Fish Stores

[chrisbassist]

could we have a section listing fish shops?

kind of like the info on fish species, where you would have sub forums for different countries, and if possible then sub-sub forums for different areas in those countries?

and each post could be done something like:

Shop Name: something aquatics
Shop location: Oxford
Phone number: XXXXX XXX XXX
Website: www.something aquatics.com
Stock: They stock a range of tropicals, cold water and marine fish, including different cichlids, guppies, tetras, rays, etc
Staff: Depends who you talk to, many seem very knowledgable, while others don't seem to care about the fish
Other comments: On last visit, I saw a few fish with signs of disease, wouldn't recommend getting any fish from here unless you're sure what you're looking for. They were installing more tanks, so hopefully they will now be using some for quarantine.
address: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


what do you think?

being pretty new to the hobby, I have no idea how many different shops there are near me, or what they tend to stock, and searches bring up not a lot. So having a resource like that would be great.

 

[Skellie]

Do you mean something like this:

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=49879

 

[chrisbassist]

like that yeah...

I didn't see that before. even if it was a pinned topic. since I haven't spent much time in the tropical section, mainly the beginners and new tropical section.

But I still think giving it a full section would be good.

It would be easier to find (so I wouldn't have added this thread)
It would be better organised so you could find stores near to you easier
with each store having it's own thread in a section, if things change with the store, people can comment to say, or people can then leave their extra comments (they may deal with different staff members or spot things you may not)

I twould be a bit of a pain to get started and the section would look a bit bare for a while, but in the long run you'd have one of the best resources of fish stores on the net. getting the site more visitors, hence a livelier forum (and more diverse).

I have to say though, I'm surprised I've not seen any adverts or anything about. I realise there are policies in place about posting adverts, but surely the owner is able to put a couple on?


EDIT: plus having all the contact, address and website info for each shop makes a lot of sense, since if i see a shop in that list and it says it's in my area, I still have no idea where to find it.

 

[steelhealr]

Hi Chrisbassist....indeed there IS a pinned topic on this. However, I noticed that it is locked. I will discuss whether or not it should be opened for updating. SH

 

[chrisbassist]

ok, cheers.

I just think that in a single thread like that, it's going to be hard to find shops near you, loads of pages, with ones potentially near you dotted around everywhere... hard to find.

and like I said, without spending time in that section, you won't see it, whereas with its own section, everyone will see it. or at least add a pinned topic in each section linking to it......

just an idea anyway.

 

[rdd1952]

The problem we have with the current UK thread is that it is almost 6 years old (started July 2004), 18 pages long and very out-dated. I think it is probably pretty useless in it's present state as I can't imagine anyone searching through 18 pages to try to find stores/shops in their area.

A year or so ago, dthoffsett (before she became a mod) was gracious enough to redo the US thread and create a separate post for each state along with the very first post being a table of content telling which page each state was on. Unfortunately, she could not tackle the UK thread since she lives in the US and doesn't know enough about the UK and it's states and counties to be able to properly set it up. No one else was willing to tackle the UK thread.

So, if anyone wants to dive into the UK thread and try to sort it out, just let me know and I will do all I can to help. Any unneeded posts that happen to be added while it is being worked on("looking good", "thanks for sorting", etc.) can be removed when it's complete to make it more functional.

As for a separate section, I don't think that would work very well. First, if it was just a matter of people started a thread about their favorite stores, after a while, it would be back to the same situation as now where there are tons of threads that you have to search to find something. And after a while, the older threads wouldn't appear on the normal index at all. And there really isn't much sense in having a sub-forum with only 3 threads for the US, UK and Scotland.

Since I know it was mentioned that you had not seen the thread since you didn't get into the TD forum often, It may be that a similar link needs to be posted in other sections such as the Marine section. After all, if you only have marine tanks, why would you go to Tropical Discussion.

Anyway, if anyone wants to take on the monster thread, just let me know.

 

[steelhealr]

WTG rdd. SH

 

[chrisbassist]

do you have the ability to re-order the posts in a thread? so things could be keptin order in future? so if it is updated (sounds like a massive job) then when new places are added they could be moved in to the right order to help browse by area?

or not?

 

[steelhealr]

Errr....would be a lot of work. You would have to click to edit...cut and paste into threads with the updated info, then, delete the older posts (whew). SH

 

[chrisbassist]

so basically not then...

I've not worked with invision before, wasn't sure what features it had, I've worked with phpBB mostly, and I'm pretty sure you can't on that but wasn't sure if there was any way with invision.

shame,

so basically, there is going to be no way of having a directory that#s easy to keep up to date on here. (short of installing a separate directory system, or having its own forum section... and even that would take work)

nevermind.

 

[rdd1952]

do you have the ability to re-order the posts in a thread? so things could be keptin order in future? so if it is updated (sounds like a massive job) then when new places are added they could be moved in to the right order to help browse by area?

or not?

Actually, it can be done once it's restructured. If you look at the way the US thread is set up, each state has a post to itself. The thread is locked so that no additional posts will be added. If someone wants to add a new store, they simply let one of us know and include their observations, similar to the format already set up. All we have to do as a mod is edit the appropriate state and add the new info. It's really pretty simple. It's basically the same process as the Media Donor thread although that one is a little more difficult because of the HTML code involved there.

A restructuring of the UK thread could be done the same way. Not being familiar with the terminologies of the UK (what is the UK equivalent to a "state" in the US), I'm just not certain what the divisions would be.

 

[fishyfeet]

rdd, it would be countys, essex, suffolk etc, thats how the uk is divided up and thats a lovely job for someone, di

 

[chrisbassist]

yeah, like that, except that your states are bigger than out country... well, most of them anyway.

but that seems like a good way of doing it... maybe start from scratch, since any that are already listed will probably be horribly out of daye by now... and going through all of them would be a bit like hard work.

you'd need to agree on the structure wanted for stores though... like name, location, etc

but i think it should include web address and phone number wherever possible. at address too so people can actually find them.

 

[rdd1952]

Okay, so Braintree (town), Essex (county) (taken from media donors) would be the same as Mt. Holly (town), NC (state).

If I counted correctly on the website I found, there are 70 UK counties (probably not right but close enough for this discussion) so it could be set up similar to the US thread with each county having a post (alphabetically) and then stores could be added. The person creating it would be able to edit their own posts and add the info as they sort through it.

Still looking for that person looking for a challenge to step up and tackle the 18-page monster.

 

[chrisbassist]

I may well have a go at a few...

what format would you suggest?

(and yes you would be right that'd be about the same)