As I understand our conversation at this point, there may have been some miscommunication or, at the very least, misinterpretation. Or maybe not, I don’t know.
@nurbs You are correct in assuming—at least, I assume from your question that you’re assuming—that I don’t log on every day and read all the posts. Maybe I should; maybe I would know individuals and where they’re coming from to the extent that you do, but I’m new to this community, and that isn’t the case. As such, I don’t know most of the people who post on this forum, so I don’t know who likes to stir up drama, who the trolls are, etc. So, as someone who doesn’t know the who’s who, so to speak, I will say something when I perceive that an individual is being treated unfairly, and if I end up defending the forum sensationalist, I’ll chalk it up to the learning curve.
As far as comparing credentials, I want to be clear that I wasn’t purporting expertise, or, god forbid, the size of my manhood. In fact, I included that specifically to add clarity to my comments. I don’t know you. We've never spoken, met, been in a general circle of conversation, and that’s the case between me and most people here; therefore, I included that information so that you, or anyone, who has never met me and knows nothing about me is clear on the means by which I see the world and treat ecological issues. I want people, especially those who I haven’t gotten the chance to meet yet, to know where I’m coming from and why I might have a certain opinion. Again, I try to be as clear as possible in conversation so I’m not misinterpreted.
And I disagree re: the term citizen scientist. Citizen science is a legitimate and important mechanism for collecting data. If it bothers you, maybe use civic science, crowd-sourced science, or some other synonym?
@T.C. You completely misunderstood my comments on the people here. I didn’t mean for it to come off as rude by stating the people here are by in large hobbyists and citizen scientists. Quite the opposite, in fact. I meant it as a compliment with the utmost sincerity. I think this community and its members are incredible. You are amazing. I’ll blame my naivety, but I was halfway through grad. school before I realized communities like this one existed. There are no active communities focused solely on the Cecidomyiidae, Acrididae, or Coenagrionidae, for example. But here you are! Talking about ants, learning about them, keeping them, documenting their life cycles, distributions, and flight behavior. It’s incredible! When I first visited one of these ant forums, I can’t remember which one it was, I was absolutely blown away! And one of the reasons I ended up here, aside from reading a few topics on each forum and deciding this seemed the most welcoming, was that James Trager’s name came up. I’m very familiar with his work, as well as Gordon Snelling. I actually cited his son, Matt Trager, several times in my thesis work, and have good friends down at UF. Again, and I want to be clear, I was in no way trying to tout my own credentials or demean hobbyists or citizen scientists in any way. I can’t stress enough how important your contributions are to our understanding of these animals, or, again, how amazed I am by communities like this one.
I don’t read every post on the forum, and I still don’t know many folks on here, so I don’t mean to cause a fuss by defending someone who is known to more attentive members as a sensationalist, but I can’t and won’t apologize for saying something when I perceived unfair treatment on a post I did read.
And, my apologizes for structuring my comments in a way that was so easily misinterpreted; I try to strive for clarity. We really don’t know one another, so I’m assuming that’s the case and it was a misunderstanding, but again, I’m am relatively new here and may have mischaracterized this community entirely.
Edited by Cameron C. Thomas, July 22 2017 - 12:01 AM.
