The People's Choice

Damn, sucked in again.

This is the danger of not being able to put people on ignore.

Ok, back to mental ignore.

Geez Wes. I'm speechless. You defended my position. I thank you sir !

Lucille, you may tell all the world exactly what I told you. BIG BOLD LETTERS. I like to think that my advice to you was "tough love". I don't really have a problem with your "question". Whether you have done "tons of research" is irrelevent. You criticized the "chameleon experts" for not "answering a question" that was not a question, but rather a broad and very open ended invitation which would require much time to properly answer, as if the time was owed or obligated to you ? And if not "owed", then why criticize here ? That's my difficulty with you. You blame the "experts" for not responding, instead of looking at your "invitation" as in need of refinement if a lack of response was the issue.

Rich, you are out there somewhere, but to paraphrase, I did make a major offer to help. You declined. That's fine, but the hypocritical nature of your criticism now has me reaching for the hip-waders.

Geez Wes, you made my day .... even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then ....... damn !

Originally Posted by Chameleon Company

See if I can do this without calling the baby ugly, or garnering any more warning points. As you said Rich, Take you yourself as an example, Jim. OK, let's do it.

1) I have a good number of posts in that forum, although not as many since you decided it was not worthy of moderation.

OLD posts, Jim. Seems to me they tapered off sharply when I declined your offer to be moderator. Probably just my imagination though, eh?

Originally Posted by Chameleon Company

2) Back when you were soliciting mod's there, your first choice crapped out, and was removed by you. I then PM'd you and volunteered to take it over, and make it into something. I specifically pointed out to you that it would be a better use of my time than the BOI. You said you would consider it, but "no thanks" for now, as you were leaning against any more mod's. You chose to leave that position unfilled, as you have now let all forums wane.

Yes, that is correct. And apparently you took offense at that? Actually I believe my wording was more to the effect that I just wasn't going to be concerned about the discussion forums any longer. Now how is this for a concept? Maybe I was (and am) just reluctant to place someone in a moderator position when there is a history of them bumping heads with me? When it is obvious that we don't see eye to eye in a lot of things, what are the chances that you would moderate a forum in a manner consistent with what I would WANT?

Originally Posted by Chameleon Company

3) There are other chameleon forums which have far more participation now than the Fauna one, and I am much more active there. Neither you nor I have time to go to every forum, me chameleons and you snakes, etc., and answer all comers. I post where the audience is largest.

Understandable. Which explains your avid participation in other areas here on this site........

As for my own participation, well, when you become management, playing is something you have less time for than you would wish for.

Originally Posted by Chameleon Company

Where did I say it was "repugnant", or that it would "dirty my feet? Shame on you. If anything is "repugnant" here Rich, it is how quickly you seem to forget. You chose to de-emphasize those forums, while I made a specific appeal to you otherwise regarding the one in question. What I took issue with was Lucille's claim here that she had not been adequately responded to there. That is not a difficult concept to understand, or is it ?

Please show me where I said that you SAID such things. That is my opinion based on my observance of your participation and expressed as such. From what I could see of Lucille's post, you are a classic example of exactly what she has described. Your reasons may be valid, but the example is no less valid because of them. I simply asked you "why", which you have provided. And for that I thank you.

First of all let me address what this thread was started for, the giving of names of who people would chose to mod on here.
Let me say I was not going to address this thread as I just do not like to participate in naming names good or bad This to me was like the "quote of the day" it can get nasty and although there are times when I like reading the drama for the most part I am sick of drama. Unlike some people I am not really here for all the drama ( tho I cannot say this was always so).
IMO if someone starts a thread in fauna to drop names, "in fun", they surely know that with the egos and drama people this will become a fighting ring of words, I consider this the passive side of the aggressive

Actually, I just wrote the on topic to address the off topic convo in here.
As it is well known, I am not a Lucille fan but on this particular occasion I happen to agree with her. (Not on going off topic on here or how she went about it on this thread) but I do agree that some of the more experienced people ( myself included) do not venture into the forums enough to give some friendly advice.
I agree with her because I remember how I was when I first got a new reptile and just wanted to be around people who also have them and "in the know" to perhaps learn things that are not always found in a care sheet ect but found only when talking with people on a friendly basis who are into the same thing I am that have more experience.
I realize people get tired of repeating the same things over and over again to the newbies that come in, I also have come to the knowledge that those "newbies" can be a potential customer to those "experts" that sell these animals.
Fauna, as I see it, has a problem with letting down the guard because at some other point that could be used against them at some other time(look at the crap Wes is getting over the puppy pic, tho that is truly funny, lol). A little patience and kindness can go a long way, no matter how trivial it may seem to those in the know.
Anyway, I don't take these sites personal any longer, these are just my thoughts, two cents or what have you. I happen to like this site as a whole, yep I have been more of a "money giver" to it as of late rather then just posting like I used to, I have been thinking about putting more effort into interacting more (I do, however have more of a busy real life, which I have found to be much more fascinating then computer life), being a little nicer even to people I do not agree with (there are people here I do like and respect and think are very funny individuals) and just not take anything personal, even if it IS personal.
Ah well guess I droned on enough. Bottom line to this drivel is that I would like to see this site as a whole become more active, not just the BOI and drama aspect of it and some of the people here that are very knowledgable can certainly make a huge difference.

Geez Wes. I'm speechless. You defended my position. I thank you sir !

I was also shocked! Bout fell off my seat, the surprises just keep on comin'!

Jim. Seems to me they (your posts and participation) tapered off sharply when I declined your offer to be moderator.

Rich, like many of your periperal forums, it lost traffic. You know that. You would also see that the then-moderator was initiating many threads, and I was contributing to her initiatives. She got in over her head quick, and you yanked her. Once she was gone, I had no desire to initiate or carry threads as a poster as she had been doing as a moderator. No problem there, but to now create a logic trail as you have is without basis.

Yes, that is correct (my offer to moderate was declined). And apparently you took offense at that? Actually I believe my wording was more to the effect that I just wasn't going to be concerned about the discussion forums any longer. Now how is this for a concept? Maybe I was (and am) just reluctant to place someone in a moderator position when there is a history of them bumping heads with me? When it is obvious that we don't see eye to eye in a lot of things, what are the chances that you would moderate a forum in a manner consistent with what I would WANT?

Nope, I did not take offense to "that". I took offense to your allegations here and now that I saw the forum as "dirty or repugnant" (your words characterizing my lack of recent participation). I reminded you of my earlier support to rebut your current mischaracterizations. I have absolutely no problem with your declining my earlier offer for whatever reasons you had.

Understandable. Which explains your avid participation in other areas here on this site........

Rich, I participate in "other areas" here for entertainment value, and as I am able. Glad to clear that up. As for time management, etc, as with you Rich, a few of us have the same management and owner time demands. You should be able to understand my lack of participation exactly as you understand your own.

While I don't know if I completely agree with the first part of your post, as I already stated why I "dropped names"...though I can't say that was a similar goal to the OP....

THIS part of your post is far from "drivel", lol....and I agree completely.

Originally Posted by Stardust

Actually, I just wrote the on topic to address the off topic convo in here.
As it is well known, I am not a Lucille fan but on this particular occasion I happen to agree with her. (Not on going off topic on here or how she went about it on this thread) but I do agree that some of the more experienced people ( myself included) do not venture into the forums enough to give some friendly advice.
I agree with her because I remember how I was when I first got a new reptile and just wanted to be around people who also have them and "in the know" to perhaps learn things that are not always found in a care sheet ect but found only when talking with people on a friendly basis who are into the same thing I am that have more experience.
I realize people get tired of repeating the same things over and over again to the newbies that come in, I also have come to the knowledge that those "newbies" can be a potential customer to those "experts" that sell these animals.
Fauna, as I see it, has a problem with letting down the guard because at some other point that could be used against them at some other time(look at the crap Wes is getting over the puppy pic, tho that is truly funny, lol). A little patience and kindness can go a long way, no matter how trivial it may seem to those in the know.
Anyway, I don't take these sites personal any longer, these are just my thoughts, two cents or what have you. I happen to like this site as a whole, yep I have been more of a "money giver" to it as of late rather then just posting like I used to, I have been thinking about putting more effort into interacting more (I do, however have more of a busy real life, which I have found to be much more fascinating then computer life), being a little nicer even to people I do not agree with (there are people here I do like and respect and think are very funny individuals) and just not take anything personal, even if it IS personal.
Ah well guess I droned on enough. Bottom line to this drivel is that I would like to see this site as a whole become more active, not just the BOI and drama aspect of it and some of the people here that are very knowledgable can certainly make a huge difference.

I do my best to participate in ALL of the forums I am able, as do some great folks here. I still believe, however, if more of those very knowledgable folks spent the amount of time on the other forums as they do posting on the BOI simply for "entertainment value" or "drama", just think how much this site could grow and improve.

Originally Posted by Cat_72

I still believe, however, if more of those very knowledgable folks spent the amount of time on the other forums as they do posting on the BOI simply for "entertainment value" or "drama", just think how much this site could grow and improve.

This is an interesting perspective.

WHY would anyone who has been here for a long time bother? We all know that as soon as this site fails to pay its own way it will be dropped.

What's the incentive to put personal time into a forum?

I'm not saying you're wrong, just wondering, out loud, why there may not be more forum participation.

Some folks have put quite a bit of time into various forums and sort of been slapped when push came to shove and rich's general, I don't care I'm doing what I want whether I've asked for your advice or not, demeanor is not exactly appealing.

I'm not ragging on rich here, I do pretty much get why he thinks the way he does, it's just that I sort of see it as playing two sides of the same coin on the same toss.

So, what's the incentive to do anything other than either be entertained or entertain if not both.

Oh sure, I know the standard, help newbs, contribute for what we do have, sort of pay it forward, but other than the occasional payment, as it were, what's in it for anyone?

Or, maybe that's enough. Maybe it's enough to just occasionally help out or contribute what we know.

I don't know.

I do know that sometimes I don't participate as much as I could just because I've done it so often in the past.

Of course, one might expect that forum mods would actually do something, anything in some cases, to promote activity in the forums they are mods of. Sadly this is lacking as well, especially lacking which says a lot for both rich's involvment and the standards one must uphold to maintain one's mod status. I'm not singling anyone but dand out here, as I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the other forums per se, but since I do sort of specialize in calkings, I do watch that one.

It's resemblance to a raisen is amazing.

Anyway, I don't know that I've helped any but hopefully you'll find a bit of something in this rambling that may lead you to the knowledge you seek.

Good luck and let me know if you figure it out.

Well Wes, for once, I gotta agree. I have been solicited many times to moderate various internet sites. As soon as I told them that I would be needing compensation for my time and work, they opted for free (hey, you get what you pay for) labor.

I contribute for free, when I'm in a magnanimous mood. Otherwise, find your free labor elsewhere.

Hmmmmm. I wasn't really looking at compensation per se, more one of motivation, not that cash isn't, that would be sufficient to get people who cared to give more time.

I just don't see much backing by the higher ups for the lower downs.

Of course it's entirly possible that what I see is not what others see, as has been seen many many times here on this site.

Still though, I reckon we'll see.

Eventually.