34 replies to this topic

[Kit]

What is up with this person antdude from http://antfarm.yuku....es#.VfbCONKqqko

 

In all seriousness I find myself incredibly frustrated reading through posts on that forum and seeing grammar corrections. 

 

If antdude was serious about correcting grammar they would have used their talents for good as an English teacher and talk on forums pertaining to English. It's evident that grammar correction has nothing to do with anything. All we see here is someone abusing their power, in fact its such a textbook example the only person being hurt is antdude. And maybe my brain. 

 

antdude please stop embarrassing yourself and giving the hobby a bad name. It's ants for crying out loud, not rocket science. Nobody cares about grammar, punctuation or notation. You can't even recognize bad grammar when it hits you in the face- do you have any idea how annoying it is after reading mountains of posts on your forum all with the moronic grammar corrections, to see this exchange where you completely fail to recognize the significance of your massive grammar mistake! Agh!

 

*throws miscellaneous objects at the computer*

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Trailandstreet]

Please proofread, capitalize, punctuate and use apostrophes, I cannot read this! :tongue:

[Kit]

Bahaha! Gold! 

[Kit]

It just dawned on me that I am kind of doing to antdude what he is doing to others; participating in the culture of publicly shaming people.

 

That was not my intention. I was only trying to draw attention to the fact that the emperor is wearing no clothes, and decided to tell him so here. I was simply highlighting the emperor is merely a fallible mortal like everyone else, by showing an example of how he too can make mistakes. 

 

I saw a similar thing happen when I was in the orchid hobby, where I later discovered the forum I was on had been created in response to the erratic behavior of a mod on the original forum. So I guess this phenomenon is not unique and happens often. 

[antsinmypants]

_{Partly b/c of AntDude, I declined further participation in the antfarm.yuku forum.} 

[Kit]

Hey antsinmypants, great name by the way, I was going to use that name    good to know you found this place and continued with your interest. Shame a few people have to spoil things for the rest of us. Oh well. I kind of get the feeling this place exists in response to that forum. Anyway I don't want to open old wounds, but noticed nobody has just come out and said anything about the erratic behavior, as I couldn't find any posts with 'antdude' during a quick search. That is definitely one name I don't want lol.

 

But seriously I hope antdude can find help and gain a normal disposition again, as such disturbing behavior is no joke. I can only hope their friends and family can see the warning signs and get them help before it is too late. 

 

Argh I just fought with my spell check for a minute there, ok all better, gosh now I find myself second guessing the accuracy of my posts before I submit them, I am mentally scared from my time spent reading the yuku forum. Double face palm    

[Kit]

Ugh I am reading the thread I posted earlier, only on page two and already I have no sympathy for the people pushing that grammar policy.

 

Also I find it ironic that antdude, who has stated he is of Chinese descent, is lecturing anyone about how they speak English. It's obvious from many of his posts that English is either not his first language or was acquired with errors, as he routinely makes small errors consistent with broken English.

 

Anyway isn't it kind of racist to go around policing how people speak English? Especially with the high numbers of ant keepers in countries where English is not the first language? The guy is getting himself into some hot water just proposing such an idea to police English, enforcing it the way he has is probably offending many many people who think he is some white guy with an axe to grind. Jokes on antdude. With racism being a very serious offense these days, I am surprised he isn't facing a lawsuit. The whole thread I am reading smacks of amateurism, any professional vibe they were trying to generate with this grammar policing has been lost by the immature notion of the whole thing.

 

All I can say is I am so glad this place exists, otherwise I may never have pursed my ant interest as I know psycho when I see it, and if that was my only impression of ant keepers than I would be staying far far away.

[Roachant]

In Quebec we have language police for French. It's there to preserve the language, according to the government.

[drtrmiller]

Friendly reminder that Formiculture should not be used as a platform for creating topics of discussion whose sole purpose is to shame or humiliate others with whom we disagree.

Those who have a problem with Antdude and his forum should talk about ants here, not about Antdude.

Edited by drtrmiller, September 14 2015 - 9:24 AM.

[Kit]

No need to be rude. I am simply talking about the Elephant in the room. I am not trying to humiliate anyone, and have explicitly stated this.

 

What is the harm in at least making an inquiry about behavior that can be described as disturbing, and that is putting it mildly.

 

I am expressing my freedom of speech, if I can't speak freely here I will create my own forum. I don't need anyone belittling me; I'm over dictators. 

[Kit]

I'm prepared to drop it, but I am Australian for crying out loud, we say it how it is down here. I think I have handled the issue in a way that minimizes any kind of possible confrontation. I won't mention it again but do find it disappointing that the first thing I am told is to shut my mouth as if I am in some type of dictatorship.

[drtrmiller]

Did you not, just yesterday, vent about how "uncool" topics like this are, and that you had hoped this to be a forum where such behavior was less prevalent?

 

What is with this public shaming phenomenon that is taking hold of our culture at this time? Totally uncool. I thought I was getting away from that culture by joining this forum instead of the Yuku one with it's grammar Nazi moderator and his/her public undermining of people all the time, but it seems all forums are the same lol.

 
Antdude is not the "elephant in the room" here, because this forum was started over two years ago, in part, to be an improved alternative and replacement for the Yuku forum.
 
While it is understandable that new members would be excited to discover a forum that does not have "grammar police," it is also inappropriate to create a topic that serves no purpose but to express disapproval over a private individual's behavior in another forum—especially when that behavior is intended as a way of helping others who, for example, may be translating the forum using browser software from English into their native language.
 
Not everyone shares the level of animosity you have for Antdude, as evidenced by his inclusion in the "American Antkeeping Hall of Fame," a member-created topic also found in this forum:
 

                                             American Ant Keeping Hall of Fame
 
By William T.                                                                                                                                                                  8/11/2015
 
"Antdude" (birth year unknown)
 
The founder and owner of the Ant Farm and Myrmecology Forum, the American based ant forum even before the days of Formiculture.com, the person known as "Antdude" has been one of the biggest reasons for the advancement of more serious ant keeping in North America. Since the hobby of  ant keeping is very different in North America, with many laws restricting the selling of queens and their movement across state lines, the ant keeping community in the US grew higher and was more organized with a forum to support it and it's members. It linked hobbyists with other hobbyist willing to share ideas and thoughts about ant keeping, and several helpful, nice and friendly myrmecologists willing to spend their time helping with the natural history and Identification of ants, thus growing a once obscure hobby and giving it predominance. Without the Ant Farm and Myrmecology Forum on Yuku.com, our ant keeping hobby in the United States would have certainly not been the same.

 
Again, if you have questions you'd like to ask or stories you'd like to share about ants, that is what this forum is about.  No one here really thinks too often about Antdude, and so that is why new members will not find any other topics here like this one.
 
As a final note, I'd assert that Formiculture is not a dictatorship, and my opinion on the pointlessness of a discussion about Antdude does not in any way prohibit you or others from continuing to participate in it.  All members are free to start or participate in discussions about whatever they wish, so long as it does not break the forum rules—but as with many things in life, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.

Edited by drtrmiller, September 14 2015 - 3:42 PM.

[Mercutia]

I've moved this topic to General - Off Topic as I do not see how this pertains to the ant keeping hobby on any beneficial aspect.

[Kit]

This topic was posted here because it is relevant to the ant keeping hobby in general because antdude has been harassing ant enthusiasts for at least 5 years now....we don't exist in a bubble, someone had to say something because the mere fact we even have to mention grammar is ridiculous. How can anyone say this topic is pointless! antdude is having a massive impact on how the people in this hobby are perceived, and the consequences are damaging the ability of the ant community to garner interest in ants.

 

This topic is beneficial because antdude is doing a lot to dissuade newbies from joining the ant hobby, how many countless people have viewed that forum and come away not wanting to participate in the hobby? We will never know, but I am 99% certain a large proportion of people have not engaged and lost their ant interest over the past 5 years because of contact with that forum.

 

It's a bit naive to place antdude on a pedestal. The yuku forum structure allows anyone to create a forum and is free, like many other free forum alternatives, that is why I find the whole notion that forum members owe antdude anything completely ridiculous.

 

I have been keeping ants on and off since the early 90's, before the internet was even established, and have owned various ant farms during that time, there were other ant keepers and websites before that one- it's not unique.

 

All I am saying is that forum is damaging the hobby, whether people want to acknowledge that fact or not is up to them, but it would be nice if antdude could stop making a joke of this hobby. It's no wonder the hobby has such small numbers. I have nothing further to say on this topic.

[Kit]

If I am honest, I don't know if I want to participate in a forum that holds antdude in high regard and places him in a hall of fame. Sometimes people do things that eliminate all the good they have done in the past, and this is one of those cases.When you see antdude now editing other peoples posts, any sympathy I have for him evaporates.  However I am a tolerant person, unfortunately. 

 

This forum exists it seems to get away from antdude, yet we see any discussion about him as pointless and then elevate his position in the ant world. That seems nuts to me.

 

I used to run a forum about robots and know all about what forum ownership entails. My forum was the most relaxed place and I never had any problems with the members, I think because I treated them like adults and never once drafted any rules. To my mind if members of the public are seeking out a forum about a hobby they are not coming to that forum to create conflict. They want to relax and be treated like adults. I just find the fact we as adults can even pass off antdudes behavior as helping anyone quite an incredible notion.

 

Anyway I am not here to create conflict. Nothing inappropriate about this topic. No harm in asking a question and stating an observation. Let's just put this down to me exercising my freedom of speech and it's a credit to this forum that I can do that. 

 

I guess the only reason this topic was started is because I feel that forum has really tarnished the hobby, and is an ugly stain we can't easily remove. It's going to be so difficult to get new people interested in this hobby if that forum continues to be ranking at the top of googles search results when it comes to all things ants.

 

Oh well I only hope more people do what I have done and don't lose interest in ants and surf around until they find this forum. My concern for this hobby is coming from a place of good intentions. 

[Alza]

Either way, I don't like antdude, relevant or not....lol

[Gregory2455]

Well the hall of fame was made by one member... Not exactly the whole community.

[kellakk]

Only one member attacked you about this thread, and only one member is responsible for the hall of fame thread. The beauty of this forum is that we members are allowed to say pretty much anything we want unless we're specifically trolling another member or the forum.  There are some threads/posts that I don't agree with or don't like, but it really is not my job to get rid of those just because of my opinion. Only threads/posts that violate the very simple rules of this forum should be removed. This is the reason that no one has deleted your thread. I can think of a few forums with active moderators that are always censoring out topics like this.

 

About your original topic, it's true that antdude turns people away from the hobby.  I became interested in ants maybe 4 years back and happened upon antdude's forum.  The information was good but the constant stream of grammar posts were just so annoying and distracting that I was discouraged from joining that forum.  I later let go of the colony I had started for other reasons, but if I had had a forum to talk to about ants I likely would have continued to keep them.

[Kit]

Yeah. Just read over my post and can't believe I took antdude seriously and even started this topic. I need to get out more. Feel free to delete this topic if you wish, as anything that gives antdude oxygen is negative in my opinion.

 

I probably will be more active on European forums, as I find more people in Europe keep weaver ants as opposed to the US, which I assume is because they are not legal in the US.

[Alza]

You guys blew such a small topic out of proportion...interesting, glad its over though.