[Moderator's note: Note this post is about the FHL, the Ferret HEALTH
List, not the FML. You're reading the FML, the Ferret MAILING list. BIG]

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)

[Posted in FML 7331]