way of weeding those people out.

[Paul's Pieds]

Although I agree with about 90% of OP comments

I have read some really useful links on this forum. To pick a recent example someone put a link about handling that changed my wife's confidence when handling our pets completely. Some of the links people post are not their own experience but they are the experience of very experienced keepers/breeders

I think what OP is really saying is without knowing the posters experience level, it is hard to give a weighting to whatever they are saying. It is like writing an academic essay and not referencing. If you do not know the source, or the quality of the source, it's hard to judge the likely usefulness of the information.

I do completely agree about 5 minute keepers stating what they have tried as though it is fact becoming an issue.

[gameonpython]

One thing I always say when I'm adding my opinion is that I'm new to everything snakes, so don't take my word for it. I think us "newbies" just like to be apart of everything and share ideas, but I do agree that they should act like know it alls.


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[Sweet4serpents]

Don't forget there are also people who have kept snakes for years and STILL don't give good advice. Powerfeeding, breeding girls too young/small ect. Stuff you CAN do but isn't best for the animals. An animals health shouldn't be an opinion... Stuff like that bothers me personally... I HATE people who think it's OK and promote crap like that...

[DVirginiana]

I think that's a problem that every forum has. On a frog forum I'm on newbies tend to make a lot of posts, but usually end them saying they don't have a lot of experience and to wait for a more experienced member before taking action. I kind of like that since it gives new members/keepers a way to comment and post but doesn't confuse ppl looking for advice.

[SnakeBalls]

Don't forget there are also people who have kept snakes for years and STILL don't give good advice. Powerfeeding, breeding girls too young/small ect. Stuff you CAN do but isn't best for the animals. An animals health shouldn't be an opinion... Stuff like that bothers me personally... I HATE people who think it's OK and promote crap like that...

Like so many youtube videos..

What gets me the most is ads on CL with a picture of a ball sitting on a heat rock

[KMG]

Don't forget there are also people who have kept snakes for years and STILL don't give good advice. Powerfeeding, breeding girls too young/small ect. Stuff you CAN do but isn't best for the animals. An animals health shouldn't be an opinion... Stuff like that bothers me personally... I HATE people who think it's OK and promote crap like that...

You have seen this here? I cant remember seeing this type of information coming from the respected users here. We do get new members that will do things like this but they usually find the exit pretty quick.

I do understand what the OP is saying. While we always have some of this I will say that I noticed that we did get a surge of it lately. I will also say that many have become much better and are learning fast not to speak about what they don't know for sure.

[SnakeBalls]

A collective reorganization and overhaul of our communitie's knowledge base?

[Jwkempo]

it's the internet and new keepers get excited and want to share that excitement by being involved. I always cross check everything by googling it. If you keep any animal (even a cat or dog) it's your responsibility to know how to keep it...