Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred

[Dan]

Croc, if it was simply a lack of replies then i wouldn't have reached the conclusion i did. Did you see my post on varanus.net? I doubt it as it was removed within minutes of going up there - and that was a specialised post. This is just one of MANY that removed my post and then chose to ignore me contacting them.

It was vague, yes. For several reasons but then if you are curious all it would have taken is a quick email. I had several from people who simply put "You asked for experts, can i have some details please". Not exactly an essay but they still got a reply from me and gained the details they asked for.

As for the thought of me getting loads of replies, yes i did. The problem was and still is that they are all snake people. From those i was able to chose a selection of people who both know what they are talking about and those who have very little experience but were very keen and willing to help in any area they can. The rest were informed the area they were offering to help in had now been filled. I can usually spot the idiots and dreamers pretty well.

Incidentally this is the reply that people got when they contacted me:

[AS]

Hi Dan,
I wouldn't consider myself an expert so I doubt I would have responded to your post anyway. But as an example of why some people may be secretive, after a long time out from the reptile community (illness and other commitments) I came back on the forums posting about some of the less well known varanids, in order to see if they had been established in my absence, this was widely misconstrued (for which I have apologised for, if my posts offended anybody) since then I have been savaged on a number of forums, and more worryingly, have received a large number of emails (odd seeing as I never gave out my email address) threatening me, my family and friends, as well as my animals with physical violence. If various parties were concerned with my motivations I can understand their posting, but they never had the decency to retract their comments once I clarified my position. Also, when I posted about the threats and intimidation that I was being subjected to I never received one word of support from anyone.
I thought that forums were a place for open minded discussion and debate, my experience lately has been massively negative.
Anyway, sorry for rambling, even though I can't help with your site I wondered if you knew that varanusweb.com was offering to give ownership of their site away for free to the right person. Obviously I don't know how you're setup at the moment, but I thought that an already established domain, with a built in audience maybe of some use to you.
Good luck!
Warm regards,
AS

[crocdoc]

Dan, I wouldn't take having your post removed from anus.net personally. You're in good company there.

Now that you have indicated what your post was all about, I have a better understanding of what you are after. I stick by what I said about the first post being too vague to warrant response.

AS, I've been frequenting a number of monitor fora for a few years. I've seen dozens of people appear out of the blue asking questions about rare monitors and yes, the automatic assumption is that the people posting those questions want to acquire those monitors, just because they are rare. In 99.99% of the instances, this assumption has been correct. If you'd stated from the start that your interest was purely curiosity, the responses may have been different, but don't expect people to retract their original statements of suspicion, as your explanation in later posts just read as backpedalling. That said, I don't condone threats of violence and that there were any at all is just plain weird. I guess there's always a lunatic fringe out there.