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I have received a ton of free stuff from Bug Trader. Never a string attached or an expectation other than to succeed with the mantis. He offers advise, help and has helped me with my live viv all for free. His offer of free mantis is not a ploy, it is what he said it was. A great opportunity to see if someone is interested in the hobby or specific species. Also, if you are going to insult someone's grammar/spelling you may want to check out your own post. Bugs a good guy, he loves the hobby and wants it to progress. Nothing wrong with that.

So anyway, the original question was what to buy, and I think a lot of great advice has been given. Ill say it again, ghosts are funny. Give them honey ad they shake their bumb! :) my creos were simple and pretty animated. I think if you see something you like, go for it. :)

 
sorry but :eek:fftopic: can we go back to helping this person figure out what they need to start out?

 
Hey, lets all settle down, why make this an argument, newbie, I am sorry you have to see this, if I did anything wrong, I apologize for the whole forum, this is not normal behavior and I pray you forgive us. Lets just stop here...PLEASE, PLEASE.

 
I don't think anyone is making any real money in this hobby and I think we all do it because of our passion for these amazing insects. However, since when was making a few bucks for hard work considered a sin?

 
Orin said:
I don't think anyone is making any real money in this hobby and I think we all do it because of our passion for these amazing insects. However, since when was making a few bucks for hard work considered a sin?
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Of course there is nothing wrong with making money from your labor, but when a business owner feels the need to constantly bash any and all competition, even people just giving away surplus animals to spread the love of the hobby then I do not wish to support them. There is plenty of room for the hobby to grow and for many businesses to coexist and succeed instead of one trying to hold it all back in order to be the big fish in a small pond frogparty described.

 
Tony C said:
Of course there is nothing wrong with making money from your labor, but when a business owner feels the need to constantly bash any and all competition, even people just giving away surplus animals to spread the love of the hobby then I do not wish to support them. There is plenty of room for the hobby to grow and for many businesses to coexist and succeed instead of one trying to hold it all back in order to be the big fish in a small pond frogparty described.
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Send me a PM with the details, I'm missing where a business owner bashed anyone. Also, I think people get confused when they think things are making money that are not. This forum costs money to run, it does not bring in money. I spent at least a thousand keeping it running in the past and I'm a cheapskate compared to Peter.

 
jamurfjr said:
I never criticized you for offering the freebies. In fact, I thought it very nice. However, I now wonder if it wasn't a ploy.

Yeah, and besides, shouldn't you be working on project mantis. Wait a sec! Whoops, Orin wrote the book. Rebecca owns a mantis business. Doh! And Peter has the forum. Okay, I can see why you have the time.

I'm going to be brutally honest here: Not the that I'm some great writer, but I really wish an English major would come along and diagram your sentences and point out errors. I don't see you as the king of mantids. I see you as the king of run-on sentences. Hard to take seriously.

The above comment's negativity is reminiscent of how I perceive your posts. Your condescension has not won me over.
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Do not slander Bug Trader, you must not know him, so don't talk about people you don't understand, Rebecca and Michael both help people, trust me they do!

 
Orin said:
Send me a PM with the details, I'm missing where a business owner bashed anyone. Also, I think people get confused when they think things are making money that are not. This forum costs money to run, it does not bring in money. I spent at least a thousand keeping it running in the past and I'm a cheapskate compared to Peter.
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I was on staff at geckoforums.net for several years before Kelli sold it, I'm not a newbie to the forum game. I know how much money a well-run forum can bring in. Not enough to make a living but certainly a nice bit of supplemental income.

 
Tony C said:
I was on staff at geckoforums.net for several years before Kelli sold it, I'm not a newbie to the forum game. I know how much money a well-run forum can bring in. Not enough to make a living but certainly a nice bit of supplemental income.
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You are confusing apples with oranges (or mantids with geckos).

 
Tony, you must be implying that this forum is not well run. We are all volunteers here, for many years. For the record, my bank statement for hosting this forum, this month, is pasted below:

04/04/2013 Debit Card Transaction INVISION POWER SERVICE 804-2005695 VA 04/03

$90.00

I paid $90 for the forum to be hosted this month. There are other costs that I pay on a yearly basis for me to operate this forum but I won't list them here and I won't attempt to account for the time that many of us contribute to the upkeep in monetary terms or the ~$20 calendars that I buy for our three mods each year, etc. So, anybody can do the math on how much profit I made this month by going into the Forum Supporter thread in the Announcements section and adding up the number of people that joined this month against the $90 it cost me to run this forum. (And by the way, I also operate Roachforum.com and Beetleforum.net and there is no income stream for them, whatsoever.) For those scoring at home, I need 6 to 7 people to become Forum Supporters every month to break even on the $90. That doesn't happen and I have nothing but gratitude to the members who participate on this forum whether they are Forum Supporters or not. I do this because I enjoy it, and even taking the time to explain this gives me a slight sense of satisfaction in knowing the total truth is represented to a community I care about.

 
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I wasn't implying anything, just relating an experience in the forum world. I wasn't paid, nor was the rest of the staff we volunteered out of friendship and love of the hobby.

 
Bug Trader said:
or like I said just pay $8 and I will send you a box of ghosts so you can be sure this hobby is for you before making any real investments in it. This hobby has a long reputation for people coming in spending alot of cash and deciding its not for them.

Michael
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frogparty said:
The hobby would still perpetuate, and the market will be taken over by vendors ready and able to offer competitive pricing, reliable availability, and willing to expand their market share in the hobby. We've seen it with spiders, dart frogs, you name it.

Hiding a plea for sales behind the " give me your $ so the forum benefits" is very transparent. To me, that attitude actually undercuts the good will expressed by bug trader in attempting to help out a new hobbyist
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Tony C said:
In the short time I've been here on MF I have noticed a pattern of near-constant sales pitches in discussion threads and thinly veiled insults directed toward any perceived competition. That is very unprofessional and off-putting behavior from a business owner, and slamming someone who offers a free start to a new hobbyist is a new low. I know where I won't be spending my money, no matter how thick the shills lay it on.
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frogparty said:
This hobby needs revolutionizing. There is so much potential, and yet we are stuck with plastic plants in plastic tubs wondering if you can transplant a mantises head.

You ever compare this to ANY OTHER HOBBY?
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Tony C said:
You're so witty, anyone who wants to grow beyond gumball containers and licking the boots of a wannabe mantid tycoon is developmentally disabled? Give me a break.
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Tony C said:
Of course there is nothing wrong with making money from your labor, but when a business owner feels the need to constantly bash any and all competition, even people just giving away surplus animals to spread the love of the hobby then I do not wish to support them. There is plenty of room for the hobby to grow and for many businesses to coexist and succeed instead of one trying to hold it all back in order to be the big fish in a small pond frogparty described.
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Tony C said:
I wasn't implying anything, just relating an experience in the forum world. I wasn't paid, nor was the rest of the staff we volunteered out of friendship and love of the hobby.
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Tony & Frogparty, then it is easy to see why I volunteer to send mantis and feeders to new member who support the forum. This is a family friendly run forum, no swearing, no dirty pictures and very little sexual innuendoes allowed. {Notice Bugtraders post being censored by Orin} I send almost all my customers here, an once they start trading on the forum, I really don't make any money from them, as it is cheaper here to buy. I Love my little bugs and enjoy all the emails I get from most people & knowing I am helping to keep this place afloat is my reward. If anyone reads my feedback, it is usually for flies that the forum members buy, so it's not like I get many mantis orders here. Btw, rarely anyone buys anything that goes with the free mantis and food and I have been doing this for a year or more and do not expect that to change.

Here's a tip, when you and froggy decide you want to bite someones head off, start with your own. If you guys don't like the way things are here & the members and their "silly posts" why are you here?

Mantis forum members, Frog party has an ought against me and has told me in no uncertain terms in the pm 's that anytime he can send someone away from my company he would do so. Don't believe me, do a search on his posts after I post some things. Tony is someone as far as I know I have never delt with, but if you read his first post on page one, you will see he received his first mantis from Frogparty, so in that aspect they are friends. No problem there, but friends do talk to each other and stick together, don't they? Enough said? I could of left this all go, but enough is enough and it is time you all know what is really going on here. I did not just join this forum to get rich, I have been here going on seven (7) years.

 
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hibiscusmile said:
Tony is someone as far as I know I have never delt with, but if you read his first post on page one, you will see he received his first mantis from Frogparty, so in that aspect they are friends. No problem there, but friends do talk to each other and stick together, don't they? Enough said? I could of left this all go, but enough is enough and it is time you all know what is really going on here. I did not just join this forum to get rich, I have been here going on seven (7) years.
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No you have not dealt with me, and I have never received anything from frogparty either. We are acquainted through the frog hobby and Mike (Bug Trader), but you can stow the paranoia because there is no conspiracy between us to get you. I arrived at my opinion through this thread and the many past posts I have read.

 
And Rebecca, I base my opinions totally on my business relationship with vendors. Compared to ANYONE ELSE, vendor or hobbyist I ve dealt with in the mantis hobby, you are the absolute bottom of the barrel. You overcharge, unprofessionally pack, and provided me nothing but excuses when I took issue with the quality of product I received.

I DO NOT hold any personal agenda. I get a lot of requests from frog and orchid hobbyists for mantids, and i more often than not have to send their $$ elsewhere,because I don't produce a large # or variety of mantids. These people are my friends and acquaintances, and I want to be able to recommend to them a source I KNOW will not let them down. Rebecca, in my experience, you don't fit my criteria.

Why am I here? It's the only mantis forum online. I love pics of mantids, I like to see who has what available, make purchases, new connections, and share what insight I do have when I have time. Because I don't flood the board with chit chat doesn't mean I don't keep up with what's going on here. I am working on solidifying the technique for the culture of a few feeders that will hopefully, for many people, significantly reduce the need for flies. When I'm convinced its solid, have enough starter cultures to share, and feel comfortable with putting my name on it, I'll share it. Not before.

 
It is to laugh. It's like watching Congress or Parliament.

Did anyone actually HELP this new member request?? He's probably long gone.

Forget exotics for heaven's sake. He has zero experience. Let him start with a Chinese or something similar. Big, personable and easy.

 
AND- I'm hoping to solidify a South American connection for new species through a connection from another hobby. That would be a pretty good contribution, and one I've been working hard on for a few months.

 

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