FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Mostly, I don't come here as often as I should because it is a bit too general and beginner oriented

That's exactly why i enjoy coming to this site.
The reason I come here isn't for help anymore, as I rarely ever ask questions on this site.
Instead, its that I love doing whatever I can to help those new to fishkeeping.

Ditto zach


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

IMO, one problem is too many vets and not enough beginners asking questions. There's not too much inclination for me to come here if my own questions can't be answered (except for areas of aquariumkeeping that I'm new to, such as plants), and many people get to the newcomers' questions first and answer them correctly and pretty much completely.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

There needs to be some sort of advertising going on to attract more members. Tropical Fish Hobbyist has ads for other online forums; it might be worth it to invest in adverstising there where potentially many thousands of people would see the ad.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

IMO, one problem is too many vets and not enough beginners asking questions.

Average number of posts per member among members participating in this thread: 3414

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Shinigami and Callatya sort of drive up that post count average a bit. Just a bit.

Likewise, some people make it go down.

Median post count: 2627

Same thing.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Averaging 9000 and zero still nets you 4500.

As someone who has joined paid membership and had to let it lapse for personal reasons. IMO there are several factors:

WMP "walk My Plank" I know serveral member that played that adn got very upset about things nad lost there cool and was banned from both sites, or just was so upset quit supporting both sites.

The Clicks.... Hey everyone there Clicks, get over it, but the problem comes when one opinon is give more weight than others, and I seen posts where people have said there way is the only way, which we all know is wrong. I was even Bulled by one of the click people and that was when I know I wouldn't support with monies anytime soon, and it was turned into a joke, because I stand up for myself, and told them they would not bully me. If i was not so secure in myself or at least tring to make it look that way, i would have left and never returned, There appears to sometimes be 2 sets of rules sometime.

Also there are just alot more sites now than 8 years ago, every fish mag has a site, everyfish club has one... the club I belongs to has one. Most people get there first and get a simple answer for a simple question. By the way Am I the only one that hates the question "what should I put in my tank?"

Reasons for staying... I like to help people beleave it or not I do have a heart, the profile which need to be updated and and maintained better, Longhairgrit, Gone Troppo, Frank main reasons I stay, they are good people. the Grit I just think he a heckof a guy... I don't know him personally but any time I need help he has answer with professionally, His knowlegde is outstanding and unquestionable. Like most of us we are trail and error for the most of a knowledge, but I wish every site could have member like him and the others. Some one mentioned the plant forum... if I want to keep a log I keep in personal file or notebooks. the Planted forum need an overhaul.... I like looking at others tanks, but hey I posted questions in the planted forum that as far as I know still havn't been answered. because its just a place for people to keep a picture of there tank.... and I think they just got pushed dwon so far in the list no one read them. bBut thanks because of that I had to read up onit ad do it myself, which means I learned it on my own

That was just a few thing I had to say and I hope n one don't take it personally, you asked I give my info as I see it or know it to be true. Bottom line


Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Especially when dealing with the theft of cloudsongs.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

"WMP "walk My Plank" I know serveral member that played that adn got very upset about things nad lost there cool and was banned from both sites, or just was so upset quit supporting both sites."


...You can't hear it, but I'm weeping for humanity.

I can hear it, Cup. I can hear it and the sound is sweet. Your tears sustain me.

I'm not interested in who it was,or what was said, butmy question is about the ones banned from both sites. Did they do what was wrong on just WMP? FP? or both sites?

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

How many people have been banned from both sites? ONE. And from what she wrote, you wouldnt want her here either. How many people have made a big deal of it? ONE. And they aren't the same person. That's all I will say on the matter, and as far as I'm concerned the matter is closed.

FP and WMP are two completely different sites with completely different rules and target audiences. Certain players of WMP don't seem to understand it's a strategic game, and if someone is better than you, crying to me isn't going to help.

As for advertising FP, it's expensive, and I don't have the money. FP would have closed years ago if it wasn't for the Premies, and for that I am eternally grateful. Unfortunately there is still a considerable out of pocket expense (4 figure) for me in keeping the site running.

However... Since WMP is now paying for this server as well as it's own, I am planning on completely phasing out all external advertising on this site, and eventually everyone will get free premium membership. By "eventually", I mean don't hold your breath just yet, it will be some time before I can organize that and I will announce it well ahead of time.

How many people have been banned from both sites? ONE. And from what she wrote, you wouldnt want her here either. How many people have made a big deal of it? ONE. And they aren't the same person. That's all I will say on the matter, and as far as I'm concerned the matter is closed.

That is what FP needs! remember when nobody even knew what you looked like?

Adam

Yes advertising is extremely expensive in those magazines.

FishProfiles must get some form of advertising from Aquarank
I found FP by doing Google I was looking for an Aussie based site and I looked at several and well I am still here.
But what about FREE advertising
By this I mean can you and your team design a print out we can take to our LFS for them to display?
Of all the LFS I have been to only two know about Fish Profiles.
Just did a quick check I visit a total of 9 LFS some more than others.
With all the members here it would not be hard to open up a new market for members.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

Was just curious about it. And I know they are 2 different sites and rules. Just was questioning it as to if it was for the publics interest or just particular people because they didnt like them... but ok. done and done.

As for advertising, what about making up bumper stickers made up and selling them for a small fee and include some kinda bonus thing on the site?

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

you could even do some t-shirts and such like aquabid does... that could pull a bit of attraction (possibly a mod in the US could do the shipping for the US and canada to save on shipping from AUS)

there are countless advertising campaigns, but if you can get your site link into some of the forums on major magazine sites and onto other major forum sites, then this site has a higher potential to grow!

also maybe a little revamp of the aesthetics of the page could attract a few more people... it seems a bit outdated, although i am not complaining... I LOVE FP!

also all of us need to start voting for FP again on Aquarank (i try to vote on a daily or weekly basis to keep it up there!)

I also agree on the forum recorded tank logs, they need to be kept to a minimum as many people with serious questions/problems dont get replies do to their topics being shoved down the list by popular logs.

maybe create a log forum for people.

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I agree with the log forum idea. When there are many popular logs going on at once, a new thread can quickly get pushed down.

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

"Certain players of WMP don't seem to understand it's a strategic game, and if someone is better than you, crying to me isn't going to help."

ROFL Yarrrrrrrrrrrrr !!!!
*starts whapping whiners with Da Plank*

The Amazon Nut...

also maybe a little revamp of the aesthetics of the page could attract a few more people... it seems a bit outdated, although i am not complaining... I LOVE FP!

Ive actually been thinking about that for a while now, and I would love to make a new theme for FP, or at least new "quick links" icons, as IMO they dont seem to fit in with the rest of the layout anymore.

The only problem is that Im not very good with the codes and whatnot

i can mediocreky html code, but there are java script programs that someone could buy to make a nice new classy and contemporary layout. it all depends on the means in which someone is going to make a new page. its not as easy as some may think with the need for links and such on every page! but with a new look fish profiles could make a huge turn arround and get alot more users.

also adam might i suggest that people with high post count or years of member ship be upgraded automatically to premium? that way people are more likely to stay for long periods of time, or get more people interested. although i do like the small FP community, it would also be nice to see it grow a bit more.

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Free premiums=no server money.

adam just said WMP pays for mopst of FP anyways....

well at least thats what i understood...possibly raffle off a six month premie once a month? that could keep people intrigued and also make people happy so long as it is fair! (maybe charge a small fee to enter into the raffle?)

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Thats what the premie trial is for and we have been given several options regarding skins not all that long ago.

also adam might i suggest that people with high post count or years of member ship be upgraded automatically to premium

i think if you set premium membership at say 1000posts youll end up with alot of short crappy posts that dont address the issue at hand just so people can get their post count up. eh i guess even so thats more action in the forums then we are currently getting...

Also id be interested in how many people actually found this site through aquarank, signed up and have/had a decent post count. Just seems like everyone is identifying our poorer aquarank position as the sole cause of our lack of activity. I think the lack of activity might be more to do with the missing personalities such as Shannon, Jamie, Kitten, Heidi, Pugerson(sp) Stormy dude_dude, PJ Rabbit (just to name a few) that for whatever reason left a while ago.

Also i reckon the experienced members should lighten up abit on the newbies and i know im no one to talk... but it just seems like weve got a decent supply of old timers, a few new members and not many members in that in that in between stage because people are scaring them off.

the problem comes when one opinon is give more weight than others

I dont think that is a problem at all. Say im divided on an issue and one newbie to the site says one thing and a member like LHG says another. Im always going to take LHGs answer more serious because hes an fish keeper that i have a lot of respect for rather then someone i am less familiar with or that has less experience with the issue at hand. Same deal in the planted forum you can even see by the looks of some of the tanks in the logs that these people really know what they are talking about and should be given the according respect

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

I agree with Alex about the post count for premium membership thing. I'm a member at a support forum where one member is posting often - but posting very bad advice 99% of the time, and promising help he is not able to deliver. It's extremely annoying and frustrating for the people who need help, many people give up on getting good advice because what they get right away is so poor.

I did actually find this site thru Aquarank back in the day when it was practically always #1. However, if I hadn't back then and was looking at Aquarank now, I would probably still end up at FP because I don't have any reefs and I'm not obsessed with bettas.

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A log forum is not necessary, IMO. There really aren't that many logs posted around; if there were 30 logs going with regular posts, maybe it'd be more of an issue. If I'm not mistaken, there are fewer than ten (although I could very well be mistaken). Being "pushed down" means that the topic is a few lines lower, which isn't anything hugely drastic. The topics in each forum are shown by length of time since the last posting, anyway; even if you come every two weeks, you're still going to see all the same topics in each forum.

We have an appropriate number of forums as it is; some forums do not get very much activity. More forums is not necessary.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

What attracts me to PF is the cordial atmosphere of the forum. Everyone is mostly polite and helpful. With a multinational forum it is good that we have quite a good score of fishkeepers in each country.

I also like the chatroom, although it mainly seems to be us same few in there every day. Why not visit the chatroom feature? There is no fighting or language and is one of the tamest but most helpful chatrooms I know.

The profiles of fish is really very helpful but when I do google searches it comes up with other fishsites instead of FP. Not sure why that is as I consider FP one of the best.

What ties it all in, and what is truly "unique to FP" is the logbooks. The idea is to record your tank, its dimensions, the inventory (fish, etc) and it will automatically calculate your tank volume, the average fish temp range, the average ph range, and provide a link to the profiles so you can read up on the fish.
It is disappointing that the logbooks never really works for me and I continue to get error messages which discourages me from wanting the use the logbooks feature further.

I dont see enough pending profile changes
C'mon people, we can do better than this.

I propose that we have some sort of reward for those who help create or edit profiles. Any ideas, Adam?

Profile creation/editing fall under the contributor badge.

I agree with zach. I've been wanting to write up a profile or two for a while but just haven't gotten around to it.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I say we have a "GET TO DAH CHOPPAH!" badge, for anyone who has exhibiting excellence in fighting aliens.

Might i stick my nubbish nose in? not trying to flame or nuttin but all yall are sayin to many vets and not enough beginners askin questions, yet its taken me over a hour and a half to get a simple answer.

A few suggestions that might help

1. In the profiles of different species of fish, plants, corals, & inverts, about 35% of them are lacking a picture. Maybe the other sites have more pictures that nubs like?

2. Add a thing in each section showing whos browesing that section (eg frank is currently in livebearer lane)

3. im not sure of the orgin of this site, or who pays for it and mainains it, but the background might have something to do with it. I understand that people should be interested in the information here and not how the site looks, and thats true. However the site is kinda boreing with its tan background.... maybe insted of the background u have pics of fishtanks, and each page has a different tank. I mean it might interest people more if they come to the site and insted of seeing a tan back ground and thinking hmmm hasnt been updated lately, they see a awesome background and stuff and they think hmmm this place looks pretty cool. The most interesting thing so far is on the homepage with the danios at the top.

4. the threads only have a few posts, and maybe 2 stickies.

Maybe if you leave the topics up, people will see we are fiarly active, and be interested. i checked just a sec ago and 3 members and 10 guests were on. so maybe u have alot more people comeing to the site, but not alot sign up. when i first came here there were like 20 topics in each thread, and figuresd u were a pretty active bunch, now four months later i look and theres like 4 topics in a thread.

maybe you could make YOUR OWN screen saver for people to use, like a fish tank with fish profiles spelled out in it, and fish swimmin round. but the people can sawp stuff in the tank if they want, like if they want a salt water or fresh, what type fish, if they want plants or not, shoot even what coulor gravel....


just some ideas, if what yall are doing now aint working, why not try sumthin new?

Well, I for one have not been around in quite a while.

Number of reasons, I guess.

First and foremost I haven't been able to be in the hobby as much as before. Expenses went up and haven't had as much money for tanks, plus needed a breather from the big tank stuff. When I finally had the bug and the money again some living space situations came up that haven't been resolved yet.

Other thing is, as has been mentioned before, this is a great place to learn general info, but once you get really interested in some aspect, there are more specific sites to visit. For example, those really into plants will no doubt migrate to APC or similar.

I visited for the first time in a long time yesterday and I have to admit, it was kinda heart warming to see all the old members still around. But very little from new members, I notice. Was shocked to see the planted forum so empty. I was always in there and it was always busy. I know a couple vets from there have moved on.

Anyway, good to see many of the older posters here again, even if no one remembers me.

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Back in the saddle!

Profile creation/editing fall under the contributor badge.

I meant that one should get some sort of reward in addition to that. Im not trying to be unappreciative or anything, as I would submit profiles even without earning a badge, but I dont think that the badge is enough motivation anymore for people to help out the site which has helped them in countless ways.
Maybe one could earn a free premium membership for a week or something, and that would also influence him or her to keep making more profiles so that he/she doesn't lose the premie membership.

And hey NowherMan, I remember you

I remember you Nowherman

Actually, I remember a bundle of the MIA members that have popped up recently... I need to get out more

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett