Dear SaReptiles administrative team and fellow members, I am fully aware that this is post is inevitably going to start a flood of comments, argumentative reactions and in all likeliness get my account deactivated, but I am compelled to submit it none-the-less.
I have not been a member of the forum for very long but in my short time here I have encountered endless unpleasantries (however, I do still enjoy the site and find it very helpful/informative), and much to my dismay the unpleasant aspect seems to be emanating from the administrative team. To explain more clearly: quite often while perusing the discussion boards I come across a post, usually asking a question, that has been answered in a rather blunt and condescending manner, for example; viewtopic.php?f=128&t=29599. I can understand that long standing or admin members may be tired of reading what they view as “silly” or “obvious” questions, but a simple “refer to the classifieds section” would have sufficed, and the picture was entirely unnecessary. In fact, please refer to rule 3 of the forum rules and you will find that such an image is a direct violation of aforementioned rule, and in regards to requesting members to search before asking (forum guidelines point 2), perhaps include instructions on how to gain more accurate results (by the use of inverted commas) as the search engine on the site is word orientated.
Then comes the issue of the quality of posts; I myself have been “guilty” of this, as in one post I made two typing errors (I forgot to capitalise my “I” and in an honest typing error I left the “e” off of “love”) for which I received my first official warning. While I do feel that the quality must be monitored, surely those responsible can distinguish between typing errors and general illiteracy/laziness? Coincidentally, a few days later a post appeared regarding warnings (viewtopic.php?f=42&t=29564) which proceeded to evolve into a petty argument and, in conjunction with some further reading, brought to light some severe hypocrisy. I have found numerous pieces written by administrative members that are, amusingly, badly written, grammatically incorrect and poorly structured. I will not cite all of these, but one can be read at the following link viewtopic.php?f=68&t=18351. I chose this one due to the topic heading and nature of the post - definition of hypocrisy anyone?
I feel that there is a need for common decency, respect and patience between members of the forum. If the administrative/senior members of the forum can remember that at one stage you were all new (to both the forum and the world of reptile keeping) perhaps you will be more understanding and not disregard the younger/newer members in their quest for knowledge/guidance.
I will be viewing the responses to this post so as to see the reactions of fellow members, but in order to avoid getting into any arguments I will not respond to any negative replies. Thank you for reading this rather lengthy post, and please let us try keep this discussion polite and formal.