My name is Paul Harb, I am 36 years old and have gotten back into this hobby that I used to love in the last 2 years investing a little bit of money in a small but very nice collection of boas. I really have been out of this "scene" as it has become, for over 10 years. And boy has it changed...some for the good, and a LOT for the worse.
I have a great career, dont plan on making money off of this hobby, maybe if Im lucky I can pay for the hobby...but thats really about it....I just really enjoy staring at these gorgeous animals that years of hard work has created...and that is the work of these breeders that have stuck with it, and I only see a few of them that I remember from back in the day.
What I have noticed that has overcome this hobby that used to be so great, is the most petty politics that I have ever seen in any field, and I work in the film industry...so that says A LOT!!!
That brings me to Kingsnake. I purchased a "upgraded" classified account from them recently to sell some animals that Doug Matuzsak and myself had in a breeding loan this year. Sharp Snows to be exact...Kingsnake had taken it upon themselves to pull my ad, sending me a copy of their TOS with no explanation of what I had done to violate these terms. Now this is after they had already pulled a post that I put weeks earlier in the Boa Forums just showing off these new, really cool animals...I mean...how many of these are around...just thought I would share...they stated that they pulled my post due to using someones name in a post that had been banned from the site. So after much frustrating research, I found out Doug had been banned years earlier for whatever...I dont know and really dont care...I dont have time to keep up on personal issues within this community.
So now we come back to my ad for the Snow Boa for sale...I got that email saying I couldnt sell someone elses animals...THIS IS MY SNOW BOA!!!! These people at KINGSNAKE just took it upon themselves to pull my ad with NOTHING to back up their TOTALLY FALSE CLAIM that I was trying to sell Doug's animals....I was furious to say the least...and of course they do this in a way that you cant even state your case because they dont tell you who is making these childish decisions. I wrote an email to a link that says it goes to the CEO of KINGSNAKE, and never heard a thing back, except for them to totally close my account AND RIP ME OFF!!!! They stole my money that I had just payed for the account with and not a peep as to why, or anything....they just took the money and closed me out of the community.
I guess Im just venting here and wondering if anyone else has noticed the gustapo type tactics used by Kingsnake to hold on to their little club and decide who is ok to be there and who is not...Ive seen kids getting attacked verbally on the forums that asked nothing more than a simple question, just to be bombarded by breeders that take this HOBBY waaaaaay to seriously. I guess this is what happens when people have to make a living with a hobby and decide that they have to become very aggresive and defensive...its like schoolyard childishness.
Does anyone here know the name and a way to contact the owner of KINGSNAKE? I would really love to talk to him personally, I suppose I can take legal action but over a couple hundred dollars that is pretty silly. I am still trying to decide how to deal with this, as I will not just let it go, i dont need the money but they have attacked me personally for no reason and I feel it is my obligation to do whatever i can to try to make sure that some kid who just saved up all his money just to have it stolen by a bunch of uptight people who need to realize....YOU BREED SNAKES!!!!!
Feel free to google my name and you will see that I probably do have the means to do something about this...Im just still trying to decide how I want to go about doing it....Id love to hear any stories from people here if they have had similar experiences...maybe a lawsuit is in order here if this is a common occurance which from what Ive heard it is....
thks for reading my rant and Im sorry if this offends anyone, but at this point it has to be said for the little guys and girls out there...and anyone that feels threatened by this email, I ask you to look inside yourself and ask what is your agenda, why are you threatened? What are you trying to protect and are you reasons just? This should be a fun hobby, and I feel sickened that I even have to talk about this....I hope that one day the people that just really like snakes take the hobby back and not this boys club of breeders who I see stroking each other verbally every day and praying upon the little guy...try and remember when you were just into looking at snakes...
Im sure Im going to pay for this post....bring it on....Id love to have an intelligent discussion about this if that is possible, so far it hasnt happened...
Paul Harb
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