When did this happen?

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
1,017
When we speak of IQ, in most cases we mean the cognitive IQ. IQ is divided into three "divisions": cognitive IQ, social IQ en emotional IQ. At least this division is used in Europe, don't know about the states.

The fact that you are able to reproduce litterally what you have learned is not necessarily intelligent, the fact that you can apply what you have learned in different situations, shows a level of intelligence.
Yes, I will agree that the transfer and application of knowledge indeed shows intelligence. That's not to the say the person him/herself is not intelligent if they do not perform in a certain area, such as posting worthwhile threads on arachnoboards.
 

racer 6

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 13, 2009
Messages
56
with all honesty, i approach my care for scorpions and tarantulas as scientifically and competently as i possibly can. yes i am quite short of experience, but i believe if everybody were passionate enough, nobody will have to worry about knowledge dying out.

which leads me to say: if the old dogs are as passionate as you say they were, they wouldn't have left. one log-in a month isn't half bad. re-posts would've been helpful too. ALL possible even with a drastic change of lifestyle and career. Hell, we need people who know, in order to spit out good crap ourselves, despite the effort researching; these things always start small.
 

Nomadinexile

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
2,674
Personally I'm all for constructive criticism,but to degrade someone strictly based on his or her experience level is not what these boards should be about.Everyone can learn and it is in everyone's best interest they do.This is supposed to be a community of like minded individuals sharing knowledge and collective "experiences" .We all come here to be amongst our people, experienced or not there are no dumb questions only inpatient answers.The current noob like it or not is the future of "your" hobby,I for one would like to see it flourish in a respectable manner.
I agree with you. I have personally commented along the same lines since I've been here. I don't think anyone here is degrading anyone, intentionally at least.

There are some small issues here with the divide though. "high end" threads are pushed down the pages, and are often hard to find, having to weed through repetitive basic threads, many of which could be answered by searching here or google. I don't have a lot of room to talk really. I've made some silly threads and didn't use the search function like I should have either. It's a normal common beginner problem. Some people are better at it, and some people are just smarter than me, but it should be expected.
On the other hand, for people who are better at searching, and don't want to scroll and dig through masses of emp threads, you could be understanding as well. There comes a time when it's frustrating answering the same questions over and over. That's part of growing. But at the same time, you want people to get the right answer, so you spend another 5 or 10 minutes answering a question you've answered 50 times!

It is what it is. I don't know if there is a workable solution or not, but I do understand both sides. It is frustrating sometimes. I want to be helpful, but if I could just help with a question once or twice, then have noobs have easy access to that, that would be better. Doesn't mean I don't like noobs. The opposite actually. I want more of them. But try and see both sides. :)
 

AzJohn

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Messages
2,181
The real problem isn't keeping noobs around. There will all ways be more. The problem I see is in keeping and maintaining our experienced hobbiest. There isn't as much here for someone with a lot of experience as there used to be. I think most experienced keepers are really only here to help others. I'd love to see better post, but until we have a better educated hobby we're stuck with noob post.

John
 

signinsimple

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Messages
588
Ironically enough, this post and how it is evolving (from it's origninal intent, to the bickering over people's assessment of their intelligence, to the mental masturbation about having subsections to segregate people, etc.) strikes me as a prime candidate for an example of why experienced hobbyists leave or are more silent these days.

Here's another potential explanation:
- Exotic pet keeping used to be mostly in the realm of Nerd-lore
- Nerds, on average, are smarter than Non-nerds, and are generally more dedicated towards most of their pursuits
- That higher than average intelligence and dedication translates into more interesting posts on Webforums (also a medium of communication that used to be more popular in Nerd-culture)
- Exotic pet keeping is more and more popular these days so it's general demographic has expanded to include more and more Non-Nerds
.:More and more posts are less and less interesting
 
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Michiel

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
May 22, 2006
Messages
3,478
Most of the time, to me this forum is fairly boring because of all Pimp threads. But, if I liked pimpthreads, this would be heaven for me. I believe it was Joni Mitchell who sang: where some find paradise, others just come to harm. LOL

So, yes it is boring, but sometimes also interesting, because "noobs" can ask things that you cannot expect, and they have me thinking! That's great when that happens.....Noobs are always going to be here, experts probably not. Instead of all noobadjustments, subboards etc, just make on simple thread where more experienced keepers can ventilate their frustrations and is only accessible to the experienced keepers.
In this way, the more experienced keepers can say what they want and how they want, without hurting the noobs feelings and ego's....
Because some of you noobs are acting like little spoiled princes and princesses that never heard the word "No" in their lives and never had feedback before.

Experts are useless, as only noobs can become experts, but experts cannot become noobs....
 

H. laoticus

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
1,017
Most of the time, to me this forum is fairly boring because of all Pimp threads. But, if I liked pimpthreads, this would be heaven for me. I believe it was Joni Mitchell who sang: where some find paradise, others just come to harm. LOL

So, yes it is boring, but sometimes also interesting, because "noobs" can ask things that you cannot expect, and they have me thinking! That's great when that happens.....Noobs are always going to be here, experts probably not. Instead of all noobadjustments, subboards etc, just make on simple thread where more experienced keepers can ventilate their frustrations and is only accessible to the experienced keepers.
In this way, the more experienced keepers can say what they want and how they want, without hurting the noobs feelings and ego's....
Because some of you noobs are acting like little spoiled princes and princesses that never heard the word "No" in their lives and never had feedback before.

Experts are useless, as only noobs can become experts, but experts cannot become noobs....
that will be a very long thread hahaha
But seriously though, I think the idea of a subsection(s) is worth some consideration. It can be related to research, article evaluations, breeding reports, etc. It's not just about weaving out noobie posts, but organizing the many threads that pop up. Many excellent threads get pushed away and are lost due to such a vast array of posts and reposts. It's a shame that we always have to dig for them. Shoot, there are already stickies for pictures and vids, why not one (or a few) for advanced or specific material? I think it'd benefit this forum immensely.
 

Michiel

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
May 22, 2006
Messages
3,478
I agree that would be a good idea. If you make a noobthread, or noobsubforum, there is a risk the experts won't go there (avoid it), and then noobs are advising noobs, that should not be the case.
 

telow

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 24, 2004
Messages
446
man i miss those days and my collection :wall:
i do see a big change in the hobby now compared to then
as it was realy picking up back then and we were all more a like family
than a just another hobby we had new people asking simple stuff and we
didnt have to refer them to the older posts they looked for stuff
and didnt seem to be so lazy about it (sorry new guys) it was there
for a reason to be read and give info that they needed that we had to find out on our own with trial and errors and progress reports to eachother.
but we all went on to do other things i guess but even tho i dont have my collection anymore im still popping up places to try to help out
the new guys but i stuck on venomlist more than anywhere else because
it was realy getting old seeing the same questions (my emp this or that)
then you read it and its like that same question has been answered 50 times
and alot of people didnt want to be broken records and lets not forget some people got dropped on there heads with prices and all it went nuts but they were kinda weeded out for that because we were all fair with eachother back then and that was how it was supposed to be we were all friends well most of us were hahahaha some of us had our differences for sure but not too bad
then the big economy problems happened and we lost alot of people and that sucks but also people starting familys like me and brianS and others
as well as people trying to better there life but going to collage or starting a career and we lost them as well but some will come back

if any of us that are the (i guess you can say pioneers haha) come around we should fix it back up and help out the new guys and teach them somethings we all already know and not avoid the stuff we know and just dont want to keep repeating but if anything we know what we know
and if we know what they dont and dont help them its not of any use to
know all these things if we wont pass it on so even tho i dont have my collection im still up for helping anyone that needs something i can help with

so for the new guys it would be easier to look back at some older posts
before posting any qusetions that may have been answered already
keeping the post count of the same questions over and over down
and the facts and answeres will be more known but thats just my thoughts
 

G. Carnell

Arachnoemperor
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 27, 2003
Messages
3,611
good old nostalgia threads :D


the old days were indeed fun and good, i remember endless threads helping people to ID scorpions, people asking for different shots etc and everyone chiming in, was really good fun!


as you can see from my post count, i took full advantage of AB!

half the guys i knew from back then are busy with stuff or totally fallen off the internet (see Alex tietz/nazgul, he posted superb pics, and gave brilliant advice, no way of contacting him :()
 

Michiel

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
May 22, 2006
Messages
3,478
good old nostalgia threads :D


the old days were indeed fun and good, i remember endless threads helping people to ID scorpions, people asking for different shots etc and everyone chiming in, was really good fun!


as you can see from my post count, i took full advantage of AB!

half the guys i knew from back then are busy with stuff or totally fallen off the internet (see Alex tietz/nazgul, he posted superb pics, and gave brilliant advice, no way of contacting him :()
Nobody seems to know where he is, very strange.
 

saxman146

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
374
Everything about scorpions lately here has settled down a bit recently. Even the sellers that once gave us access to great species other than flatrocks and pimps are now gone. In particular, Botar. All of the sellers are now trending tarantulas. Even if they do have scorpions, they are always the normals. Babycurus, pandinus, vaejovis, deathstalkers, ect. I bored with these, really! With less access to other scorpions, there will be less questions since most of them have already been asked and answered ya know?
 

gromgrom

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
1,743
Everything about scorpions lately here has settled down a bit recently. Even the sellers that once gave us access to great species other than flatrocks and pimps are now gone. In particular, Botar. All of the sellers are now trending tarantulas. Even if they do have scorpions, they are always the normals. Babycurus, pandinus, vaejovis, deathstalkers, ect. I bored with these, really! With less access to other scorpions, there will be less questions since most of them have already been asked and answered ya know?
hey theres nothing wrong with babycurus or vaejovis!

but yea, its pretty sad. i think when the economy stabilizes, we can get better imports, but its also up to ourselves to breed the more uncommon kinds and give them to each other. that's what im doing with these trilineus i acquired, as no one else in columbus has them, and i expect to make $0 on this brood.

and heck, its about the money; more vendors will sell stuff that breeds easily or looks cool to attract new kids just to make a sale. especially in, yet again, this economy.

or someone could be a pal and grab an importing license and nab us some goodies from the middle east and africa :D
 

NevularScorpion

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Messages
916
Everything about scorpions lately here has settled down a bit recently. Even the sellers that once gave us access to great species other than flatrocks and pimps are now gone. In particular, Botar. All of the sellers are now trending tarantulas. Even if they do have scorpions, they are always the normals. Babycurus, pandinus, vaejovis, deathstalkers, ect. I bored with these, really! With less access to other scorpions, there will be less questions since most of them have already been asked and answered ya know?
don't worry I'm going to ask my dealer friend to import some H lepturus ;)

jk
 
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NevularScorpion

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Messages
916
hey theres nothing wrong with babycurus or vaejovis!

but yea, its pretty sad. i think when the economy stabilizes, we can get better imports, but its also up to ourselves to breed the more uncommon kinds and give them to each other. that's what im doing with these trilineus i acquired, as no one else in columbus has them, and i expect to make $0 on this brood.
more powers to you bro,

The reason why I also want to breed rare scorps is not because to make a fortune out of them but to share it to my scorpion friends so that we can all study their husbandry and be able to have a stable wide variety of rare beautiful scorps here in the U.S. that you can buy for 10 bucks or less :).
 

groovyspider

Arachnoknight
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
255
i think this is also whats killing the joy... so what should be my first T, whats a good begginer T? ... ect after seeing that Q probably all day the old dinosaurs got tired of it and just decided to keep to them selves/ yeh iam a new guy to arachnoboards but not keeping Ts ive been keeping them since i was ten ive nevered had a large collection but iam fixing that got a big shipment comming in next month ( 4 g.pulchras, female h. longipes, a. babolusom i think ( curly hair is the common name) and it stink because the ones who pretty much knew everything are gone and alot of new people are missing out some act completly ignorant like they havent even heard of reading books or searching but there are some that legitally wanting to make an impact in the hobby. - anthony
 

cannabeast

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
143
my thoughts are that you seem to have a fat head. what happened is you left the new generation without any starting point. you and all your lame-ass friends.
 

skinheaddave

SkorpionSkin
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Aug 15, 2002
Messages
4,341
I know that by all rights I should have deleted/moved this thread .. but I think we'll let it stand since it has gone on so long. I will comment from two positions. The first is as an administrator on these boards for the past .. I don't know. A lot of years. The latter is as an "old fogie" who at least knows which end of the scorpion is pinchy and which is poiinty.

Firstly, to those who suggest subforums, stickies etc. to try to pull the wheat out from the chaff, push the chaff to somewhere else or just put up pointers indicating where the wheat might be among the chaff. It has been done. I tried the sticky thing a few years back. It failed miserably. We do have a set of links to FAQ type threads at the top .. yet that has done nothing to stem the flow of threads asking questions answered by those threads. The separation of the tarantula section into chat and q&d is currently still going. I don't know how effective it has been .. but I do know that it requires a huge amount of moderator input to keep it separated properly. I tried once cracking down on off-topic banter. That got a lot of flak from people of all experience levels. Much worse than the constant background noise of people complaining about the excess of off topic banter (such as this thread, for example). I'm not saying that it is a lost cause -- merely that the same old solutions just aren't going to cut it. You're fighting human nature here .. and that is as close to the unstoppable force as I've ever seen. I do have a couple ideas that might help .. but they require a fair bit of work and aren't to be undertaken lightly. We'll see.

Now, some comments as someone who I think has stuff to share. I would gladly spend hours typing out long and detailed replies to all topics I feel I am qualified to comment on. If you want proof of that, go back a few years. I have absolutely no problem sharing the knowledge. I only really require one thing in return to make me feel that it is worthwhile and that I'm not just wasting my time. It isn't credit. I'm not after fawning newbs or the opportunity to brag about my education, endeavours or my status in the hobby (which, let's face it, is pretty much zilch right now). The only thing I require is some evidence that someone out there is learning from my posts. Just once after going through all the details involved in the proper ID of a specimen, for example, I'd like to see the next thread on the topic pop up and someone jump in with "I think we should start by looking at this feature" or even "I can't remember what we are supposed to be looking at, but I remember it was listed in a post somewhere .. anyone know where that post is?" Alternately, after discussing the shortage of knowledge in an area or how there will always be a certain degree of uncertainty in some area, I'd like to see some of the mid-level people (been in the hobby for a bit, starting to answer questions) grasp those concepts and apply them to their own understanding. That doesn't happen, though. So I snipe. I pick out the odd thread that seems to have some promise and will reply to it -- knowing full well that if I'm very, very lucky someone might pay a little attention and at least remember the answer .. if not necessarily how to derive it. I'm always happy to see that some of the people with way more experience and knowledge than I have will do the same. I am always saddened when their voice is ignored or the lesson goes unlearned ... even sometimes within the same thread. I can't answer for all those with experience. Certainly I think in a lot of cases there are just so few hours in the day. Experience tends to come with age and certainly I have much fuller days now at 30 than I did in my early-mid 20s.

This is not to say that the forum format doesn't have its purpose. If you look it over, there are a lot of questions being asked and adequatly answered on a daily basis. For those who want more, however, an advanced forum with restricted access isn't the solution (been tried, didn't work). I would suggest perhaps if people wanted to create and submit some quality articles for our article section that might be a good way to go. To date, most submissions have ranged from useless-->poor and haven't been accepted as a result. If we develop a good library, however, and people start pointing to those articles, there is some hope there. Also, I would suggest that if you want very detailed answers to very specific questions, you take it upon yourselves to gain access to the literature out there. Online forums are not designed to replace peer reviewed journals.

Cheers,
Dave
 

cannabeast

Arachnosquire
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
143
umm.. who was that directed at?
was directed at original poster. he comes off as an arrogant jerk complaining about why his expert scorpion friends left when he did, and there are only newb asking amateur questions that aren't worth his time. don't think it was a very nice post. he could have used a much different selection of words. but he chose to be a prick. i like skinheaddave's response, especially the conclusion/closing statement.
 
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