Downers and Naysayers

[Aercadia]

/rant_begin

I'm sick of the negativity that seems to come along with unestablished herpers trying to make their way into the community. I'm one of them. I see too many posts where people tear each other down for no real reason, just because they can. Someone posts a pic of their snake and there's a urate visible in the picture? Better crucify them! Someone shares a pic of their beardie and there's something in the background that someone doesn't approve of? Let's get into a personal pissing contest about appropriate lifestyles!

Just get your first snake? Better not ask for advice, because everyone is going to snidely point you to a hundred resources to "teach thyself", since you obviously haven't done enough research if you're asking questions. Get a second snake? Better not post any pictures of it until you've had it in Q for 3 months or you're going to get an earful on proper handling techniques.

I mentioned to another breeder that my husband and I are new to breeding BPs and that we'd like to sell whatever we don't hold back (our dream collection), and was told essentially told that we were climbing onto a sinking ship. We didn't get into the business of breeding snakes to get rich, anyone can look around and see that the monetary aspect of the market is in decline as the animals become more popular and the availability is saturated... maybe it's just too much to expect anyone to congratulate us for finding a hobby that excites our interest in nature and wish us well on our first clutch, instead of telling us what fools we are for getting into a failing business.

It's so disheartening to watch the community that should have each others backs tear itself apart from the inside out. I realize there are outliers and exceptions, but most people who show enough interest in reptiles to acquire reptiles actually have an interest in caring for those reptiles, in such a way that they are happy and healthy. Why are so many people set on pointing out nothing but others' flaws? I understand helpful commentary, but when it's just being rude, belligerent, or naysaying, then why?? It's enough to make a person want to keep entirely to themselves, second-guess sharing anything, and refrain from participating in the community that should be their safety net.

/rant_end

[stickyalvinroll]

They don't want us to be successful- DJ Khalid

[jmcameron9721]

Don't let the negative people keep you down yo :0)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[PitOnTheProwl]

Welcome to the world of the internet. LoL
There are some good people in the community and there are also some good people you don't want to be around.

I have a handful of local people that I converse with and trust.

[Bigfish1975]

I'm sorry to hear that you feel this way. I love these animals and this hobby. I've been fortunate to get some great advice from people here and shows over the years. I've taken advice and brushed off any negativity. This can be a great resource. Don't let people get you down. I'd be happy to answer any question to the best of my ability. If a thread gets nasty, just PM those who may be helpful. What morphs do you plan to work with?

Mike

[chilliscale]

That's why I say no to friends...

[Slim]

Interesting perspective. I see people on here all the time thanking other members for helping them out. My best advise would be to step away from the internet for a while if you're losing sleep over it. TBH, 95% of this hobby isn't on this or any other web forum.

[Aercadia]

Thank you for the kind words.

Mike - I have an Albino Pied project in the works... my husband has some GHI and Huffman stuff going on. He also has a triple-recessive project that he's keeping under his hat for now.

Slim - My window to the world tends to be through a computer screen... I'm not lucky enough to have many herper friends locally, and I'm a bit of a nervous socialite anyway. My paradigm may be narrowed in that respect, but even so, in the spectrum of the community online, it disheartens me to see and have interactions within the community that fall under this umbrella of an unwelcoming attitude.

[DennisM]

/…I'm sick of the negativity that seems to come along with unestablished herpers trying to make their way into the community…

Agreed. I think the most valuable thing about this forum is helping the newcomers to our hobby. Every one of us was a newbie once and had the same questions and made some of the same mistakes as today’s newcomer. So, for you more experienced keepers, keep this in mind; for every newcomer who posts on this forum there are hundreds of newbies who don’t. those who are posting here are making an effort to learn. Help them out instead of blasting them. Most worrisome to me is the increasing number of people who are one month posting a “I just got my first BP” thread and the next month posting an “I am a BP expert and I know everything about them and you’re an idiot” post.

/Just get your first snake? Better not ask for advice, because everyone is going to snidely point you to a hundred resources to "teach thyself…

I regularly un-snidely point out two resources for those who need to read them. Here they are. I don’t criticize, I simply suggest these are a good read for newcomers to BPs.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ius)-Caresheet
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...Husbandry-FAQs

/…It's enough to make a person want to keep entirely to themselves, second-guess sharing anything, and refrain from participating in the community that should be their safety net.

Ignore the negativity and focus on the many BP.net members who are positive and helpful. There are folks on this forum, like any internet forum, whose purpose is to make them feel better about themselves by putting others down. They’re easily identifiable, do yourself a favor and don’t even bother to read their posts. Overall, I think this site is positive and invaluable to newcomers.

[rlditmars]

/rant_begin

I'm sick of the negativity that seems to come along with unestablished herpers trying to make their way into the community. I'm one of them. I see too many posts where people tear each other down for no real reason, just because they can.
/rant_end

I think there are a few people on here that get off on a feeling superiority, but they are the exception not the rule. Most of the members want to be helpful. Please remember that for those of us who have been on this forum a long time, we have seen the same questions so many times that I think we can often forget, it is new to the OP. Also, while I'd like to believe people do their homework up front, many people get into this hobby on an impulse and then seek help when things start to go bad. It can be a little frustrating, which you may see after you have been around a while. Try and let the negativity roll off your back and glean some of the pearls that are dropped in the threads from time to time. Eventually you will start to see patterns and find those voices whose opinion you respect, and those that you will simply skip over.

They don't want us to be successful- DJ Khalid

DJ, That is a pretty cynical statement. I think the community at large would love to see everyone be successful as it would mean the continuation of the hobby for years to come. However, successful is a subjective term. Are we talking about successfully raising healthy and beautiful animals, or making a lot of money? I prefer to focus on the former.

There are those who have or will get into this hobby because they think it will be a great and simple source of money. The reality is that it isn't. There are a lot of up front costs and it takes time to start producing babies, unless you just go out and get a bunch of adults and throw them together. Everyday you are not producing product, someone else is. The ball python industry has not completely run it's course, but it is getting very near the place, where it has. As life cycles do in many other businesses, the supply has been outpacing the demand for too long now. Many people went out and procured examples of morphs (good or substandard was not a consideration) and just produced as many hatchlings as they could. That has caused prices to drop and for many people who spent big dollars on morphs, they cant recoup their costs and that is disappointing. Add to that the fact that there has not been too many truly new morphs (sunset and scaleless) to work with lately and you can see the well is drying up. Soon this will once again revert back to just a hobby and the industry will be either gone or only be profitable for a select few who are operating in such mass that they can undercut all others and still turn a profit. As H.I. McDonough said, "I fear the salad days are over".

The rest of us who have snakes will have them because they love them and want to produce certain morphs for ourselves. I myself had purchased a large wine cooler to make an incubator for up to 20 clutches. However, after just a few years of producing some hatchlings, I have now decided to keep my clutch numbers at 4 or less per year. It is difficult to move single gene hatchlings and even recover my costs to get them eating on a schedule and ready to go. And right now my stock just doesn't have enough multi-gene animals to eliminate the normal and single gene offspring.

In summary, I wish you much success. You may just have to redefine your terms on the word.