About posting "kingsnake.com" on this site...

I have noticed several people posting messages whom will partially fudge posting the name "kingsnake.com" within their messages. I don't know if that is an attempt to defeat any effort they think I may have in place to post that name here or if it is a voluntary attempt to keep from posting it themselves.

Whatever the purpose, please note that I will not engage in the same activity that kingsnake.com is doing in blocking another site's URLs. NO ONE's URLs, business names, or personal names are blocked from being mentioned on my sites.

I have my own opinions about such actions, but will keep that to myself, and just not lower my standards to such a level.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

didn't you recently post the following, and I quote:

Effective immediately, this site is NOT to be used for the discussion of what other web sites may or may not do. Or what the owners of other sites may or may not think or act.

I was away for the last two weeks and will admit not being onsite an awful lot just before leaving - so when I returned I was pretty surprised to see that you had posted the above quote. But now you seem to be saying sure it is ok to mention the web site kingsnake.com in our posts but; heck we had better not actually write anything about that site's policy or what that site does or does not do! In effect it would now seem to me that the only reason to mention that site here would be to give it a plug (free advertisement).

Your site may have initially begun as a place to, and I quote you again:

This site was intended from the beginning, and specifically the BOI, to help people reach resolutions to problems concerning their business dealings with other people buying, selling and trading their animals. I am now pulling that back into the track where it belongs

and you may think you have pulled back to that level but you definitely haven't reverted to that stage of this site's history; and I am hoping that you never do. This is a great site that has expanded far beyond your initial goal, and it is a 'place' that is a haven for those among us who enjoy herpetological and herpetocultural discussion and debate, including discussion of the hobbies other websites. Faunaclassifieds has always welcomed the other opinion, and this has been the major attraction for me to this site – even when the other opinion did not agree with mine – because I was able to express my opinion. I for one, but I am sure I probably speak for many, would be fairly despondent over any change which would cutback on a member’s abilities to pen his/her opinion – including those concerning the business practices and forum practices of kingsnake.com.

I readily admit I don’t have a clue as to what started the current or recent row about kingsnake.com here at faunaclassified.com – but then again I need not know the nature of that beast to slay the dragon which actually stands before me. The dragon which I now face seems, in my opinion, to be censorship at its worst and in its most heinous form. You are, if I understand correctly, no longer allowing discussion about the workings and or policies of kingsnake.com. That action on your part is pretty disheartening, as I see it in the light of the previous history of the faunaclassifieds site as a place to freely share one’s thoughts – even when about a competing website. Hopefully you have already decided to recant your decision to block discussions about kingsnake.com.

I left kingsnake.com, because among other things, I believed, they did not allow open discussion about other sites such as faunaclassifieds.com (and I do mean they disallowed discussion about the fc site not just the fc name from being posted). They also did some other things I did not agree with – so I stopped using their forums. Sure I have glanced at them a few times since, and I have considered reregistering on ks – but I have stood by my decision and I have not registered or posted on their site since I initially pulled out. It has, you see, been a matter of principal! As things seem to be going now, here at faunaclassifieds, I am beginning to wonder if I am going to have to make a decision based upon the same basic principal once again. I certainly hope not, just as I certainly hope that this site is not beginning to use, what in my opinion, were the negative user restrictive tactics of kingsnake.com. Of course I realize this is your site, and the bottom line for your site is that you will do as you see fit – but I also am aware of the fact that you realize the importance of your site’s registered users. I hope you also realize that a move in such a direction by you will likely result in your losing at least one of us, if not more of us, based upon the same reason that many of us left other herp forums to come here. I being at least the one, certainly hope the faunaclassifieds.com policy banning discussion about the policies of kingsnake.com will not stand. I would hate to leave such a beautiful place, but I would likely do just that, because I cannot abide the dragon of censorship which would burn the pages upon which I or others write. Please understand I am not making any sort of a threat, I know that losing me as a user would be like a single pebble being removed from a gravel pit. I just felt it necessary to give my opinion on the matter that made me shun kingsnake.com and embrace this one wholeheartedly in the first place. It is something I feel strongly about.

Best regards,
Glenn B

Glenn,

There's another thread going in this forum about the posting of KS issues on this site. I think what Rich saw happening was his tool being used for a locker room style pissing match and wanted to raise it out of that, back to the original professional level that Fauan had. His first reaction was to not allow postings of "this site did this" "that site does that" and only allow website postings that had to do with actual business dealings. Due to the ability of his members to express their opinions freely he found that they wanted the ability to discuss online communities. His compromise was to allow the postings but to encourage the members of this site to take the high road and keep it professional. This ability to change and adapt is what makes Fauna so entirely different than other sites out there.

Well if what you tell me is actually what has happened then it is no different from what Rich and faunaclassifieds has done in the past which was to allow open discussion on any topic while keeping things somewhat under control. That, of course, is fine by me and is why I like this site. The way I read the material I quoted in my initial post was that all discussion about the policies of kingsnake.com had been banned. I am happy to see that such is nbot the case. Thanks.

Best regards,
Glenn B

Glenn - you have a lot of reading to do in order to bring you back up to speed. I suggest you start with this thread:

Poll on kingsnake.com discussions

That will pretty much lay out the thought processes I was going through.

Rich,

Happy to see you arrived at the decision at which I would have thought you would arrive.

By the way, that whole thread under the poll on kingsnake.com discussions was a long, tedious and painful read! I almost find it impossible to believe some of the things said therein. I would like to take issue with some of them, such as:

1) some of the comments made by faunaclassifieds moderators

2) some of the comments made by Jason

3) some of the general comments about kingsnake.com

but I am guessing that this current thread is not the place to do so. I guess the place to have done so would have been in that other thread but you closed it down, pretty early in my estimation. I would take issue with that too - heck I guess I just did. What was up with closing down a thread that would have likely developed many more pertinent posts (albeit some flaky ones too)?

Now that I took the last hour or two to read that thread - what thread actually started the whole kingsnake.com thing all over again? From what I read it seems there must have been a recent round of postings from people writing about kingsnake.com. I would like to read those two, but want to make sure I get to the ones that brought up the idea (now happily defunct) of banning threads about ks.

Thanks

Glenn B

Sorry, Glenn, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to get into that stuff all over again. Sorry you were gone during the thick of it, but I see absolutely no reason to open that all up again. Matter of fact, I would have to read that thread all over again myself, to refresh my memory, which I certainly do not have time, nor interest enough, to do.

Take care.

Rich,

I hope you don't ind then if I open up a new thread or two to discuss some of those things. I would probably them under either the Sound Off Forum or General BS forums or maybe even under the Web Watch forum. I am not looking to stir up a controversy about kingsnake.com's practices (however such would probably be somewhat the case whenever we discuss those policies) but to address some things Jason said. I definitely want to comment on some of the things that Jason brought up as to why people are here using this site as opposed to kingsnake.com. I find it quite interesting that he beleved most of your users use only this site, and that you somehow managed to in effect steal away customers or users from kingsnake.com by bashing that site. If you prefer I can address him by email privately, although I would much prefer to discuss it out in the open and we both know I could not do that at ks, nor would I choose to do so.

In another thread, I would like to comment on faunaclassifieds.com moderators and their use of posts in which they are apparently perpetrators of: flaming, trolling, and posting comments to threads that should have absolutely no place in the threads into which they are placed. Sorry, but it pisses me off that they are watching me when I type something, while one or two of them get away with doing excactly that for which they are watching over the rest of us . I don't want to go into it in depth here, so if ok by you I post a new thread in the appropriate forum.

Thanks and best regards,
Glenn B

Any threads about kingsnake.com should go in the Web Watch forum. And threads about policies of this site would probably be more appropriate in the FaunaClassifieds Feedback forum, but I would not be opposed to it being in the Web Watch forum as well.

I can live with those suggestions, thanks.