The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
-- Mark Twain
The past week, a letter was distributed claiming that "Due to circumstances beyond our control ReptielRooms.com is closing its doors." Per a copy of this letter I have obtained, this was sent on the evening of January 22nd. The letter also stated "Most of your friendly mods and admin staff will be returning, but there will be new management in place [...]."
As you can see, this is not the case, a blatant lie to justify the theft or illegal use. Neither did the mangement or mods go with them, 1 person that I wanted removed did. The other moderators listed on that letter never consented to the use of their names or participated in this criminal act
On January 23rd, ReptileRooms became the victim of both theft and destruction of data. The database was downloaded from and removed from the server, and some files critical to the functioning of the site were also deleted. The ReptileRooms forum data was then used to populate a new site started by the offenders with Reptile Rooms forums of the past years appearing on them. The number and locations of affected files makes it abundantly clear that this act was deliberate.
On January 24th, the stolen data was made available by the perpetrators and recovered. The last two days were spent restoring the majority of the data and missing files. The remaining data (namely the Steve Irwin memorial forum) will be restored very soon. We are unable to restore serveral days of lost posts and new stories uploads.
Even though account passwords are encrypted, I urge all the members to change their account passwords as a precaution.
The main offenders, Tux and Shrap, have been banned, as well as certain other possibly involved parties.
I am very grateful for the outpouring of support from our members and around the reptile community. Likewise, I am disappointed that trusted members of our community would commit these crimes.
PLEASE, if you like this site and want to help to defray the cost of this outrageous act, use the PAYPAL donate button to the left. It IS greatly appreciated........ And, welcome back! Reptile Rooms well continue to function as it has, a place for the owners and their animals, not a site for self gain
A memorial section has been added to CrocodileHunter.com where you can find out what you can do to help, leave messages, submit Steve Irwin memorial suggesions, or make donations.
If you click on the link above, then on the image at the top of Steve holding a croc entitled "A tribute to Steve Irwin, the world's original Wildlife Warrior", you will be presented with a section containing hundreds of photos as well as the options listed above.
The photos are broken down into sections as a boy, wildlife warrior, family man, friend & leader, and lastly as the legend he was.
The final photo in the gallery is of him pointing over the water as the sun is setting in the background.
This is a wonderful presentation showing some of Steve's best moments, and highlighting the great work he's done for reptiles and other wildlife.
So, as it turns out, Rita didn't get quite as close to Houston as originally anticipated, although the power at the data centers was, apparently, a little inconsistent.
The data centers were running on Generator power (with 10,000 gallons of fuel in reserve) for a couple of days as a precaution to make sure everybody stayed up and running. It was a precaution that ultimately proved unnecessary, but it just shows what a good job these guys are determined to do to make sure our servers and sites stay online.
I just want to inform everybody that there is a possibility of downtime this weekend.
As most of you already know, Hurricane Rita is headed towards Texas, and Houston seems to be right in its path.
The ReptileRooms.com server is located in Houston and if the datacenter has any problems because of this hurricane you might have troubles trying to reach ReptileRooms.com.
Hopefully there won't be any issues, but I wanted to make sure everybody had avanced warning, just in case.
All of us here at ReptileRooms extend our best wishes to those in the future path of Rita, and good luck!
Many people have asked us, and posted in the forums about how they can help the animals (and people) that have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. So, here are some contact phone numbers, and websites to help you provide help, for those seeking help, and how to help find missing loved ones.
American Red Cross
1-866-Get Info (Missing Persons)
1-800-Help Now (Donations)
Bearded dragons and their keepers have lost a dear friend/advocate and breeders have lost a founding member of our community recently that will be felt deeply by all of us. Bill Mears, of BorderView Dragons in Ontario, Canada passed away Monday, June 20, 2005.
One of the first breeders of this unique species, Bill led the field in establishing proper husbandry for the well being of these fairly new species to the captive bred reptile industry at the time.
Bill recognized long ago the need to give this wonderful species the best possible chance to thrive in the US, Canada and Europe by establishing standards that breeders would commit to as he had done himself.
He was the Founder of The Bearded Dragon Breeders & Suppliers Network, the now worldwide listing of Bearded Dragon Breeders dedicated to the preservation and diversity in the bloodlines and raising babies to an appropriate age/size before selling. That Network brought together breeders and future owners, assisting many baby dragons in finding new homes and to thrive with the support system he had established for them.
Bill also helped assist new owners and breeders by staffing information resources on the online community such as Yahoo's Pogona List and other online forums. Bill Mears was a person that has left a permanent mark in many lives by his dedication and care to bearded dragons and owners. That presence will be sorely missed, but we are richer for having and knowing him a short time.
Note: Bill, we all miss you and will keep you and your family in our thoughts and prayers.
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Special Thank You Posted by: CheriS on Friday, April 08, 2005 - 12:36 AM EST
Silkworm Farms donated hundreds of silkworms to our rescue program after hearing that Wendy was trying to buy some on an Ebay auction he had, to donate to us.
It's people like this, caring about others and doing something like this, that makes us proud to be in this industry.
You generousity is greatly appreciated by us and certainly by the dragons when they get such special treats. They can not say thank you, but we are sure some of those lip smackings when they taste them are for you.
To visit Silkworm Farm's website or place orders, please click here.
The Hypo-Pastel that was donated by Randy of AlphaDragonZ, Huntington Beach, CA was won by Julez and Leo aka BoyntonStylez, he has been named Valentino . They live in West Palm Beach, on Saturday, February 12, 2005 they drove over to this coast of Florida and picked him up at our home in Sarasota.
This baby has come a long way to find his special home and we are very pleased with where he will be living and the wonderful couple who are now his parents. He'd gained more weight and length since we posted about him , now being 164 grams and 13.5 inches. He was a bit in awe of all the attention at first, but settled right down hanging on Leo's Shirt and then decided to take a nap on Julez shoulder, tucking his nosed behind her ear.
Besides their winning bid, they also donated an additional $50, 1000 crickets, superworms and some mealworms to all the animals here and it is greatly appreciated as we house some that will not be adopted, but will continue to care for them the remainders of their lives.
Julez and Leo got to meet all of the various lizards here, except for 4 that were down sleeping and one that is very ill. Axe, I, all the bearded dragons, Iguanas, monitor, geckos and water dragon thank you for your thoughtful act and also for being the type of home we hoped that Valentino would find.
We would also like to thank those of you that bid on the auction to show your support for ReptileRooms.com, and a special big THANK YOU to Randy, for donating this baby for auction to support our rescue efforts and ongoing medical studies. You have helped so many by this and enabled us to do more for the community and best of all, you helped a baby find a great home and made Leo and Julez very happy.
This beautiful male hypo pastel with twenty clear nails has been donated by Randy of AlphaDragonZ.com, to be sold and the funds used toward our rescue and research costs. We will take offers on him starting Feb 1, 2005 and ending scheduled for Feb 6, 2005 at 10 PM EST. Offers are by email pr personal message on the site. We will let the person making the new offer know who had the prior offer and price. Also let the person who had the prior offer know who gave the new one.
He is in a shed and you can see the colors of gold/orange he is on the part that has shed on his head
Hypo Pastel Male Info
13 inches long and 115 grams: Correction, he weighs 147 grams now since I prepared this bio of him, he is gaining radiply.
20 pure clear nails
White areas are snow white and colors are gold with light orange tips
Vet checked and is very healthy
Both parents are from Sandfire Ranch
Approx 5 months old and is in a big growth spurt (See correction above) - Currently in third shed in 6 weeks
Eating greens, pellets, crickets and fresh shed supers very well
As many of you know, we do a lot of rescues or rehabs with bearded dragons that need some extra care and what we learn from them allows us to update information on their care for other owners. We have been doing this for 3 years now, taking in four rehabs and two abandon placements at a time. Wish we could do more, but the time, special care and expense is limited to this.
We do reserve the right to deny an purchase if the potential buyer is not equipped to house and care for him properly. Minors must have their parents consent and be willing to allow us to call. This is a beautiful young dragon with a personality to match, we want to make sure he goes to a good caring home. Offers will be accepted based on the date and time of the email or personal message. The last 5 minutes if there is a new amount on him, we will extend the time for 5 more minutes and continue that till they are none in the last 5 minutes.
We will post the current offers on a thread on the site that is titled for this so others can see what the current status is.
Please send bids via E-Mail or PM to CheriS or using the link below
I would like to thank everybody here on the site for their support over the past several years of this site's existence, and hope that there will be many more to come.
It saddens me however that I discover today that a person has registered on the site to not only spam for their forum but also using MY name on their forum as if to appear that I was using and supporting their forum.
For the record, ReptileRooms.com is the ONLY Reptile-related forum on which I regularly post these days. Life is just too busy :)
If you see users posting as me on other sites, or if you receive any spam from people here on this site asking/inviting you to visit their forums, please report this at once so that action can be taken.
Again, it saddens me to start the new year off this way, however this site means too much to myself, Cheri, the moderator team and you guys, the users who depend upon the information this site and its forums provide to allow things like this to happen here.
We wish each of you all the best in 2005, and look forward to chatting with you all in the forums and the live chat! :)
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Happy Holidays! Posted by: Axe on Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 04:00 PM EST
We would like to wish all our members and guests, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Cool Kwanzaa or whatever you happen to celebrate at this time of year. :)
I think now's about the right time to let you all in on a few plans we've been working on here for the site.
First up is the newsletter. Some of you may have noticed the little sign-up box over on the left hand side of every page on the site. Well, we've finally gotten to the point where there's quite a few recipients willing to receive the newsletter, so all being well, we be sending out Volume 1, Issue 1 on January 1st, 2004.
Thank you all for your suggestions and ideas for the newsletter, and please keep them coming. Some of the feedback we received was great, and a few ideas are being implemented, and some may take a while to work their way in.
We are also currently looking at running some competitions on the site. We do have some sponsors who have offered some great prizes, so keep an eye out for that one. We'll be posting more news and info on those as things start to come together.
The biggest thing regarding the site right now is that we're currently in the process of developing a new version of the site. It will essentially remain the same, as far as navigation goes, however there will be quite a bit more content being added when it goes up, and the site will run a lot smoother and faster. All the current software is either being upgraded, optimized or completely rewritten to help speed things up a bit.
The site has grown to the point where it won't be able to hold up for long if the traffic continues to grow at the rate it has been this past year. So, these upgrades and modifications will help us handle much more traffic than we're already receiving (Thanks everybody!).
Along with a major site overhaul and upgrade will be new features. Some of the existing sections of the site, such as the shows database, will be completed and streamlined to be a bit more useful, and we will be expanding the functionality of these areas to enhance your browsing experience on the site.
There are a couple of other big things that are coming as part of the site upgrade, but I do want to leave a couple of surprises for you all so I'm not going to say anything about them just yet.
The overhaul of the site is a HUGE undertaking (we're basically recreating nearly 4 years of work), so don't expect any changes overnight. If we manage to stay on schedule, this upgrade should happen near the end of February. I will be taking the site off-line during this process, but I will let everybody know well in advance that it's going to happen so you can all be prepared.
Again, happy holidays to all, and thank you for visiting The Reptile Rooms!
Dr Jen graduated from Michigan State University, College of Vet Med, May 7, 2004, Class of 2004. She will be joining a practice in Michigan working with exotic.
Jen has had a very eventful past few years and we are honored to have been able to have them shared with us.
We are happy to announce that GeckoIsland.com is going to be Merging with ReptileRooms.com.
Over the coming weeks, you will start to see GeckoIsland.com's articles & care sheets migrate over to ReptileRooms.com, along with some of GI's other popular features (Gecko Of The Month, etc.).
All of your GI user accounts have been transferred to ReptileRooms.com, so there is no need to re-register over there if you don't already have an account on ReptileRooms.com. You can log into your ReptileRooms.com account using your existing GeckoIsland.com login details. Click if you do not know your password to login.
Along with the new features, ReptileRooms.com is going to be opening up positions for moderators, and people to help out with certain aspects of the site. These positions will be announced as they are decided, so please be patient as all this is figured out.
ATTENTION GI GALLERY OWNERS : As a gallery account on this website is a perk for those who have donated to the site, the free galleries on GeckoIsland.com will not be transferred here, however Axe will have a backup of everybody's images. Please contact Axe to get a copy of those images if you need them. They will be kept safe until March 31st, 2004, then they will be deleted.
Obviously, the combining of two large sites such as The Reptile Rooms and Gecko Island takes a lot of work and effort, so don't expect things to happen overnight, or to happen completely without error. If you com across any problems at all, or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Silas or Axe.
This Yuletide Season brings many changes to reptilerooms (the least of which being the snow you're probably seeing falling down your monitor screen right now). Over the coming weeks you will start to see some changes on ReptileRooms, as we add much more content & features to the site.
We are currently in the process of preparing a lot of articles and other information to go up in the care sheets, as well as one or two other surprises.
Please let us know if you run across any problems with the site, and I'll do my best to get to them as soon as possible.
Lisa's father had brain surgery in Virginia on Monday (11-24-03). Lisa lives in Florida and is in a tough financial situation. She is a mother of three and it is the holidays so that makes money tight. Well, Lisa would like to be able to fly up to Virginia to see her father on Wednesday (11-26-03) and stay in Virginia with her ill father for a week. This will be an expensive trip, she needs money for air fair and to stay in a hotel. A collection has been taken up to help Lisa financially.
We've decided to try and schedule a weekly chat so everybody can get together in a little more of an organised fashion. You can either access the live-chat through the web here or from a regular IRC client such as mIRC. For those of you wishing to connect through your reguar IRC client, you can do so by connecting to irc.reptilerap.com and joining #reptilerooms.
Initially, we're going to have chats on Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights from 7-11pm, to try and work out which was the most popular night. We'll work from there to see how things go.
The chat room is open 24hrs a day, although there may not always be somebody in there. If you need help, just ask your question, and if anybody is around, the will do their best to help you. Do not get discouraged if you do not get a reply straight away, people may be away, making a coffee, tending to their reptiles or simply on the phone, but people do return fairly regularly.
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Spring Reptile Show Posted by: LizardGuy1313 on Saturday, April 12, 2003 - 09:50 PM EST
Once again the Edmonton Reptile and Amphibian Society is having their annual spring Reptile show.
The Location is: Northmount Community Center
9208 140 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
When:April 26 & 27
Saterday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Admission: Adult : $3
Child : $2
Children under 4 are free.
If you are in the area, feel free to drop in. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, or visit www.edmontonreptiles.com.
In August of 2002, Reptile Republic, an affiliate of Fluker Farms opened a website and E-mailed many users from other forums inviting them to their site, to get a passport and a chance to win a free dragons.
Some forums were forced to change their authentication system to try and safeguard those users. Which, in turn, we as community members lost the privledge of being able to contact others in direct email. That was only the start of what ended being a disasterous turn of events for herp lovers on the web.
Happy Turkey day everybody! We've added a whole bunch more products to the Reptile Rooms Online Store today.
Remember, you've still got to December 2nd to get discounts on many of our products, and flat rate shipping regardless of the amount you order.
Have fun! :)
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Christmas Shopping! Posted by: Axe on Wednesday, November 20, 2002 - 07:36 PM EST
I just got an E-Mail from CafePress this morning telling me about their Christmas Specials they're doing.
If you buy from the Reptile Rooms Online Store before December 2nd, you can get discounts on jerseys, hooded sweatshirts and more, as well as flat rate "super shipping" regardless of how much you order.
So, help support The Reptile Rooms! Head on over and check it out!
I'll be changing the designs about every coupla months, so keep popping back to the store. You might see something you like!
The site is making VERY little money of each item sold, and every penny goes straight back into the cost of hosting the site and paying for the bandwidth it requires.
Remember, this is YOUR community, this site is here for you as much as it is for me, so if you wish to show your support, please head on over to the store and treat yourself.
Well, it's that time again, another news post. I've been toying around with an idea recently, and I'd like a little feedback, so please post a comment in response to this.
I've been thinking about getting together some Reptile Rooms T-Shirts, mousemats, etc. for sale online through the CafePress website.
Everything will be marked up at the base price, and we won't be making a penny off this, so I just wanted to see what you all think.
Would you purchase a Reptile Rooms T-Shirt, sweatshirt, hooded top or mousemat if we came up with some designs?
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Reptile Expo Comin Up Posted by: LizardGuy1313 on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 05:38 PM EST
It is finally coming. The Edmonton Reptile and amphibian Society is having their second show this year. We are all excited and can't wait because this one is going to be bigger and better than ever. For more info visit www.edmontonreptiles.com.
Well, what can I say? Daytona was absolutely amazing.
Aside from the multitude of reptiles on display, there were some GREAT people at the show (both traders and visitors). We met up with quite a few people we knew, including our very own DeepEyes from here on the site, as well as Pogona Group (all of which were very cool people).
As happens at pretty much any reptile show, we walked away with a few new residents. Pride of purchase was a GORGEOUS Red X Gold Sandfire from Bob himself. Well, almost. We got him in the auction at the hotel on Saturday night, but he was bred and donated to the auction by Bob @ The Sandfire Ranch. Sandfire Ranch brought some BEAUTIFUL dragons to the show and Bob was very helpful and gave us a lot of good information to chew on for a while.
Note: Anybody who went to Daytona, please feel free to register and add your comments below!
As you may have figured out, I've changed the theme of the site slightly. No major dramatic changes in form or function, just neatened things up a little bit to give a cleaner view.
There will be more changes coming over the next few weeks as I add more things to the site, and change a few other things. If you have any suggestions, or comments, please don't hesitate to E-Mail me.
I've also been working closely with Reptile Rescue, Canada on the development of their new site, so make sure you head on over and say hello. Their new site is in beta at the moment while it's still being worked on, and should be live soon.
The main index page has a preview image of our webcam now too. The webcam is pointed at the latest reptilian addition to our family. Myst is our 4 month old (hopefully) female bearded dragon. I say hopefully, cuz it's still kinda early to tell, but all signs so far are promising. As well as the usual way to determine sex, her build, attitude and actions (toward humans as well as other dragons) are all helping to confirm our hopes.
Greg Allan a.k.a. Adam_Baum, the lead core developer and one of the four founding members of the PostNuke CMS Development Project passed away from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. The accident occurred June 16, 2002 near his home in Meaford, Ontario in Canada.
Greg Allan was a humble and personable man who always downplayed his considerable skills. He was a self-taught coder who contributed to every aspect of development from cleaning up other people's code to writing new and innovative software.
Greg was an invaluable asset to the PostNuke development team, and a dear and trusted friend and co-worker to thousands of people on every continent. Through this first year of PostNuke's existence, Greg's personable and giving nature has been a guiding light and inspiration to many people and projects that have shaped the development landscape and social personality of the PostNuke project.
Surviving Greg are his parents, Bob and Leona Allan, his girlfriend Kim and her two children Kristin and Kassandra, his dog Chevy, and trusted friend Natasha.
In memory of Greg and out of respect for all those mourning his passing, all PostNuke development and official support activity has been suspended for one week. We urge all those using PostNuke to post a copy of this article on each of your PostNuke-Powered sites to commemorate the memory and accomplishments of Adam_Baum. Please refer your condolences and comments to this URL.
For funeral arrangements, flower delivery information and memorial contributions, please email steve@grape.dyndns.org for more information. On behalf of the PostNuke Development Team.
Steve MacGregor (grape)
PostNuke Support Operations Manager
Note: PostNuke is the software which powers this website, and none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for the great work of Greg and the others involved with the project. He was a personal friend of the webmaster here, and he will be missed terribly by all.
