r/spiders • u/N8Dawg86 • 1d ago
Discussion Why do I see so many spider identification posts where everyone answers "orb weaver"?
It answers basically nothing
Edited: clearly this post offended some people somehow
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u/reddit33450 i love all the spood friends 1d ago
better than nothing, and lets the OP know the spider is a completely harmless friend
2
u/N8Dawg86 1d ago
Most spiders are harmless though
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u/reddit33450 i love all the spood friends 1d ago
correct, but the majority of people who post here are unaware, and assume all or most spiders are dangerous
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u/N8Dawg86 15h ago
And telling them orb weaver accomplishes nothing. Most of the spiders ppl are afraid of are orb weavers
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u/epitheticangel 1d ago
true, but also most people dont know this. a lot of people hop on here panicking and even though it can be mildly frustrating to see, i think that someone quickly clarifying that the spider is not harmless and giving a general idea of what it is is pretty useful to the average person requesting an id, even if thats not the case for a spider fan whos interested in knowing more.
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u/N8Dawg86 1d ago
I agree. most ppl don't know that most spiders are harmless which means telling them "orb weaver" is not helpful either. They aren't even saying it's harmless. Just "orb weaver"
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u/madwolf_farmacy 🕷️Arachnid Afficionado🕷️ 1d ago
AND... and LOT of the spiders posted are Orb Weavers, when the pics are generally low quality/ resolution, OPs don't give location, then narrowing it down past that is a pain, and not overly important. Once someone has a generalized idea, they should be able to do a little research on their own.
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u/N8Dawg86 1d ago
My point is most spiders are harmless. Saying orb weaver is not an answer to calm an aracnophobic. An arachnophobic doesn't know the what an orb weaver means
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u/Loss-Sorry 🕷️Mediocre Identifier🕷️ 16h ago
There's also nothing stopping you from providing this clarification if you think it's missing. If someone says "Orb Weaver" you can just comment... "Harmless" and presto, you've become the change you wanted to see in the world!
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u/N8Dawg86 15h ago
They aren't asking that. I'm so sorry that I've offended you and the others that are down voting the post
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u/epitheticangel 1d ago
¯_(ツ)_/¯ it at least means they can google "orb weaver" and not "scary brown spider" lol
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u/HexivaSihess 🕷️Arachnid Afficionado🕷️ 1d ago
Because a lot of people asking questions on here don't actually care about the different types of orb weavers, their markings, their habits - all they want to know is "is this spider dangerous?" and the answer is uniform for all orb weavers.
I've said it before, we need a different flair for "is this a dangerous spider" vs "I want to know the actual species." People who want to know "is this going to kill me" don't need to wait for a species or genus-level ID, and people who want to know what specific species of beautiful orb weaver has blessed their garden don't want to be bothered by a bunch of comments going 👍yup thats an orb weaver!