Quote:
Originally Posted by Susan
Wow...looks like someone needs one of those cups of coffee. I really don't know what lines between the lines you are reading, but no where in my statement did I say anything at all that could remotely be construed as implying that newbs shouldn't express their opinions. My concern was about newbs receiving incorrect information from other newbs, or even a so-called "expert" as well as proper information and not being able to tell the difference and ending up choosing the wrong advice.
Being an open forum, everyone is allowed to post their opinions, right or wrong. And if you have 5 members saying "X" is correct and 5 others saying "Y" is correct, how is a newb supposed to choose? You can't go by rep points, number of posts, years a member, fancy websites or eenie, meenie, minie, moe. The best way to try to judge which information is the right information is to search. This forum has FAQ threads all over it. There are several books that are recommended by every member of this forum. If I were make an uneducated guess, the information provided in the FAQ section of a website such as this one, and the recommended reading would be the best way to go versus contradictory information that might be found or provided otherwise. Once you have searched for the basics and have read it well enough to understand at least the main concepts, you no longer have to ask questions like "what temps should I keep my corn snake at?". Instead, you can ask a more precise question such as "I am having difficulty regulating the temps at the high end of my snake's viv. Is is okay if it ranges throughout the day from 83F to 86F or should I try to minimize that range?"
And there are only so many times you can answer "What do the numbers mean?" before you literally explode. I saw that happen to someone once. It wasn't a pretty sight.
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I don't need a cup of coffee, but thanks for asking. I don't belong to many forums, but I suspect this is one of the better ones, in terms of being able to express alternate opinions without too much abuse from the regular posters. But it does still happen here. That's why I try to say stress that we can learn from newbs and others who do things differently from the "majority" here.
I guess the main issues I have are about the "you MUST do it this way or else you're doing it wrong" opinions that get expressed constantly. My experience over the years is that it really depends on many factors, and these snakes are hardy enough that they can thrive in a (reasonably) wide variety of conditions. We also tend to berate people unnecessarily, in some cases even responding to them as "crap keepers", etc. I remember one 19 year old frequent poster berating an 18 year old for not having enough experience to express an opinion (or something like that - I didn't go back to refresh my memory). Like I said before, I enjoy hearing from those who are relatively new to the hobby and hearing about their experiences, in case I can learn something. Any post that suggests that they may be giving incorrect information tends to grate on me. So I try to post something like this to say that maybe we should suspend judgement and listen without the name calling (I know that you didn't do this, so I'm not talking about you).
But whenever we talk about these "inexperienced" people who should know better than expressing an opinion, we suffer the risk that they'll leave quietly, and then we'll never get to hear any of their "alternate" opinions. That's all I meant.
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