Facebook groups

Apparently reptile facebook groups are the next cool thing. To me they are just terrible. Too many people who think they know better than everyone else, compounded by the fact that everyone else is too stupid to correct them. Add in the fact that there is zero accountability because you can just delete posts. And then a mod who basically decides if they want to delete posts or keep them and no one else has any say.

I'm just hoping this fad dies out so that people have to come to sites like this where people will call them out on their BS. I used to think rules were stupid, now I've seen why they're necessary. Maybe I'm just getting older.

I have to agree, most FB reptile groups I've been in are terrible. I'm hoping they die out and was actually expecting that they would but now I'm starting to doubt it.

Facebook groups are like any other internet forum - they're only as good as their admins and moderators. Most suck because people think it would be cool to start their own group, but they don't realize how much work it is to keep a decent signal to noise ratio.

The best groups I've seen, both on and off FB, are industry-specific, invitation only, and tightly moderated.

I agree with that to some extent, but even with an excellent moderator there's no accountability. Here, you say stupid things and rub people the wrong way and your karma reflects that. On FB, you either get kicked from the group or don't, but the thread gets deleted and no one knows what was said. Its basically a free pass to say whatever you want to whoever you want. The more I think about it the more annoyed I get.

Everyone has a choice of who and where they hang out. An old timey saying is that you can tell a lot by a person by the company he keeps.
One of my old nursing instructors used to say 'If you want to soar with the eagles, don't eat lunch with the chickens'.
I don't know about all that, I learn a lot from all kinds of people on all walks of life, but I do think that sites with a lot of misinformation and petty squabbling is just not where I want to be.

I can not stand the jr high and high school girls who think they are herpetologists

The only groups that really bother me are the wannabe BOI pages. I find myself wondering if FB people actively avoid the real BOI because its accountability scares them. Maybe it's a whole different world, when your words are permanent and easily found/quoted. I suppose it's much easier to come out smelling like a rose when you choose to post in a laughably clunky forum where objectivity is much more the exception than the rule.

I've seen so many BG threads on FB that go off on moronic tangents that would never fly around here. Apparently, once a bunch of someone's buddies pop up to say what a swell person the subject is, no one bothers to dig any deeper or really examine the specific situation. Having long since come to the conclusion that FB amounts to little more than an idiot convention, I only let it bother me so much.

What bugs me most, is seeing Fauna members over there rolling around in the mud. I guess it's kinda pointless to get too worked up over the kind of people who go out of their way to buy from sellers who have been shown to be a liar; even after they've made it a point to come to Fauna and drone on about how important credibility is. Idiocy and hypocrisy will eventually catch up to them. Despite so much evidence to the contrary, I do still try to believe that stupidity generally ends up being punished.

Thankfully I've yet to see anything on a facebook group that I had any desire to buy. I also refuse to buy something from someone with a negative BOI review of any kind. If someone has no reviews at all I give them the benefit of the doubt and research them as much as the internet allows, but a bad BOI is an automatic no-go for me.

I made the mistake of trying to discuss things a couple times on FB groups and quickly learned that it is not the same environment as here. WAY too many stupid people, and it's as if they know they're stupid because two minutes after making a post they delete it. I don't understand why anyone would want to be a part of that unless they know they couldn't hack it in a real community because they're full of crap. Needless to say, I'm done with those venues...not before getting extremely annoyed though.

Originally Posted by MCMB-2

I also refuse to buy something from someone with a negative BOI review of any kind.

I think it would be a good idea to read through any reviews of those who you are considering entering into a transaction.
There are some negative reviews written that on close inspection actually turn out to be Good Guy threads, and the original poster was mistaken, or worse, simply was there to do damage when he (the OP) was the problem.

Originally Posted by Lucille

I think it would be a good idea to read through any reviews of those who you are considering entering into a transaction.
There are some negative reviews written that on close inspection actually turn out to be Good Guy threads, and the original poster was mistaken, or worse, simply was there to do damage when he (the OP) was the problem.

No no I completely agree, I didn't mean if I see a "bad guy" thread that's it. I always read them to see if there is any validity to the claim because I've seen a lot of "backfires" lol. If I still have any doubt after reading through I don't like to take my chances.