Quote Originally Posted by MarkS View Post
However, not EVEYRONE here is a novice, and unless you hear some differing viewpoints and techniques, how can you know to try them yourself? I think that this is where the real value of open discussions on these forums are.

Mark
This is true, Mark...and it's why I don't mind discussions like this. I just wanted to point out that given the nature of THIS particular site, we should be careful not to hold these sorts of ideas up as "THE NEW WAY" of doing things....but rather an option for more advanced keepers.

Quote Originally Posted by Gib View Post
Thats a nice post Mark...but from im sittin im not seeing any of open minded tolerance thing your talking about...

i got asked to come over and get active on this board by some friends..and Ive never seen such a militant bunch on any forum before...

if anything is different than what the barkers or kevin wrote about then you basically get called an idiot or told you dont know what your doing...then more flames....someone says hey do what works for you ...a few more flames...moderator...then everyone plays nice again...

I cant totally understand why john is wanting to leave..
Gib...we've certainly had our fair share of threads where a few folks take a hard stand on their opinion and then get into "last word" boxing matches where the primary instigators think whoever yells the loudest and gets the last word in wins or something. It's just going to happen when you have large groups of virtual strangers all trying to discuss something at the same time. And it happens because we DO strive to allow as many different opinions and ideas as possible. If we were truly as militant as you try to make us out to be, then we'd be locking down threads left and right and never allowing such discussions to continue because someone might get an idea that doesn't match the "status quo."

I hope you don't let the actions of a few inevitable hotheads color your opinion of the entire site. The admins and the mod-staff of this site make NO money and get NO compensation whatsoever for the work they do here. And yet we work as hard as humanly possible to make sure everyone is treated as fairly as possible and the beginner keepers have a place to come and learn how to care for their animals and share their questions, their successes, their worries and their pride and pictures of thriving animals.

And why don't you ask John about why he's deciding to not participate for awhile? I think you'll find it has absolutely nothing to do with what you've implied.