A suggestion for those of us that love the AC forums and the vast amount of knowledge here.
Get to know the rest of the site. I love the community here at AC, I find it to be one of the most welcoming to new marine keepers and I try to help as much as I can when new questions are asked. Most everyone does, even those of us new to the hobby can help. Helping others is how I've learned much of what I've been able to learn. It causes me to research something I might not have considered.
I'd like to see the marine following at AC grow. To do that it will take more than the above though. It will take showing them that we utilize other areas of the site. For instance:
Photo forums: Preface your post topic with a SW: in front of the title. It will help new people and those of us with limited time get to share beautiful marine shots. Of course look at the FW posts too, they have some beautiful discus, bettas, planted tanks and more here. But to a new person visiting it can appear at times as if only FW folks post here when looking at that forum.
Classified forums: Lets face it, some of us are looking for used equipment to save money. There are some great deals out there. And some of us have bought something we're no longer using. So look through your fish equipment inventory and post something up in the classified section. Use a FS, FT, WTB in front of the post and post your location! Something like WTB: zoanthids and skimmer for 55g in Chicago or FS: 100g stand stand in Atlanta. p/u only are going to get you more meaningful clicks than a vague title...plus it will show new people visiting that we do have a saltie trade going here.
In fact, if you also head over to the Suggestions forum, you'll see a current conversation on saltie classified. You'll find that the mods and admin here do read that forum and are good about replying to all posts there. That doesn't mean you'll always garner the answer you want but you will get a reply.
There are other forums I try to go to at times too like the Welcome forum, the General ChitChat forum where there are some OT games and such that the community uses regularly. I've found it a great place to get to interact the FW users more as well as getting to know mods better.
We obviously can't read every post, and we all have other responsibilites that the hobby itself takes time from...but lets help this community grow and be more welcoming to marine keepers. I'm going to start by checking the welcome forum and see who might be new here with a salt tank or wants one...
Get to know the rest of the site. I love the community here at AC, I find it to be one of the most welcoming to new marine keepers and I try to help as much as I can when new questions are asked. Most everyone does, even those of us new to the hobby can help. Helping others is how I've learned much of what I've been able to learn. It causes me to research something I might not have considered.
I'd like to see the marine following at AC grow. To do that it will take more than the above though. It will take showing them that we utilize other areas of the site. For instance:
Photo forums: Preface your post topic with a SW: in front of the title. It will help new people and those of us with limited time get to share beautiful marine shots. Of course look at the FW posts too, they have some beautiful discus, bettas, planted tanks and more here. But to a new person visiting it can appear at times as if only FW folks post here when looking at that forum.
Classified forums: Lets face it, some of us are looking for used equipment to save money. There are some great deals out there. And some of us have bought something we're no longer using. So look through your fish equipment inventory and post something up in the classified section. Use a FS, FT, WTB in front of the post and post your location! Something like WTB: zoanthids and skimmer for 55g in Chicago or FS: 100g stand stand in Atlanta. p/u only are going to get you more meaningful clicks than a vague title...plus it will show new people visiting that we do have a saltie trade going here.
In fact, if you also head over to the Suggestions forum, you'll see a current conversation on saltie classified. You'll find that the mods and admin here do read that forum and are good about replying to all posts there. That doesn't mean you'll always garner the answer you want but you will get a reply.
There are other forums I try to go to at times too like the Welcome forum, the General ChitChat forum where there are some OT games and such that the community uses regularly. I've found it a great place to get to interact the FW users more as well as getting to know mods better.
We obviously can't read every post, and we all have other responsibilites that the hobby itself takes time from...but lets help this community grow and be more welcoming to marine keepers. I'm going to start by checking the welcome forum and see who might be new here with a salt tank or wants one...
