"Good Morning"

[KingWheatley]

So on an unrelated note, I suppose I'm back.

To those who were following this roller coaster, to put it simply, I can't trust advice from people on here, so as it was put "why keep asking."

A lot of animosity has built up between myself with my distrustful personality who would rather gain information from more than just one source and the people who evidently have tons of experience.

Problem is, anyone can claim anything on the internet. For all I know, some of the people on here who claim to have experience may not have ever owned a single snake in their entire life.

In the words of another:



So because of my mistrust, I seem to have caused a hassle for the working admins.

So, since I can't seem to trust the information people take the time to write, I'll stop asking for it.

I'll be here as I was before this post. In PMs. If I have a question, and cannot find enough sources to back any information up, I'll go to my default advice guy who has hundreds of snakes, so I can trust his information.

To put it simply, three people could tell me the same information. One could be well read in books but never have touched a snake in their life, one could claim to have owned a thousand snakes during their many years, and one who I have personally seen their massive collection of snakes dating back many years.

I would argue with person one and two, throwing what-ifs and such, and it could be said the EXACT same way between all three of them, but in the end I'd still only accept the information from the third person I mentioned.

This is not something I knew, but something I've come to learn about myself.

I am sorry for not handling this better, but I am not sorry for the resulting atmosphere of my threads.

From here on in, I will not be asking any of you advice unless it's in PMs with people I trust. Though I will be continuing to participate in this community because the majority of ya'll are pleasant.

As it was put to me, I need to be less sensitive if I'm going to be online any where. Because a monitor makes it difficult for the reader to see people as individuals, and instead encourages people to label others based on previous experiences with other people. A very common mistake that usually leads to false diagnosis of an issue. But a very human one.

That being all said, don't expect updates on Wheatley. If you want to know, you can ask in PMs how he's doing, but I'm not going to continue creating threads that become a hostile environment because my personality clashes severely with a couple of individuals who have a lot of pull and say on this forum.


Herp Derp

[Sauzo]

I missed the whole drama here but just from this post, if I didn't trust any of the responses I got to questions I asked on a forum, I probably wouldn't use that forum as it would serve absolutely no purpose. With that said, there are people I have seen here who have given advice I wouldn't use but it doesn't mean it is necessarily wrong. just means it works for them and wouldn't work in my situation. I've been here awhile and i usually lurk and read all the threads and honestly, i think most people here really are trying to help or at least share their tips and tricks to get problems solved. Maybe just step back and be an observer for awhile and see which forum posters you agree with and disagree with and read their advice and ignore the others.

Like for example that Gio guy!! He told me the best way to tame my retic was to kiss it on the lips and share a rat with it. I believed him and all I ended up with was a bloody lip, an angry retic and a little poo in my underwear!! J/K but in honesty, the forums are for fun and learning, be it learning person X is a moron or person Y is a pro. Enjoy.

[redshepherd]

With that said, there are people I have seen here who have given advice I wouldn't use but it doesn't mean it is necessarily wrong. just means it works for them and wouldn't work in my situation. I've been here awhile and i usually lurk and read all the threads and honestly, i think most people here really are trying to help or at least share their tips and tricks to get problems solved.

This is everything I believe in! Well said.

[KingWheatley]

I missed the whole drama here but just from this post, if I didn't trust any of the responses I got to questions I asked on a forum, I probably wouldn't use that forum as it would serve absolutely no purpose. With that said, there are people I have seen here who have given advice I wouldn't use but it doesn't mean it is necessarily wrong. just means it works for them and wouldn't work in my situation. I've been here awhile and i usually lurk and read all the threads and honestly, i think most people here really are trying to help or at least share their tips and tricks to get problems solved. Maybe just step back and be an observer for awhile and see which forum posters you agree with and disagree with and read their advice and ignore the others.

Like for example that Gio guy!! He told me the best way to tame my retic was to kiss it on the lips and share a rat with it. I believed him and all I ended up with was a bloody lip, an angry retic and a little poo in my underwear!! J/K but in honesty, the forums are for fun and learning, be it learning person X is a moron or person Y is a pro. Enjoy.

I think most of my problem is the whole "you see what you expect to see," thing.

Looking at all my threads, it seems the ones I was having fun with didn't get any drama (with a small exception) and the ones I was expecting to get unnecessary insults/hate or what not I received. Or thought I had.

Much like I was approached with expectation of drama. So I was treated as such. So I guess it works in both ways.


Herp Derp

[Neal]

It's not so much as you can't trust the advice of people on here, because you can. What you'll run into is people do things differently, that doesn't make it wrong or incorrect, but that's just human nature. We're all unique in the way we think, some of us think simple, some complex, some outside of the box. If I told everybody here to take a piece of paper, fold it in half, fold it in half again, tear the corner, fold it in half, tear the corner. I can guarantee you that we're all going to have done that exact thing, but no two results would look the same. That doesn't make it wrong, or incorrect.

What we need to realize is we're all human, and we have emotions and some of us get upset easier than others, so we should take that into account when we're giving advice or answering somebody's question. Likewise, we also have to understand that this is just a text forum, we can't hear the other persons tone, so it's hard to understand the context of what somebody is saying something in. We make take it the wrong way, when it was never meant to be that way. That's the same problem you have with texting people. Also, for example, I've known a lot of the staff over years and they're not biased, though if you're newer and don't understand how they talk or their personality it's easy to assume they're picking on you or being mean. I can tell you from personal experience as I used to get into it with the staff years ago that this was the case. I would get annoyed at an infraction I didn't think was justified so I would be a prick and end up getting another one.

Also, some things are better left unsaid. A lot of issues/drama can be avoided by simply thinking of what people are going to say when you post. This thread was honestly a bad idea, and that's coming from a neutral stand point, Natalie I've spoken to you before so you know I have no issue with you. I'm also not taking the staff side, but look at it from a neutral stand point of myself and other users. My initial thought of this post was it shouldn't of been said, at least the way it was. If I was in your shoes I would of simply said:

I'm back, so I wanted to say good morning to all of you, and sorry for any inconvenience that has happened regarding any threads I may of created.

The other stuff about not trusting, the everybody is an expert should of never been said, IMO. There's an old saying, walk a mile in the other persons shoes. It's hard to not be biased, I'm a Correctional Officer and I deal with stuff everyday where you have no idea how hard it is for me to stay neutral, especially with some charges of the inmates. I have to remember though, at the end of the day, I'm not the judge, nor the jury so it's not my place to treat them any differently. My job is to be there for safety & security and that's all I have control over.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Getting to know the members of the community we all chose to join is an easy and can be a good thing.
The search bar here or their own websites usually in their signature can help a lot.
No one is out to get you.
The truth usually hurts because most people don't like the answer they know they are going to get.
Its never anything personal, at least with me.
And yes, What works in my house might not work in yours BUT it is usually close.

[Reinz]

I've only been a member here for a few years and I have never felt that anyone thought of themselves as an expert.

After being around a while you can figure out who speaks from experience, reading, or a combo of the two, those who repeat information from here, and those with a WAG (wild...guess)

Pull up a chair and sit a spell, slow down, you'll have a more harmonious outcome.

And, welcome back!

[Coluber42]

You'll get varying advice from different people, but the benefit of a forum is that you get advice from *lots* of different people, some of whom are more credible than others.

I realize it can be hard to sift through all this diffferent information and figure out what is right and what isn't. But what you can and should do is look for the big picture, for the commonalities. Yes, you'll read through lots of tank-vs-tub-vs-pvc debates. But in the end, all three of these options have important things in common: They are all impervious enclosures that allow you to keep the animal in one place and provide an environment that is different from the one in the room. The conditions that the animal needs are the same regardless, and there is a variety of strategies to get there, depending on factors like budget, aesthetics, etc. But again, the commonalities are that a better insulated enclosure retains heat better, less ventilation increases humidity while more ventilation decreases it, and you still need to pick up the poop.

Enclosure size is the same deal: Some people say smaller is better, some people say bigger is better but you neeed to provide lots of cover and hides. The commonality is that ball pythons do not feel safe in wide open empty spaces.

People give specific strategies and instructions that vary a lot, but that is to be expected. I guarantee that a setup that keeps perfect temperatures in a tub in a 75 degree house in Florida would not work in my living room, where the temperature sometimes drops to 55. And the setups that I use to maintain temperatures in my living room in the winter would be ridiculous overkill if it were 75 all year 'round. But again, the commonalities are that more wattage makes more heat and more insulation keeps it inside, and thermostats keep it from running away.

It's up to you to sift through it and judge what will work in your specific situation.