This site is a ghost town.

[dougall]

Yeah... I have known plenty of people that said I should follow his 'system' and they should really all know much better.

He also installed an aquarium at a friend's store.. no clue how that went.

This is why I am not a fan of YouTube creators in general, it's difficult to know if they actually have the credentials to be able to back up what they say, and potentially how much they are being given by sponsors to review their products.

I did used to watch folk that I did know in person, so Rachel/Msjinkzd and Alex/TankTested spring to mind.

But it really is not a medium I enjoy.

 

[NoodleCats]

Yeah... I have known plenty of people that said I should follow his 'system' and they should really all know much better.

He also installed an aquarium at a friend's store.. no clue how that went.

This is why I am not a fan of YouTube creators in general, it's difficult to know if they actually have the credentials to be able to back up what they say, and potentially how much they are being given by sponsors to review their products.

I did used to watch folk that I did know in person, so Rachel/Msjinkzd and Alex/TankTested spring to mind.

But it really is not a medium I enjoy.

Yeah, I prefer to go with scientific articles for specific care research, ones not associated with selling products or anything, to avoid biased information.

YouTube is way too much of a maze to navigate the right accurate info, and every aquarium is a unique system. There's many ways to this hobby, many methods. Its very easy to give out information that may not be correct for one particular setup.

YouTube I like for viewing pretty scape setups, or underwater footage of natural habitats. But that's me.

I've liked Rachel's videos, they were pretty easy to understand and had good basic information for various fish.


Serpa Design is a fantastic scaper, I absolutely love seeing their works of art. Builds really nice environments for all sorts of creatures in his care.

 

[fishorama]

I'm with you guys, there's always different ways to get good results & many different kinds of parameters in all kinds of places. Cult-like or just arrogance, it's not super helpful. I didn't read too much but it does seem very over the top.

 

[FreshyFresh]

I'd much rather get the frown of disgust from members here rather than some social media group.

 

[dougall]

Why are we acting like aquarium forums are not also social media ?

 

[NoodleCats]

Why are we acting like aquarium forums are not also social media ?

They are, but a little more old school. A lot of the younger generations are going with other platforms.

Some forums can be really bad, if not worse, than some of the other forms of social media. I remember back on a parrot forum I receive death threats from a bunch of members simply because I offered supportive advice to someone needing help rather than joining the witch hunt against them. Ah good times.
Or on a parrot forum I moderated on, oh man, you couldn't pay me to go back. It's a lot of stress. I'm sure maybe back when this one was really active, I'm sure moderators here have their fair share of stories too.
Once on the one I moderated, we had one person angry they didn't get the mod position over a few of us, so they were openly hostile about it. They'd join under new names every time they were banned and they'd literally send graphic photos of murder scenes and other graphic materials threatening to send to our workplaces and such.

People are fun.


Newer platforms, it's just more amusing to read the comments and watch folks have internet arguments. Can be rather funny. But it's easier when you are just an observer. When you have to reign those people in, that ruins a lot of your enjoyment.


So having a nice low drama corner of the internet is really nice.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

Example, one on your list runs a discord group and in his rules, you are not allowed to offer anyone advice unless you are personally approved and to do so you must set up an aquarium using his methods and only his methods AND the advice you give must only be based off of HIS methods. That closes off a lot of learning opportunities for many on both sides.

And the followers spread a lot of harmful information blindly because of that.

It's literally run as a cult and I cringe away from nearly anyone promoting this. It's one thing to have a unique method on things, it's another to dictate who can say what and how.

I do not follow discord and was not aware of that about Father Fish. His youtube channel has gone downhill over the last year and not without quite a bit of controversy with other youtubers in the hobby. I've always just seen him as a Walstad method guy with his own twist on things. I don't agree with all of his methods but I used to find his older videos interesting, nonetheless. I haven't watched his videos much recently but after a quick look through his channel, I see what you guys mean.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

Yeah, I prefer to go with scientific articles for specific care research, ones not associated with selling products or anything, to avoid biased information.

YouTube I like for viewing pretty scape setups, or underwater footage of natural habitats. But that's me.

I've liked Rachel's videos, they were pretty easy to understand and had good basic information for various fish.


Serpa Design is a fantastic scaper, I absolutely love seeing their works of art. Builds really nice environments for all sorts of creatures in his care.

Agree 100%. I don't watch YouTube for advice on fishkeeping as ive been in this hobby for so long now. However, I do enjoy watching setup/scaping demonstrations, fish room tours, LFS tours, and breeding facility walk-throughs. Serpa Design is one of my all time favs. The Bio-dude is great in that regard, too.

 

[dougall]

They are, but a little more old school. A lot of the younger generations are going with other platforms.

Some forums can be really bad, if not worse, than some of the other forms of social media. I remember back on a parrot forum I receive death threats from a bunch of members simply because I offered supportive advice to someone needing help rather than joining the witch hunt against them. Ah good times.
Or on a parrot forum I moderated on, oh man, you couldn't pay me to go back. It's a lot of stress. I'm sure maybe back when this one was really active, I'm sure moderators here have their fair share of stories too.
Once on the one I moderated, we had one person angry they didn't get the mod position over a few of us, so they were openly hostile about it. They'd join under new names every time they were banned and they'd literally send graphic photos of murder scenes and other graphic materials threatening to send to our workplaces and such.

People are fun.


Newer platforms, it's just more amusing to read the comments and watch folks have internet arguments. Can be rather funny. But it's easier when you are just an observer. When you have to reign those people in, that ruins a lot of your enjoyment.


So having a nice low drama corner of the internet is really nice.

Most of the time I don't want to take part in anything there, I don't have time to cut and paste information or links, or whatever.. it's not the friendly forum it was in the early noughties.

I use a handful of other forums. Maybe busier than this, but for local aquarium plant groups.

For anything I am really interested in, which is basically going to be aquarium plants, I'm going to be a member of local, national or international facebook groups.. that's where a lot of the experienced folk when they moved on from the regular forums . Sucks for long term storage of information but a lot is more reliable when you know who you are getting info from

 

[NoodleCats]

Agree 100%. I don't watch YouTube for advice on fishkeeping as ive been in this hobby for so long now. However, I do enjoy watching setup/scaping demonstrations, fish room tours, LFS tours, and breeding facility walk-throughs. Serpa Design is one of my all time favs. The Bio-dude is great in that regard, too.

Ever see the tours of that store Panta Rhei in Germany, I think it was? Some cool stuff there