User:Connorlong90

About Connorlong90
Welcome to my user page! A little background: I am a veterinarian in California; I have a BSc in Biology from UC Santa Barbara, and a DVM from UC Davis. I am interested in wildlife biology, particularly the wildlife of Northern California. My goal on Wikipedia is to create/improve species-level zoology articles, and provide high-resolution photographs/diagrams where none exist.

Photography
I encourage any interested parties to use my wildlife photographs (see below). All material I post here is free to use, as defined in the creative common's license, as long as you provide proper attribution in a manner that is clearly visible and easily accessible in the same document in which the image is used (Examples of "document" include but are not limited to: video, webpage, PowerPoint presentation, etc). Please credit me as "Connor Long."

Herpetoculture
Lately I have also been trying to combat the spread of misinformation on articles about reptile species kept as pets. There is a trend I have noticed where pet keepers will upload uncited information to Wikipedia - this information often appears to have originated on message boards or facebook groups based on the beliefs of those internet communities, which may or may not be based on facts. The Wikipedia article based on uncited and likely incorrect information will then be used by low quality third party sources, which will further spread that belief and create the illusion that it is supported by multiple sources. In some cases, the third party article(s) written based on the uncited wikipedia claims will actually be put back into Wikipedia as supporting information, completing the loop of misinformation.

Additionally, it should be noted that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia and not a tutorial for how to keep captive reptiles and amphibians. A lot of these articles heavily rely on pet keeping guides (which often include information gleaned from social media and are thus not the best sources of information for reasons noted above), and they have a tendency to devolve into articles that read more like a husbandry guide than a species level encyclopedia article.