Activity Level

Probably not PC to ask. But I'd really like to know what is the story with activity on this site?

This was my favorite place for rabbit information but I'm seeing very little activity. This was the place for good advise from experienced owners/breeders. With all the misinformation being put forward (the cut-and-paste activity that passes as writing

Are my forum settings messed up? Is there a 'secret section' everybody hangs in now? Did a flame war erupt and offend / ban users?

Still no rabbits here. I'm in semi urban Seattle (Kirkland) and have been looking for a pretty French Lop buck to roam the garden in my courtyard. I did email the French Lop specialty club with no response.

PM s are ok too. -grin-

Dave

No worry about PC here . No hidden section.

Well, yes, it got somewhat more quiet over the years, interest of users shift, or a lot is already said, and not too many come here to stay. I think the forum format itself is something that got into the shadow of social media with an addictive pace like facebook etc.. I see that on every board I'm on, about very different topics.

Anyway, it's not like there's just tumbleweed rolling by

most have gone on to facebook ... even with groups being shut down. There is more immediacy in answers given THOUGH to get an answer you often need to put a pic with it. AND it brings out the stupid in some folks who don't do kind well as it doesn't take long for a post to disappear as opposed to a forum where the answer stays around. I've found I've needed to delete posts on FB because someone takes it the wrong way and explaining the right way gets noses out of joint.

Forums seems to have less drama.... has more of settled ... use your brain and common sense feel overall.

But for the immediacy in answers, FB wins the race.

Longer, more thought out answers, appear in forums.

Many might just have ghosted like I did. As a beginner breeder I rly liked getting advise and learning from everyone on here, but as I got settled in I found less and less need for other's imput. I also had a really great breeder (ex)friend to chat with irl whom I could consult if I needed and she'd often ask for my advice too. Recently we had a really bad falling out and I'm still really hurt by it wich is why I came back to ask if I was rly in all the wrongs like she said. It will take me a long time to heal from this event, but since I came back I figured I'd hang out for a while more and help others out if I can.
This forum rly is the best in my opinion, many of us are really open to everyone's different philosophies in managing their rabbits and I really apreciate that. Facebook has been nothing but toxic in my experience.

RT was such a help when we started raising rabbits for meat back in 2014. We never got lectured about 'eating the cute little bunnies' and instead found information on many things we needed to know. We wanted to raise our rabbits without pellets and learned so much here about forage and growing fodder--found out that we could feed willow and eventually went on to dry enough to feed all winter. I'd never cooked or eaten rabbit before so was grateful for the recipes and cooking hints. Members were very patient answering my many questions and even were willing to explain methods for dispatching rabbits for the table and humane ways to dispatch very young kits that weren't going to make it.
For a while after I had fewer questions, I kept coming back because there were newcomers with questions that I could now answer and I figured it was my turn to help out. Seems there are fewer questions I feel competent to answer and I just don't log in as often anymore--but not because I'm on fb, just a little slower now and takes me longer to just get done what I need to do. I think anyone can find lots of helpful information about all aspects of rabbit raising here, but it can be hard to find it and I hope that some of us will keep on responding to questions asked by newer members.

Thanks everybody!

The materials posted here are such a great collection of experience. But it does provide a lot of the story and it may not need to be repeated endlessly.

I left Facebook several years ago over privacy issues. In all honesty, my FB activity was minimal - kept up w my HS graduating class from 2500 miles away. I did notice a number of French Lop groups closing or going private.

Dave

I used to be on here a lot more often too. I really like helping new people out, but I'm afraid a lot of the newcomers to rabbits (and to just about anything else) choose facebook over this style of webforum now.

Personally, I can't really stand most facebook groups. Too much repeated false answers and pseudoscience. Too many people who have no idea what they are talking about throwing their two cents in, and too many folks jumping in with whatever nonsense is the "only accepted truth" of the day, as dictated by the current mods generally..

Zass":20nryrat said:

Personally, I can't really stand most facebook groups. Too much repeated false answers and pseudoscience. Too many people who have no idea what they are talking about throwing their two cents in, and too many folks jumping in with whatever nonsense is the "only accepted truth" of the day, as dictated by the current mods generally..

Click to expand...

I totally agree...
It is amazing to me, the number of people who don't buy even one book,
and rely only on "facebook people", to tell them how to do everything ...
What a recipe for disaster that is...
------------------------------------------------
I have another "gripe" with Facebook, ...
I have become frustrated, with the "new censorship" policies of facebook.[and Youtube]
Any statement, or theory, that deviates from the "party line" ,is now censored by an "independent fact checker" company [Poynter Institute, and associates ] ,who are directly controlled by a few well known "big money" people.
I prefer to read "news", "opinions" ,and "research findings", for myself, and decide for myself.
I don't want "big Brother",or "big money", deciding what I can and cannot read or listen to ...
I am researching now, for an alternative to facebook...

Personally, I really prefer forums to FB although I'm not gonna diss FB since I own their stock. At $30 per share, I couldn't quite figure out how they were gonna make money but bought some shares anyways since it seemed a 'techie' kinda stock and I'd not had any of that. Guess I could sell at a bit of profit now, if I wanted. But I still don't do much with FB, it's too shallow to actually communicate with anyone.

I don't know of ANY other rabbit forum where they manage to discuss the full versatility of rabbits - pets, pelts, meat and fiber. Most rabbit sites seem to be trying to promote some sort of limited version (such as only pets and only 'rescued' pet rabbits) and try to dismiss anything else. There are some sites which have some meat rabbits for sustainability or preppers or some such, but they omit the pets and fiber folks.

I dunno, does ARBA have a forum? But they'd be all about shows and conformation and not mutts for meat.

Well, if it's too quiet around here, DeSpeed, spice it up a bit with some interesting questions.

michaels4gardens":2n6iqrho said:

I am researching now, for an alternative to facebook...

Click to expand...

I consider this place to be the best alternative to FB for rabbit stuff. :bunnyhop:

hotzcatz":ojjdu07l said:

I don't know of ANY other rabbit forum where they manage to discuss the full versatility of rabbits - pets, pelts, meat and fiber. Most rabbit sites seem to be trying to promote some sort of limited version (such as only pets and only 'rescued' pet rabbits) and try to dismiss anything else. There are some sites which have some meat rabbits for sustainability or preppers or some such, but they omit the pets and fiber folks.

I dunno, does ARBA have a forum? But they'd be all about shows and conformation and not mutts for meat.

Click to expand...

I'm with you on this, I don't know of any other place where we can discuss with an open mind on all types and aspects of owning rabbits without getting flames and pitchforks our way.... Even just between pet owners the fights cause their setups arent perfect in other's eyes can be scary :nightmare:

dfr1973":36qoq6ya said:

michaels4gardens":36qoq6ya said:

I am researching now, for an alternative to facebook...

Click to expand...

I consider this place to be the best alternative to FB for rabbit stuff. :bunnyhop:

Click to expand...

And you can discuss a lot more rabbit options than on FB (meat/sales/etc.) and the conversation can be in depth and not a shallow comment as it scrolls past. Total win! <br /><br /> __________ Sat May 16, 2020 12:03 pm __________ <br /><br />

KimitsuKouseki":36qoq6ya said:

hotzcatz":36qoq6ya said:

I don't know of ANY other rabbit forum where they manage to discuss the full versatility of rabbits - pets, pelts, meat and fiber. Most rabbit sites seem to be trying to promote some sort of limited version (such as only pets and only 'rescued' pet rabbits) and try to dismiss anything else. There are some sites which have some meat rabbits for sustainability or preppers or some such, but they omit the pets and fiber folks.

I dunno, does ARBA have a forum? But they'd be all about shows and conformation and not mutts for meat.

Click to expand...

I'm with you on this, I don't know of any other place where we can discuss with an open mind on all types and aspects of owning rabbits without getting flames and pitchforks our way.... Even just between pet owners the fights cause their setups arent perfect in other's eyes can be scary :nightmare:

Click to expand...

Do folks even have matching set ups? What works for one person or one breed won't work for them all. Versatility is one of the best things about rabbits. Somewhat like chickens but not as fuzzy.

ARBA is limited to just fancy rabbit breeds and I don't think they have an actual forum, but there's several other organizations promoting rabbits as a sustainable meat source to developing areas of the world: http://world-rabbit-science.com/index.htm They don't seem to have separate pages in their URL (to get to the other pages, you have to go to their main page and click from there), but on the left hand side of the main page ("index.html") they have a link to information about rabbits in developing portions of the world. Hmm, some of their information sources have lost their original links, maybe I should download the .pdfs and post them on my site as well so if the original link is lost, there's another source? The internet is a fluid place, after all.