Bad advice?

I'm still a coffee short of being articulate but hopefully I can make sense.. besides telling someone they're wrong in just about every post, is there a way to not seem like a combative jerk and have ill-informed members advice somehow noted with negative rep? I know everyone has had questions at one point of been given some old school outdated advice but I think most intelligent people are willing to learn from mistakes and not essentially cover their ears (eyes) and go la-la-la la-la and then change what needs changed about their snake care and understanding. Besides certain members here. I don't mean this in a way as if I know everything or there's only 1 right way to do things but it makes me cringe when I continuously see the same people anthropomorphizing their pets or refusing to accept Mike at Boxstore was just trying to make a sale and then want to give new members their 2 cents and continue the bad advice. There are people that have had 50 snakes for years and could make husbandry improvements and there are people who have had 1 snake for a year but just continue to research and build their knowledge and understanding of BPs so I don't mean this as a more experience always = better advice. I guess I just mostly get annoyed by people that refuse to learn from mistakes or be open minded enough to accept new information. I know this post is more just a pointless rant since we'll still be answering the same "omg my snake hasn't eaten in 10 days" emergencies but hopefully it made sense to some people. And now coffee.

Those that are intelligent know what they do not know. Many people feel that acknowledging a mistake makes them stupid. Smart people acknowledge mistakes and do not repeat them. On the flip side of this, I personally will take advise and consider it to possibly be fact only after I have proved it myself and or have gotten the same facts from three different sources. I never repeat advise without testing it myself. I find that most people do not think in these terms. If they did there would not be a shortage of engineers.

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Originally Posted by HannahLou

I'm still a coffee short of being articulate but hopefully I can make sense.. besides telling someone they're wrong in just about every post, is there a way to not seem like a combative jerk and have ill-informed members advice somehow noted with negative rep? I know everyone has had questions at one point of been given some old school outdated advice but I think most intelligent people are willing to learn from mistakes and not essentially cover their ears (eyes) and go la-la-la la-la and then change what needs changed about their snake care and understanding. Besides certain members here. I don't mean this in a way as if I know everything or there's only 1 right way to do things but it makes me cringe when I continuously see the same people anthropomorphizing their pets or refusing to accept Mike at Boxstore was just trying to make a sale and then want to give new members their 2 cents and continue the bad advice. There are people that have had 50 snakes for years and could make husbandry improvements and there are people who have had 1 snake for a year but just continue to research and build their knowledge and understanding of BPs so I don't mean this as a more experience always = better advice. I guess I just mostly get annoyed by people that refuse to learn from mistakes or be open minded enough to accept new information. I know this post is more just a pointless rant since we'll still be answering the same "omg my snake hasn't eaten in 10 days" emergencies but hopefully it made sense to some people. And now coffee.

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I feel like I know at least one of the members you speak of for this haha. It was grinding my gears earlier reading certain posts with terrible advice. Not semi-bad, not a little off, Terrible advice.

I feel that the best means of eradicating this is finding a way to educate the general public in masses with solid simple facts, the way shows casually taught people that dogs have a great sense of smell. Even then we all know how much horrible advice people get for pets as common as dogs amd cats and some even say dogs and cats can be vegan or stuff like that. So as much as we'd like and as many efforts as we make, we will always need to tolerate and try to correct these terrible advices.

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On the forum, the best you can do is respond and correct it. We have a lot of knowledgeable people here that will openly disagree and correct info. Generally speaking, having a low rep score and several people contradicting their "advise" should be enough of a warning flag to anyone else not to listen to them, even new people. As for getting them to change? Not much you can do.

Even those who have a lot of experience can disagree as to what is right. Unless I am having a discussion with an advanced keeper I always try to stick to the script (caresheet and stickies). At least I believe all of us that are on on here all the time can agree that the advice given therein works. The guidance may not be to our own personal definition of right but it has been proven to work.

I'm a new python owner. About 2 weeks in. Tell you what, I thought I had it figured out but dang that learning curve!

I was hugely mislead with a lot of my original research, and it's confounding the different opinions and "facts" on how to do things. I began asking a few question here and have had good feedback.

Like stated above, ultimately it is the persons choice to implement and experiment with the advice given to them. So as long as you who do know what is really going on keep helping us newbies, and we actually care to be receptive, you are doing exactly what you need to be doing.

Within a few threads I started I went from completely lost to becoming confident that I am on the right path. So thanks to you guys who care enough to try and help!

For me, my snakes are always going to be a work in progress. People have great ideas and insights, (lighting, decorating, jungle gyms, methods to tweak husbandry) (so much talk about people's snakes that it helps someone decide not just what to get, but what not to get, which really matters most sometimes) and then there is personal experience... For example, can you imagine keeping a common boa in a 150 gallon long aquarium with 2 heat lamps, a heavy-framed wire top held on with contact bolts and chains, beach-gathered, "raw" driftwood and gravel for substrate? That was snake-keeping in 1980. And the only food was live. Seriously.
Now there are forums, Reptile expos, racks, cages, and exotic vets. Substrates to meet every need, safe mite treatments, real hobbiests/beeeders...
"We've come a long way, baby."
...but the road is even longer.

Thank you, not only for your direct advice, but the massive amounts of real life experience that gets out there through conversation and discussion. I appreciate you folks every day.

Hey, if you ever want to call me out on anything I say, feel free. In thread, in PM, doesn't matter. Disagree with me any day or night. I am not all knowing or all correct.

I just ignore it. I don't have time to argue. If someone asks a question and gets the right answer and refuses to run with it, that's on them. Their animals might pay the price for their stubborn ways but it's not something that can be helped by anyone but them. You mostly see this when it comes to husbandry and the equipment needed for it. Thermostats comes to mind. They get an answer and it involves buying something so they ignore that part and keep asking questions to make what they have work. The answers don't change. You can choose to listen or not. Some people come across as snotty when they don't mean to be because they don't use emojis or lol after every word. The advice is still the same. My favorite is when someone ignores or challenges advice because a "breeder" told them different.

Just to clarify, my breeder comment above was not meant to be negative towards breeders. I was just commenting on times I've seen solid advice given and it's dismissed because someone else told them different and that person was identified as a breeder. As if we don't have successful breeders here.

Hey, I agree about breeders, but I think you're looking at it wrong there.

It isn't the breeder, usually, that is giving you bum advice, it's the person selling you something. Whether they are a breeder or not is beside the point, they are trying to sell something

Some **** was telling my roommate to buy a retic from them for like half normal cost. That person also told my roommate as an adult a male can be kept in a 4'x2' enclosure, and a female in a 6'x2' enclosure.

I pointed out that was all wrong and that the snake can hit 320lbs while my roommate weighs 120lbs and that he'd be an idiot to invest in it when he already needs a giant enclosure for his Savannah Monitor