Lost our way?

[adamanteus]

Does anyone feel, like me, that we are becoming ever less of a Garter Snake forum and more of a general hobbyist forum recently?
I know we have always had the odd thread here and there, about related issues, similar genera, general snake issues etc. We even have Lulu's excellent 'Oh So Quiet' thread where we can place our random thoughts, and Stefan's 'Nature Photography' thread, which comes back to the fore with welcome regularity.

It just seems to me, when I log on, that there are now countless posts on weird coloured Rat Snakes or Milk Snakes, frogs, or yet another Royal (Ball) Python. Shouldn't all that stuff be in 'Pics of my other pets'? Or even on another forum? I have to dredge through to find anything Garter Snake related. Of course that's your choice, as members, it's an open forum.... but is this where we, as a community, want to go? To be just another (but smaller) Kingsnake.com? Or RFUK?

Occasionally I visit other reptile forums, as no doubt many of you do, and it seems to me that there is little left these days to set us apart from these 'general reptile keeping' forums. I'm not criticising them, they have their role to play, but I'm not sure they are of much interest to me. A year ago this truely was THE Garter Snake forum, but I imagine a guest scrolling through our posts now, might wonder why we chose our title.

Garters have always been something of a 'poor relation' in the hobby, and it seems to me as though that feeling is creeping into Thamnophis.com as more and more threads unrelated to Thamnophis are posted.

I'm not pointing the finger at anyone, I'm not blameless for posting this stuff... but are we losing our identity? Maybe we should be making the effort to be more focused and specialised?
Shouldn't we try to remain Thamnophis.com and not become AnotherReptileForum.com?

[Garter_Gertie]

I see your point, James. And I have to agree. However, there are many long-time family members here that have other snakes. And they're comfy and happy here, love this place and the people here, and can't help but crow about their non-Thamnophis kids.

Maybe a place called something like "Members Non-Thamnophis Discussions." Because I think, at least for me, what brought me here and xcited me is this place IS devoted to garters. But when I get my Hoggy, I want to share it all with you guys, too. Because I like it here. There's a good feeling. You can see that from almost everyone that posts - no matter what they post about.

You know what I mean?

[drache]

it seems to me that this question came up before - from a member perhaps who wanted to see more of the "other" stuff
I myself - repeat - would like this forum to remain thamnocentric
which means
I like getting glimpses of other member's lives and their other pets and knowing that other members can be a resource for stuff other than garters
I don't really want to be alerted to sales of other snakes and lizards on kingsnake.com or other sites
anything not related to thamnophis ought in the lounge area as far as I understand it
like if your gecko or ball python eggs hatch - really cool and I wouldn't want to miss the pics - but it ought to go in the lounge, rather than breeding, I think
and yes - I do want to know whether there's some sign of Squiggles
I'm just not that interested in all the corn snake hybrid names

[Garter_Gertie]

Is there a moderator that can move threads? Maybe the moderator should move threads to The Lounge? With gentle reminders about posting correctly?

YIKES! More work, but that mite be a solution.

[Stefan-A]

It's been bothering me for a long time, James. I don't think I'm completely innocent, either, but I've tried to keep it to a minimum. And I agree, it would be nicer if we concentrated on Thamnophis here on this forum and left Pantherophis, Pituophis, Python, Storeria and Natrix to the forums that are either dedicated to those genera, or at the very least those that are general reptile forums.

[adamanteus]

Is there a moderator that can move threads? Maybe the moderator should move threads to The Lounge? With gentle reminders about posting correctly?

YIKES! More work, but that mite be a solution.

I can indeed move threads around.... but to be honest most of the non-Thamnophis threads are already in 'The Lounge', where they should be.
I just feel that 'The Lounge' is swamping the rest of the forum. It is nice to talk about other stuff.... but has it become excessive now?

Thank you, Stefan. Concise, as always!

[Garter_Gertie]

Stafan, that's so extreme. I really think with The Lounge if threads are moved and there's gentle policing things will improve. Don't you?

[infernalis]

My 2 cents,

If non tham chat were kept in the "lounge" where non tham discussions are encouraged, it would free the Tham specific areas of "see my new puppy" type posts.

A suggestion would also be to provide maybe a "General reptile" or General "Herp" area, and just simply ask that talking about other critters be there.

One of the reasons I no longer sit here logged on to kingsnake was the LACK of camaraderie, My snakes better than yours type experience.

Now to take Gertie's standpoint for a moment, a lot of times we will have an encounter that may be of little interest to most of the world, and the desire to share with someone, anyone, will just post it up for everyone to read, and of course all the friendly folks will post even a one liner in reply.

I don't want to bash any other forums or even find a lot of fault, KS is way too big, too many forums, too many specialties and way to many specialists. The mods show favoritism toward the big advertisers, who can speak freely about anything, everyone else has posts vanish at some point for no reason or explanation.

Isn't there some way to accomplish the best of both worlds?

Really if everyone kept the general banter to the "rooms" designated for such, the Tham specific areas would not seem so cluttered up.

I'm sure a balance can be struck.

Regards,
Wayne

[Garter_Gertie]

James, oh. Thanks.

Whatever. I do like it here. I came because this place is dedicated to garters - and in my mind it is. I'd like to be able to talk about my Hoggy to you guys, but if I can't, well, I can't.

I'll go with the flow. But I'd hate to see great people leave due them being hesitant about posting about their other kids.

There must be a happy medium. There just has to be!

[Sid]

James, I must admit that I agree with you and Stefan. I've been guilt to a degree myself, but quit adding post on my field herping experiences due to the fact that most of what I find is non-Thamnophis related. My two cents worth.

I still love this forum and it is still great, but...