Marine Section

[steelhealr]

Hi all. When I first arrived here, this section was headed up by Navarre and Great Lakes. They were two accomplished marine aquarists. Sadly, over time, we've lost those powerhouses. Ski Fletch was brought in next and, unfortunately, he has been away. I would like to turn our section back around.

Clearly, this section is large enough to require more than one salt mod. As I get a better feel for how we are doing, I will approach admin with some suggestions. In the interim, feel free to put your thoughts in re: what you would like to see here. I would be interested in seeing if anyone would like to help restart a marine topic of the week or month. I wrote a few in the past and may bump some just to refresh some thoughts.

We're south of the border but, hey, we have cool tanks.

SH

 

[steelhealr]

Interesting that there have been no responses from our section. Many things are being discussed for here and the forum in general. SH

 

[seffieuk]

Hi SH

Apologies, for some reason I missed it

We certainly have had some top rate mods here, you mentioned one of our last Mods, Ski, I wonder where he has gone, but there was also of course our BigC, both Ski and BigC did a first rate job on here. One of their main strengths, apart from experience was that they knew how to encourage newbies to become active forum members, to grow the forum we need new members, members who want to stay and become part of the community. We have some excellent members on here, who do a lot of work in this and other areas of the forum, I would like to see that somehow recognised, what do you think?

The forum is only as good as its members and we have lost a few very good members lately! We need to be looking at why, so guys, what do you think?

I think we also need to be a little more creative in encouraging participation from all - people stay on the forum for two reasons, a sense of belonging and active help and support, how can we improve this?

So at whatever level you are at, newbie through to advanced, what do you think could improve the forum, what is missing? We have some great, active new salties at the moment, what would you have liked to see when you first came on TFF?

The issue of Mods - suggestions? Do we need more?

Ski asked if anyone would be interested in doing a monthly thread, anyone? I for one would like to see Ak start a photography section, tips, hints etc. I would like Jennybugs to write up a section on pico tanks, using her experience and photos, I would like Donya to do some more work on her specialism, I would love someone to update the Nano section start-up info, oh I could go on and on but I wont P I can hear you say Thank goodness!!)

last but not least, what is going well on the forum?

Seffie x

ps sorry, SH, more questions than answers, but hope it helps you get a few more replies

 

[bunjiweb]

steelhealr you asked me to come back and here I am

 

[ben1987]

Think BigC is intending to return to this section

i also think we should do something with the stickies, as i know few people get fed up answering the same questions over and over. Just generally aim to increase activity on here

 

[seffieuk]

Think BigC is intending to return to this section

i also think we should do something with the stickies, as i know few people get fed up answering the same questions over and over. Just generally aim to increase activity on here

Any other thoughts Ben?

Seffie x

 

[ben1987]

I think more photos,
Or an ID gallery, the one over on UR is very good.

More eye candy would help increase activity imo. I know theres the journal section but you have to trail through pages and pages to see pictures. When peopole see some of the stunning pics our members have taken of their stock them im sure they will get hooked and the questions will come.

I also reckon that some of the older members should commit to updating their tank threads more often, i know i dont do it very often at all...but the more going off in this section, then the busier it will apear and the more posts we will get.

 

[seffieuk]

I think more photos,
Or an ID gallery, the one over on UR is very good.

More eye candy would help increase activity imo. I know theres the journal section but you have to trail through pages and pages to see pictures. When peopole see some of the stunning pics our members have taken of their stock them im sure they will get hooked and the questions will come.

Great idea, couldn't agree more

I also reckon that some of the older members should commit to updating their tank threads more often, i know i dont do it very often at all...but the more going off in this section, then the busier it will apear and the more posts we will get.

Oh heck, me too, but you are absolutely right again

Bunji, what are your thoughts?

Seffie x

 

[bunjiweb]

I'd agree with what the other Ben said, but I think it's all about keeping members interested and engaged. I was extremely active on this forum at one point, but as my interests diversified I ventured onto other forums where there were experts to answer my questions succinctly and without too much unfounded opinion in the mix. I've returned here as my interest in the hobby has been rekindled, and hope that I can provide more help and advice to people starting out in the hobby.

Things that interest me on forums are:

- Regularly updated logs from members with large / interesting / mature aquariums
- Interesting articles or journals from members with experience
- More involvement for members, such as photo competitions on specific subjects (i.e. best picture of a specific group of corals) Or organised group events such as visiting a particular aquatic shop, public aquarium, or even industry locations, (I have good contacts at TMC that could be explored).

Other than that, as I'm just back in I wouldn't want to suggest too much as I haven't seen what's been going on here for 2 years or so.

Ben

 

[ben1987]

Not a lot has been going on tbh...apart from the number of active members dropping.

didnt help that we lost a few active members to a 'disagreement' a few months ago...

 

[Gandelf]

as i know few people get fed up answering the same questions over and over

Guys you say that you sometimes get fed up of answering the same questions, and if I was as experienced as you guys I probably would agree,

Now being new to the salty side of things the type of questions I would be asking would be about what equiptment to use or what kind of stocking is compatable as in fish with Inverts and corals etc; and I suppose this is where it gets old.

If I could sugest that you guys use your experience and have a section where you can give recommended set ups for the various size tanks, for instance in a 90lt how many fish you could have, how much rock would be required, if a skimmer would be necessary and in this way intead of people always asking what to use or what to put in you could direct them to that section .

As I said being knew to salty these are the main questions in my head, OK you might say that people have different tastes in styles of setting up but if people wanted specifics thats when we bother you guys with the real important dilemas.

I dont know what this would take to do but speaking from a newbie point of view I think it would certainly ease the burden of the experienced folk and let them enjoy the forum as it is meant to be.

Ben I have to agree also an ID section with a gallery sound ace .

(whoa... I have just read this and it realy sounds like I am moaning but guys it realy is about bringing the experienced folk back to the forum to enjoy it and help us newbies along the way which I think this would help)

Regards

Andy, happy to be here and loving the advice from you all.

 

[seffieuk]

Must admit I dont mind answering the same questions over and over again as long as the op is doing some of the work by researching as well

You have some sound ideas Gandelf thanks for contributing, its really useful

Seffie x

come on, there are many of you who havent put in your '2 cents' worth yet, we want to hear your views

 

[ben1987]

i come on and try and post nearly everyday....i dont care if its a new tank set-up. i just think we need something that will stop more experienced people getting driven away because they dont want to answer the same thing over and over.

 

[seffieuk]

Agreed

We need more sections, to include, setting up your tank, the pinned sections on this are rather old

Seffie x

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I agree that a lot of the pinned topics, while having great info, do need to be overhauled.

More picture type threads are good as well (everyone loves looking at photos after all) and this gives the older members a reason to come back and post here.

One other thing that has been suggested by multiple people in the past and IMO has been pretty much ignored is give us salties our own classified section. There is another forum I go to which I pretty much exclusively go to just for the classified section. However once I am there I always end up having a look round and post on the odd thread here and there. At the moment if I had any marine stuff to sell or wanted to buy something I wouldn't even think about looking on here to do it.

Part of me thinks splitting things up into more sub forums would help (easier to find stuff later on) but another part of me thinks it would be a bad idea as we may end up with some sub forums which only get one or 2 posts in which then makes the forum look like it isnt being used much.

Maybe we could split the journal sections down into sub categories (i.e. tanks up to 20g, 20-50g, 50-100g, 100g+ ). This will make the journals easier to look through IMO and may encourage people to update them more often (nothing worse then spending ages updating a journal only to check back the next day and find its right at the bottom of the page). Would also make it a better reference source, so for example if someone is setting up a 20g tank they can look in that section to see exactly what everyone else has done.

I think the monthly photo comps are a good idea too. Keeps people coming back to the forum both to take part and to look at the entries.

Monthly "news letter" style thing would be great too. We have similar monthly "review" type threads at the moment but one monthly article written to cover a specific thing would be great.

Personally I would love to be more active on this forum but just don't have the time at the moment. I'm not the most experienced or knowledgeable person on this forum by a long shot but I do have some great ideas for articles that would be useful (especially in-depth beginner articles to cover all the "what equipment" questions that pop up). With the experience of people posting on here it wouldn't take much to get a couple of people working together to create some really great, informative articles.

Not sure we really need more mods, it would possible help though. The main thing is trying to do things that 1) encourage the more experienced people to want to come back by giving them things to make them want to log in for and 2) offer simple to find and easy to understand information on the basics for the people that are new to the hobby. If you sort both of them out all the other bits in between will fall into place by themselves.

Edit: It might be worth adding a "Marine Newbie" section. All basic setup information can be pinned in here and all the questions can be asked here too. Would make the general basic information easier for new marine keepers to find. Maybe even having a kind of "buddy" system in place so people can volunteer to help new marine keeper along.

IE a new marine keeper can sign up asking for a buddy then someone who is more experienced can be assigned to them to answer their questions by direct PM or email or whatever they want to use.

This obviously has limitations (i.e. someone might volunteer who doesn't actually know very much. So maybe having 2 buddies assigned to each person would give them at least 2 views on anything and if they dont agree then they can ask directly on the forum.