I want to post on more reply and hopefully give a better understanding to my feelings regarding all this.
Some might be a reeat of what I have said and some may not. After this I will not respond to any threads on any site regarding this issue.
I have been keeping snakes for 15 years. Approx. 6 years ago, when Kingsnake was very young I was fortunate to find the site via word of mouth/friend.
I have always thought, and still do, that Jeff was a genious with the 'baby' he created and grew to be one of, if not the largest site in the herp industry. I give the same credit to Rich and this site. These sites are something not many of us could think of creating much less going through with it. I have had the chance to meet some wonderful people and further myself with knowledge and experiences with a true love of mine, reptiles.
Kingnsnake has so many things to offer. Such detailed information can be gathered and even gives me a chance to share my knowledge to those that might benefit from it. I have been able to share my thoughts, experiences, failures, and successes due to his site with others that share the same interest as me and many others.
I am not a large breeder and do not do this for a living, but I have owned and worked with many varieties of snakes not limited to Irian Juyas, Queensland and Jungle Carpet Pythons, Burms, Retics, Balls, MANY various corns, Albino and Anery Honduran Milks, Siniloans, Knoblochis, Cal Kings, Amazon Tree Boas, Chondros, Emeralds, Guyanans, Suris, Brazilian Rainbow Boas, Central American Boas, and my true favorites being the many wonderful Columbian projects that are available and those that are still to come.
For a couple years I held a Classified acct. to sell my snakes. It came to a point that I chose not to renew my account. I made this choice NOT because I was going against Kingsnake, but mearly because I do not produce enough every year to make a business choice to spend the money to market the animals I produce/d or resold after whatever period of time from acquiring them.
This is just what I had to do for myself.
My intentions in sharing my feelings, not once, were ever to get anyone to go against Kingsnake. I am not 'against' Kingsnake. Like I have stated many times, I thoroughly enjoy the site and I am glad I am one that has the opportunity to be part of the community.
I shared my opinions not to degrade Jeff or his business/site, but just to share the things that I felt have changed that have made the site difficult at times. Does this mean that I am right? Of course not. Do my opinions matter? To me they do and I am not sure of the rest of the people that read them.
I did not bring them up with the intent to call out failures, as I firmly believe they are far from that. We all learn things in life as we go along. I just wanted to share my thoughts, as someone who has been part of the site for nearly the whole time it has existed, in hopes that I could point out things that have changed and compare them to yesteryear.
I will still say that I do not like the 'censorship', as some have called it, but I do understand why Jeff does it. I understand that Jeff has things removed in order to protect himself.
If I may compare it to this site for a minute, Rich has a site that has many things said that people do not like (the person that posts are made about), but took avenues to protect himself where things do not need to be deleted. I think these same things could be done on Kingsnake so Jeff (or whoever) does not need to monitor them to the degree that he/they do.
Kingsnake.com and Fauna.com are the best things that this industry has going as far as the internet world and it's realtion to herps. The two sites are unique unto themselves and each serve as a valuable tool to those that use them. Many users, just like me, frequent both sites. It would be very detrimental to the herping world if they were not here (not to take away from the other great sites that have since been created as I use many of them as well).
I understand that business can be ugly at times. I guess I get so 'emotional' about it because I wish there were a way that none of this would have to take place. There are no real winners in a situation like this. I know their are egos and pride with both and rightfully so. We have to parties that have put in a lot of money, time, and evergy to make their respective sites what they are today.
Right or wrong, I guess it all boils down to my 'cry' for Kingsnake to return to what it was at times in the past.
I agree, Jeff does things for a reason and he, and only he, know what those reasons are. That is fine.
This community is so small as it is, I guess I just wish that the parties involved did not have to have the 'comflict' that we all have known to exist.
The points I have brought up in the past couple days were never intended to harm Jeff or his site. I was mearly speaking out as an individual who looks from the outside in.
As far as this site is concerned. I have shown my support to it as well. Although I do not speak to it in this thread, I have been an active member for 3 or 4 years. I know that since Rich made his changes, it only states that I have been a member since 2002, but we all remember when we had to re-register and the 'clock' started over at that time.
I think this very forum serves as a great tool. It allows people to make an educated decision in a market place where seing the person/s you are dealing with is nearly impossible. Kind of hard to just hop in the car to speak to someone if a problem ever arrose in any deal that one might make.
Although I get in some of the best when it comes to heated topics or conversations, I really am a very calm and collected individual that does not like, to any degree, and type of conflict. That is what I feel is so sad about this ordeal that both parties are going through.
I will always wish both parties the best and hope a resolution can be made that will not hurt either party when all the dust settles.
As far as the fees that are involved for post ads on the classified pages of Kingsnake, I still feel that if the fees were a bit lower Jeff might find that his site would thrive even more than it is today.
One had mentioned that ( and I am not quoting exactly) that I did not care if I got banned from Kingsnake or I was trying to or whatever. Of course this is not the case. That is just silly. I would be equally upset if I were to be banned from this site. I come to each site daily and would miss it greatly if that opportunity were ever revoked.
Anyway, what is the point of all this? I am not really sure. I just thought I would open up a bit and give an in depth look at my thoughts on it and where I was coming from.
