07-21-2018, 07:47 AM
When I first came online, there was a rich assortment of Zoo resources available. As with the products of all other fields & human interests, most of it was junk. But even winnowed down to just the gems, there was a lot to explore, a lot that was useful, and a good heaping handful that made a real difference.
Most of that is gone now; nearly all of the forums, the Zoo Ring, the story libraries, historical archives, active link sites, like Ian's Zoo Links, and, as far as I can tell, every last "classic" personal Zoo page ("Ren's Kennel" by Ren Houk and "The Ultimate Zoo Page" by Canine Cassanova being among the very last to disappear).
And gone are many Zoos that are no longer alive.
Most of the sites left are porn sites, a very few blogs, and the more "real-time" venues, such as talkers & chats.
And as for that treacherous & toxic "social media" like Farcebook, I don't go there for anything!
I could never get into the chats or talkers; their immediate nature, having to be there right when things happened, having to type at rates that are impossible for me to maintain, not having time to properly compose your thoughts or to research & fact-check things through, to not be able to dodge the flame equivalent of an "Al Capp rumble-ball" until it was way too late (I'm REALLY dating myself there!)
And after all that, with most everything everyone puts out there having about the same useful life as a three-day-old bus transfer.
This site is very important to me. It is the only one I know of where I can enter into a sane and rational discourse without automatic refutation and knee-jerk reactions. It, and its sibling site, are the only ones where I can post my story without censorship or risk of banning.
Indeed, if I were left with only that "other big site", nobody but two or three select e-mail recipients would be seeing or reading it now, except in a bowdlerized form, which would have immediately ruined it, or stalled it to where I would have never continued it.
In fact, the story was well on its way to dying on the vine, until I discovered this site, quite by accident.
And as for non-zoos examining our online presence, this site is the best example I know of for us presenting our best face to them.
Maybe there are some other good or even great Zoo sites out there for those not into real-time-only venues, or as an example of our better side. But if so, I have not found them, despite redoubled searching since finding out how "inadequate" that other big site is, and redoubled again since the demise of Herpy.
Unless or until I do, this is the Zoo site that is by far the most important to me. AND the sibling site, with its other members, the ability to make my own spelling corrections to my story after posting, and with each site as a communications back-up to the other in case one goes down, which has happened.
(Indeed, as I was preparing to post this, the site went down. A reminder once again of just how important this site really is!)
For any Zoo that values sane, sound, rational, and understanding interactions with other Zoos, as a creative outlet, as a library of information & resources, and as an example of our best foot forward to outside observers, this site has to be of great value indeed.
And with the kind of people that we have here, this site ought to keep and grow that value for as long as it lasts. Which hopefully will be a very long time.
Resident Hyaena ^..^
