This dabbles into a fine line we have dealt with many times in the past. As many on here can tell you, I used to be the 1st one to pipe up tell people to quit being stupid. Heck they probably made me a moderator to try to slow me down a bit, LOL.

Anyway, we definitely need to point out that it is wrong to kill the snakes. The manner of doing so is where it gets tricky. As much as we hate having to be civil when blatant ignorance is displayed, we need to try our best to play nice and educate. In my opinion, the posts that sparked this discussion really weren't that bad. However, they were teetering on the edge of hateful vs helpful. So don't take what Kory said as a slap on the hand or anything (correct me if I'm wrong Kory). I think it was more to make sure we don't get into a habit of running off people that we could potentially motivate to help rather than pointlessly kill herps.

I'm seriously thinking troll on those pics. Would any one of receive the same courtesy from a birders forum showing pics of birds we killed or dog forums showing DOR Cocker Spaniels? Hell no we wouldn't!! Again in my opinion,this was a pretty blatant troll and I will continue to respond to this ( and many others in the past) in the same manner.

I have not read that thread yet, came here to read first and dont spend my days monitoring the posts here anymore because we're all pretty comfortable in trusting each other's responses when ID issues come up... ignorantly posted or not.   As much as this site is for "everyone" -- the FORUMS.. are not. We only encourage people to post here when they are looking for help in identifications, deterants, questions, etc...  We dont ask random people who find us to post on the forums about their blatant kills... The forums here are more geared toward people within the hobby, posting reports, research, scientific questions. Q & A posters come and go pretty quickly and usually do not register.... I cant imagine anyone in this hobby or field of expertise would show much compassion for a person who pawns himself off as innocent but when looking into it further, seems to intentionally want a rise out of us.

If some local looking for a snake ID comes to our site looking for information on the snake they just killed, it directs them to the galleries for a proper ID (at least it used to!) .. Like Kory said, its emotional... some more than others because of the manner amd attitudes in which they are posted. We can try to guide the "kill first, question later" and reprimand without chastising someone.. MOST cases the poster feels bad, apologizes and learns something. We've all been TALKING in person to people with the "tough crap, I killed it, whatcha gonna do" mouth and we have to walk away, its not so easy to do that in posts.

I'm not trying to pour fuel on the fire and I mean no disrespect. Those of you who have met/herped with me know i'm a pretty laid back guy;  but I stand by my original post.
I think the guy was trying to get us fired up.  He came on the forum and said he likes snakes and stated that he owns the Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas field guide, ( a book that not just anyone is going to buy due to it's $40 cost) yet he claims he couldn't find the snake in the book???  I have a hard time believing he was simply an innocent bystander.

I agree with Kory and Josh.  I looked at the post that started this and it really was VERY tame compared to some in the past (anyone remember the guy bragging about decapitating ringnecks?).  I don't think he was trying to get us fired up at all.  I think he was honest.  If he wanted to get us fired up he would have used pictures that were much more graphic.

And as far as him having the book and not being able to figure out what kind of snake it was, I think we need to remember that not everyone is at the level we are.  I took a class one time where the professor was holding a bird in his hand while me and another student tried to ID it.  Neither of us were birders so we looked for quite a while through our field guide and made guess after guess only to get it wrong.  In the end he had to tell us what it was.  Yes, birds are harder to ID than snakes.  But if this guy was amateur enough, then he could have had a similar problem.  Maybe he was looking mainly at pictures and not relying on the text.  Some of the text has words that a non-scientifically inclined person might not understand so pictures would be easier to use.  But there is a lot of phenotypic variation and you can't have enough pictures to represent all of it.  Some people look for a picture that looks EXACTLY like the snake they saw, but can't find the exact same thing and get confused.  I suspect that may have happened in this case.

Also, I agree that the responses weren't bad, but it was good for Kory to say something about it BEFORE it got ugly.  Those of us who have been here longer can remember some very ugly discussions, such as the one about the ringnecks and our friend Kachunga (anybody remember him?).  I think the better thing to do is to try to keep things from getting that far because some people will just be turned off by us if we are constantly berating people who have an honest, though misguided, question or opinion.  I think we've all had someone come brag to us about killing a snake.  I've had students do that to me and it can be really hard not to say something that I shouldn't.  But if you tell people how wrong they are and look down on them, you're not likely to get the point across that snakes are actually not bad.  Try a little understanding from their point of view, give it time, and they might come across.  But some of the people who have come to this website and didn't get that from us are probably lost causes because we didn't approach them with some understanding.  One person has to be the bigger person in these situations, and I think it would help everyone involved if we are the bigger people.

  Kachunga indeed!!!!

I agree that we have to try and educate. Believe me I have bitten my tongue many times when dealing with people who know little or nothing about snakes hoping to be able to reach them. Sometimes, it pays off, but I just didn't get a good feeling in this case. Maybe i'm wrong.

I agree that this has gotten too serious. Chuck Norris once stared at a black mamba and it was instantly paralyzed with fear. Really though, try to educate. The "ignorant" people that refuse to listen usually just want to get a rise out of you and the best thing you can do is not let it get to you just because they want it to.

I like that. I guess i've inadvertently lived by that saying my entire life. I do, however, wish that people could realize that there's a lot to learn from animals and just because it's scary doesn't make it deadly. And you gotta be careful with those Subway sandwiches, they're not scary but you try to eat it like a serpent and it can be deadly, lol.