A change has been made in the rules

[Kurt]

As of today, all members are required to display there country (flag) in their profiles and if possible their location as well. If you are in the US, Canada, or Australia, we would like you display your state/province. This is not required, however, but would help out a lot.

The reasons for this are to help our members better. When we get questions like, "I found this frog in my backyard, what is it?" or "Is this fill in the blank legal for me to keep?" or "What kind of feeder insects are available to feed my frog?", it would real help a lot if we knew your location.

We are not banning anyone based on this issue, but we will be deleting profiles after November 7, 2009 that have not been updated. If you are deleted, you will be welcome to rejoin. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Thanks.

[Ebony]

Great idea Kurt, Gee..you don't waste any time , Must be that Sheriff Hat

[Tom Highum]

He no sheriff he just a deputy . This appears to be his first edict but definitely not his last. This will probably also help weed out some unused accounts.

[Kurt]

Yeah that's it.

[maneeta]

I see the point (okay, actually not really I mean, if someone has found a frog in his backyard, he could just tell where he lives..?), but is the flag thing really necessary? You probably won't understand it if I tell you that in switzerland it's kind of right-wing to wave around the swiss flag and being patriotic, since in your countries it's absolutely okay if not sort of requested, but you might understand that I find it very disturbing/embarassing to be forced to have that stupid flag flattering below my name in each of my posts >.<

[SludgeMunkey]

I see the point (okay, actually not really I mean, if someone has found a frog in his backyard, he could just tell where he lives..?), but is the flag thing really necessary? You probably won't understand it if I tell you that in switzerland it's kind of right-wing to wave around the swiss flag and being patriotic, since in your countries it's absolutely okay if not sort of requested, but you might understand that I find it very disturbing/embarassing to be forced to have that stupid flag flattering below my name in each of my posts >.<

I feel this way too, however, it really does make it easier for identification of species and research of laws.

[maneeta]

I feel this way too, however, it really does make it easier for identification of species and research of laws.

REALLY?! Well, I don't mind my country being displayed (e.g. in letters), it's just that f...lag. (and I couldn't even avoid it, since the system put it in automatically last week...) >.<

[Kurt]

Johnny put it better than I could.
Would like to add, you don't have to be right-winger to be a patriot. You can be a left-winged patriot. Patriotism is love for one's own country, its people, its culture, its environment, and so on. Its not necessarily waving the flag and marching off to war. Its definitely not blind obedience or membership in one political party or another.
If you love you love the Swiss people or the Swiss countryside, to me, that would make you a Swiss patriot. Remember love of country is not militaristic and being in the military doesn't always make you a patriot.

[maneeta]

Kurt, as I said, you probably won't understand that being patriotic can be "bad" because it's totally different in the US. Maybe you will understand me if I tell you that in one kindergarten they forbade the children to wear swiss flag t-shirts because it is "unfair" towards the other kids who are not swiss... If you have a flag in your backyard it always seems a bit neonazi or rural-right-wing (the only exception is soccer EM/WM) and we'd never sing our hymn before class... (We don't even know to sing it..) We are proud of our state/province, not of our country, and actually I'd rather have my account deleted than being forced to have that flag.

You see, different countries different habits (might have sth. to do with our role in world war II) and I think there's no point in/need to leading that discussion further. And I've found a solution for my flag problem so it's ok for me if it's for you

[Kurt]

So sorry. I am of German heritage, so I can sympathize. It is really sad about the whole flag thing.