• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

wtas the difrence

We need threads like this on occassion. This is not the first and won't be the last that decries the use of abbreviated communication. In the early days, some of the retort posts (usually by educator - not naming names) were as close to flaming as we get.

We actually do make occassional suggestions to move parts of threads that become multitopiced but we are not opposed to a little fun now an again either :gigas:
 
snowmaker;159656 said:
I think I felt rryyddeerr's sentiment when reading the OP. OK, maybe give a pass for being a Brit... :mrgreen: (that's a joke). But in the age of SpellCheck I see no excuse for the spelling issue.
Another thing that irks me only a little is the unwillingness for some folks to do even the simplest search and spend at least 2 minutes of their own time learning about something they have a question or interest in.
In retrospect, I'm guessing the OP wished to know the difference in keeping octopus vs. cuttlefish.
Just the same, my best example of what I'm talking about:
I get an email or PM -
Hey, I definitely want to buy some of your cuttlefish eggs.
So what size tank do I need to get.
How big do they get.
What do they eat.
Can I put them in with fish.

If this person saw a post here (they found out about me somehow), why not take 2 minutes to find answers to these common, simple questions themselves? I know I may not feel like searching a site for an answer to a question I have, but will at least give it a try, out of respect for other peoples time.

I recently had someone order and pay for hatchlings, and then contact me a few days later to say that none of the LFS's carried live mysid shrimp and where could they get some.

The problem will not likely go away, so I don't let it get to me. Maybe it is a form of laziness I see way too often.

The text-type I really don't like... Written slang / speak... I don't know. It's possibly becoming even more popular. At times I feel that if someone has so little time to type a proper message to me and has to use this abbreviated version of spelling, then they are being disrespectful to me. They probably are not thinking that, but it's the way I feel none the less.

Texting from a phone gets a pass from me, but it had better be short and an urgent. Sitting in front of a full size keyboard gets no sympathy. :razz:

I agree completely. I cant tell you how many posts I've seen coming in here where i just say to myself "Wow. Here's another disaster in the making." Most of the time I just leave them on the side of the virtual highway and hope no one picks up the sack of squirming sympathy puppies they use as bait. It's better that way.
 
Most of the time I just abandon them on the side of the virtual highway and hope no one picks up the sack of squirming sympathy puppies they use as bait. It's better that way.
That's one way... another is to assume the post is well-intentioned and simply point them in the proper direction -- even if they don't listen, anyone else reading will know that we approach this topic logically and patiently, without prejudgement. Although it can be an indicator, it doesn't necessarily follow that someone who types in short text is careless or incapable; sometimes it's just a default style.

From our view, of course, caring for cephs in a proper way requires and patience, experience and respect. Posting introductory or advanced questions will get a better response if your style reflects your understanding of this.

So, the options being:
1) deride the poster (not a good idea at all)
2) ignore (that works - sometimes silence speaks volumes)
3) provide a template response that points folks to the proper articles, the Search function, and a reminder that they'll get better response if they provide more specifics in a clear and understandable way (*this* is the best response in my opinion, but I realize not everyone has time for this and understandably they opt for item 2!)

Perhaps just a link to this thread would do it :wink:
 
ah, Tony is in his sensitive state I see :gigas:

A lot depends how the questions are asked. Any site with content is hard to navigate when you first find it so usually I opt for #3. However, a post of few words and in text speak almost always gets #2 :sagrin:. Unfortunately, if no one points out why they get doo doo for a response, they will never know why they were snubbed.
 
Stef, we have a lot of useful information for you here on the site, and we'll be glad to help you as you move towards getting a ceph.

But you have to do put in some effort yourself, reading and learning about octopuses and cuttlefish. Otherwise, you won't understand them enough to keep them well. Make this effort, and then ask us specific questions.

To start with, read the Ceph Care articles (click on Ceph Care articles on the home page). This will give you a lot of information about keeping cephs. You might benefit from reading through a few of the journals (Journals and Photos Forum), to learn the actual experineces of ceph keepers. Earler posts have already pointed you in this direction.

Because it's harder to find cephs for sale in the UK, you'll have to find out what's available rather than picking an octopus from our lists.

As for writing with text messaging words and not paying attention to spelling - well, we're not going to edit your messages or ignore you, but at the same time you'll find that this bothers some people and also may make you hard to understand, so you'll get better results if you write in a more standard away. For instance, I was never sure whether you meant "dwarf" in another post.

Have fun learning about cephs, and we're here for your questions.

Nancy
 

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