The Devonian

Thanks, slim. There were lots of times when I felt moved to post here, but my main knowledge area is paleontology which I figured would be of limited interest to most members. Also, I generally like to keep things civil and polite, so I couldn't bring myself to say what I was really feeling when the soilage started back in the spring. Mom always said that if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all! lol. Even though I wasn't a poster the first time around, I did feel a sense of "belonging" here that I haven't felt on other more commercially oriented forums. "The Lounge" is still the coolest place on the net for people who take their reptiles seriously, but don't care how much they are "worth" as investments. Let's have some more!

I have been a lurker here since sometime around the middle of page 3, having basically given up on internet reptile forums before I found this particular thread. Even though I don't actually keep live reptiles anymore, I do still have a strong interest in reptiles both living and extinct. Truth is, I have often felt like a disconnected "outsider" on most mainstream reptile sites that I have visited, and I have been bored to tears by the nature of most posters' offerings on the larger sites especially. I was intrigued when I first took a look here because it wasn't just more dubious "petkeeping" advice from a bunch of people selling reptiles! I found the viewpoints shared here were a refreshing change from the (mostly) illiterate junk that dominates pretty much every "pet dealer sponsored" herp site that I've seen. Good quality photographs, an overall high intelligence level and even a sense of humour, as good as it gets on any forum in my opinion. Where else could you read advice from both the ghost of a famous herpetologist, and an spurious "expert" reptile breeder, all in the same thread? I enjoyed, read, and stayed silent while this little "Revolution" was underway. I have to say I was sorry to see it end. I myself have been back only once or twice since this thread was so badly derailed and soiled months ago. When I saw that there had been a flurry of activity on here recently, I figured I would finally add my supportive voice to the pile. In my opinion though the proceedings here on the final few pages illustrate clearly why so many credible reptile people (both professional and amateur) choose to avoid ALL internet reptile forums. I am not posting this to provoke, to attack anyone, or to stir up another hornets' nest, but I really wanted to finally and publicly state my personal thoughts on this (mostly) excellent high quality thread. I suspect (and hope) that I am not alone in my feelings. For purely selfish reasons I do hope that the thread can somehow be revived, and I would now like to thank all of the major contributors, and the original poster in particular for sharing their photographic and writing skills here in the past, and everyone for having the courage to present their viewpoints in such a thought provoking fashion. It really was something different. Your efforts were appreciated by more people than you may realize, but especially by fed up reptile people like myself. I agree with Justin. I have yet to see anything like "Bienvenue a la Revolution" anywhere on any reptile forum. What a shame. I really think that the net could use more stuff like the first dozen or so pages of this thread, and less of the garbage that passes for "content" and that fills so many boards to capacity . Let me put it another way (this IS a French language board after all!): "Encore!Encore!"