We actually DO have an agenda as a forum (not as individuals apart from being respectful with each other to concentrate on sharing our love of our pets) but we do strictly put our piggies and their welfare first and and foremost, and do strive to keep all the self-profiling and dominance squabbles outside.
And in all honesty, running a place like our forum seemingly smoothly takes much more work behind the scenes than you would imagine and it takes a whole team that is willing to pull together, roll up their sleaves and muck in (or out) - no space for ego trips - for the sake of the shared goal. We treat each other with exactly the same respect and mutual support that everybody does on here.
Our modding team is entirely member generated but as we have all different strengths and backgrounds, we try to match the member with the task in hand. Modding is actually pretty hard and often very unglamorous social, administrative or technical plumbing work that takes a certain set of skills and experiences that not everybody has; it is decidedly
not just a glorified membership for being the big wig's most devout 'yes person'. We respect everybody on here for what they can contribute just the same because everybody provides something unique and special and it is only the whole spectrum that allows us to shine.
You wouldn't believe the stick I got initially after I was asked to be a mod on here and set out with the rest of the new modding member's team to realise our shared dream of a friendly but good advice and information standard forum. At that time the forum had acquired a rather bad reputation as a very rude place. It was hard work getting it out of that - and by far not everybody liked the change in direction.
Or how often we were called 'weak' and foolish for creating a friendly atmosphere. We had to fend off quite a string of people trying to set up their own little fiefdom in a nicely feathered nest that was seemingly defenceless, especially in the earlier years. But we believed in what we were doing - and the proof is by now very much in the pudding.
How any place runs is all about good leadership, micro-management and hard work (or lack thereof); you set the tone in which your place is run or somebody else not of your choice will set theirs. We are lucky in that the vast majority of our current regular members believe in the same ethic and carry it on themselves without our constant prodding. This is the real strength of this forum - we all want the same and we are all in this together because we share the same dream and make it come true with every post on here. It is our members that ultimately make our forum the special place it has become. We would have never been able to get as far or even survive without their firm support and their constant help and alertness to help us smooth out little hitches long before they become big ones without others noticing.
Places with bad advice or where self-nominated experts can set up shop are always down to lack of good management and/or a power vacuum. They can easily turn into a war zone as soon as you get feuding 'experts' and their various hangers-on waging their fight for dominance on the back of any hapless posters or if a group gets hijacked by extremists of any kind; it is very often also the start of the end of that place. Any online place can unfortunately only have the kind of standard that the management themselves have and that they tolerate/encourage. And sadly far too many people are not willing to learn or improve, starting with themselves.
I have been around long enough to have made all the usual mistakes myself and to have learned a lot of the lessons the hard way; but I have always tried and still try my best to learn from them and to continue to develop and improve myself. If this striving forward does inspire others to make their own journey and never stop, then I am glad. If you treat me like a guru, you make me feel very embarrassed because the only wisdom I have to share that it is not the person but the striving that counts; I am still only somewhere in the middle and not yet in the advanced level myself and will never reach all-knowing perfection. But if I can also inspire others on here to be kind and respectful of others irrespective of their own level of knowledge or experience - because kindness is a strength and not a weakness -, then I am very happy indeed!
When this forum started out, we were just one of many similar ones, neither better nor worse. We were lucky that for the majority of the early years the goodwill of moderate members to keep things friendly dominated.
As mods, we have taken on board the lessons (good and bad ones) we have learned on here from the previous modding crew and those we garnered from the fate of other places; we have been able to create something rather special as a result. Because of this, we are one of the few independent places that have persisted in the face of the rise of social media.
We do have our ideosyncracies - but that is because a specific way of handling things has turned out the best way to go about a certain issue for this forum. These ways are never arbitrary but are there for a good reason and get constantly adapted as new needs arise.
As a forum and for our long term survival, we also try to capitalise on those areas that social media cannot provide, like ongoing support, both with good welfare standard advice (of the time) and with a morale boost that everybody can share in. But unlike in other places, our 'agenda' is not a selfish one to serve our own personal gratification or aggrandisemen; it is one that is shared by us all to be in effect the right opposite of what is happening in too many other places.
I am a member of a few Facebook groups run by good welfare standard rescues (ones that are in our rescue locator); the advice there is on the whole on an acceptable level in these groups. There are also sadly groups run very successfully by rather questionable standard rescue persons once you know what to look for. But that is as far as I venture on there without pulling out my already badly thinning hair completely; I won't look any prettier bald or bleeding and bruised from bashing my head against the wall in frustration!
Sadly the one crucial things that social media and online places do not provide is a quality rating, so it is your good or bad luck where you as a newbie end up.
Anyway, I hope that you will enjoy our friendly little corner of the internet for quite a while to come.
I think everyone has fallen into newbie traps when they first get a pet, more so rodents I find. We're all guilty. But we have learnt from books, internet, videos and each other and I think that's what is important as we all just want what's best for what ever animal in our care. 
I would never comment on a sexing post if I wasn’t sure of the sex
