Fish Of The Month

[sunpirate2u]

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[guppy_man]

sorry to burst your bubble mate, but its already been done, not sure if anyone is running one atm tho

 

[Bignose]

Ah, the second most common suggestion post. (The first is "can we have a general chat area?") It was tried and failed pretty miserably. It started as little more than a popularity contest, but it became much, much worse. People sent each other nasty messages via PMs and in threads. People even went so far as to create sock puppet accounts just so they could vote for themselves or their friends. So, the practice was stopped and hasn't been restarted.

It is a good idea, and if the members could be trusted to be mature enough to actually be fair, it would still be going on today. Unfortunately, I think that people, of all ages, act very immature on the Internet, and I don't think that I'd be holding my breath until FOTM comes back.

 

[sunpirate2u]

sorry to burst your bubble mate, but its already been done, not sure if anyone is running one atm tho

hmmm.. I may have over looked it..

 

[BigC]

Yeah been done already, whilst it's a good idea in principle, it doesn't work practically due to cheating and posting pics off the net and stating that they are the owner of the fish/tanks.
I think this forum has a nice peaceful and steady pace not to mention a large fan base.
My personal opinion on the subject of a reward system such as TOTM or FOTM is that it causes problems and is only for people/entrants who court/crave attention.
That is my opinion.
BigC

 

[backtotropical]

Slightly different suggestion, but another forum which i used to use had a 'Tank of the Month' section which worked quite well.

Unlike the 'Fish of the Month', it required several photos of all aspects of the tank, inhabitants, filtration, lighting etc etc along with a commentary on it by the owner. Probably a bit harder to fake.

Also, to further eliminate cheating, it could be made compulsary for TOTM winner to post a photo of themself in front of said tank holding a sign saying, for example "I am Backtotropical and I have won Tank of the Month"

I don't know if it's been tried here before?

Cheers

BTT

 

[steelhealr]

Actually, I think a tank of the month could be done well, however, it would be a matter of HOW the tank was decided. Probably would have to be done by the mods or, as Bignose described, there might be a lot of, well, let's just say pining. I have also seen successful tanks of the month...several well done photos, description of equipment, plumbing, methods, etc. Perhaps..there could even be a prize?

SH

 

[andywg]

We could emulate Reef Central and their feature article style topic where the owner details what they are doing, have done etc.

The problem comes down to how we pick them. A vote on those selected could lead to problems, as too could having some sort of nomination process to get to a vote. Also, would some people lose out because they cannot take such good photos of amazing tanks rather than someone with a more "average" tank but owned by a very good photographer?

Maybe we shoudl ignore some of the problems, give it a go and see how it goes. We seem to be able to run a successful xOTM compo in pets, maybe the worst of the previous offenders have moved on and we can run an xOTM for fish and tanks?

 

[OohFeeshy]

The problem being, I'm really not convinced there's a fair way of choosing a 'best' tank. If you look in the 'My Tanks' section in PFK, or indeed, the whole magazine, it's always plants plants plants, or a very coraly reef. Which is all very well if you're happy keeping boring fish like tetras and microrasboras, but try having a pretty tank with rays, big cats, plant eating fish etc, and you've failed before you've started. That doesn't make the tank any worse, just practical.

 

[Inchworm]

OohFeeshy makes a good point here. The prettiest tanks are usually the green ones. They are lovely and do reflect an intensive amount of work on the part of the owner to make and keep them that way.

Perhaps we could limit the contest to planted tanks and run it in that section of the forum only, similar to what we do in Pets.

 

[Darkstar]

The prettiest tanks are usually the green ones. They are lovely and do reflect an intensive amount of work on the part of the owner to make and keep them that way.

Perhaps we could limit the contest to planted tanks and run it in that section of the forum only, similar to what we do in Pets.

Seems rather selective isn't it? So do you decide what's pretty and what isn't for all of us (and apparently also decide whose put in hard work and who hasn't).

A competition should be open to all, not just what a select few that the mods have decided falls into the 'pretty' catagory. Surely it should be decided by the members themselves what is pretty and what isn't? I know damn well a non-planted tank can look just a good as a planted one if done well...

Stilll, it would seem a good idea for people to decide what exactly is being judged here first....some seem to think it's a pretty tank comp, others seem to be talking about a fish of the month.

 

[Inchworm]

Sometimes you just can't please everyone. That's another reason why we don't do these contests any more.

 

[steelhealr]

Agree with Inchy...see..already there is disagreement. TOTM is that...a tank that someone invested a lot of time in to make it attractive or very interesting to the eye. Granted, it doesn't have to be planted to the wazoo. A large discus tank could be a TOTM. A simple species tank could be TOTM. To then split it down to marine, planted, etc...is a HUGE amount of work. If it ever DID fly..it would have to be a single TOTM IMO.

I don't believe that most other sites offer up the decision process to the members. I believe they are selected by editors, etc. Correct me if I am wrong. It can go awry both ways. If the members choose, you can argue that they are in cliques...or excluding by personality...etc. If the mods pic, members will argue that they get no input on whose tank gets selected.

SH

 

[Darkstar]

I don't believe that most other sites offer up the decision process to the members. I believe they are selected by editors, etc

I can't speak for all but I'm a senior moderator on another popular fish site and we hold a member of the month, fish/tank picture of the month, caption of the month (to accompany an amusing fish picture) and don't have any of these problems that keep being stated here by mods. We also do a 16 or 32 picture knock-out competition and all voting for all the comps is done by the members so I personally fail to see the problem.
I don't see why something which is regularly brought up as a subject and which is obviously wanted by many members should be any more difficult to implement here and now than it is anywhere else, and as such I don't see why a few members who cheated (months and months ago I imagine) should still be spoiling it for everyone who would take part in it honestly.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Granted, it doesn't have to be planted to the wazoo.

Well, no it doesn't, but that's not really the point. There's pretty and practical, granted they can be combined, but I mean the 'extremes', if you like- an Amano style nano with hundreds of pounds worth of glassware dosed with things from the dark side of the Periodic table vs a practically empty tank with a big lump of PVC tube for some obscure catfish species. Fish don't appreciate pretty, and some of the best tanks are probably the ugliest. I don't think you can really do a truly fair competition that covers such a broad area.