My little rant......

... i think it has a lot to do with the fact that most n00bs are too lazy to research.

Maybe laziness plays a small factor. And i agree that if you dont know the correct answer to something don't respond to it but wait and maybe you will learn something. But it turns out that we learn that people are practicing bad husbandry by an abritrary remark. Otherwise we would have no idea what the NOOBs were up to. Lots of newbees think that they are doing things right because it doesnt seem to do harm or have ill effects on their critters and not realize that some of the things they are doing are detrimental to their herps in the long run. I know that everyone tries to help and its greatly appreciated but I say if you dont know the answer to something. Like feeding a rat with your hands. It might work 99% of the time but when another newbee tries it and gets bit that 1% of the time maybe the chance is greater with inexperience but if they get bit it will turn them away from herps thinking that they are mean or aggressive when we all know thats simply not true. I just want people to have the best herp keeping experience and become experienced herpers themselves.

Look we all have to start somewhere. None of us are born with a plethura of knowledge but we aquire this knowledge hearing what other people have to say. And if someone gives the wrong information chances are that they heard it from someone else so lets not shoot the messenger.

Sorry for the wordy post but this is a good dialog.

ill put it this way... when i got my first ball python, it was a month after reading the first of just about every caresheet on the net. then speaking with AT LEAST 10 bp owner's and learning the small tricks of the trade. Before I bought my snake, it had 2 hides, perfect temp and humidity... the works. what i'm getting at here is... there are 2 different kinds of "noobs"... the kind who are eager to learn how to care for a snake, bc they love reptiles... and the kind who think it makes them look cool. i do believe this site carries a lot of both types.

Newbies should definately check out the "reputation" of the poster. If I ask a question, I look for the answerer's "rank" like lieutenant, moderator, etc. Or I look at the answerer's photo gallery and check out how long they've owned their herps, etc.
Sure, you have to take everything online with a few grains of salt. But hopefully, any false information posted on this board will be corrected in a friendly and polite manner. If the incorrect person refuses to acknowledge his/her mistake or change their improper husbandry recommendations, maybe we can give them a sort of "negative" rating? Like, rate them as a "tax collector" or "proctologist?"Just an idea. :)

Yeah Will - I too had read volumes and purchased and read two books before posting on this forum and never even tried to give advice until I had been around a while - plus I always add the disclaimer that others probably know more than I. If you haven't read more than four caresheets on the particular animal and gotten advice from credible sources it's probably not wise to give others advice. Taking a stab at it is okay (I did that in a post about pinky pumps) but be sure to add that you're taking a stab and not totally sure. (KLG posted after me and cleared up my incorrectness :) )

I'm all for having some sort of system to rate people as far as overall herp knowledge and experience- is there a way to do that?

This is an interesting topic. I dont' know how we could be ranked by knowledge...........post counts don't really work because people can get thier ranks up by posting alot and not really give or gain much knowledge...
I suspect that we just may have to keep reading posts and politely correcting bad advice as it comes up. From what I've seen our moderators and other more knowledgable members have been on the ball (pun intended :roll: ) as far as spotting shady info and hipping those needing to know of the correct methods. It would be nice to have a "knowledge meter" on members, but am stumped for a way to implement it...........
Maybe a simple message on the home page or perhaps near the title of the post saying something like "If you aren't sure, don't give advice" or something along those lines....for some people, signs work well...
Just my 2cents.

Ok guys, I'm a noob in that I just became responsible for my first BP a month ago. However, I've been very successful with other herps and have been around other knowledgeable Boid keepers AND did plenty of research before bringing one home. Regardless of what I've learned, I still feel that talking to other keepers is where I obtain the most valuable knowledge. I may ask a question that seems elementary (and sometimes I really don't know much about it) but usually I'm trying to get ideas of what works and what doesn't, afterall a book is really just a guideline. It's the real experience that I find the most useful in my pursuit in becoming a successful and responsible keeper.
How about you tell me when I am allowed to give advice b/c after what's been going on here the past couple of days, I'm afraid to say anything anymore. However, for the most part, I don't give advice, unless it's something I'm at least 99.99% sure about, but I guess I'll refrain from even doing that.....sorry, but I had to add my 2 sense and when it comes to my opinion, I think I'm 100% positive in how I feel.

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How about you tell me when I am allowed to give advice b/c after what's been going on here the past couple of days, I'm afraid to say anything anymore.

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Relax.....I dont' think anyone needs to tell you when to give advice. You seem like a person who knows when to speak and when to listen. This is about those people that don't. I wouldn't even consider it a real big problem, and although there has been some peculiar advice going around I see it is caught pretty quickly. I understand no one wants to be rude or start a squabble, so perhaps a mod could PM the ingoramus and kindly ask that person to STFU until they know what they're talking about?.....but who judges that? Freedom to post is very important to our community so I think we all just need to keep helping each other and let those that want to embarrass themselves by being corrected on thier bad advise right after giving it (politely, o'course) learn about when to speak and when to listen.

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Newbies should definately check out the "reputation" of the poster. If I ask a question, I look for the answerer's "rank" like lieutenant, moderator, etc.

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This does no good IMO....the ranks aren't relevant to an individual's experience level or their knowledge.....just how many posts they have.