What became of aquabarb ?

[anewbie]

One day he was here the next day gone with the wind.

 

[Fishmanic]

Aquabarb drifted soft and thin,
One day here, then gone with the wind.
Like salt on waves at break of dawn,
We looked again — and he was gone.

 

[Fishmanic]

There once was Aquabarb by the bay,
Who mysteriously vanished one day.
The wind gave a sigh,
As it swept through the sky,
And carried poor Aquabarb away.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Last night I saw upon the forum here
The little Aquabarb who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
Dang, I wish he'd go away.

 

[GaryE]

We have a very unpoetic coming and going of good members. If we could collect up the people who were online here for a few months and then dropped out to live hopefully productive lives, this would be a truly astonishing site. But people don;t stick with forums, hobbies and in general, sites.

 

[anewbie]

Last night I saw upon the forum here
The little Aquabarb who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
Dang, I wish he'd go away.

Why do you want him to go away? Is it because I want him to return.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

That is a twist on an old poem:

You are quoting the famous 1899 poem "Antigonish" by William Hughes Mearns. [1]
The classic opening stanza goes:

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today!
Oh, how I wish he'd go away!

However, the version or the above I learned was:

Last night I saw upon the stair,
The little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
Damn, I wish he'd go away.

 

[anewbie]

That is a twist on an old poem:

You are quoting the famous 1899 poem "Antigonish" by William Hughes Mearns. [1]
The classic opening stanza goes:

Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there!
He wasn't there again today!
Oh, how I wish he'd go away!

However, the version or the above I learned was:

Last night I saw upon the stair,
The little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today,
Damn, I wish he'd go away.

Well - you can't expect an illiterate sob like myself to recognize a poem.

 

[Back in the fold]

There’s a lot of people I miss . Slap Happy and Adorabelle and Phoenix and several others . They contributed good thoughts . I miss Byron but he passed on and that can’t be helped . Colin ? I do miss that Australian sod . He could talk fish like nobody’s business and had a wild sense of humor . What about Emerald King ? Has anyone heard how he’s doing ? There’s a resource that will be deeply missed if he doesn’t or can’t return . We have some good guys ( and gals ) here and some only appear briefly and intermittently like Fish48 . He pops in with a complete gem when he does appear .
I sometimes get tired of this and don’t check in for stretches but I always come back . Life can get busy but it always simmers down . The Great TFF Forum is a rare treasure in internet land . You actually meet people online that become pen pals and I , for one , enjoy reading what they all have to say . Even @Fishmanic and @TwoTankAmin .

 

[Fishmanic]

There’s a lot of people I miss . Slap Happy and Adorabelle and Phoenix and several others . They contributed good thoughts . I miss Byron but he passed on and that can’t be helped . Colin ? I do miss that Australian sod . He could talk fish like nobody’s business and had a wild sense of humor . What about Emerald King ? Has anyone heard how he’s doing ? There’s a resource that will be deeply missed if he doesn’t or can’t return . We have some good guys ( and gals ) here and some only appear briefly and intermittently like Fish48 . He pops in with a complete gem when he does appear .
I sometimes get tired of this and don’t check in for stretches but I always come back . Life can get busy but it always simmers down . The Great TFF Forum is a rare treasure in internet land . You actually meet people online that become pen pals and I , for one , enjoy reading what they all have to say . Even @Fishmanic and @TwoTankAmin .

If we lived closer, you're one member I'd invite over to hang out, watch football or Svengoolie, and discuss the meaning of life

 

[TwoTankAmin]

As I said for me it is simple. I will not do social media i see it as swimming in a cesspool. I have alwys opted for the fish forums as the better alternative. I attended my very first weekend event, the 2003 OCA, I id did so to meet several of the people on the forum I used at the time which is now long gone.

Since then I have met an assortment of forum members at various events. Basically I did the OCA once as the drive was about 10 hours each way. I did the NEC even for many years until they abandoned it in 202 from Covud and never resumed. I did 3 CatCons and my final event was the Keystone Clash o 2023. I find it difficult to attend these days as i am not longer selling much at all and I hate going places where are lot of great fish are for sale and I cannot buy any of them. This is not due to financial consideration it is due to old age and needing to keep lower the numbers of tanks I have.

Every time I try to decide what comes down next I am having a hard time. I love all my tanks from the 5.5 for cherry shrimp the 125 with my long kept clowns loaches and a lovely school of redline barbs which actually spawned there.

All 5 forums where I posted are still there. But,, AquariaCentrl has lost most of its members and is very inactive and I check there every few weeks but rarely post,I stopped posting on MFK years ago. I still visit but only occasionally post on Planetcatfish. I was and still am a Mod on zebrapleco.com which has basically been dead for some time. So, here is pretty much it for me.

Thank goodness for my monthly fish club meetings.

 

[GaryE]

People can go in different directions. My daughter uses reddit and instagram for fish stuff. I use Facebook to discuss with people with more expertise than I have, if i want to pick their brains for specific things. For fun fishtalk, the phone, the fishclub and here. I can see where a person would remain active online but leave the forum. There are only occasional bursts of detailed info talk, and a lot of the discussion is basic, or chat.

Plus we have had members who became rude or insulting - sometimes maliciously, sometimes because that's how their minds work. That runs a lot of people off. When I first joined, I stopped checking this forum for years because of 2 now banned members who waited in ambush for anyone who wasn't a newcomer to the hobby. I looked at it and figured it wouldn't be enjoyable to deal with them. When I checked back in after a few years, there they were on that attack still, but the mods seemed to have had enough soon after. I think most situations like that have been cleared off.

All online things get the anonymous rudesters - they're as common as sparrows. This site isn't bad. But it is oriented toward newcomers, and once they become comfortable with their knowledge, many stop seeking more. I'm on another forum in another language, and honestly, I check in about once or twice a month because the discussion is very formal. I read and learn there, but it's humourless and, disturbing for a fish site, dry.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

People can go in different directions. My daughter uses reddit and instagram for fish stuff. I use Facebook to discuss with people with more expertise than I have, if i want to pick their brains for specific things. For fun fishtalk, the phone, the fishclub and here. I can see where a person would remain active online but leave the forum. There are only occasional bursts of detailed info talk, and a lot of the discussion is basic, or chat.

Plus we have had members who became rude or insulting - sometimes maliciously, sometimes because that's how their minds work. That runs a lot of people off. When I first joined, I stopped checking this forum for years because of 2 now banned members who waited in ambush for anyone who wasn't a newcomer to the hobby. I looked at it and figured it wouldn't be enjoyable to deal with them. When I checked back in after a few years, there they were on that attack still, but the mods seemed to have had enough soon after. I think most situations like that have been cleared off.

All online things get the anonymous rudesters - they're as common as sparrows. This site isn't bad. But it is oriented toward newcomers, and once they become comfortable with their knowledge, many stop seeking more. I'm on another forum in another language, and honestly, I check in about once or twice a month because the discussion is very formal. I read and learn there, but it's humourless and, disturbing for a fish site, dry.

Humorless and dry certainly aren't words I would use to describe this forum...quite the opposite. That's why I retired from modhood. I was too tired.

 

[Back in the fold]

Humorless and dry certainly aren't words I would use

Of course it’s not dry . We are , after all , dealing with aquariums and they’re filled with water .

 

[anewbie]

Of course it’s not dry . We are , after all , dealing with aquariums and they’re filled with water .

Hum. Yours might be but mine are filled with plants.