The "old" FaunaClassifieds and the "old" BOI?

Seems to me I have heard many people refer to the "old" BOI and the "old" FaunaClassifieds kind of wistfully, wishing it would come back again. So that got me to thinking, what exactly IS that? This site has gone through a lot of changes for a lot of different reasons, many of which just did not work the way I had hoped. So I guess I am just trying to figure out if there was a period of time which was "best", what exactly were the conditions at that point. Not that I expect everyone will have the same answer or consider the same point in time in the evolution as the "best" for them.

I've tried a lot of different strategies to try to make this site the "best" for as many people as possible, and I have come to the conclusion that every move made to try to do that apparently just seemed to alienate even more people. So I'm thinking that maybe I should just say to hell with it, and simply run this site the way that pleases me and be satisfied at that, regardless of the results. If people like it, then they will stay. If not, they can leave. Someone give me a bunch of grief, then I simply get them out of my life completely as quickly as possible. I've banned some people over the recent past, and I'll be perfectly honest, I don't miss them even one little bit. So maybe that is the ticket.

Of course, the chances that my running this site to please me and having that coincide with a majority opinion of when this site was the "best" for everyone else, are pretty darn slim. So if anyone is going to post an opinion here and get uptight because I don't implement their ideas, you might as well back click out of this thread, because you probably won't be happy with me sooner or later. And rather than us getting into a head bumping (where admittedly I am going to be extremely short of patience this time of year), do us both a favor and find something else to read. This is really more idle chatter than anything else, so please don't get the idea that I am hiring on everyone as consultants to restructure this site. I too would like to roll things back to when this site seemed to be going somewhere significant. I just don't get that feeling any longer.

Anyway, just rambling while I'm waiting for my back to stop hurting so I can go over to the salt mines to feed all the snakes Connie and I cleaned the cages for earlier today. I hate having to stop working not because I am tired, but because some part of my aging body just MAKES me take a break, or ELSE. This time of year REALLY sucks in a lot of respects......

I've not had any issues with the site at any time period I've been on it, personally. I think this YEAR just plain sucks, and there's a lot of depression due to the depressed economy. I think that might account for the blahs this time, and I hope it'll pick back up next year.

I think I agree with Donna. Its not just this site but almostall sites I visit. The economy sucks, gas prices are insane, and people just dont have the money to spend on "luxuries". This will cause a slow down in people posting... I am the opposite. If I dont have money to buy new animals, I go to the boards and live vicariously!

WebSlave said:

Seems to me I have heard many people refer to the "old" BOI and the "old" FaunaClassifieds kind of wistfully, wishing it would come back again. So that got me to thinking, what exactly IS that?

Click to expand...

I think the "old" Fauna that people are referring to is the one when we were naive and thought it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad. Then the Chris Johnsons and Bill Levertons of the world came along and manipulated this site and its members sense of community for their own personal gain. Which left us all wondering exactly who can we trust. Which led to a lot people splintering into small groups in which they felt safe.

To this day I dont think this site as a community has fully recovered from the damage done by Chris, Bill and others.

shrap said:

I think the "old" Fauna that people are referring to is the one when we were naive and thought it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad. Then the Chris Johnsons and Bill Levertons of the world came along and manipulated this site and its members sense of community for their own personal gain. Which left us all wondering exactly who can we trust. Which led to a lot people splintering into small groups in which they felt safe.

To this day I dont think this site as a community has fully recovered from the damage done by Chris, Bill and others.

Click to expand...

Actually I agree. Particularly concerning Chris Johnson. He caused a tremendous rift in this site by getting a group of people believing his false motives as opposed to my true motives and basically was the direct result of an alienation of an entire group of people who splintered off into a new website created by the person who was the most vulnerable to his lies and deceit. That lost us a lot of participation and basically broke what remaining continuity and community that may have continued to exist at that time. I would have to say that that particular period was the most painful and disappointing timespan I can recall involving this site. And came pretty close to getting me to just walk away in disgust. Very few things are more disheartening then to see people believe a bald faced liar over your own statements.

But an interesting perspective. That this site was at it's best when people were the most naive (myself included) about what we were up against. And I believe it goes deeper than that. There were (possibly still are) people pretending to be good guys on the surface yet their true motives were to simply undermine the effectiveness of the BOI by causing constant conflict. Their being a "good guy" in the business was irrelevant to their reasons for being here. They were here simply because it was fun for them to try to destroy something that other people found useful. My mistake was not recognizing that earlier than I did.

Obviously, this site can never return to the "Happy Days" stage of development, though. And I have to admit, I have often been discouraged by the turn of events where apparent good guys turned out to be not so good. It is far too easy for someone to put on a publicly false face on the internet and keep it in place for a very long time. It's a difficult piece of advice to give people when you tell them to trust NO one, but apparently that is truly the only real sound advice that there is. Protect yourself in your dealings every way that you can.

Shrap makes a great point, what I see different is that there is not the damaging cliques that post together anymore. Seeing a group like Dennis Dynes, Bruce Stephensen, Neil Gubitz, and etc. all ban together, it gave readers something to hate, thus there was a great deal of participation. As Killer Kowalski once said "people need someone to hate".

This website opened up a new attitude in the herp community and now it is not that big of a deal anymore. Like hybrids and global warming, it is a current trend that will end up settling down, may never go away, but the hype will fade as reality sets in.

We now know many of the bad guys in the community because of your website Rich and they know that they cannot hide anymore, just ask Ray Torres. It would be nice to see more participation in the forums as has always been the ideal, but it does the wealth of information now there, it is quite massive and important.

I think y'all pretty much summed it up for me. It's not that the website has changed~ but how I feel about it has.

"You can't go home again"
You can go back to the same format~ you could invite back banned members~ you could do back flips and walk high wires trying to make the site "the same" .....but it just can't be. You can go back to the same place but you can't make it home again.

Fauna still offers a valuable service to me. I still come here pretty much every day~ I still cherish the friends I've made here~ I still offer my financial support to it. But it's just not the same place it used to be~ and I honestly don't think it ever can be. Not for most of us that have been here for a long time~ maybe for the new guys it will be.

Thanks for the site Rich. I appreciate it more in hindsight than I did before~ or than I do now~ But I do really appreciate it. Thanks

Indeed, one can't go home again to what was, before. It is in the nature of relationships and groups to evolve. Like any relationship, for instance, a good marriage, where the evolution goes is dependent on the participants as well as the environment. You get out of it, what you put into it. Home is a state of mind and one can make a place home by one's efforts.

The old Fauna may be gone, but a new Fauna may be as good or better, but in a different way. There are so many challenges now to the reptile world, economic as well as legal. I hope that this site by its participants can influence the future of the reptile world from the newest hobbyist to the many businesses here.

lucille said:

Indeed, one can't go home again to what was, before. It is in the nature of relationships and groups to evolve. Like any relationship, for instance, a good marriage, where the evolution goes is dependent on the participants as well as the environment. You get out of it, what you put into it. Home is a state of mind and one can make a place home by one's efforts.

The old Fauna may be gone, but a new Fauna may be as good or better, but in a different way. There are so many challenges now to the reptile world, economic as well as legal. I hope that this site by its participants can influence the future of the reptile world from the newest hobbyist to the many businesses here.

Click to expand...

That is a bright, positive outlook and very true!

You must spread some karma around before giving it to lucille again

Click to expand...

But an interesting perspective. That this site was at it's best when people were the most naive (myself included) about what we were up against. And I believe it goes deeper than that. There were (possibly still are) people pretending to be good guys on the surface yet their true motives were to simply undermine the effectiveness of the BOI by causing constant conflict. Their being a "good guy" in the business was irrelevant to their reasons for being here. They were here simply because it was fun for them to try to destroy something that other people found useful. My mistake was not recognizing that earlier than I did.

Click to expand...

Still are, but now they masquade under the guise of being mods or friends that support Fauna, while in reality they exist to spew hatred and ill-feeling so that people do not want to utilize the BOI.

Good post Lucille. Fauna has changed but inevitably most of us have too. I'm not the same I was last year not to mention six years ago!

Best

deborahbroadus said:

Still are, but now they masquade under the guise of being mods or friends that support Fauna, while in reality they exist to spew hatred and ill-feeling so that people do not want to utilize the BOI.

Click to expand...

And isn't that a very provocative statement in context with the quote you used.

Cheryl Marchek AKA JM said:

And isn't that a very provocative statement in context with the quote you used.

Click to expand...

Some may think so. But it's quite simple to me.

If I were running a forum and told the people that were helping me, how I wanted it run, and they were constantly doing it their way instead of the way I laid out. I would wonder about their motives.

I know this much is true. I do not know everything about BPs. I admit that readily. However, I do know how to run a business, and (I see mods as unpaid "managers") if the owner tells me (manager) to talk to people in a certain way and not let personal remarks, etc... get in the way, or take topics off the rail..having HIS best interest in mind, I would certainly do as he instructed. If this is my friend, and I knew that I couldn't control myself and knew that my behavior was undermining what the owner was struggling to establish, I would remove myself.

But then out of peevishness, those that are not the owner's "true" friends may cause a mass exodus just because they disliked the manager's attempt to run the business the way HE wanted it run (which seems to be what some have already attempted to do)

One may argue that because they are unpaid then some leeway has to be allowed, this I disagree with.

This is only an opinion as I said, based on how a normal business is run and how it can conflict when one has "friends" involved.

And obviously those sorts of issues would need to be brought to me.

Is this happening NOW? You can reply to me privately if you wish.

It is nothing new, and as to whether it is happening NOW, just think back to the last time you had to correct some one that's supposed to be on your side..yet once again. I know you can't police everyone and I don't police my friends, if I have to police them, obviously they aren't my friends.

deborahbroadus said:

It is nothing new, and as to whether it is happening NOW, just think back to the last time you had to correct some one that's supposed to be on your side..yet once again. I know you can't police everyone and I don't police my friends, if I have to police them, obviously they aren't my friends.

Click to expand...

I can't remember the last time I had to correct or question one of the moderators here. You DO know that the Warning System Mods program was discontinued a while back, don't you?

WebSlave said:

I can't remember the last time I had to correct or question one of the moderators here. You DO know that the Warning System Mods program was discontinued a while back, don't you?

Click to expand...

No, I actually didn't know that . I have been inactive, and I haven't really kept up with the changes on the BOI just some of the topics. I was recalling the last time you had to tell one of the mods to get back on topic (they were doing their usual drag though the mud of the topic). I think it was less than a month ago.

However, I have just (in light of the change you mentioned) read the latest posts and they are remarkably tactful and professional. Perhaps the issue that I had noticed before I became inactive has been resolved.

I do admit that I haven't been reading some of the posts because of that lack of tact/professionalism, so I may have missed a lot of changes.

I will certainly bring anything untowards to your attention, because I will say it again, "The BOI performs a public service that other forums do not."