new forum suggestions? tetra? barb? other?

[vince0]

i think it would be nice to have a tetra/barb forum. there are so many species and so few dedicated information zones. i find they get left in a grey zone haha

[Melody]

Thanks for the suggestion. I was just thinking yesterday that it would be nice to have a designated Rainbowfish forum too. Initially we didn't want to have a whole bunch of sections with a few posts each, but if there's enough interest we can suggest categorical expansion.

Maybe we need a poll to determine interest? I'll never remember all of the groups so we can take suggestions for that first.

Tetras
Barbs
Rainbowfish
Labyrinth
Schooling fishes - tetras, barbs and rainbows

Can anyone think of other groups they'd like to see?

[GaryofMontreal]

I'd suggest yet another artificial category - Schooling fishes - tetras, barbs and rainbows.

I don't think there'd be enough stand alone traffic for each, but I'd certainly go to a section devoted to all, much like killies and livebearers, where I find they support each other.

[vince0]

i agree, that idea is even better than mine :D

[Melody]

I thought of that too - great minds & all that, but most of them aren't considered to be schooling fish so I figured someone like Gary would correct me. :laugh:

[GaryofMontreal]

It's all fake anyway - killies are egg-layers and livebearers are well named, but their biology is similar. Keeping them isn't, really. Lots of Characins are territorial, but most of the ones we'd discuss are not. For convenience, it would be worth a try.
Gouramies probably wouldn't generate much traffic, but Bettas and Gouramies might. General Aquarium discussions would falter from this though.
I think the smaller fish would draw more interest than Oddballs and Predators.
It was the forum set-up that caught my eye when I stumbled across the site - it wasn't a cichlid forum like most Canadian sites. I like cichlids, but they are over-discussed on most forums. CAC was attractive to the eye because it focused on a lot of stuff.

[Melody]

Like snails? :Angel:

Can we name it something else so we don't have every single new member coming in and saying "By the way, Rainbowfish aren't schooling fish"?

'Other community fish'? That sounds boring. :SLEEP:

I agree that we need something and I agree that dividing it up too much would be a bad thing, I just don't know what to do about it. :laugh:

[CACAdmin]

Maybe we could take a current poll about what fish members are keeping that aren't covered by specific forums, and then let Gary figure out how to group them. :wink: :DevilGrin: .

[Melody]

I know I'll miss species if I start a poll now.

One thing I do find in forums with a lot of categories, is I'm often not sure where to post. :Think: It's about Livebearers, but also about food, and there's pictures, plus I need to know what environment they want and there's the Cory issue, but the real problem is that nippy Betta, and what heals those fins anyway....

:idea:

I guess when I see all of the categories, I think they must be very big on keeping topics precisely where they belong. The more inclusive the categories, the better, in my not-so-humble opinion. :yes:

[vince0]

a poll would be great! just make it part of a thread so that if anyone has suggestions for the poll they can also input them!

[Melody]

People can only vote once, so I was hoping to have the complete list before putting the poll up. :Smile:

[GaryofMontreal]

The first step to a solution is defining the problem. here's my take:
Our first grouping should be for fish that live in groups without holding defined, physical object territories. Most tetras and most barbs school. Some tetras (emperors) hold cichlid like geographic territories. Some barbs have a 'swarm' social structure, the technical form of most rainbow societies, where they don't school per se, but where they hang in an area and interact. Then we have 'flocks', a different social structure. So in our own little aquarium forum corner, we come up against the great question of how to compartmentalize something as wonderfully random as life. Hmmm. It looked easy.
Almost every forum in Canada has cichlids and everything else as topics. We've tended to have livebearers and everything else.
I can't think of divisions that would make sense to a newcomer to aquariums that would be accurate. geography? It would be valid, but many newbies don't check where their fish are from. Anatomy? Forget it.
You guys made good choices when you set up...

You could have "Bettas and Gouramies" because that might draw another thriving fishkeeping community over - the Betta crowd like to talk and love their fish, and their selective breeding versus wild form divisions mirror the livebearer world. Not too many people talk Gouramies, but hey, when it happens, it's interesting.

Tetras, barbs and rainbows could be a second category - name 'em, and run away to see what happens. I think that would be a quiet list.

The other option is just to rename the "General" category as a sort of community aquarium topics forum.That might get hits on searches and draw more people to the discussions.

You could even have a "new aquarist's corner".

It looked really simple when I saw the thread a few days ago.

[Melody]

Labyrinth would work for Betta's & Gourami, yes? That's a group I see quite often in books & such.

Oh, books! We could have a look at those and see the standard.

I object to a newbie forum. I've yet to find one that wasn't all over the place, with topics that could have gone elsewhere. Plus, most people who are newbies think they're not, so they post in the categories anyway :laugh: .

I agree, we're over-thinking it, we're bad for that Gary...LOL. Maybe some people could have a look around their other favorite forums and see how they have it categorized, noting how many posts the categories are getting?

[GaryofMontreal]

Maybe.
I do think that any label/title should be something people will type in to a search engine, which is why I'd say "Bettas" and Gouramies.

[Melody]

Marketing is my department :laugh: . The engines will pick up the keywords from the threads, based on how often they're repeated (as long as it isn't an attempt to manipulate results) and often more importantly, how much of that content is new. The forum title would just add one to the word count. The title of the webpage in the URL would score points, but I don't think the forum software does that... I'll have to check that.

Edit: No, the URL doesn't contain the forum title.

[CACAdmin]

Anyone else have additional ideas either of fish or groupings?

[CACAdmin]

:bump-5:

[CACAdmin]

:bump-5:

[Ursus sapien]

there's always 'bottom-dwellers and catfish' 'minnows' 'inverts'...

[davefrombc]

How about setting up a live chat room ? Ajax chat is a free chat program that integrates well with vBulletin and is used in other fish and non-fish forums I belong to. It is one of the best forum chat programs I've seen and used.
Maybe I'm an oddball, but I enjoy chatting live with friends world wide. Chat is great when you are discussing details of a project or problem in real time rather than in post and reply that may take days to address in post and reply , and then may not be of interest to the forum as a whole .. It is also a great way to get to know fellow members on a more personal way than can be done by just post and reply to forum subjects .
Maybe we can have a poll to see what kind of support a chat room would have.
I think it is another tool in building a community.

[CACAdmin]

Thanks for the idea but the topic of a chat room has been discussed before and there are two main reasons we haven't added one. Firstly, the info shared in the chat room would be lost to anyone (current or new members) searching for it later (and if you have a question, others sooner or later will likely have it too). A search of posts will net an answer (our pooled knowledge is a great resource). Also if the person with the knowledge to answer your question or provide advice doesn't happen to be in the chat room when you log in, you're still going to have to search the forum or Google for an answer. The odds of them being in the chat room are probably less than finding that person logged in here on the forum.

The other main reason is that a chat room needs to be moderated 24/7 as we do have young members here and we have to ensure that all info on this site is age appropriate. Staffing that makes it prohibitive.

If you just want to chat with a member to get to know them better, you can check their profile for Instant Messaging options.

[Xiph]

Oh gosh, I should look around the forum more!

What happened to the Schooling Fish (Tetra, Barb, et al) idea? It is a great one.

[CACAdmin]

Thank you for bringing this back to the table. We got stalled in the "what to group" and "how to group" and how much interest there is. When I have a moment I should put a poll together, and we can go from there.

[Xiph]

Easy, p-eazy! Just set up a section dedicated to the bee-you-tea-full Cardinal Tetra and we can all chat about what wonderful fishie-fish they are! ::D:

Can't wait for the poll! :yes:

[Rabadswompe]

some threads mention programms certain species that need to be maintained in captivity due to extinction in the wild... A forum "branch" on such species would help "spot" existing colonies, link breeders to facilitate renewing the gene pool, get people with spare tanks on the band wagon...

I have very limited knowledge of this programm, even less about the species that are (or should be) beneficiaries... but I am interested!

[CACAdmin]

some threads mention programms certain species that need to be maintained in captivity due to extinction in the wild... A forum "branch" on such species would help "spot" existing colonies, link breeders to facilitate renewing the gene pool, get people with spare tanks on the band wagon...

I have very limited knowledge of this programm, even less about the species that are (or should be) beneficiaries... but I am interested!

Have you checked out the Do you breed any threatened species? (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6728) Sticky in the General Section? Because it likely involves so many different species, I think it's probably best where it is. If if it were to generate enough interest and posts, we could look at the possibility of into making it a 'Sub-Forum' of Fish and Equipment (General).

[pyro]

Have you considered the C.A.R.E.S. program?
http://www.carespreservation.com/
I have mixed feelings about the program but it does generate some awareness. We have set up a section in our forum that will go live very shortly

[Cashmere_socks]

I find too many threads confusing :nah:

if you keep it general, people are exposed to new things they might not have noticed before :)