Any Feedback on the new Kevin McCurley Book - "The Ultimate Python: Morph Maker Guide

The videos were produced by Raphael Martinez who had a difference of opinion with Kevin and they are no longer producing together. Totally unrelated to the book.

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Originally Posted by MrLang

The videos were produced by Raphael Martinez who had a difference of opinion with Kevin and they are no longer producing together. Totally unrelated to the book.

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if thats true, then it changes everything.

but, on www.newenglandreptile.com , i remember there were a few explanations on genetics and a few articles. they seem to be gone. what surprises me is that i also dont see any advertising for the book there.

maybe its just a coincidence after all. but it seems suspicious how the takedown of the videos and the takedown of parts of the website coincide with the publishing of the book.

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

but i hate to believe that all community engagement NERD did so far was all just so that they get the right reputation set up in order to be able to sell the book. i hate to believe that he is selling out everything just to sell the book. i hate to think that when he did make the great videos and articles and shared stuff for free, that all he had in mind was money after all.

if the book is written by someone who does not care at all about the community, then i dont see myself buying it. and thats what it seems like.
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Wowzers. If you hate so much to believe it, then WHY believe it? This is just an imaginary cynical scenario that has no basis in fact and you can CHOOSE to believe it or not.

If you want to judge Kevin, then get to know him first. Don't just make up awful stuff and then believe it 'cause it seems to make sense to you at that moment. To say that he's done ALL he's done over the last DECADES just to sell THIS book is one of the most ridiculous things I've read in a long time. This book is not his source of income....it was written because this is what he's passionate about. The high cost of the book and the limited niche market it's intended for in the first place guarantee that it's not going to be some huge money-maker. He did it BECAUSE he cares about the ball python community and wants to give BP enthusiasts something super cool to have and to learn from.

He's moody. He's not much of a people-person. Social skills are not his strong suit...but to say that he doesn't care, or that he would intentionally withhold a few website pages to "force" people to buy this book is flat-out wrong. :colbert:

Darn, those videos actually interested my non herp friends and family.

So what's up with Raph and kevin?
They seem to click pretty well

i will be glad to hear if the temporal coincidence between the takedown of the videos and the website changes has nothing to do with the book release.

i added qualifiers in the form of "if this is really true, then i conclude that" with all my statements.

maybe the video takedowns are for some other reason, maybe the changes to the website are for some other reason as well. If Kevin McCurley puts out a new video showing his morphs and/or puts up another nice article about BP breeding, that will make it clear, as i say, maybe im wrong. the fact is, the book is now out, and all that he published for the community earlier and for free is gone right now. if these facts change, my conclusion is undermined, and i seriously and honestly hope that this happens. i hope to be wrong on this one. so disprove me, it should be easy. i told you all how to disprove what i said and how to check it. if he publishes new videos and articles, or if the old videos and articles come back up, i stand corrected. and I HOPE SO. i liked these videos and articles a lot. so, please, blow what i said out of the water. change my mind, get rid of my doubt, so that i can enjoy videos by NERD, can reference these nice articles, and can buy the book in good conscience.

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Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

i will be glad to hear if the temporal coincidence between the takedown of the videos and the website changes has nothing to do with the book release.

i added qualifiers in the form of "if this is really true, then i conclude that" with all my statements.

maybe the video takedowns are for some other reason, maybe the changes to the website are for some other reason as well. If Kevin McCurley puts out a new video showing his morphs and/or puts up another nice article about BP breeding, that will make it clear, as i say, maybe im wrong. the fact is, the book is now out, and all that he published for the community earlier and for free is gone right now. if these facts change, my conclusion is undermined, and i seriously and honestly hope that this happens. i hope to be wrong on this one. so disprove me, it should be easy. i told you all how to disprove what i said and how to check it. if he publishes new videos and articles, or if the old videos and articles come back up, i stand corrected. and I HOPE SO. i liked these videos and articles a lot. so, please, blow what i said out of the water. change my mind, get rid of my doubt, so that i can enjoy videos by NERD, can reference these nice articles, and can buy the book in good conscience.

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So you want someone to prove you wrong just so you can buy their book?? That's too much work especially for a hundred bucks. I'm sure the author of the book will sleep just fine tonight without your money.

I deal with the same attitudes in the racing industry. Everyone has an opinion about how you should run and do things... Except these people don't do anything for the community besides complain about others who are actually trying to make a difference. If you have such strong opinions, then put in the time to do the research and put out your own free information and videos.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Mr. Misha

So you want someone to prove you wrong just so you can buy their book?? That's too much work especially for a hundred bucks. I'm sure the author of the book will sleep just fine tonight without your money.

I deal with the same attitudes in the racing industry. Everyone has an opinion about how you should run and do things... Except these people don't do anything for the community besides complain about others who are actually trying to make a difference. If you have such strong opinions, then put in the time to do the research and put out your own free information and videos.

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im not big at anything but i share freely and openly whatever i know all the time. and im honest. im just good at recognizing patterns when they stare me in the face. i am fallible, but i am open to admit mistakes that i make. so what do you want?

To answer the OP question.

I bought the book and it arrived 2 DAYS later. Awesome service and I am across the country from NERD.
HUGE Freaking book. OMG. I didn't like the fact it has a dust jacket and then a very plain inside. And I know this is just my opinion...but I hate dust jackets, sigh. I absolutely love reading some of the behind the scene stories. LOL, Kevin got caught by security sneaking in a snake...Or the selling of the first fires cause he didn't know what they were. Love this stuff. Love the very great quality of photos. He broke down all the science behind what we are doing. Explains what CO-dom, Dom, Recessive, etc genes are. We have the Designer Morphs book by John Berry. So I have to compare the two....I think John Berry's is easier to find morphs in. And it has an appendix to look up certain genes if you need too. The new book does not. I was very interested to see what NERD had to say about a new morph (Arroyo-Rio) I have and I cant find anything. So I am a little disappointed....


Overall I would say I haven't had enough time to look it over completely but I would buy again just for the pictures and back stories to some of the bigger morphs!

Those NERD/Raphy videos were awesome. I would go back to them from time to time and it would always re-energize my passion for ball pythons. I am sad to see them down. I'm dating myself here, but when I got into herps, reptile books and magazines were the only way I could learn about husbandry. The fancy internets hadn't taken off yet. I am glad there are still people out there like Kevin that are making subject specific books. Back in the day you'd get a "reptile book" that would cover everything from tortoises to snakes and good luck learning any real husbandry or breeding techniques from those books. But they were the best we had at the time and I loved them. I'd read them over and over.

Books are special. At whatever price I'm glad Kevin put forth the effort to make this book, I hope to own it one day. And even if not, sometimes for really hard to find books you can at times get them for a week or two through inter-library loan. It will take a while for a library to get Kevin's book, but eventually one will.

It reminds me too of Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek's books on Reefing. When they came out they were pretty expensive too, but at the time they were great.

Now we can find TONS of info on the internet, and I love that too, but I still cherish my books. I've read Kevin's Complete BP book many times, and each time I enjoy it and something strikes me that didn't the time before. And the pictures are great.

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Originally Posted by Wapadi

To answer the OP question.

I bought the book and it arrived 2 DAYS later. Awesome service and I am across the country from NERD.
HUGE Freaking book. OMG. I didn't like the fact it has a dust jacket and then a very plain inside. And I know this is just my opinion...but I hate dust jackets, sigh. I absolutely love reading some of the behind the scene stories. LOL, Kevin got caught by security sneaking in a snake...Or the selling of the first fires cause he didn't know what they were. Love this stuff. Love the very great quality of photos. He broke down all the science behind what we are doing. Explains what CO-dom, Dom, Recessive, etc genes are. We have the Designer Morphs book by John Berry. So I have to compare the two....I think John Berry's is easier to find morphs in. And it has an appendix to look up certain genes if you need too. The new book does not. I was very interested to see what NERD had to say about a new morph (Arroyo-Rio) I have and I cant find anything. So I am a little disappointed....


Overall I would say I haven't had enough time to look it over completely but I would buy again just for the pictures and back stories to some of the bigger morphs!

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Thanks for that input, just what I was looking for.