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This is great news to hear that the closing of the Rat Shack is not set in stone. :joy: :joy: I am new here but I have already learned so much. This forum is great we need to keep it going! :cheering:
 
Well this member is back as long as I can keep "borrowing" my neighbor's internet. I really hope it doesn't die, you guys have really helped me out! I came to this forum for help with a sick rat (my first guy, RIP Templeton) and you all rose to the occasion spectacularly.

Hope we can keep it up, and I agree with dropping facebook first!
 
I'm back and active after reading this :( ! If activity is what it takes to keep this forum going, then count me in!
 
I haven't been active in a long time and just logged on today as I'm bored. I know that since I don't have rats anymore, I've found no real reason to come but RatShack is so important!

I've met lifelong friends through RatShack, there is a framed photo in my kitchen of my group of rat friends and I still try to get together with as many as I can. I know that it's made my life better. <3 you all!
 
I've always been a lurker on this forum for one very specific reason, the fact it is a rescue based forum and I bred rats for 10 years. I still lurk, I just don't always feel welcome enough to participate. But having said that... I MUCH prefer forums like this over Facebook.
 
Sorraia said:
I've always been a lurker on this forum for one very specific reason, the fact it is a rescue based forum and I bred rats for 10 years. I still lurk, I just don't always feel welcome enough to participate. But having said that... I MUCH prefer forums like this over Facebook.
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I wish you'd post more. As far as I know, this forum is NOT against ethical breeding at all; in fact I'm fairly sure most of us would welcome more people like you, who truly bred to improve the health of rats and not just to make more pretty colors, etc.

I think it does your work and the work of any other truly good breeder an injustice to just accept that anyone who puts up a website and starts putting two rats together to breed them, and claims to be ethical and claims to know what they are doing, really is ethical and really does know what they are doing.
Just as there are far too many rats who need homes, I think there are far too many people who breed and don't have a clue. We owe it to rats and to the good breeders to not just take their word for it, to be skeptical and to demand proof, and to hold them to a high standard, one set by people like you.
I can imagine that must make you feel like you're always on the defensive though, and that sucks-
but lots of people here know you and respect your work and welcome your valuable input. I know I do.

the work you've done with rat nutrition is something I refer people to all the time, esp when they talk about making up their own rat diet, so that they can see, this isn't as easy as you'd like to think it is.

I've missed you and I know others have as well. I hope you can post more as your time allows. :hugs:
 
Petunia said:
[
the work you've done with rat nutrition is something I refer people to all the time, esp when they talk about making up their own rat diet, so that they can see, this isn't as easy as you'd like to think it is.
Click to expand...

Speaking of.... I have some articles I need to post on that blog!!!! Maybe that's one way I can contribute to this forum, post the series of articles with my notes. :)

And thank you for the rest of your post, I appreciate hearing that. :)
 
Sorraia, you have very valuable knowledge of rats, specifically, birthing, raising babies and genetics, we would really appreciate and benefit from your input.
Your nutrition blog is also one I refer everyone too. There are so many rat diet blogs out there, lacking in every which way. Yours is based on facts and publications, something that I truly value.
 
Hi everyone

I'm one of those terribly rare posters who's been around from the beginning and have only donated a couple of times :-(

First, I quit Facebook on September 3. I'm still waiting for my 6 months clean chip! (I'm also looking for a newspaper, magazine or online magazine who would be interested in a pitch and article on quitting FB). So I can see http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Rat-S ... 2262266944 but not participate.

I find forums a great resource; the intensity with which I used to post on Pet Rats Canada before it imploded (politics and infighting, y'all) had to do with learning and then I began a rescue. When it went away, I started the mailing list Canada Rat Adoption on Yahoo Groups, and it too has had a declining participation and, I just saw, a large number of bouncing e-mails (dead memberships). Then Jo started the forum here, and it became the go-to place for all things rattie. People find my blog Mooshika from here (which evolved out of the old Small Victories | Petites victoires website) and, I hope, vice versa.

I never hear about stuff going on here unless someone sends me an e-mail. I should check my subscription to e-mail settings for this forum, as I never receive e-mail unless I've replied on a topic, and then only once… perhaps if there's a weekly digest option, then that might help increase participation.

People are now saturated with the professionalization of e-mail, groups, and content on the web. We couldn't have predicted it would become what it is today, but it seems quite obvious that that was where it would go - although I still collect mail for my old main e-mail address, I no longer use it for anything remotely personal, because I get 20 e-mails a day on it that are basically "knock knock, look what's up with us!"

Perhaps some evolution and some new marketing is in order, but I really would like the Shack to remain in a non-proprietary (i.e. non-Facebook/locked-in) format much like it is now. Perhaps partnership outreach could rekindle an interest amongst shelters and new adopters. Has anyone looked at the fancier parts of GooglePlus? Because I've started on there, taking care that I don't just reignite the same personal habits I had with Facebook, and it seems more open and able to connect to strangers and an audience, from an individual's perspective.
 
Oh goodness the Shack cannot die!!!! I am sadly, very guilty of not being around for a couple months.. I haven't had rats to post pics, threads, etc, & I've been so busy with school & such that I haven't had much time to browse, & I don't know what I have to say since I have no rats... & to be honest I think I've been pouting about not being able to have rats until who knows when :( due to personal issues in my life right now.
BUT I still love this forum, & its members dearly & I don't know what I would do if the forum closed down, so I will make an effort to get involved as best as I can
 
Nice to see you back, smallvic. You are so right that the Forum works better for rat info than FB, where everything is drowning in ads.

I haven't been on Google+ for a while because there was hardly anybody on it.
 
I've been away for awhile and I'm sad to see this posted. This forum was a great resource when I had rats, I felt really connected here unlike on other rat forums and found invaluable help here from very, very awesome people. I've noticed on other forums that participation dipped for awhile, some of them died without a trace. But others held on and have been doing better than they have in a long time. I hope to see that the Shack can hold on and grow again into the great place it was when I first found it.
 

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