Return of Arachnoculture website!!

[Telson]

I had a website up a few years ago in an attempt to further the interest in the hobby at a time when I was unable to find much of a web presence. My room mate owns a domain that was initially going to be a Startrek fan site and provided me with a subdomain for my own efforts. For several reasons, (primarily the lack of response it got due to my inability to find people who shared my interest in T's at that time!) I took it down.

BUT NOW I'M PUTING IT BACK UP!!

My primary goal is simply to have a page to express myself and share my love of the hobby, and it will of course have forums similar to this for any who care to have yet one more place to share their own knowlege and experience. Anyone wishing to have a personal page on the site is welcome to send me a .txt of their html code. I may at some point even set something up for the registered members to build a page using a quick builder of some sort (for those who can't code ;P ), and I'm open to suggestions as to what all of you would like to see on the site in addition to this. Other ideas are in the works not yet mentioned here, but I want this to be a setup that you all get to have a say in how it is put together.

The BIGGEST point to keep in mind of course is going to be that this site will be pledged to provide up to date, accurate information aimed at guiding those new in the hobby and those who are limited in specific areas of experience to branch out within the hoby. I'll be happy to post articles, pics, anicdotal stories, or what ever you guys wanna see, and if anyone would like to contribute by writing a weekly article or something similar, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me a "resume" of sorts regarding your experience, species kept, and so that I can ensure validity of postable material, please include a dealer or other reputable and known person in the hobby who can vouche for you. (Not naming anyone obviously, but there are certainly SOME people we don't want writing weekly missinformation. Anyone not knowing what I mean, don't sweat it! )

I just think there can never be too many site dedicated to spreading arachnomania, and I hope that most of you will check it out, join up, and help me with ideas and info to provide what everyone wants to see and take part in.

Thanks!

PS: Obviously I'll be using a spell check when I write the code and script for the site!!;P

 

[Telson]

uh....

I'm underwhelmed with your enthusiasm...... :?

I got one PM showing interest in partaking in this undertaking, and other than that not even a single public post? Should I not bother?

 

[nemesis6sic6]

I agree

Not many people are supporting you and its sad, but you shouldn't give up!

We need more websites about Ts. I'm sure yours will be great.

And have a nice day


geo

 

[Inuleki]

let us know when it's up, i'll def. check it out

 

[Aviculariinae]

you,ll get support but it won,t be easy,this will test your determination and your determination is what will make it a good site!
I know how you feel my site is new and im finding it hard to get support,but i will keep trying and adding new things to it!

 

[Valael]

Like the others said, don't give up. I didn't even see this post until today



But yeah, you'll get more of a response once the site is up and going.





I've actually been trying hard to make a site of my own. With molt records, random observations of my individual spiders, and maybe care sheets.

 

[Telson]

Thanks

Ok, I'll go ahead with it. It'll be at least 3 weeks before it is up and opened and it'll be a bit longer to get it whipped in to shape the way I'm weanting it.

I'm planning to put up the same V bulletin as we have here, basic care info based on up to date info for as many species as possible, aggresive/defensive tendancies, noted T's with "hot" venom, best choices for beginners T's, so on and so forth.... primarily an on line conglomeration of all the current info availible that can help begginers out when there is no one handy to ask an immidate question, along with info on the T's generally kept by only experienced hobbyists that can help people cross over in to that realm and start keeping things like T.blondi, P.regalis, etc.... I'll be doing a LOT of research for this site and in the process furthering my own knowlege by leaps and bounds!

As stated earlier, I want to give members something to do on the site to make it feel like "home" so anyone who wants to post a page of their own can send me their source code in .txt format once the site is up and after reviewing it for malicous code or gross missinformation (as some people will undoubtedly wind up sending in unfortunately...) I'll post acceptable pages with a link by user name.

Anyone with additional ideas/suggestions, please PM me.


thanks.

 

[Bob]

I wish some tarantula website would show adults with something to scale in the photo. I like T's mainly because of their large size but we in the hobby can only buy spiderlings. Frankly it is pretty hard to find adult photos.
Joy Reed on Petbugs shows adults from time to time and is a real inspiration for me to buy a spiderling

Bob

 

[Mister Internet]

The last thing the hobby needs is another forums, but if you can find something truly unique and interesting to do, I say go for it... it has to be unique or people will visit once and never come back.

 

[rob]

The last thing the hobby needs is another forums

I agree wholeheartedly! I have a website (just restructured and always a work in progress) that has links and photo's of my spiders. I'm not going to recreate the wheel and put forums, care sheets, etc on it. There are enough websites out there with this info. I just want people to see photo's of my spiders. The more photo's of the various species the better. I've seen some pics of T's and thought that the spider was not very attractive and then saw a different pic of the same species and was blown away by its beauty. Its good to see different pics taken by different people of different spiders of the same species.

 

[Code Monkey]

Re: Too damn many forums already

There are currently over 20 different tarantula forums and lists on the web and only 3 of them are worth a damn to the general reader.

This one.
Arachnid_world.
ATS-enthusiast.

Any other forums don't have enough regulars with enough expertise to make them worth the time of reading. Two other forums get a fair amount of overlap with those three in terms of some members who put in too much time online but I'm not going to bother to name names since I wish both would just go away and stop splitting the hobby as Martin put it.

There's an infinite amount of potential webspace for forums but a finite number of keepers online, and keeping up with 3 forums list is already more than I can do.

 

[Telson]

Great, thanks for the input!

Ok, scratch the cost of boards! Kewl! I'll just link to these since this site has a grip of members already.

Photos: I'll spend some significant time looking for sites to do links with and trying to get permission to post copies of pics from other sources as I currently lack a decent camara or a good source of adult T's to take pics of.

For those of you with camaras/pics, how about a page that holds a weekly poll/contest for "pic of the week" and the winner can write a blurb about the T in the pic and get posted on the opening page for all to see with full credit?

As for posting care info, I'm hoping to put together something better than is usually found by newbies to the hobby. I'll certainly include links to posted papers written by knowlegeable keepers and such, but I don't think anyone wants a site that is nothing but links and pics, do they?

Keep the input coming guys, it's GREATLY appriciated.

 

[danielr6543]

Retun of Arachnoculture website!!

hey code i htink you were missing a few good forums you did put up the ats enthusiast but you cant forget www.tarantulas.com i mean after all it is the best forum with out a bunch of know it alls like this site or others like petbugs.com everyon ethinks they are the main authority on ts and its not true while the ats enthusiast has actual authorities

 

[Code Monkey]

Didn't forget www.tarantulas.com, I just have never been able to look at it for more than 2 minutes before my eyes hurt. Basically, it sucks just like another one you mentioned there because they make it work to find information, never a good thing from the p.o.v. of disseminating information.

So, stick it where the sun don't shine Mr. I've-Posted-Here-Twice but I think I'll just insult the many genuinely knowledgeable people this board does have while recommending a slag forum for gods know what reasons.

Sorry in advance for possibly adding to derailing the thread...

 

[arachnopunks]

Re: Retun of Arachnoculture website!!

Originally posted by danielslipknot2
www.tarantulas.com i mean after all it is the best forum with out a bunch of know it alls like this site or others like petbugs.com everyon ethinks they are the main authority on ts and its not true while the ats enthusiast has actual authorities

Tarantulas.com is not the best. We stopped posting on there for the simple reason that the sharing of information between alot of the keepers there was at best remedial. And the know-it-alls you refer to you could learn from unless you shut yourself off when you don't like what someone has to say. Some things are said harshly but take it with a grain of salt because the information is usually right. When dealing with the WORLD WIDE web you are inveriably going to come into morons who never seem to grasps the correct way no matter what and then argue to boot. Here, as in life, there are personality conflicts and as in life you must learn to deal with it. And besides it is easy to start a fight all you have to say is Don't worry about humidity. Different opinions here as are at Tarantulas.com

 

[Immortal_sin]

Re: Retun of Arachnoculture website!!

Originally posted by danielslipknot2
after all it is the best forum with out a bunch of know it alls like this site or others like petbugs.com everyon ethinks they are the main authority on ts and its not true while the ats enthusiast has actual authorities

ummm, not sure where you are getting your information, but there are very FEW EXPERTS on any of these sites. Lots of hobbyists, however, that love to share their knowledge, and if you consider that being a 'bunch of know it alls' then you are delusional.

Telson:
As far as another board, I agree....there are enough, but no reason not to have your own website, go for it!

 

[Telson]

rebuttal to certain posts made previously:

When I was on my lunch today I posted a response having only skimmed a couple of the most recent response posts to this thread... Having now had time to thuroughly read everyones most recent posts, I have a few things to say in response to the line of thought most bluntly stated by Martin.

Originally posted by Martin H.
(exerpt)

Why not just put all the effort in one of the already existing "tarantula portals" to improve one of these? Why is everyone trying to make it's own thing and looking for input from others for his portal instead of sharing his kowledge and ideas with one of the already existing websites?

I don't want to offend anybody, it's just what I think when I get ones again a mail from someone who plans to create the "ultimate portal" about tarantulas "never seen before" and is now asking for the help of others with input. ... Funny, everyone is asking others for help to support his "ultimate" site with input but nobody is supporting others who came up with the same idea before and have asked for help and support before – instead of this everyone is creating his own and asking for support of the others. *hmmm...*

just my two cents!
Martin

Martin: No offense taken, but bear in mind please, that I wasn't around when the others here were making sites and asking for input, and additionally, I'm not familiar with all of the sites that most of you guys are likely frequenting, or what is and isn't available on them, because I didn't know they existed. A couple years ago I hunted high and low across the web to even find an on line T dealer to order some new T's from, much less hobbyist websites for updated husbandry info and availible species, with VERY little success. The only T dealer I was even aware of, having order from them about 4 years ago, was no longer active online. I gave up a fruitless online searches and resumed buying from local stores in person if something came along that was out of the ordinary from what I was used to seeing on the shelves... Obviously that has changed in the past 2 years, as I'm now learning. It was back then that I originally built this site as well, and this is certainly NOT a johny come lately sort of thing, but more a situation of having tried before it's time and then found that it's time had gone and gone, and now I'm apearantly being heralded as a copy cat for the effort.

My goal in doing any of this was simple: A lot of newbies to the hobby hit the snag of not knowing where to find either info or experienced keepers to ask questions of when they search the web. Again, this being based on experiences from about 2 years ago.... I just figured the more sites that are out there, the easier they become to trip over / find, and hence the more people will stumble across them and thnk "Hmmm... it would be kewl to have tarantulas as pets, and here's all this great info on where to get 'em and how to keep 'em! ...SWEET!", and then wham, we've recruited another potential Schultz into the hobby!

My requests for input have not been aimed at drawing anyone away from these forums. Nor was I intending to put a bunch of people to work and take all the credit for having "the ultimate T site" while having done nothing to improve or assist them in their own sites. I wasn't aware that many people had put up site of their own for more than displaying their own T's, though I obviously should have looked in to that before posting this thread.

To anyone feeling that their own site is threatened by yet another one being built, or who feels this is detrimental to the gathering of likeminded hobbyist, let me make it PERFECTLY CLEAR that this was not my intent. I STILL feel that the more sites there are out there, the more people will stumble across them and take interest, and I am still going to build another website aimed at providing newbies with basics and more advanced information as I come across it for those like myself who have been in the hobby for years and had few resources availible to tap for it to further their own collection and knowlege of the T's in it. I will, however, be linking to MANY MANY MANY other sites, including these boards as stated in a previous post... essentially making it a real WEB of information, rather than a disassociated string.

Arachnopunks: (excerpt) "And besides it is easy to start a fight all you have to say is Don't worry about humidity."

This strikes a familiar chord... Refference to a recent thread? If so, I didn't consider that a fight. I think we can, as adults, agree to disagree and have different opinions in regard to certain areas of husbandry. Just because I disagreed with someone does not mean I'm saying they are wrong. In the absence of scientific evidence regarding a particular matter I expect there will always be those who believe one way, and those who believe the opposite, and I see no need for one to force their belief on the other, especially without having done the scientific experiments and research over a considerable time span involving multiple test subjects in a controlled environment. Until that is done, I'll believe meeting a creatures natural habitats humidity levels is the best way to keep it, and I'll admit that I need to do more study on what those habitats humidity ranges are, and those who believe humidity is a non-essential part of keeping T's are more than welcome to do so from where I sit.

I appriciate your honesty in your posts everyone, please keep the input coming.

 

[Code Monkey]

Re: rebuttal to certain posts made previously:

I think what Martin was aiming at was your intent to make a forum centered website and, unless you've changed your mind, that's no longer the case.

It's easy to slap up another unneeded forum, what's hard is providing an information website. If the second is your goal then you will be providing a valuable service and if it's good you'll find that people will refer others to your site. None of the community based websites are going to feel threatened by a good informational website.

If you'd like to see the danger of trying your initial idea, look here. Early this spring a couple of guys were going to make *the* tarantula website, purchased the domain, the software, spammed their existence to other sites...

Well, now they have a virtual ghost town of a forum and have taken down all the half-finished content they realised they didn't have the time and enthusiasm to complete.

 

[looseyfur]

woah

woah I think I saw a tumbleweed over there.


loo

 

[Telson]

Code:

That's the idea... informational and primarily aimed at building interest in the hobby for those new to it, or for those who are "considering" getting in to it, and in time I hope to assemble enough husbandry info on the more "advanced" T's to make it worth visiting to those who are looking to get in to those areas of the hobby. I'll be linking directly to these forums, as well as various dealers along with dealer reviews regarding them, and so forth...

Additionally, I'll be trying to set something up with some of the dealers and breeders who have good camaras to acquire the pics of various species, adult, juvi, and sling, each with something in the pic to indicate scale as was suggested, along with a compilation of pics of multiple individuals of each species as was also suggested.

I'm also going to talk to local T clubs and organizations to try to promote them and get the hobby further brought in to the open to make people aware of it. Anyone wanting promotional info posted for their group is more than welcome to submit a blurb on their group regarding what is involved, fees (if any), location, frequency of meetings, activities, etc.