Giving Bad/Incorrect Advice

[calmolly1]

Some things to consider 1) most newbies are just excited to be part of this community so when they get a chance they want to take part. 2) newbies don't always give bad advice, often they are parroting what they were told by an experienced person on here. 3) if this forum as a whole continues to squash that enthusiasm and excitement then the new folks leave, many times to the detriment of their snake. Maybe a little 'nice' would go a long way to changing that. 4). Not all newbies are stupid. Although I am relatively new to this hobby I have a genius IQ and a identic memory. I lack experience but I learn pretty quickly, if I offer advice I try to reference the source and say I'm a newbie but this is what worked or didn't work for me. 5) if you want to keep this forum a closed and insular place where only the self proclaimed experts can comment then just let everyone know. Then the rest of us can clearly understand that we are not wanted. 6) on the other hand maybe using the extensive knowledge many of you have and actually be encouraging to the new folks might actually help expand this hobby and encourage new folks to buy snakes, thereby keeping you in business. Just my thoughts. I enjoyed this forum for a few months until I was literally chased away. I decided to just check it out yesterday when I was bored, and this was the first post I saw. SMH


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[MarkS]

Don't forget there are also people who have kept snakes for years and STILL don't give good advice. Powerfeeding, breeding girls too young/small ect. Stuff you CAN do but isn't best for the animals. An animals health shouldn't be an opinion... Stuff like that bothers me personally... I HATE people who think it's OK and promote crap like that...

Well, I hate it when people complain about how an animal is kept yet show no proof that what they don't like is actually bad for the snake. People who complain that rack systems are cruel and inhumane because it doesn't give the snake enough space, people who think feeding live is horrible because their snake could get hurt, people who insist that you MUST feed your snake in a seperate feeding cage, people who insist that your females MUST be at least 1500 grams to safely breed. A lot of these people are keepers with 2-3 years experience who have had success and so have developed the rigid mindset that their way is the ONLY correct way of doing a thing because that's what worked for them. Those of us who have been keeping snakes for much longer have learned that there are MULTIPLE paths to the same objective.

[Daigga]

I'll give my experience being someone who's relatively new to keeping pythons (coming up on a year? Time really does fly)

As a starry-eyed new keeper, I mostly kept to posting pictures, asking questions, and chiming in on opinion-related threads whenever I actually posted, but stalked basically every topic I could otherwise. Knowledge is power, right? Eventually I got to take part in discussions on more sensitive topics, and help talk to people even newer to the hobby than myself, and I'll be 100% honest on this part; some experienced keepers are downright mean to noobs looking for advice. I saw it happen on a green iguana forum I would post to way back in the day, and it's always a shame to see it happen anywhere.

The situation is something like this;
A person buys a python on impulse or just doesn't do enough research before getting one. They post questions while admitting what seems to anyone who's owned bp's for more than a month to be glaring husbandry issues (heat rock, lack of thermostat, underfeeding, overhandling, the list goes on). As experienced keepers, it should be the responsibility of everyone here to correct those mistakes (because that person just doesn't know. They here asking questions, not bragging about mistreatment after all), however it should be done in a constructive way where the newer keeper learns. What so many people seem to do is chide that new keeper for buying a snake without being totally prepared, and some even go so far as to instruct them to take the snake back or accuse them of outright abuse (rare and usually not worded that way). This doesn't help the new owner, it doesn't help the snake, and this approach is just going to chase that person away from the forums and not inspire any husbandry changes.

I'm no longer a part of that iguana forum, nor do I have any desire to ever get another iguana and a huge chunk of that is because of the overwhelming amount of users there that called me a terrible owner. (I had posted asking a question about a newer animal while mentioning my roommate teasing my older iguana. My iguana was at my parents house while I lived in a new apartment, but people took that as I got rid of my iguana because my roommate didn't like it and therefore didn't deserve a new animal, even though the animal I was asking about wasn't even mine...) I always think the goal of forums should be to coach and try to inspire the warm and fuzzies about our cool and scalies, not to berate. Remember this before you criticize any new keepers enthusiasm; we were all new once, we all made mistakes, and most of the new members "parroting" information are repeating what we were told by most of you. Newer keepers like myself really look up to most of you, and we're trying our best to be like you guys. Have a little patience with us as we try to get there.

[T_Sauer]

I have done this since I joined the site and still to this day continue to do so .... If you are seeking information on an important matter pertaining to your animals, I never act on ANY information I am offered until I have ---

A.) A response from a senior member (Someone who has
been an active member of the site for more than 3
years, has over 1000 posts, and has a reputation bar
that is respectable.)

B.) Input from a Moderator ( Most of the mod's have the
above requirements)

C.) A collaboration of responses that you can compare the
common ground from and decide what will work best
for your particular situation.

IMO - This is common sense ... Even if your the newest of noob's .... This is the WORLD WIDE WEB!!! If you jump on to any site pertaining to any matter and take the first advice offered to you ...... Well ..... Need I say more

[gameonpython]

Some things to consider 1) most newbies are just excited to be part of this community so when they get a chance they want to take part. 2) newbies don't always give bad advice, often they are parroting what they were told by an experienced person on here. 3) if this forum as a whole continues to squash that enthusiasm and excitement then the new folks leave, many times to the detriment of their snake. Maybe a little 'nice' would go a long way to changing that. 4). Not all newbies are stupid. Although I am relatively new to this hobby I have a genius IQ and a identic memory. I lack experience but I learn pretty quickly, if I offer advice I try to reference the source and say I'm a newbie but this is what worked or didn't work for me. 5) if you want to keep this forum a closed and insular place where only the self proclaimed experts can comment then just let everyone know. Then the rest of us can clearly understand that we are not wanted. 6) on the other hand maybe using the extensive knowledge many of you have and actually be encouraging to the new folks might actually help expand this hobby and encourage new folks to buy snakes, thereby keeping you in business. Just my thoughts. I enjoyed this forum for a few months until I was literally chased away. I decided to just check it out yesterday when I was bored, and this was the first post I saw. SMH


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Well said!


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