Recent "drama" in some threads have brought some questions to the forefront of my mind. Why are we here? Why is BP.net here? Why is the staff here? Why are our members here?

Why is BP.net here? Because several years ago, a young man thought it would be cool to start his own forum focused primarily on ball pythons. As the forum membership grew, the overall focus shifted to include any and all herps that interested the members, but the vast majority of interest and experience remained on ball pythons. Because the forum started with such a tight focus and such a small group that grew very slowly...it developed a "feel" to it that was and is unique to Internet Forums. It was warm and welcoming to new people and invited "beginners" to share their first stumbling steps into the herp and BP worlds, rather than shunning them as outsiders or "newbs." It was directly because of this unique welcoming attitude that BP.net began to be successful, with a slow but very steady increase in membership.

Why is the Staff here? Back in the days when BP.net was still run by that original young man, things were far from perfect. Despite the overall welcoming atmosphere, there was a lot going on behind the scenes with arguments and bickering disagreements that would sometimes spill out into public threads. The original owner was very young, and surrounded himself mostly with like-minded young men to help him run the forum with less than mature and respectful methods. He did however, bring in some mature, well spoken mods to help him out and for awhile, they managed to keep things civil and keep the forum growing.

Over time, though, even they had had enough and were ready to break away and begin their own herp forum. At the same time, the original owner was bored and wanting to move on to something else, so....the small group of mods bought him out and "Admin Council" became the new owners of BP.net. But why did we do that? Because we felt that despite the unlikely beginnings, BP.net had developed into a site that was truly different from any other herp site out there. A site who's mission was not to promote those already deeply into the hobby, but to help and nurture those just wanting to get into it. A site where confused new snake owners could come and learn just how ignorant pet store employees really were (for instance), and learn how to give their animals environments they could thrive in.

Throughout the years, there have been ups and downs even among the original Admin Council. But the central core of it has remained the same. We have gathered a staff of mods who feel just as passionately about the mission of BP.net...people who love to help others learn and grow in the hobby...people who genuinely care about the wellbeing of these often misunderstood animals and are willing to put much, if not all, of their own spare time into making sure people and animals thrive together.

Why are the members here? Over the years, BP.net has grown tremendously, and continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. Many, many people sign up in order to make full use of our features, without ever actually participating in the threads. But even if we don't see them...they are here...reading the vast wealth of information available here and learning how best to care for their animals. And many of our members enjoy participating in the public threads...either asking questions and getting reassurances...or answering questions and giving reassurances. Most of our members are either Seekers or Givers. And frequently, over time, the Seekers become Givers. And all of you spend the hours and hours of your time here because you care. You care about the animals involved, and you care about the people who love them.

So why can't we all just get along??? Because we're human. And when humans interact with each other in large numbers over long spans of time...disagreements are bound to pop up. With our membership growing as fast as it is...it stands to reason that we will get a few "bad apples" that try and insinuate themselves into our community and then proceed to attempt to spoil the whole barrel. But most of the time...it is only a matter of occassional members appearing to be "bad apples" because they don't express themselves in some sort of "acceptable" manner. Maybe they don't have the same skill-set of communcation and social graces that the majority of members have. That doesn't make them bad people. But it certainly does cause friction. And this friction is just part of normal life, folks. And the more this forum grows...the more of this friction we're going to see and have to deal with.

The staff (admins and mods alike) are here to keep things running as smoothly as possible. We've created a comprehensive list of rules and TOS that we feel it reasonable for members to abide by. We do our best to enforce those rules. But we can't stop humans from being...human. We can't make everyone "be nice" all the time. We can't force certain individuals to "get along" when they are not inclined to do so. If people are going to participate in a public forum of this nature, they have to be prepared to be disagreed with....and perhaps even "not liked." Members who wish to fit in with this community and "get along" with everyone make a concerted effort to do so. Those who refuse to make any effort at getting along will stick out like a sore thumb...and there's really nothing the staff can do about that except make sure things stay within the bounderies of the TOS/Rules.

There were no "glory days." At any given point in the history of this site, there has been drama and disagreements and bitterness. Because it's human. And Heaven help us....I would prefer for us to stay human. Despite the friction and spite and drama that it causes....it also allows us to shine forth with respect and compassion...to a degree that few Internet Forums will ever come close to reaching.