The gorilla in the room... My vent.

We need to remember that through the hard economic times, and the holiday season coming up, AC is going to die off for a while. This happens every year during the holiday season, and ppl just dont have the cash right now to put into the hobby because of money issues.

Where GCC posts verses the rest of the forums posts are concerned, I really see GCC being in the minority as far as how many posts are there. I do agree that the taking threads off topic with crap posts is old, and the spamming with nothing to add is too. Comaradarie is a good thing, but derailment of useful threads is annoying.

HN, what would you like to see different? Anyone else have any suggestions of what we can do to improve AC?

what i see here is "if you dont like it, leave".....
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As far as this statement, I saw no lines to read between in what Reef stated. I see your statement as trying to incite negative drama. I fully believe that HN, being a long time upstanding member here on AC, cares greatly about this forum and feels strongly about what has been posted. If he didnt feel a need for a change, he wouldnt have taken the time to post it. So no, no one is stating to him "if you dont like it, leave."
 
Hooked Newbie said:
Is it just me or has AC been "dumbed down" as of late? Maybe it's just me, but it seems as though it's all games and BS GCC posts lately.

Special note: please quit the spam posting. If you have nothing of value to add, add nothing. There are people looking for actual advice. I'll not name names, but everyone knows the few that I refer to.

Anyone know of any good forums? Maybe something that's age regulated. I'm sadly growing ill with AC because of the way it's gone.
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Wow - not at all what I'm seeing. I see a lot of threads going where other threads have gone before, but that's just because it seldom occurs to people that they may not be the first person in the history of the universe to have had a given experience (or, more commonly) to dare to ask about it.

All I would be inclined to suggest is that you steer clear of GCC.

You are aware that GCC posts don't add to post counts, right?

Rather than debate the "spam quotient" of the board with you, I'll just suppose that someone wee'd in your cereal this morning and hope that things improve from there.
 
While I am not a big game player, and most likely won't ever play any of the internet "reindeer games" I like the fact that they are there. It helps us feel that we are a part of this society, and that we are valued members of this site. The mods, and admin have put in some extra effort to offer these contests and prizes....

GCC is just that General Chit-Chat. that is what that forum is about. Just because its there doesnt mean you have to read all of the posts there. While I have 4 aquariums in my house, and help some friends with theirs, its not every day that I have something aquarium to talk about, but its nice to have a place where I can go online and BS with people that do have the same interestes as I.

If you feel the postings have gone completely off topic, then maybe you should contribute some of your knowledge to the articles sections, or help spread some of your experiences in the other forums. We all love to read that kinda stuff.

With this being the information age, full of text messaging, and camera phones, and having an influx of younger, techies to the group, its only expected that the forum might turn slighty towards entertaing them, as they begin to make up the major posting body.

Personally I dont read all the posts here, and I probably wont, and I dont often partake in the games offered here, I have played mafia a couple times, but its just not for me, but I do value that fact that those things happen here. It helps to bring us all together as a social group, not just a buncha fishheads talking fish and shop all day... or a bunch of D&D geeks, We all have other interests in life besides fish.
 
I like AC because of the knowledge that I have received. It is (and has) made me a better keeper of my fish and inverts. I am in my 40's an I am also learning a great deal about how to use on-line sites--just like this one. I am sure I have made posting errors such as hijacking a thread or going off-topic. So far nobody has directly pointed these out to me--but I suspect I have made them. But, in making these mistakes I will hopefully, be a better user of formats such as AC. You have people that go out of their way--here on this site--to repeat and repeat yet again--all kinds of newbie questions. Let me tell you, I for one am grateful. Now I have some confidence in my fishkeeping abilities so I am able to assist in some newbie questions. I think this is the best thing about AC--I came here to learn and I have. I still am learning every day. Now I can inturn start helping other people to learn as my knowledge base grows. And I like to communicate with others who have the same interests as I do. My family is suppportive--but how long can I talk about how great freshwater dwarf shrimp are or talk about the color change in that GBR over there near that female.......they tend to get bored and start to wander off and their eyes glaze over. So it is nice for people to have a place to go where they feel as a part of a community and can discuss mutual interests. I don't have this at home. I do have this online in forums like AC. There are parts of this forum that I do not frequent. Like the chatroom. I went in once to see what it was. I knew that it wasn't for me--so I haven't been back. But I havent stopped comming to AC because if it. I just know that this chatroom is not enjoyable to me so I don't go in it.

I have no idea what spamming is on this site. Can someone tell me what that is?
 
I'll add my two cents as well. One thing I have noticed recently (and this is probably more evident in real-time chat than on the boards) but I see a lot of clique-iness (yes I just made that up...I think) developing. While that's not innately a bad thing, sometimes it can be detrimental to new members and make them feel unwelcome. I know I've been guilty of it at times, taking the attitude of "hey you're new here and we don't know you...you should probably go someplace else". I've made some great friends through AC and yes, there are also those whose posts I tend to just glaze over when reading, but that doesn't make them any less worthy of membership, and it certainly doesn't mean they aren't trying to learn just as hard as everyone else. I do agree that there seems to have been a large number of younger people joining the boards, and sometimes the style they take can be a little put-offish, but I just try to tell myself, hey this guy is 15 (or whatever)...I probably acted like that when I was 15 too...not a big deal, just move on.
 
Ok... let me clarify a few things. I didn't post to belittle anyone, threaten to leave AC, nobody wizzed in my cereal, and I was merely making an observation about my personal opinion of some things. Surely if Photoshop aliens and gangsta penguins are allowed, personal opinions are too, right? I totally understand about the GCC area being just that and people having the freedom to post. I love AC and have learned a ton from many members and also made some very good friends. My point is that I've seen bad advice given and far too many one or two word replies and they seem to go unchecked. I choose not to post in threads where I know that anything I say will be argued with or totally blown off. That to me is a shame and I suspect there are other members that feel similarly. I also have nothing inherently against younger members, I think it's good for the hobby to have them involved (and I'm not nearly as old as Bob yet). There are also some VERY knowledgeable "youngsters" whose posts I seek out in order to learn from. I am always seeking other forums and opportunities to learn so I apologize if that fact is taken out of context. The site "endorsed" games are equally cool to me. I agree that those add to the spirit of community which is the single best thing about AC compared to other sites IMHO. I am concerned with what I truly perceive as less information available on this site however and chose to speak up about it. For those of you that have known me awhile, you'll remember that I began horribly and have benefitted as much as anyone from this site. My concern is for new members that join in a similar spot and are not able to receive the same level of help or simply get turned off by the whimsical off-topic responses that seem to be more and more common lately.
 
i joined AC because I'm fairly new and needed somewhere to learn. I've already sworn it off twice because people put more effort into the "games" than they do in sharing information. The reason that I see, for people to increase their post count, is to join in on the games that matter. The games that matter are the ones put on (I believe) by AC that give you prizes. However you have to have a high enough post count to participate for some pretty good prizes. I do however keep coming back because I will find some information from here that I can't seem to get elsewhere.
 
Hooked Newbie said:
Ok... let me clarify a few things. I didn't post to belittle anyone, threaten to leave AC, nobody wizzed in my cereal, and I was merely making an observation about my personal opinion of some things. Surely if Photoshop aliens and gangsta penguins are allowed, personal opinions are too, right? I totally understand about the GCC area being just that and people having the freedom to post. I love AC and have learned a ton from many members and also made some very good friends. My point is that I've seen bad advice given and far too many one or two word replies and they seem to go unchecked. I choose not to post in threads where I know that anything I say will be argued with or totally blown off. That to me is a shame and I suspect there are other members that feel similarly. I also have nothing inherently against younger members, I think it's good for the hobby to have them involved (and I'm not nearly as old as Bob yet). There are also some VERY knowledgeable "youngsters" whose posts I seek out in order to learn from. I am always seeking other forums and opportunities to learn so I apologize if that fact is taken out of context. The site "endorsed" games are equally cool to me. I agree that those add to the spirit of community which is the single best thing about AC compared to other sites IMHO. I am concerned with what I truly perceive as less information available on this site however and chose to speak up about it. For those of you that have known me awhile, you'll remember that I began horribly and have benefitted as much as anyone from this site. My concern is for new members that join in a similar spot and are not able to receive the same level of help or simply get turned off by the whimsical off-topic responses that seem to be more and more common lately.
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Please do report posts that are undesirable so that staff can be made aware.

We do want to invite community into the forums, but at the same time we need to remeber our number one goal, and that is to help share knowledge and guide others through the aquarium hobby.
 
This kind of thing happens on every forum on every subject on the internet, its just something that happens, and usually the people who just post to increase a post count, play games etc soon get bored and move on to another forum.

As long as the members who are genuine interested in helping continue to give out good advice and do not get an elitist attitude towards new members, then there is no problem and nothing to really worry about. I think my post count and join date show that I spend far more time reading and learning on here than posting, but in reading its pretty easy to figure out genuine advice from people increasing their post count just for the sake of it.

If a post bothers by one member bothers another because of it being 1 word, then ignore it, if the post is wrong information then correct that information and give reasons why the wrong post is wrong, that way everyone learns and everyone goes home happy.
 
I've been here for 8 years now, and I've seen cliques come and go . It seems to be a trend... What i think makes AC such a great site is that we accept anyone, from newbie beginners to professionals. It's a very easy site to get comfortable with.

on GCC's recent style of threads, I do agree that it has shifted to a more rather comedic style, but I don't see anything wrong with it. the younger folks are having a good time with it, and it's not like we're blocking anyone from creating more mature threads either.

Personally, I like the diversity of the site. I choose what threads to involve myself with, and I don't let the ones that aren't my "style" bother me.
 
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