Howdy! @Vesuvius @dalmo @FanaHOVA @ESC @Tyrant @ewokABdevito
Well, when I started Animal Genius, my main goal was to do something to help contribute to Genius more than I previously was. Before, I was doing a lot of cleanup on The Script’s music, which was fun and all, but I wanted to contribute to the website that I love, and put hours on hours into, more than I was currently. So, I hit up @ESC and @ewokABdevito with the question of “How can I better serve Genius?”, and we collaboratively came up with the idea of me creating a new tag. I thought long and hard, and I kept thinking back to animals, since I’ve always had a passion and love for them. @ewokABdevito helped me with creating the tag, and it was official! I started the Every Animal Ever page as Animal Genius’s inaugural page, and I intended to create many more pages, and I’ve done one other so far.
Regarding my using A-Z Animals, it’s true that I do use the page as a reference. Is that something that’s frowned up, using other peoples' work as inspiration? After all, it’s not like I’m simply copy-pasting from the website. I’m trying my best to use the information from that site to share my passion of animals with Genius. Isn’t that what Genius is all about? Consider News Genius and History Genius. On those tags, aren’t we just taking stuff from other sources to help add to Genius as a whole? Aren’t we trying to help the Genius community have access to things that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to were it not for Genius? That’s all I’m trying to do. Share my love of animals with my fellow Genius users.
Also, shoutout to @ESC and @ewokABdevito for all their help with Animal Genius. They’ve helped me immensely, such as all of @ESC’s help with publicity, and @ewokABdevito’s help with the actual conception of Animal Genius. While they did help me momentously, this is really something that I personally initiated and would love to see furthered.
Regarding your guys' constructive criticism, it’s probably true that Every Animal Ever could be split up into pages, however I wish that rather than being, as @ESC mentioned, publicly shamed, that I would have received a PM from @Vesuvius regarding how I could improve the page. I also think that, and without trying to sound braggadocious, that I have taken a huge initiative to do this, have spent multiple hours on it, and I would appreciate the courtesy of one-on-one “critiquing” if someone has something to say. I’m very open to suggestions, and would love and appreciate any suggestions/help/advice that any of you have. I think that Genius, specifically the @genius-moderators, could do better regarding things of this sort when it comes to users taking initiative to do things they are passionate about. I have seen, on multiple occasions, specifically in the Genius Ideas forum, where a user, be it a Whitehat or Editor, has a great idea with a lot of potential, but doesn’t get a single response from a Mod or Regulator. Honestly, even if the Mod or Regulator doesn’t think it’s a good idea, they could at least do the user who suggested the idea, who has obviously put a lot of thought and effort into it, and let them know what they think. I don’t have any specific examples at the moment, but I’m sure you all have seen a good idea simply swept under the rug. Sorry for that little rant.
Lastly, my sincerest apologies regarding my possibly sounding rather upset and hostile in this message, but Animal Genius is something that I’m very passionate about, and want to do all I can to improve it.
Much love.
