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VaegaVic

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Morning all,
I'm building a new website currently, a website of reviews on all things aquatic.
So far I've got:
Nutrition
Filtration
Medications
Conditioners
Accessories
Temperature

and then there will be things under each category.

I've been designing the site and then it suddenly hit me, I should really be asking the main people who will be using it, what they want on it.

Currently the design is that of a blog, me posting a new review once a week or so on a new product or an obscure product its hard to find reviews of.

I had the idea of possibly redoing it as a forum based site, with everyone adding their own reviews of many different products all at the same time, allowing us to have a massive database of different things tested by real people, including things I have no experience with such as Marine salts.

The forum style will be a lot more work, but if that's what people want, I will make it.

Also, to be noted, with the forum, there will be a wider range of things reviewed such as things only available in the Uk, or US, same as on here.

I might also include a social section if people want something like that.

Basically, what would you like to see in this type of website/forum?

Note to mods: Not advertising, just doing market research, the link will never be posted on here as I believe that's against the ToS.


Vic
 
Morning all,
I'm building a new website currently, a website of reviews on all things aquatic.
So far I've got:
Nutrition
Filtration
Medications
Conditioners
Accessories
Temperature

and then there will be things under each category.

I've been designing the site and then it suddenly hit me, I should really be asking the main people who will be using it, what they want on it.

Currently the design is that of a blog, me posting a new review once a week or so on a new product or an obscure product its hard to find reviews of.

I had the idea of possibly redoing it as a forum based site, with everyone adding their own reviews of many different products all at the same time, allowing us to have a massive database of different things tested by real people, including things I have no experience with such as Marine salts.

The forum style will be a lot more work, but if that's what people want, I will make it.

Also, to be noted, with the forum, there will be a wider range of things reviewed such as things only available in the Uk, or US, same as on here.

I might also include a social section if people want something like that.

Basically, what would you like to see in this type of website/forum?

Note to mods: Not advertising, just doing market research, the link will never be posted on here as I believe that's against the ToS.


Vic

Im currently working on a website fish related as well (site will remain nameless of course) and I spent some time researching what sort of forums to have etc. I just read peoples posts on several forums to see what sort of questions are asked and what people are in to before deciding what to put on it.


I currently use a forum for the back end and the front news/guide pages etc all call a hidden forum only admin can see so when I post something in there it shows up either on the main page or inside another part of it. Its not that difficult, just a few MYSQL commands to display the data on another page.

The site is still under construction as im trying to get some content on it like guides etc but finding the time is a bit difficult, if you pm me I will send you a demo link so you can see what im trying to explain but obviously dont post the link or website name here as yes you are correct it is against the ToS (and quiet right to). :)

Jay
 
thing to make this work is, how will your review be any different (hopefully more correct) than the myriad of sites, already out there.
reviews are so personal. just look at some for more common household items. 10 reviews all differing. and each would say theirs is correct.

to review, say conditioner, you would need one tank for each, and a control. a few weeks, will in no way give a overview of the product. could you run 6 tanks for 12 months, so you could find answers?
hardware is not so bad. but again you could only review the mechanics of the product. a review of its operation would require 6-12 months, for each filter. even so, you could review the relative accuracy of heaters. measure things like flow rate, with and without media, for filters (always helpful as the makers tell such fibs).
 
thing to make this work is, how will your review be any different (hopefully more correct) than the myriad of sites, already out there.
reviews are so personal. just look at some for more common household items. 10 reviews all differing. and each would say theirs is correct.

to review, say conditioner, you would need one tank for each, and a control. a few weeks, will in no way give a overview of the product. could you run 6 tanks for 12 months, so you could find answers?
hardware is not so bad. but again you could only review the mechanics of the product. a review of its operation would require 6-12 months, for each filter. even so, you could review the relative accuracy of heaters. measure things like flow rate, with and without media, for filters (always helpful as the makers tell such fibs).

Actually the problem I've found for a lot of products is that I can't find any reviews.
For example, I want to try a new food with my fish, Aquarian Colour enhancer, I cannot find a single review that isn't copy pasted from Aquarians official statement.
Same goes with many other aquatic things.
Tetra vareity flakes for example.

I'm not looking to do in depth super fantastic reviews, just ones that give the reader a bit more information then whats already available.
 
i would like to see reviews of online fish stores. My LFS's are not that great and am thinking in the future i might have to search on the www to get the fish i need, but this is not something i would want to do unless i can see some good reviews - whether buying parts or livestock
 
I think the blog is a better idea. Maybe you could have it so people can write their own reviews for products they've used and it submits to your email. Then you can review whether it is good enough to be posted and then give credit where needed. Then maybe a small forum sub section for each product to have a q/a for it? But then again that would be a lot of moderating so people don't post there own reviews in the sub sectional q/a forum.
 
Actually the problem I've found for a lot of products is that I can't find any reviews.
For example, I want to try a new food with my fish, Aquarian Colour enhancer, I cannot find a single review that isn't copy pasted from Aquarians official statement.
Same goes with many other aquatic things.
Tetra vareity flakes for example.

I'm not looking to do in depth super fantastic reviews, just ones that give the reader a bit more information then whats already available.

well you will find little but makers reviews. what use is a user review of food? you could feed one type for years, but none of your thought's would have much weight. ok so your fish didn't die or suffer other maladies, how could you attribute anything to that food? I know my view may seem negative. but, in truth, its practical. unless you to a proper, repeatable test, you comments would be VIEWS. with the same weight, that anybody else's views have.
Take crab food. most are high in calcium, which makes sense. however, crabs and crayfish, harvest most of the calcium they use, from the water, needing only minute amounts to be ingested. but if fed, high calcium food are fine for them, it just passes through the system. unless you have a control, you would be unaware that the critters would have done just as well with a low/no calcium food. so what price a review?
 
Actually the problem I've found for a lot of products is that I can't find any reviews.
For example, I want to try a new food with my fish, Aquarian Colour enhancer, I cannot find a single review that isn't copy pasted from Aquarians official statement.
Same goes with many other aquatic things.
Tetra vareity flakes for example.

I'm not looking to do in depth super fantastic reviews, just ones that give the reader a bit more information then whats already available.

well you will find little but makers reviews. what use is a user review of food? you could feed one type for years, but none of your thought's would have much weight. ok so your fish didn't die or suffer other maladies, how could you attribute anything to that food? I know my view may seem negative. but, in truth, its practical. unless you to a proper, repeatable test, you comments would be VIEWS. with the same weight, that anybody else's views have.
Take crab food. most are high in calcium, which makes sense. however, crabs and crayfish, harvest most of the calcium they use, from the water, needing only minute amounts to be ingested. but if fed, high calcium food are fine for them, it just passes through the system. unless you have a control, you would be unaware that the critters would have done just as well with a low/no calcium food. so what price a review?

I see what you're saying but I don't agree to be honest.
I completely agree it would just be views, but how else would we know that Fluvals are sometimes prone to leaking or that Eheims have great reliability? Everything you see on this forum is practically a view. Another thing I wanted the website to do as actually give some of the basic info, for example, Hikari don't list their nutritional value of their foods on their website, I personally go for high vitamin content rather than foods "designed" for a particular species. Because they don't put the info on the site, I have no idea what foods are best unless I physically see the back of the pack, which are hard to find these days.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do indepth analysis, and on some products that I use day to day, I'd be happy to, but the point of the website is to include info that is hard to find, with opinions on each product.
 

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