Thank you so much,
@Sivlei ! That has made my day!
I started writing short information guides on the most commonly asked questions about 12 years ago still as a normal forum member together with some other forum members because at that time there was very little information around. What there was, was mostly very basic and usually did gloss over all the really sticky points that trip up a new owner - like how much is 'a little' and how do you go about something exactly when you have never done it before? You have to really try and see things from the perspective of a newbie and not of the experienced writer. You can never presume that anything is intuitively obvious when writing a guide.
It also got a bit tiring having to write down all the details (or as many details as would come to me in a speed typing frenzy) from scratch, like the salient points of what to do with an unplanned pregnancy. The pregnancy guide is actually one of my first guides, even though I had to wait about two years until I was able to post it after I became a mod. I learned how to write guides clearly and precisely from members' feedback - getting threads asking for clarification about points in a new guide that were open to misinterpretation or left people baffled. Writing guides is actually a dialogue. If there are questions or points of contention, then I have to go back and rework that passage. You learn very much on the job.
When I was invited to become a full mod in July 2013 (basically pretty much 10 years ago), I was able to set about building up a more coherent information resource to help fill a gap that was crying out to be tackled and to create another mainstay pillar towards the longer term existence of this forum in the face of the quick rise of social media and competition from other forums on a similar level to ours. Our resource is still work in progress, growing in spits and spurts. It will likely never be fully finished, whether that is adding more guides or updating/rewriting older ones since so much has changed in the piggy world in the meantime and continues to develop. Which is actually good and right - life goes on. Somebody will hopefully take on the baton at some point. Peter Gurney was the first to actually put together an information resource on guinea pigs with his books back in the 80ies and then later a website with some medical advice emerged.
When I started out, there was for instance hardly any and very often wrongly interpreted information around on guinea pig behaviours. It's very difficult to believe now... although we are still learning to decipher more.
Some of my forum guides have often run in parallel to and at times hand in hand with me writing for Guinea Pig Magazine, mainly on behaviours and human interaction but by no means exclusively so in either place.
A forum guide is usually a mix of what does a new owner really want to know, what are they most commonly struggling with and what important background information do I have to include in order to make sure that the piggies get what they need and the owners know what to do. Personally, I prefer to give a bit of an explanation of why something is crucial, where it fits into a larger context or should be done in a certain way over simply telling people what they should do; it is always their right as owners to take advice or not but they are usually more willing to when they feel respected and not talked down to. Naturally, it helps answering so many forum posts over the years so I have a fairly good idea about what the most burning questions are that should be addressed in any guide. I try to anticipate as many questions as possible, which is why the guides can be a bit long. But you'll find it all in one place from whichever angle you come at it.
Our guides format has the advantage that we can update at need or add to the resource whenever there is time to write more or whenever there is a sudden need for a particular bit of information whereas a book can become quickly outdated not long after it has come out. Some of its quirks are the result of it needing to fit into the existing forum format.
For instance, we were able to react to the Covid pandemic much faster and more flexibly with practical information on transmission and hygiene etc. as the pandemic unfolded; our Contagion guide is the result of all those urgent questions we had to find answers to in a hurry plus some other odds and ends already floating around. Going back half a century with piggies does sometimes help. Not all the old and the low tech stuff is ever going outdated in principle... And not every poster on here has access to the whole range of products or vets, either.
Anyway, this is the story of how the forum guides have come along and why they are in the form we keep them in.
I am always happy if my guides really help piggies in and beyond this forum and I am grateful for feedback. Most of what I have learned has come the hard way from mistakes, by experimentation or from things that have come up along the way and made me think. I have learned a whole lot by being around on this forum for so long. Although some lessons have been painful ones, I have gained a much deeper understanding of the underlying reasons and connections. You very often learn more from what doesn't work than from getting it right the first time. Ownership is not about being perfect; it is a life-long learning curve on the job.
Anyway, I am very grateful to other forum members who have also contributed to our information collection over the years. It's not all my own by any means. I want to make that very clear.
We have a Wannabe and a New Owners information collection as well as the full information collection for quick access (bookmarking the access link makes it easier to find the relevant guides quickly). You can also find our guides laid out thematically by clicking on Guinea Pig Info on the top bar (extend via the three horizontal lines icon).
Helpful Info Collections for Wannabes & Owners
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners
Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection
PS: My piggy names are all Welsh (my hub is a Welshman). Their names have all a meaning and a reason; not rarely a bit of a theme. It is a beautiful language even though I cannot speak it (I still feel like I should make an effort but where to take the time and not steal it?). I do however try to pronounce the piggy names correctly as much as possible but with a rather noticeable half-German half-Swiss accent. Using Swiss dialect or high German (they are pretty different) in an English context is for me like jumping language channels on a remote - it always comes with a mental wrench. I use the different languages I am fluent in depending on where I am or who I am talking to. My own piggies I speak with in English.
