Who created this place?

[FishFriend0]

As you can see, I haven’t been here for very long…so who created this place? Are they still here?

 

[GaryE]

It was the mighty cod who created this plaice.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

@GaryE
Don't you mean Cod Almighty?

1. I am the lord thy Cod. Thou shall not have strange cods before me.
2. Thou shall not take the name of the lord thy Cod in vain.
3. Thou shall feed the fish every day.................

 

[Innesfan]

As you can see, I haven’t been here for very long…so who created this place? Are they still here?

I'd love to hear the answer to this. Anybody know?

 

[GaryE]

Nah, cod is one of many in his shoal. But it would be interesting to learn how this started. I knew of a bunch of forums started by individuals and then bought as they grew, and grew more expensive and time consuming to maintain. When I first looked at this one, I thought it was a UK one with a large Australian input. I looked at it a few years later and it seemed even more UK.

I joined a while ago, and it was already well established.

 

[Essjay]

William created this forum back in 2002. He sold it a while ago then it was sold again to the current owners.

This is the first ever public post in the forum - there were a couple before this but they can only be seen in the staff area.

Did my first tests today

I have amonia reading 0.25ppm on my tank. I am cycling with fish, 6 platies and my tank is 36"X12"X15" . It is the second day since i put the fish in William i hope it is :thumbs:

www.fishforums.net

Edit - a bit of searching found William sold the site in 2012, though I don't know when the current owners acquired it.

 

[Innesfan]

William created this forum back in 2002. He sold it a while ago then it was sold again to the current owners.

This is the first ever public post in the forum - there were a couple before this but they can only be seen in the staff area.

Did my first tests today

I have amonia reading 0.25ppm on my tank. I am cycling with fish, 6 platies and my tank is 36"X12"X15" . It is the second day since i put the fish in William i hope it is :thumbs:

www.fishforums.net

Edit - a bit of searching found William sold the site in 2012, though I don't know when the current owners acquired it.

Thank you, @Essjay !

 

[GaryE]

I raise a glass of water to William. Whoever you are, you had a good idea.

 

[GaryE]

There's a part of hobby history littered with the hulks of ghost forums. I've found a few that were once very alive but are now 5 or 10 years without a single discussion. They just drift the net like burned out spaceships. In a previous tech era, and aquarium hobby era, they were very popular. I knew people who had joined a dozen or more, and used them as recreation, social media or peer learning.

Some of these hulks had 20 or 30 messages a day in their good times, and are probably full of excellent information from people whose names weren't real. It's kind of cool.

Tech change knocked a few out. Social attitudes killed more - there was the troll era when most thinking was boringly mocked, and there were a lot of forums killed by poor moderation of really unpleasant members. Some were killed by over-moderation - I was on one where a mod would quietly edit posts by respected members if she disagreed with them. She wasn't an expert aquarist.

It's a very human endeavour, keeping a forum alive. It takes a balance, spam filters, respect, money, new members, old members, tolerance, and luck.

Most social media lives on the one sentence answer, but forums at least allow discussion and explanation of why people say things. This one is a good source.

 

[FishFriend0]

There's a part of hobby history littered with the hulks of ghost forums. I've found a few that were once very alive but are now 5 or 10 years without a single discussion. They just drift the net like burned out spaceships. In a previous tech era, and aquarium hobby era, they were very popular. I knew people who had joined a dozen or more, and used them as recreation, social media or peer learning.

Some of these hulks had 20 or 30 messages a day in their good times, and are probably full of excellent information from people whose names weren't real. It's kind of cool.

Tech change knocked a few out. Social attitudes killed more - there was the troll era when most thinking was boringly mocked, and there were a lot of forums killed by poor moderation of really unpleasant members. Some were killed by over-moderation - I was on one where a mod would quietly edit posts by respected members if she disagreed with them. She wasn't an expert aquarist.

It's a very human endeavour, keeping a forum alive. It takes a balance, spam filters, respect, money, new members, old members, tolerance, and luck.

Most social media lives on the one sentence answer, but forums at least allow discussion and explanation of why people say things. This one is a good source.

Perhaps all of us internet goers are just objects, floating around, until we are brought together by gravity, where we fuse and become a community. Sometimes this fusion is short-lived and our selves are scattered back into space where some will drift alone for all eternity while others will meet again with others, from near or far. And this gravity attracts more and more of us until a fusion is so powerful it will burn bright for billions of years.
Some forums burn out, but its inhabitants (who are still keen) will be drawn back together to create something that will remain for a very long time.