Its oh so quiet Shh Shh

[tress29]

I've got some Christmas money to invest in a non-thamnpohis way! All of my siblings are overloaded on electronic devices, and I feel I'm a little behind the times! My phone is "dumb" and can't even text. My desktop PC doesn't even have a sound card! I was thinking of getting myself a netbook (because my kids won't share.) I've also looked at tablets and wondered how the forum looks on them? How easy it is to use, etc? Any opinions? I can get a heck of a lot of netbook/laptop for what a iPad costs! Anyone using other tablets?

[tress29]

I try to get on every day, at least to read through the new posts. This weekend, I was in MI visiting family. I'm lucky if I get to check my email, let alone visit all my faves!

[infernalis]

Why not just get a full on laptop, They are so cheap anymore, I got my kids one each for Christmas.

[EasternGirl]

I know a lot of people are using tablets now but I can't afford a decent one yet. I bought my son a cheap one for Christmas...but it doesn't really count and I can't exactly compare it because it doesn't really do all of the things that the good ones do. If I had the money...I would get a decent one, but that is only because I already have a laptop. I would say that if you don't have a laptop...go for a laptop first....get a tablet after you have a laptop.

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...well, it's the holidays now so obviously people are busy.

[infernalis]

Once upon a time this place was so busy it was hard to keep up with it all.

[chris-uk]

Depends what else you want to use it for. Tablets are great for surfing the net in front of the TV. Having said that I don't have a tablet, but most of the time when I stop by the forum it's on my Android phone - consider it to have all the functionality of a larger tablet but it works well as a phone as well because it fits in my pocket. So phone with 4.3" screen is fine for surfing the web, which means something like the Galaxy Tab (I've used friends' tabs, and they are excellent) with a larger screen would be good as well.
On the other hand netbooks are dead cheap now because nobody wants them, tablets and touchscreen devices are the future.

[tress29]

most of the time when I stop by the forum it's on my Android phone - consider it to have all the functionality of a larger tablet but it works well as a phone as well because it fits in my pocket.

Yeah, I haven't made the jump to a smart phone yet either!

[ssssnakeluvr]

Trust me, breeding and selling garter snakes is NOT lucrative by any means. Even the largest scale Thamnophis breeder we know of here still has to hold down a full time job to live.

Ain't that the truth!!

[ssssnakeluvr]

I thought I noticed a sharp drop in users after the latest forum upgrade, but that may just have been my imagination. I do want to point out that there's a huge difference between summers and winters here. As long as people find garters in the wild, there are more users here and when winter comes, they tend to disappear. I've noticed the same trend with my videos on YouTube.

Keepers also tend to stay here until they feel that they have found out all they need to know about garters for the time being and then they stop posting and fade away. Even those who are long-term users of the forum tend to fade away as their lives or priorities change.

I'm constantly here, because I always have a browser open and this forum happens to be among the half a dozen tabs I have open.

I wish you could see how depressing it really is. Since I became a user, this forum has shifted from a majority of very serious breeders to a majority of pet owners that essentially come here to blog about their snakes. Not that I find anything wrong with that, but it does show that this forum has become less appealing to those who would have the most to teach the rest of us.

Then again, maybe I'm making too many assumptions and there's a simpler and better explanation.

some of us kinda go into brumation with our snakes I am still on here all the time, just don't post as much (well, this year I haven't, been a not so great year) and I am one of the first ones to join this forum!