From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2012-02-09 21:38:11 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] a bit of FHL history since it is close to the 11th history of the FHL
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>, FML List <ferret-l@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG>
The FHL first was the dream of Christopher Bennett. He was terminally ill (finally dying of secondary pneumonia a few years later) and he wanted to leave something behind to help ferrets and ferret people. The FHL dream was part of that.
Christopher (who did not like being called Chris) spoke with me about that dream. I was friends with Dr. Bruce Williams and this was before the Iraq War so the experts at the now defunct Armed Forces Institute of Pathology were not yet dealing with both huge increases in work at the same time that their funding was being decreased (two opposing demands that began together in timeframe). Dr. Williams (which he prefers as the way to refer to him for formal setting like FHL posts) had recently left ferret fora because none met his needs.
He and i had worked together previously on an A List for ferret vets during an epidemic (with me the non-vet who handled the scud work) and we still had the rules the vets had put together for work done there.
I introduced CB and BW to each other to discuss the idea of beginning an FHL and was told by Dr. Williams that it only would begin as a joint effort if I also would be a moderator and would handle the most common posts like adrenal disease and insulinoma. That was one of the times when I had a lot of family demands so I said that I would if we could agree on a fourth moderator to also do so. The late Mike Janke was on all three of our lists so we asked Mike who made us all happy when he agreed. (Years later Mike was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about the same time as the dissolution of Smartgroups which was the second site hosting us after Christopher decided to leave the original Yahoogroups address we had.)
Dr. Williams had only one other demand; we had to have rules. The rules from the A-List along with some of Christopher's rules, and one in legal language which Christopher hired a lawyer to prepare were the original rules (but not the original rules posted), and most of the FHL rules date from then. Christopher gave the original wording to some and Troy Lynn Eckart did a latter rewrite on all except the legal issues one. There also were rules later added as they became needed. For example, when some vets were harassed and others were reluctant to write publicly the rule that hospitals and vets can not be mentioned in post when people were discussing their cases was added. None of the rules were added for frivolous reasons. Each one became needed because of unexpected abuses.
The FHL began 11 years ago. Christopher's first post was actually BEFORE the final original rules were worked up. He jumped the gun because he was so excited:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/YG1
Here is that date: Sat Feb 17, 2001 4:47am
Later Pam Sessoms began keeping an easily searched archive which is still available from the FHL homepage and which has saved many, many ferret lives. She was the first person the original four of us invited to join us as a moderator and she also makes a range of other useful things available for you like the vets list and the compounding pharmacy list.
Since that time the FHL has survived deaths of two moderators, and the resigning of some of the rest of us when our own lives became too demanding , as well the addition of a number of moderators. It is a very hard job. You can get an idea from another of my posts today of just a few of the problems we have had to address: people posing as members to promote a product -- sometimes snake oil ones -- that made them money, people inventing situations that didn't really add up and acting panicked to get attention, people trying to cause fights to get flame baiting points with their friends (Those are usually 14 year old males who pose as females of a range of ages.), people addressing situations that the moderators also did not know were dangerous until vets spoke up, people trying to usurp the list for their own favorite faith healing methods that lacked data, spammers, scammers, people trying to link on porn sites, and more. Even with rules in place those things still happen on and off. Many discussions go on also off-list, some (often things like CDV) are considered too upsetting and those people only discuss them off-list. Then there are all the management chores. It is a lot of work and only individuals who really care about saving ferrets lives and helping their people avoid heartache are up to the job.
As you know, my own family needs became such that I decided to just become a member about a half year ago, but i did that moderation work for more than 10 years, so I can tell you in all honesty that it is hard and it is too often under-appreciated.
So, as a member I want to thank the moderators for all of their work and say that I know that it can become overwhelming but I also know that more people appreciate what you do than complain about it; those who appreciate just tend to be more quiet usually.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
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