Research it! Research it!

[Splitmore]

so long as the posts are generally about reptiles then as far as I'm concened it's not really problem.
Think youself lucky, things do seem to have improved around here. The absolute drivel with posts and polls about crap like tunips etc and associated rubbish seem to have disappeared.

[falconboy]

The problem is most of those APS users are about 12-14 yrs old, and it will just get worse as the rest of us older ones won't bother because of it. Where are the quality threads? Answer: Quality threads are disappearing as quality users dissappear. I know I'm not the only one who thinks so. And to think some of these time wasters are actually getting a cult following. Absolutely ridiculous!!!

Now, I'm not knocking the great jobs moderators do, and I know its hard for the powers that be to encourage the younger ones but at the same time keep the quality up, but I think we all know one particular young user who has about 300 posts of complete and utter rubbish in only about a month since them becoming a member, plus dozens more of their posts that have been deleted. THAT is why its going the way it is. We should not be letting encouragement effect the overall quality of the forum. Ultiimately it is predominantly adult based membership and its those members that make it what it is - or should I say what it WAS.

Fine, let the younger generation on and give them encouragement, but there has to be a certain level of maturity and common sense from those members for it to work - simple as that. It is possible, there are several members of that age who mix in and give something to the forum, so it is possible - the rest should be encouraged to head over to disney.com.au.

I hope mods and admin see this post as what it is - I'm NOT having a go at APS, thats not my intention, but giving an opinion on why the quality is dropping and why there is so much disenchantment from the older members. Only mods and admin can turn it around - lets hope they do.

Oh add to that those members here that are adult, have some knowledge and experience to give but have not been members for quite 2 years - we can't access the veterans forum, but get chucked in with the 11yr olds 3 word rubbish posts.

:End of rant

[Beano05]

I don't think thats a fair call falconboy.
I think a special page could be set up for the kids to post herp questions that the experienced people check out when ever they want to offer advice. There should be like previously mentioned a email of a pdf file on how to navigate this forum for all new users.
And we should be able to delete a thread by the moderator or thread creator for when idiots attack!

[Hsut77]

Originally Posted by Beano05

I don't think thats a fair call falconboy.
I think a special page could be set up for the kids to post herp questions that the experienced people check out when ever they want to offer advice. There should be like previously mentioned a email of a pdf file on how to navigate this forum for all new users.
And we should be able to delete a thread by the moderator or thread creator for when idiots attack!

The 'Welcome Email' has been mentioned time and time again to help sort this problem. I just don't think it's going to happen. I think it's pretty much a matter of put up or shut up. I just skip past the posts that have no value and it seems we will all have to do the same.

[Beano05]

I skip the ones that don't interest me as well, it really doesn't bother me at all. I'm just putting out ideas. We really should be pushing as much positive information to the new commers to herp keeping (they are not all kids) to make sure there as many healthy and well kept pets out there

[pete12]

yes i am for it and we really should help the newbies more

[oddball]

I can't imagine getting an animal and then deciding it was time to find out how to care for it.
When I fell in love with some baby spotted pythons at a pet store I spent weeks researching them, then went and chewed the ear off the guy in the store (who actually kept snakes himself). I think he got heartily sick of me by the time I decided to buy my bub, but I'd prefer to annoy the crap out of someone than to make an animal sick through unintentional neglect.

Perhaps a newb forum should be made? "are you a new/considering reptile owner? commonly asked questions, do's and don'ts list and links to care sheets here" With a pile of stickies. People interested in helping could subscribe to the stickies and then get notified when someone is asking for more info or clarification on a point.

I personally don't mind the repeat threads though, at least they've thought to ask a community that can answer, than just potter along oblivious and maybe end up harming their reptiles.

[cockney red]

Wish he got a hat trick against Chelsea last week. Would keep me from going through childbirth tonight. Definitely with the Toon army on this one though.

Originally Posted by andyscott

And Owen scores, go the Toon.

[tooninoz]

Originally Posted by cockney red

Wish he got a hat trick against Chelsea last week. Would keep me from going through childbirth tonight. Definitely with the Toon army on this one though.

For the first time, I'll be siding with your lot tonite too Prefer to see a team that at least deserve it get it.

Back on topic, it looks impossible to try and find a perfect solution I guess. As Splitmore suggests, its better than it was. Maybe that's as good as it gets? Hopefully people will use some commonsense...

[dragon lady]

falconboy... i do see the majority of younger members do 'flood threads"
but increasingly admire the ones who are honest with problems....that didn't get the info before the purchase
it comes back to the parent/caregiver who buys it (reptile)for them... without solely making them responsible
in the first place

the idea of a section solely for them ...also isolates them....their is a advantage & disadvantage there
i chose not to read the threads made by attention seekers
but my opinion is it would help all in the long run
i just hope that the younger spend more time with the animals in question that when they mindlessly flood the forum

a "care sheet" section...would definitely help
but then that would have to be screened as well...to make sure information isnt misleading

your point of view is worded well
thats something even at my age i find difficult
please don't take this negatively

[falconboy]

Hey dragon lady.

No probs, I didn't take what you said negatively at all.

Younger users are fine, young serial pests we just don't need. We all know who I am refering to, but they are allowed to continue. I just throw my hands in th air. Whats the use.

[Aslan]

Falconboy - Your post is eerily similar to a post I sent to the moderators recently - be careful, some don't like 'novellas'...

...unfortunately it appears that nuisance pests are a protected species whilst the benefit of maintaining the useful members seems to be lost on many. I believe this is why so many horrendously misinformed replies to legitimate questions are posted - when you encourage the junk you discourage the quality - with no quality left all we find is nonsense replies...

Unfortunately 'encouraging' seems to have been confused with 'spoon feeding' somewhere along the line - I have no desire to encourage that - as has been said, we have members as young as 11y/o that participate maturely in conversations and reptile keeping - this shows it is possible - unfortunately we are not encouraging the others to live up to this standard...

...I agree in encouraging research and active participation in reptile keeping as a hobby - I do not agree with encouraging kids to participate for the sake of participating...

[butters]

It is a problem on many forums not just this one and IME age has little to do with the absurdity of some questions or the inability to do a search.

Hell to most on here I am a newbie owing to my time since joining and number of posts.

On another forum that I am a regular vistor to they have a "new to the hobby" sub -forum. This is for people who are new to the hobby and want to ask lots of newbie questions.

New keepers or those researching are encouraged to post there first and if they do post in another section and it falls into the new keeper category it is moved there by moderators and a pm sent to the poster telling them of the move and why.

If you don't want to look in that sub forum and be exposed to it then don't.

Downsides are that a new post search will still bring them up and it means more work for mods.

There will always be people who will be happy to answer questions all day long (you just have to hope they know what they are talking about) because they rememebr what it was like to be new at something .

There will also be those that start to smoke from the ears when they see the same questions asked time and time again. In those the ability to not hit the submit button but go on to another thread is almost as much a given as it is for most newbies to do a search.

Cheers Andrew

[Lewnatic]

hi!
i am a self confessed newbie when it comes to APS, and to a lesser extent the herp world. i have been looking into getting my first snake for a while now, and i am less than a week away from making a final decision.
the reason for my post is that i, without meaning to at all, added to this problem in my first couple of days of being on APS. i had been doing tons of research, learning about the different types, wiki being a great source of information. however, a number of times i was directed to these forums for information, and after a while i realised that it would make sense to become a member, which i did. the first thing i did was set up a thread asking the number 1 question that had been plaguing me since beginning my research, and that was for people's personal accounts of keeping the snakes i had been looking at. you see, IMO the reason that forums are SO valuable as a source of information, is that it is the quickest, easiest way to get MULTIPLE opinions on a topic, and this is priceless. fact sheets, care sheets, wiki sites, other web links, all give you one author's opinion on a questions, and are not designed, and unable to answer specifics. this becomes very disconcerting when you get conflicting information, and you dont know who to believe.

toon: you couldnt have said it better, and i really now see that many people can get pissed off by these sorts of posts.
falconboy: i agree with your opinions on 'time wasters' and see that something should be done.

personally, i cant see these fact sheets making too much difference, but would be helpful, though are available all over the net. i guess anyone who wants to look at them would already have found loads, and those who cause trouble, arent interested in such simple sources of info.

without disrespecting anyone, i think that the number 1 thing that needs to be done is for these experienced members to offer their time for help, be patient, or if they have nothing good to say, keep their mouths shut in these threads. sarcasm is not helpful at all, and a thread with no responses is far more likely to fall through the gaps and not be seen, and therefore not get in the way of important discussions.

a solution that i can see would be to force everyone to read and understand this thread before signing up, or being able to post.... just a thought, but not really plausible.... but it did make a huge difference to how i view these threads, as i really dont want to put anyone out of joint, or give honest, hardworking, interested and excited newbies like myself a worse name than they already have.

so i have to apologise for going on for as long as i have, without really coming up with a solution, but i do hope that some of the older members can help solve the problem by offering patience where it is due, and hopefully someone with a bit more experience than myself can come up with a real solution. it was just my aim to give a newbie opinion on the whole saga.

thanks for your time guys, and congrats to those who gave a newbie enough of their time to get to the end of this post

Cheers, Lewis

[falconboy]

Hey Lewis, welcome to APS.

Some good points, however getting newbies, especially 11yr olds, to read, understand and ABIDE by 'conditions' set out in a post is harder than it sounds.