Advanced Herpatology Category?

[Adam_Wysocki]

And my point to you is that it is impossible to gauge where everyone is at every moment in an online forum.

Maybe for you. I don’t think it’s that difficult to spend a few minutes and a little bit of common sense reviewing some posts to see that our site is made up of teens and pre-teens, home makes, blue collar families, white collar families, intellectuals, goof balls, sweet hearts, and that Jamie guy … all of whom have different levels of education and experience in biology, chemistry, physiology ranging from none at all to graduate work. I’ve been a member of this site for well over 2 years now, reading and posting just about every day and I can say with great certainty that the majority of our members have no idea what “pterdine synthesis” is off the top of their heads.

You yourself often use terms like dominant and recessive...these are alien terms to many people.

Not to many of the people that are interested in ball pythons. Those are pretty household terms within the community. "Xanthophore" is not. I can say this with great certainty after 10 years of breeding and selling ball pythons and talking to people within the ball python community either via emails or on the phone on an almost daily basis.

However, if an individual wants to really know the term he/she can just ask.....or search the forum. Some people that use this site are non-native English speakers and they probably are completely lost when we use certain idioms.

Again, if you can get over yourself for one second, you would realize that I was trying to make a suggestion that would make your contribution even better. If you're going to make people "work for it" you are going to alienate many. Instead, if you convey your concepts in a simple, easy to read and understand post, a lot more people would be inclined to jump right in.

I try to be as lucid as possible....I could have been much more complicated with my post.....I could have used terms like intermediate, polymer, etc.....

Well, that would have been fun.

I use analogies like the factory assembly line analogy of metabolic pathways.

Right, and that was better ... but that was AFTER our PM exchange. Had you started out with analogies that people could actually easily understand, you wouldn't have heard a thing from me.

If you arent struggling at all to understand concepts, a person isnt really learning....

Wow, that's sad. I always thought learning was supposed to be fun. I teach concepts of genetics, breeding, and many other ball python topics based on my experience all the time, and I always try and make it fun. I would imagine that if I made people "struggle", they wouldn't keep coming back like they do. I think my reputation points speak to my ability to communicate my thoughts and ideas in a way that people can appreciate.

If someone becomes overally frustrated here ...

Why would you want to post something that might frustrate anyone?

If you want to help out, suggest where I might need to simply things within a thread....dont rate me negatively. I dont have as many postives as you and a bad thread rating for disagreeing with "how I roll" just isnt cool...

See, there's your problem. The reputation system isn't designed for users to rate with positive or negatives, but with approvals or disapprovals. Based on feedback from a couple fellow forum members, I felt that your post was way to complicated for the majority of my friends here on the site to get as much as they could out of it ... (I had to explain some of what you posted to a couple of people that didn't get it) ... and I gave the post my disapproval. It's not about YOU, it's about your post, don't take it so personally.

A wise admin once told me, "if you're making good contributions to the site and helping people in a way that they appreciate, there's no need to sweat the disapprovals." .... and it's true ... I recently got a disapproval because I was "flirting" in a post ... imagine that. Don't sweat it ... post what you want to post and if it's really helpful stuff, my disapproval won't even matter in a couple of weeks.

I could get in the orange for no good reason....some of us dont have a million reputation points to spare.

And how do you think I got those million reputation points? I've put in my time and helped people ... same thing I was trying to do when I gave you the rep points. I just didn't show up with 2 green boxes on day one. I've earned them and I've gotten my share of disapprovals along the way. Put in your time and get over it ... you'll either sink or swim ... the choice is yours.

Personally, the only reason why I think someone should receive a negative thread rating is because of direct insults, slander, racial/ethnic slurs, and vulgarity.

That's not the point of the system at all. Those things are TOS violations and handled by the mods. The reputation system is for members to rate other members. It's a way to visually identify who the helpful/knowledgeable/experienced posters are. I felt that your post wasn't as helpful as it really should have/could have been and rated it with my disapproval accordingly ... this is EXACTLY what the reputation system is here for.

Otherwise, you likely to chase people away....the same thing you accused me of....and I dont think that is FAIR.

You know what they say ... if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen ... that's the price you pay for posting on an open discussion forum ... sooner or later you're going to say something that someone either doesn't like or doesn't agree with ... Lord knows I've taken my shots on the jaw over the years .... the trick is not to take it personally.

Anyway, I am sure you will have your opinion on this matter.

But of course I do. It's a shame though, I thought we had worked this out between us via PM's ... didn't realize you were all ate up with it.

You are welcomed to state it.

Really? Gee, thanks!!!

I will unlikely respond.

Who's got the over/under on that one?

I dont want this thread to turn into a complete slugfest.

It's no slugfest, just a discussion between adults that should have been left in the PM's that went back and forth between us. If you're truly done like you said you were, well then I'm done too.

Your perspective did help me improve the biochem thread and come up with the analogy...and I thank you for that.

So let me get this straight ... You’ll all tore up because some tool (me) gave you a disapproval on your reputation for not coming up with a way to help more people understand what you're saying, but that disapproval inspired you to come up with a way to help more people understand what you're saying ... hmmm … I think in your own words, you just proved that what I did worked … so what’s the problem?

That’s how I roll.

-adam

[Mendel's Balls]

I recently got a disapproval because I was "flirting" in a post ... imagine that. Don't sweat it ... post what you want to post and if it's really helpful stuff, my disapproval won't even matter in a couple of weeks.

That's ridicilous....but perhaps we should both expect more from our lover's quarrel. U want make-up....uh nevr mind

[Adam_Wysocki]

That's ridicilous....but perhaps we should both expect more from our lover's quarrel.

Mike, you have yet to disappoint.

-adam

[elevatethis]

Glad you two worked it out! Now go ahead,

[Melicious]

I still think it would be an interesting addition to .Net. -Shrugs.-

[Smulkin]

What would be the standard by which something was considered "advanced" though - what reference point would establish that evaluation? How about retitling the Breeding Forum to "Breeding and Genetics"?

[Melicious]

I think that one of the driving ideas behind this idea was that Mike, and since I've jumped on the bandwagon, and I wanted a place for people to discuss much more involved herpetology. Genetics, breeding, etc.

Should we have a category like this for all of the subsections?

[Smulkin]

Should we have a category like this for all of the subsections?

Danke! That is where I was headed - it would have to be either one all-encompassing category - or one for each forum section.

The latter idea would be pretty cumbersome (I would not wish that additional housekeeping on our busy mods) - and the former would beg the questions raised before as to who/how determines what constitutes an advanced topic.

I LOVE this detailed info being discussed however, and lacking a forum specific to it should not discourage it ever coming up - I think a lot of folks on the site who would not consider themselves "advanced" or "expert" would still like very much to read and learn all they can - regardless of the level they would currently evaluate themselves at. I know I would.

[Jeanne]

How about retitling the Breeding Forum to "Breeding and Genetics"?

Great Idea!

I think that one of the driving ideas behind this idea was that Mike, and since I've jumped on the bandwagon, and I wanted a place for people to discuss much more involved herpetology. Genetics, breeding, etc.

Should we have a category like this for all of the subsections?

No. That could get awefully messy around here and Smulkin is right, what reference point would establish that something would go into that catagory? I think that these things can be discussed in the places they are now being discussed in without creating messy looking sub forums all over the place.

[Melicious]

Well, when you have people like Mike that are avid ball breakers with so much knowledge, it's nice to have a section devoted simply to all of the much more "advanced" information.