Geese in gold fish pond

Joined
Jun 24, 2018
Messages
1,063
Reaction score
1,019
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
6
Country
United States
Maybe @Phillips66 is unable to reply, he just lost a lot of fish, and said he is very sad, the other fish may or may not have died, we don't know. Perhaps he has gone to seek help from an aquarium store, and now is busy with work, pond, and any other number of things. It's hard when something horrible like this happens, fish all just dying, not having the answers. I had an issue with my fish, after not having a clearer answer after posting what the problem may be, it did get to the point where immediate action over waiting for answers was more important. The point is he might not come back or he may, and what happened we may never know. I would be sad too if I found my fish dead, maybe too despondent to answer any more queries about my pond. I would feel worse if I checked back in and saw insinuations about my reasons for posting my question. The tread is not that old.
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
13,070
Reaction score
13,394
Location
Northern IL
Showcase(s):
1
You may be right @Tara . But if you stick around here long enough you'll see this kind of post happens on a regular basis. Sometimes they aren't even real people - "bots" are out there on the internet posting on forums posing as humans for reasons I don't really understand. But if @Phillips66 comes back, we'd be happy to continue the conversation with him about what may or may not have happened. No insinuation intended - simply speculating.
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
7,046
Reaction score
7,233
Location
Water Valley, Alberta
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
2a
Country
Canada
People have even posted doctored pictures here in order to get a reaction out of the members on the forum.
At the end of the day, you don't know if the person is telling the truth or not, but when questions to establish basic facts are ignored, red flags start popping up and you start to wonder why the person is really posting.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2018
Messages
1,063
Reaction score
1,019
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
6
Country
United States
So people post made up questions, that's a waste of time, pointless too. I had to ask husband about this as I have never been part of a forum. He told me trolls are not just people who stir up conflict, but also a bunch of time wasters. I guess I need a crash course on these things. With that been said my apologies, I was of a mind that somebody had lost their fish and was in trouble with their pond. I will just chalk this up to, now I know.
 

Mmathis

TurtleMommy
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,893
Reaction score
8,087
Location
NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
@Tara Yes, you may be right, but as @Lisak1 and @MitchM have stated.......there are “red flags” that we see a lot. Not just here on GPF, but elsewhere on the internet. After a while — stick around — you will start to notice definite patterns. As humans we want to give them the benefit of the doubt, so we go along and try to help them. But there comes a point when our Spidy-Senses get triggered and we start getting the feeling that we’re being played..... We don’t need the “bots,” trolls, or spammers if all they’re trying to do is stir things up. Yes, maybe the OP is lonely or just wanting to vent, but, as Mitch suggested, there comes a point where we start to trust whether the person is telling the truth, or just trying to get a reaction from us.
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
13,070
Reaction score
13,394
Location
Northern IL
Showcase(s):
1
@Tara - if you want to see what we're talking about, click on the "Members" tab at the top of the page, under the GPF banner. Then click on "current visitors" and see how many are listed as "robots". You'll be amazed.
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2018
Messages
1,063
Reaction score
1,019
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
6
Country
United States
That's just nuts, what is the point. Now a I feel very internet naive, bot trolls, for all my years of internet use I have never come across them. Like I said forums are new to me @Lisak1
 

Mmathis

TurtleMommy
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,893
Reaction score
8,087
Location
NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
@Tara - if you want to see what we're talking about, click on the "Members" tab at the top of the page, under the GPF banner. Then click on "current visitors" and see how many are listed as "robots". You'll be amazed.
@Tara Another thing.....notice how sometimes we ask for “more information” or ask people to share pictures? When we ask for more info, it’s because we really need to know the whole story. For someone to say “3 geese landed in my pond and now my fish are dying....” tells us absolutely nothing. And as they say, a picture can be worth a thousand words.

So again, someone posts and says their fish are “suddenly dying,” and they don’t know why. But they don’t tell us anything about their pond. As we start our investigation, we find out all kinds of interesting stuff. The story begins to unfold: for example (and these are made-up scenarios based on things we’ve actually seen) — pond is 500 gallons and they have 5 foot-long koi. They say they test their water “and it’s always perfect,” yet even when we ask, we don’t get numbers for these test results. We ask for pictures. If we get them, they’re often not helpful (ask for a pic of their pond and they show us their skimmer.....from 5 different angles). Or (and this is one of my favorites) they post 3 copies of the same 10 pictures — and/or repeat-post the same pics, often the same pics even in different, unrelated threads. Again, pics that aren’t helpful to the question they’ve posted. BUT THE BIGGEST GIVE-A-WAY IS WHEN THEY BECOME ARGUMENTATIVE, and all they do is give excuses, not answers. @Tara, do you have children or work closely with children? You know how they can be evasive? Then you find out they maybe haven’t been lying to you, but there’s usually more to the story than they want you to know about (for whatever reason). So, at some point you become suspicious.
 

Mmathis

TurtleMommy
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,893
Reaction score
8,087
Location
NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
That's just nuts, what is the point. Now a I feel very internet naive, bot trolls, for all my years of internet use I have never come across them. Like I said forums are new to me @Lisak1
Oh, and then watch for the spammers! I get suspicious when someone posts, but all they do is give links to the various “products” or equipment they have. “Please help me figure out what’s going on with my pond....” and they list that they have:
  • XYZ brand pump that moves 123 gph (with a link)
  • ABC brand skimmer that’s rated for.....whatever (with a link, etc.)
  • JFK brand aerator
  • Some brand of beneficial bacteria
  • Some brand of test kit
  • And the list goes on and on and on.....
These are often people who are trying to get you to “look at” something that someone, somewhere is selling! And it works ‘cause I can’t tell you how many times I’ve clicked on a link......

Then there comes a point.....when you start to wonder.....if they even HAVE a pond or it’s nothing but salesmanship. The more evasive they are....

Oops! Sorry about hi-jacking this thread! I really despise hi-jackers!
 

j.w

I Love my Goldies
Joined
Feb 1, 2010
Messages
32,948
Reaction score
20,254
Location
Arlington, Washington
Showcase(s):
1
Hardiness Zone
USDA 8a
Country
United States
upload_2018-8-17_9-21-19.gif
@Phillips66
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2018
Messages
1,063
Reaction score
1,019
Location
Massachusetts
Hardiness Zone
6
Country
United States
@Lisak1 I wonder what way things are going, after the woods today I stopped for milk, and right there at the door of the soda section was a teen who keep slapping the fridge door open and closed, loudly, repeatedly non stop, of course my mind went to the thought, future troll, how awful. I think perhaps good manners needs to be a compulsory subject in school.
 
Joined
Aug 15, 2011
Messages
2,367
Reaction score
1,585
Location
Manchester, UK
Hardiness Zone
9a
Country
United Kingdom
This topic seems to be a little out of hand... The OP has not been online since a few hours after their last post, it's reasonable to assume that they just haven't been able to reply yet. I know that sometimes we do encounter spammers or trolls, but IMO this member has done nothing to justify being labelled as a troll. I have checked their details, there's nothing suspicious. I imagine they are just trying to figure things out.

@Tara - if you want to see what we're talking about, click on the "Members" tab at the top of the page, under the GPF banner. Then click on "current visitors" and see how many are listed as "robots". You'll be amazed.

When you see robots on the list that indicates search engines - they crawl through the site indexing the pages so that their database is kept up to date. Nothing dodgy at all ;) 'bots' will appear to you as members, but the forum software flags them up to me. Even if they slip through the net I can easily check them if they act suspiciously.

I know it's tempting to assume the worst of people, but that can sometimes inadvertently result in being mean to people who are just unfamiliar with forums and trying to find help.

If you're ever suspicious of someone let me know and I will check them out (y)
 
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
13,070
Reaction score
13,394
Location
Northern IL
Showcase(s):
1
I know it's tempting to assume the worst of people,

Thanks for the reminder @Becky - it's always safer to assume the best.

From my perspective, this was more a discussion of what CAN happen in a post - no disrespect meant to this member at all. It is interesting to me how often a member will post a question, get responses and then... nothing. Never hear from them again. Did they get what they needed? Were they overwhelmed with all the responses? Did they feel intimidated? Did they forget they posted or where or how to get back to it? Did they get shy? Always leaves me scratching my head and hoping the enthusiastic replies aren't chasing folks away!

@Phillips66 - if you're still out there, come back! We don't bite!
 

Mmathis

TurtleMommy
Joined
Apr 28, 2011
Messages
13,893
Reaction score
8,087
Location
NW Louisiana -- zone 8b
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
I must apologize...... When I get on a rant, it’s hard to stop! And what I should have done was start a new thread so I wasn’t hijacking the OP’s thread. Sorry, @Phillips66!
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
30,782
Messages
508,590
Members
13,043
Latest member
cisifom

Latest Threads

Top