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  1. #11
    rhac wrangler mlededee's Avatar
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    This forum is one of the very last remaining active reptile forums and it has been, FOR YEARS. Most other reptile forums closed their doors long, long ago. It is incredibly hard to compete with social media. That is what has caused the death of many amazing forums.
    Last edited by mlededee; 12-15-2020 at 04:35 AM. Reason: Moved rest of reply to QT room thread
    - Emily


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  3. #12
    rhac wrangler mlededee's Avatar
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    Re: What is going on here?

    Quote Originally Posted by Snagrio View Post
    As someone who's quite new here (only joined a few months ago) I think a major hurdle for this place is the account approval system.
    I agree with this. Accounts are currently manually approved in order to avoid spammers from getting through. Unfortunately when you have a high traffic site, you get hit with lots of spam.

    We either manually approve accounts, or we have a lot of spam get through that we have to clean up. I prefer catching the spammers before they hit the boards.

    But, what that means is that registrations are not approved instantly. It's a bummer for sure. Maybe worth re-evaluating.
    - Emily


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  5. #13
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on these issues, mlededee- it really helps. We all have different perceptions, for sure. I've been a long time member on another herp forum that makes this one seem quite lively. I do know what you mean about spammers...there have been several times when I checked in there, only to find some really bizarre or offensive spam, & it took days for it to be removed even after I msg'd... so I'm not sure that's a good trade off. (Nothing says "dead site" more than spam left up for days & days.) More brain-storming needed perhaps?
    Last edited by Bogertophis; 12-15-2020 at 12:32 AM.
    Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
    Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

  6. #14
    BPnet Veteran WrongPython's Avatar
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    Re: What is going on here?

    Another new-ish member here. I've also noticed that it's slowed down here quite a bit as of late and that there are a lot more "worried newbie" threads than normal. Perhaps it's a combined seasonal/pandemic thing? Between the holidays, the end of the academic semester, the stress of the pandemic, and a fair number of people turning their herps down for the winter, the US-side of the hobby (which seems to drive a lot of the traffic around here) may just be going into a winter lull.

    I'll take forums over social media for hobby stuff any day -- there's less drama, more reliable advice, more experienced keepers to connect with, and a veritable database of hobby knowledge to search through. I'm putting more emphasis on the first two because the drama and misinformation you normally find on social media are what really drive me away from those various platforms. They're also two things that I think will ultimately damage the hobby as a whole. If I'm recalling things correctly, a couple of the major reptile podcasts (MPR and The Herpetoculture Podcast, I believe) have actually discussed the rise of social media in the hobby and the consequences of it recently. I'm going to stop on this front here, because I don't feel like typing out the long list of grievances I have against social media (or at least the companies that run it) here.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
    More brain-storming needed perhaps?
    I think brainstorming some ways to improve the forum would be a great idea! It seems as though we're a bit overdue, actually. I have a few to start:


    1. Perhaps we could reach out to one of the podcasts who have been lamenting the fall of forums lately and see if we could promote ourselves somehow? Getting our name out there may help generate a bit of activity. I'd also tentatively suggest the idea of sponsoring a podcast, though I'm not sure how that would actually work (particularly given the fact that we seem to have enough trouble getting people to sponsor the forum itself).
    2. Consider re-branding the forum? We're not just a ball python forum anymore, that's for sure! Perhaps showing that we're also a place for boa, Morelia, colubrid, and lizard keepers would help increase traffic around here.
    3. Consider updating and consolidating the sticky threads into a basic "how to" locked sub-forum a la the "BP.net Guide to Ball Python Morphs." Perhaps we could throw in a some new FAQ threads -- like "So your BP won't eat... now what?" -- to obviously answer the questions people don't feel like skimming a full care sheet for. Worried new keepers will still continue to make the same old panicked posts, but maybe this would cut down on the volume a bit.


    Food for thought! I'm curious to hear what others think and discuss things.
    0.1 Sonoran Boa sigma​: "Adelita" ('19 Hypo het. leopard)
    1.0 Boa imperator longicauda: "Kuzco" ('19 het. anery)
    0.1 West Papuan Morelia spilota​: "Pandora" ('20)

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  8. #15
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    WrongPython-

    Re your point #2- we're a lot more than just ball pythons, that's for sure- so you're right, & how would newcomers know that? Re-branding might be a good idea, as our name doesn't begin to reflect our scope. As I recall though, we have a sister forum for corn snakes- I suspect it's also pretty slow, but it's been a long time since I've looked, as I only have so much time to be on here. Maybe we should merge AND re-name? Many of us do have multiple species- I must admit that even I hesitated to join here (I've kept BPs in the past but they're not my favorite snakes, lol.)

    #3 Our stickies could (should) definitely be updated, & that would help to alleviate some of the annoyance factor when answering the same things over & over, lol. I think for long time members, it does get a bit "old"... and that can affect the tone of our answers. We do want to keep this upbeat & friendly here. FAQ's would be very helpful.

    #1 I'm not up on the podcasts, but we need to do something to get more notice.
    Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
    Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983)

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  10. #16
    rhac wrangler mlededee's Avatar
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    I have moved some of the posts in this thread to a new post in the Quarantine Room, in order to keep this thread productive and helpful. I am happy for people to discuss ideas that they have for the forum moving forward.

    Private message me if you need access to the QT Room.
    - Emily


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  12. #17
    BPnet Veteran Hugsplox's Avatar
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    Re: What is going on here?

    Quote Originally Posted by Bogertophis View Post
    WrongPython-
    Maybe we should merge AND re-name? Many of us do have multiple species- I must admit that even I hesitated to join here (I've kept BPs in the past but they're not my favorite snakes, lol.)
    This is a solid idea. I came here for the ball python portion but was super excited to see a place for tropical fish, leopard geckos, and crested geckos, but then was disappointed when I saw the last posts in some of them were from 2018. If we had more people who were aware that this isn't a BP ONLY site we might could pull in some new users. I'm not sure how hard it is to change domain names on the fly, but I def. think it could help.

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  14. #18
    BPnet Royalty Zincubus's Avatar
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    Re: What is going on here?

    Quote Originally Posted by KevinK View Post
    Reddit, to me is a jumbled mess of misinformation and I try to avoid it. Besides that I also don't use social media. In the past it seemed site traffic actually increased around holidays. This is not normal.
    This^
    Same applies to Facebook , Instagram, Pinterest etc etc


    Unregulated chaos the lot of them.

    It’s so sad to see forums in decline ..
    We have RFUK in the UK which is a similar site to this one but it went close to folding early this year with traffic nearly drying up .. thankfully the members rallied around and were proactive in posting new threads and replies to queries- things are looking better these days ..


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro




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  16. #19
    BPnet Veteran WrongPython's Avatar
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    Re: What is going on here?

    Rebranding/renaming/merging: Merging with a sister forum is definitely an idea we may want to keep in consideration, particularly if we both end up having trouble covering our server costs. Pooling our resources and traffic may increase our collective odds of survival as social media continues to chip away at other websites' individual userbases. I'm not sure how a merger would physically work, though -- ie. how would we port over and merge one forum's worth of posts, users, etc. to the other. We wouldn't want to inadvertently erase the years' worth of knowledge (via posts) and user activity on the "donor" forum in the event of a merger. I'm also not sure how things would work if we wanted to change our domain name/URL. From what I understand, you can't just change your website's domain name after it's registered. We'd definitely need to do more research on this front if we'd like to go that far in any rebranding efforts.

    Stickies/FAQ: The more I think about it, this is definitely a way we could make the forum an indispensable source of knowledge for the hobby. Anybody can come in and read our forum, and we can probably provide more quality (ie. reliable, accurate) information in a more organized manner than a similar effort on your average social media site/group. In short, we could be one of the better "you're new? Read this" resources for new hobbyists. If people are interested in pursuing this idea, I'd be more than happy to lend my skills as a writer, editor, and organizer and help lead the effort as best I can. I'd definitely need some more experienced keepers to help provide content, though -- I'm still a novice in this hobby, after all.

    Podcasts:
    Took a look through my podcast list, and it looks like The Reptile Gumbo Podcast is actually the one I was alluding to earlier (lol, sorry Gumbo people!) They have a semi-regular "this week on the reptile internet" bit that they do based on input to their FB page, as well as their own "discussion group" that's meant to emulate a forum. Perhaps we could use the "reptile internet" bit to get our name out there? ie. One of us could make a post to that request to put it out there that a reptile forum is a) still here and b) bouncing around ideas to modernize, stay relevant, attract new users, and continue to serve the hobby. I'm pretty sure that would get the hosts' attention.
    0.1 Sonoran Boa sigma​: "Adelita" ('19 Hypo het. leopard)
    1.0 Boa imperator longicauda: "Kuzco" ('19 het. anery)
    0.1 West Papuan Morelia spilota​: "Pandora" ('20)

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  18. #20
    BPnet Veteran Hugsplox's Avatar
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    Re: What is going on here?

    Great ideas all around. I can tell you one of the selling points to me once I got on here as a new user, was how friendly everyone was and the wealth of knowledge that I immediately had access to. We could really "sell" our forums based just on that I think. Another thought on rebranding, maybe we don't change the name, we just find a way to get the message out that BP.net isn't just about BPs. I mean the banner at the top says it all, "the friendliest online community for ALL your herping needs" not just BPs.

    If we can get the message out that you can come on here to talk bearded dragons, geckos, boas, fish, mammals, etc etc, maybe we can bring a whole new group of users on.

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