What is going on here?

[Caitlin]

I guess I'll share a little feedback if it's OK. I've been an admin on a variety of message boards since message boards were a new thing...and that's roughly when dinosaurs walked the earth. There's no escaping the reality that overall usage of traditional message boards like this one is declining; that's just a function of the fact that change is inevitable. But it's also not time to give up entirely on message boards - they can definitely remain active even through the onslaught of other social media options, and can continue to serve a valuable purpose.

But they have to be handled a bit differently than they were in the past. Just as an example here (and please don't take this as being negative; I love this site), if I were Empress of Everything (lol) I'd remove all guides that are more than just a few years old and threads that haven't been used for a couple of years, lock them, tuck them into a separate 'archive' section at the bottom of the home page, and post updated guides - EVEN IF the updated information is largely the same as in older guides. I'll be blunt - when I go to a reptile site, I typically won't bother to read guides or FAQs that were posted more than maybe three years ago. Even if basic parameters like humidity and temperature obviously haven't changed, if the main guide itself was posted in 2015, you're not going to get much interest. Why would I read/comment on a guide when the author hasn't bothered to update it or post additions or new comments in years? Users want to be sure that they are getting the most current information. And multiple guides/FAQs that were posted years ago give the whole site a dated vibe.

Some guides or FAQs are no longer as helpful as they could be, and that can be a turn-off. For example, a lot of new keepers start out with glass tanks. The 'How to set up a glass tank - with pictures!' guide looks really appealing. Until you click on it and see that the pictures are mostly gone now. Culling or updating guides like that would help a lot.

You have an entire section (BP.net's guide to ball python morphs) that hasn't had a new post since 2011. Once a user understands that the entire section is simply meant to illustrate morphs and explain basic genetics, then the 2011 post dates make sense. But to a new user, seeing a whole section that at first glance seems unused gives the whole site an out-of-date look. If there's a way to make it clear at first glance that you have a section dedicated to photographs and explanations of various morphs, that'd help. And I am most definitely not a BP person, so I'm not sure about this - but if there have been additional morphs developed since 2011, then the section needs to be updated.

So that's my main point - that doing whatever you can to promote the fact that this site represents the best and most current information will help. I hope you take this in the supportive spirit in which it's intended. I'm a relatively new user here but I recommend the site all the time and would like to continue my participation for a long time.