Ball Python Community

[ElliotNess]

I have been collecting snakes off and on since I was 13 which was 25 years ago. What I have noticed recently is that it seems that there is a large majority of "collectors/breeders" that place all of their focus on being popular. I don't mean like Garrick DeMeyer or Bob Clark popular, I mean #Instafamous. I see these guys who haven't produced anything much less develop a following, and their priorities are making t-shirts, stickers and other swag. The other aspect of this is that they put more effort into Youtube and posting than they do on anything else. And none of these guys are original. Brian Barcyzk did a under 100.00 ball python setup a week or 2 ago. Since then, I have seen 15 people post their twist on a setup. Underground Reptiles literally did a cheesy copy.

I think this is the reason that there is so much nonsense floating around the reptile community because its full of regurgitators. There is only so much that needs to be repeated, so I was wondering what you guys think of those in the community that do stuff like this. Own 3 snakes, haven't produced much of anything but has almost a store of swag and 26 social media accounts.

[tegu]

I remember keeping reptiles 8 or 9 years ago and I liked the community a lot more. I hate the youtube aspect of it now, and I only watch a few people. People see they can become popular off it and they abuse it. I liked it much more as small communities that were dedicated to sharing knowledge.

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[ElliotNess]

Yeah its not about knowledge anymore. Its about monetization, Patreon and scams.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Some people just want to be famous or cool thinking it will help their sales.

Sone do it purely because they have a HUGE ego and or want people to love them, they want to be the cool kid.

You can be low profile never make a video and sell your animals just fine, you just need to let the animal speak for themselves.

Ultimately to each their own I guess.

[dakski]

I am torn on this.

I think anything that helps people get interested in reptiles is good, but to a point.

I have bought two animals, a corn snake and a blue tongue skink, from BHB and Brian, and both have done great. They were helpful in the process, and before I ever bought a snake from them, and Brian had youtube, he helped convince me to stay with the hobby despite being immune suppressed having had a kidney transplant (the doctors were freaking out). I think he's a good guy and did a lot for the hobby before youtube.

Having said that, I watch his vlog and was disappointed in the BP setup for $100 one. Didn't seem like an ideal setup to me.

I also agree, many people are in it for the wrong reasons, and do not have 30 years of experience and then start a vlog to share knowledge and interest. They just want the notoriety and money that goes with it.

I also bought my BCI, from a small breeder who has a clothing line as well (his wife does the clothes, he does the Boa's). Didn't bother me. Talked to several BCI breeders and he was the smallest local breeder (got to meet her before buying her), spent the most time with his snakes and knew there personality and feeding tendencies, and was and has been very responsive. I absolutely adore her (Behira) and was very happy I went with that breeder. I was having Jeff Ronne build my tanks at the time, and would have happily bought from him as well, but he had limited stock and being able to meet before I got her was a big deal for me, having never owned a BCI.

So, I wouldn't necessarily judge a book by its cover.

Shayna, my BP, I also got from a small breeder (no clothing line or vlog), who knew each snake individually and helped me by feeding her F/T several times before I got her and picking his tamest Albino.

One fear I have is that many people get excited about reptiles because of vlogs, youtube, crazy morphs, etc. but do not realize what goes into properly keeping reptiles. The costs, the responsibility, the length of the commitment, how big some get, what they eat, etc.

It has to be about balance. Not sure if we are there yet though.

I am very glad that we have this site and community though. Not so happy about a lot of the FB groups etc. out there. But this site has a lot of caring and knowledgeable people and we are a force of good. That helps me sleep at night.

[ElliotNess]

BHB and NERD and a few others should have SWAG and a TV show. I am talking about the guys who own 12 snakes, never bred anything and spend more time pushing their gear then the care of their animals. I saw a post of a guy with shirts and stickers and other crap and all his animals were in sheathing (Compressed plywood scraps) built racks. Why not take that money from buying all that crap and put them in proper setups.

This is the truest statement - If you ever see me pushing a Tshirt or Youtube, please shoot me.

You can be low profile never make a video and sell your animals just fine, you just need to let the animal speak for themselves.
Deborah (snake whisperer)

[artgecko]

I haven't seen many videos of people pushing swag, but I'm not on youtube a lot. I do like some of the smaller breeders if their videos have good information in them...For example, I've watched hissy fit and olympus reptiles and they both have some educational vids out there that I though were pretty good. JKR also has some great info, especially in his early videos.

There's only one guy, who has a large channel, that I found to be very ego-centric acting... That said, I don't know him personally, so that could just be the way he came off in the video. It did turn me off though, for sure.

I also see a lot of videos by very young posters...Say, MS / HS age.. "how to care for your leopard gecko" type videos. I'm not saying that is bad, but I personally like my info from people with a little more experience.

I will say that it like it when the medium is used to promote good keeping and give general herp information. We have so little in the way of documentaries or other outlets for properly informing people and showing people a setup or care info on video works better (many times) than reading about it.

[ElliotNess]

Funny I know who you are talking about. That mentality breeds more to be that way. I liked Olympus until the Patreon and TGR racks crap. I also noticed Freedom Breeder sponsoring Brian Kusko and others being sponsored which then takes the honesty out of the game.

Maybe one day someone will sit down and do something based on the animals without the personality in it.

[Booper]

I like to think that being 'famous' and having a large following helps people to get over the stigma of snakes... I remember Brian Barcyzk did some colabs with other youtubers a while back, reaching out to a non-reptile loving audience. But maybe I'm just being naive

[mlededee]

I also noticed Freedom Breeder sponsoring Brian Kusko and others being sponsored which then takes the honesty out of the game.

This may be true in some cases, but many of the sponsorships are 100% legit and honest and they make it so that some really great keepers can produce good quality videos. Traveling, having the proper equipment, spending the time to film and produce these shows takes time and money. I totally agree that some of these videos are total crap, the people making them have little knowledge and are only looking for an ego boost. But there are some really good guys out there, like Brian Kusko, that are doing videos for the right reasons and supporting them is a positive thing for the community.

Just wanted to give another perspective on it, looking at it from the side of the people who are doing videos the right way and for the right reasons