Being fairly new to the hobby (circa April 2010), I have met many awesome people on these forums. I have learnt a lot and have been able to obtain many stunning spiders over the last few months.

It is really sad to see the that the knowledgable people are leaving and obviously taking their expertise with them.

It is also fine and dandy to go look in the international forums, but only our local experts understand our climate and the effect there of on the spiders. I also got the impression from one of our local experts (for whome I have a lot of respect) that it is these same international forums that demonized certain species unfairly. So even there, only opinions and personal accounts are shared, so it is not 100% accurate and set in stone. The hard science is nowhere near perfect at this point in the game.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I will personally miss the knowledgable people's input when caring for my Ts. I just hope that I can keep in contact with them via email and cellphone to try and grow the hobby from my side and make sure my Ts grow up and live long lives.

The person from whome I bought my very first Ts, who was very keen to assist me on day one, has stopped responding to my emails as well as updating of his website.

Really sad to join the hobby only to discover that many people are "gatvol" and either getting out or just not sharing anymore.

I will start this with a white flag waving but...

I am in the paintball industry, and it is also suffering similar decline. Why, because the people who really knew what was going on and enforced the real rules, got "gatvol" with the politics and instead of fighting for standards, decided to fade in to their own world where they only mix in circles of the "more knowledgeable".

Now, every second poephol with a paintball "gun" (which we officially now name "markers" to get away from the "gun" stigma) - is running rampant with their paintball "guns" and shooting every second sign board they see on the highway, even shooting innocent people in the street for "fun" and it lands up in the newspaper - unfairly labelling all paintball players as hoodlims out to cause chaos! But come and visit my range, and you will see that safety and responsible sportsmanship are promoted to the max.

So... now the issue is heading towards the police, and they are considering banning a sport which is trying it's hardest to grow into an official sport that you can get colours for.

So my closing statement, is that I think the "guys in the know", the experienced and knowledgeable people, should take the responsibility to get involved and make efforts to change whatever is causing this hobby to go in the wrong direction, and teach more and more people the "right way" and make them teach others the same. Slowly but surely turning this hobby into something respected.

This is what I am doing for paintball, and already in a small way...it's working.

HS

Somebody mentioned that this is a social website. I could'nt agree more. Just beware of making it an exclusive social website. If somebody asks a question (like Tim @ petbugs), don't see it as a threat to one of your close buddies, but rather read the question properly. Most probably it is only a humorous jab, not an invitation to start a war? If its an exclusive club you want, just carry on as you are doing right now! Why not close the forum outright and just keep the shoutbox running? That way you only need one moderator to control and edit evething that is said.