SANParks calls for participation in Emerging Tuskers Project

[100ponder]

Hey !

This is 2014 -- 6 [ SIX ] years after 2008 and SANPARKS will now only publish the EMERGING TUSKERS report when available ! !

Say no more ! !

[Flip&Elmien]

Today I am sooo NOT proudly South African. Sanparks I think you failed badly.
Sorry Aat and everybody else that has contributed to a great topic.

Flip

[Imberbe]

OK, let me try and understand something here.

Someone uses this SANParks created Forum to harvest invaluable information on a topic which he would not have been able to gain in another way.
He then directs it to a private site over which he has total control and ownership.
He needs to report to no-one and establishes himself as judge over the content even though the content is directly the responsibility of SANParks.
He uses the same SANParks Forum to promote this project.

And then we ask why SANParks has a problem with this?

I have a positive suggestion to sort out the problem:

Perhaps Aat will be willing to donate his site to SANParks and work with them to manage the project in a positive way.

[AdrianFW]

Imberbe,

I cannot let what you have written go unchallenged. This post is against my better judgement but I will let others decide who out of me, Aat, the Mods of this Forum, SANParksHR and SANParks themselves have the clearer view of the world.

For me I have a love of wildlife and elephants. In the absence of anything else I shared sightings, photographs etc with Aat. He was engaging and encouraging. There was nowhere on this site I could find to contribute directly to SANParks and still don't feel there is an effective vehicle for that. They are not interested. When I visited the Elephant Hall in Letaba in November last year I was desperate for information. I stopped at the desk and talked to the lady there. She wasn't interested in me. She wanted to paint her nails and play on her phone. I can't even find the SANParks current management plan for Loxodonta africana - can you help me there?

SANParks as represented on this website are an embarrassment to all honourable South Africans. How God gave you custody of some of the worlds most important wildlife is beyond me.

How do I know this? Easy and I will tell you but the problem, which I have been aware of for months and months, will be fixed in the morning, this post will be deleted and I will be banned from this site. But do me a favour and try it.

Go on. Go the the homepage of SANParks. You know http://www.sanparks.org The SANParks shop window to the world. Look at the right hand side. Yes there: Hot Links The first one: SANParks: Connecting to Society and click on the link. Here it is: http://www.sanparks.org/connecting_to_society/default.php

Guess what - its a BROKEN LINK. I couldn't have prepared a more accurate representaion of SANPArks as presented on this website and forum myself. Broken and disconnected sums it up. The saddest part is nobody in SANParks knows or cares. Just like all the other broken links and missing resources on this website it takes me, an Englishman, an occasional visitor to highlight this. I have reported many defects on this website over the years and guess what? Most are still defective today!

Are you a proud supporter of SANParks and a proud South African now?

You say in your signature:

One positive deed is worth more than a thousand critical words.

Do that positive deed now. Retract what you have written and offer Aat a public apology here and now.

[bwana]

Surely a more positive step would have been for SANparks to engage Aat and work with him on this? This is so unprofessional and smacks of an organisation which has either lost sight of its duty of care, not only to the fauna and flora but also to the public, (who utilise the natural resources under their custodianship) or they have in their employ people naive in the art of public relations.
I guess like in many aspects of South African governance: power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely or ignorance is bliss. Pick one.

On a side note: is this forum run by the Gestapo now? Warnings, cool off periods, banning people, locking threads, rule amendments, sensitivity to criticism.

[Sharifa]

Oops, the link does not work: The server cannot find the requested page.

Connecting to Society, the Vison of SANParks.

[Stark]

Imberbe, maybe you know more about the situation than us normal mites do, but I think your post unfairly paints Aat in a negative light.

I'm not sure when the knives came out, or why, but it certainly seems the receptiveness of Aats hard work sure turned quick.

You'll have to forgive some of us if it has come as a bit of a shock, especially considering that SANParks appeared taken by surprise how unprepared their website, operations, and processes were to take over the work. You'd think some due diligence would have been done before the announcement and plea was made. Instead SANParks looks rushed, unprepared, and unprofessional in how they've handled this.

[Stark]

In all fairness to SANParks, I did report this broken link in a "404" thread during cricket and DB said she'd let the web team know.

[arks]

On a side note: is this forum run by the Gestapo now? Warnings, cool off periods, banning people, locking threads, rule amendments, sensitivity to criticism.

Yes, well you've not been around here in some time, bwana (and parenthetically, how nice it is to see you here!) ... how times (and the fourm) have changed

[kesheshe]

Imberbe - all I can say is wow and really.

I could not agree more with the posters that have posted after you this is exactly why I posted my open question to this forum.

in a related post to issues on the forum it was mentioned if I read it correctly that there was 120 active users. Well the way things are going I am beginning to wonder how many will be active next week.

[100ponder]

Imberbe, Your logic astounds me.

Applying your logic to my photo album where I have elephants called names of my choice. I invite others to also place their photos in my album but I decide what I want to name those photos.

Now your logic seems to put my album under jurisdiction of SANPARKS just because some of the photos happens to originate from Kruger ?

Just remember ons thing - not a single national park belongs to SANPARKS - we, the people of South Africa own the parks, we have just appointed a group of people to look after the national parks - same as a chain store appoints managers to look after their wide spread outlets.

[granny]

Not just pertaining to this issue, but to many others it seems to me that the Moderators and Admin on this forum spend most of their time sitting on the fence.

When Sanparks say jump they ask "how high" ? Are they afraid that by questioning decisions they may loose the perks they obviously enjoy.

I am convinced that each and every one of them have enjoyed the many photos and all the information supplied on the Tuskers topic, and now they throw their hands up in horror.

To all the Moderators and Admin, have a good look at this Forum, not as interesting as it used to be, and if I am correct not used as frequently. A lot of the blame can be placed firmly at your door, you stifle the opinions given by us mere mortals by shutting down topics that in your opinion will upset Sanparks of whom you have become a mouth piece.

[JenB]

Granny, as an ex moderator who served the forum for 5 years I think I'm in a position to partially reply to you.

I'm not sure what perks you are referring to but one thing I can tell you is that the moderators definitely do not receive perks that could remotely justify the hours and hours they have to spend moderating this forum, nor the stress of the job in terms of family time and such lost. They are on call 24/7 and they actually get out of bed during the night to check up and make sure that your forum experience is not tainted by having to read spam posts. Ask me, I was there.

They are appointed by SANParks, that is nothing new. They serve SANParks in the way that they have to enforce the rules as set out by SANParks.

The fact of the matter is that SANParks treat the mods team with the utmost respect, always showing gratitude for all the mods do and just that goes a far way towards the level of loyalty shown to SANParks. During my 5 years of service to SANParks I never once had to deal with insults from them that is remotely like the sort of insults which are leveled towards the mods as is the norm on this forum.

If you want to have a go, feel free to have a go at SANParks but leave the moderators out of it. They are just doing a very difficult job during sometimes difficult circumstances.

During my time in mods, I too enjoyed the Tusker topic and I contributed.
I do not understand the whole picture, there is possible far more than I know about.
Accept that that goes for you too.

[Stark]

Lord knows the mods work countless hours. I'm friends with many former mods, and a few current, and SANParks perks aren't much of the reason for answering the call.

The rest of granny's post, and several others (not posted by the normal mites tattooed as being "negative" by some...) points to a bigger problem on how this board has been and is utilized and governed.

[RobertT]

Lord knows the mods work countless hours. I'm friends with many former mods, and a few current, and SANParks perks aren't much of the reason for answering the call.

The rest of granny's post, and several others (not posted by the normal mites tattooed as being "negative" by some...) points to a bigger problem on how this board has been and is utilized and governed.

@Stark