Just A Thought

[fatheadminnow]

With cycling a tank a HUGE part of fish keeping, and keeping fish properly and safe, I propose the idea, unless it has already been talked about in the past, for a separate section titled "Cycling" or something along that line.

People who are starting a tank, most likely want to get started as fast as possible.

I know there is the beginners section, where people in the past have posted threads about cycling, however, I have found that some cycling threads have been lost among all of the other beginners threads, and have gotten no responses.

With cycling a tank to be one of the main priorities, I think there should be a dedicated section in the Tropical Fish section, just for cycling tanks.

Also in this section, the pinned topics for cycling the tank should also be made avaliable.

OR

In the beginners section, create another section titled "Cycling."

Just a thought; this is something I thought would be helpful for beginners, all in a attempt for cycling threads not to get lost among all the other threads.

Proposed Title ideas:

"How to Start Up a Fish Tank, a Beginners Guide to Cycling"

"Cycling, the Beginners Section"

I dont know...just a thought.

What are your guys opinions on this subject?

-FHM

 

[fifefish]

couldnt they just make a pinned topic in the beginners section with this:
Cycling

 

[CKutz]

cycling and stocking seem to be very common topics that people have questions about..and both can often get lost in the shuffle..i think cause sometimes we just get tired of repeatedly answering them.
I was thinking about seeing if there could be a stocking section. i know it's not really necessary and is covered a lot in trop. discussion..but maybe specific things like this could lead to better answers.

i've posted stocking questions already and gotten 1 answer one time..and another time gotten different answers. so why not just make a section where people that know what they are talking about can help people with it.for example how wilder and Colin_T are always helping people in the emergency section. or at least to clear up the tropical discussion area there is always a number of stocking posts.
it's the same thign with cycling. people always coming on wondering why the 20 fish they just got in their 5 gallon tank that they just set up before the put the fish in are all dying haha...but it would just clear things up to have them both in separate sections.

sorry for jacking your thread bud haha, just thought i'd add something that was on my mind also. it seems to me some things like this could be more separated to keep it more organized and get more solid advice.

 

[rdd1952]

It has been mentioned before. The main reason the New to the Hobby section was set up is to handle cycling questions since that seems to be the most common question from beginners. As far as a pinned topic, we have tried to cean them up as we had gotten to the point where we had so many that they seemed to get lost among themselves. We ended up updating the Beginners Resource Center which we think has most of the threads that a beginner would need ranging from setting up a tank to cycling to stocking plus some more advanced articles.

 

[kribensis12]

About pinned Topic's. Well, I personally don't read them. Maybe because I'm young and ignorant. But, I don't read them. I don't even notice them when I go to a page. But, if you have a section for it, well, you WILL notice that. I like the idea.

 

[fatheadminnow]

First of all, thanks for all of the replies!

It has been mentioned before. The main reason the New to the Hobby section was set up is to handle cycling questions since that seems to be the most common question from beginners. As far as a pinned topic, we have tried to cean them up as we had gotten to the point where we had so many that they seemed to get lost among themselves. We ended up updating the Beginners Resource Center which we think has most of the threads that a beginner would need ranging from setting up a tank to cycling to stocking plus some more advanced articles.

Yes, I noticed the change in the beginners section, how everything about cycling and the nitrogen cycle is all compiled together, very nice I must admit.

I also understand that if there are more sections to post in, that new people just coming to this forum might get lost and confused.

Also I understand that less sections to post in, makes the forum more "clean" but not necessary more organized, IMO.

An Idea, please bare with me...lol:

I thought the section could go before all the others.

EXAMPLE:


How to Start up Your First Fish Tank
A discussion on how to properly set up your first fish tank, dedicated on how to properly cycle your tank.
Forum Led by: Inchworm, rdd1952

New to the hobby
General aquarium discussion for tropical fish, with general questions and advice.
Forum Led by: Inchworm, rdd1952

Tropical Fish Emergencies
If there is an Emergency, post it in this forum and get all the help we can give.
Forum Led by: Tolak, black angel

Bettas
For the beautiful world of Bettas.
Forum Led by: wuvmybetta

ETC...

Just a thought.

Have the section come before the "New to The Hobby" section.

Having it before the section, it will ensure that people see it first, thus, the percent that this link is clicked first will go up.

I see more people with 1 (Newbie) post in the "New to The Hobby" section, than I do in the "Welcome to Tropical Fish Forums" section.

With this said, people are clicking on the first link in the "Tropical Fish" section, which is the "New to The Hobby" section, but if we put the "How to Start up Your First Fish Tank" section before this, like I showed above, then we are going to get more beginners to click on that.

And if this section, (How to Start Up Your First Fish Tank) is dedicated to ONLY how to start up your tank, which will be focused on cycling, maybe people will get more solid answers on cycling a tank quicker than before.

The "New to The Hobby" section is a very broad topic/section, where members post everything from cycling to fish selection, to lighting and filtration, and much much more.

With all of these threads starting all of the time, it is very easy for the more important, "cycling questions," which require a little more attention than others, to easily get lost amongst all others.

And within in this section, there will be all of the pinned articles on Cycling the tank and the nitrogen cycle.

I want this section to have a very loud voice on cycling, which is dedicated to ONLY cycling questions.

After the cycling questions have been answered, then, this is when the member will move onto the "New to The Hobby" section.

What do you guys think?

-FHM

 

[Inchworm]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, fatheadminnow.

Like rdd1952 said, the reason we started the New to the Hobby section was to get people through the cycling process and on their way to successfully maintaining a tank. But, some newcomers do get confused.

I'll bring this subject up in the Mod's section and see if we can do something to improve this.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, fatheadminnow.

Like rdd1952 said, the reason we started the New to the Hobby section was to get people through the cycling process and on their way to successfully maintaining a tank. But, some newcomers do get confused.

I'll bring this subject up in the Mod's section and see if we can do something to improve this.

Cool!

Thanks a lot Inchworm!

Basic stats about TFF

19.8% of the members have posted in the "Welcome to Tropical Fish Forums."

60.3% of members have posted in the "New to The Hobby" section.

A difference of 40.4%.

Granted, one member is probably going to post more than just one time in the "New to The Hobby section," than in the "Welcome to Tropical Fish Forums section."

So, this shows that more members are clicking on the "New to The Hobby" section than the "Welcome to Tropical Fish Forums" section.

In conclusion, more people are clicking on the "New to The Hobby" section, which is the first section in the "Tropical Fish" section.

If we can get this 40.4%(almost half of new fish hobbiest) of new members to click on the proposed "How to Start up Your First Fish Tank" section, there could be a lot more successful first time fish aquariums.

So, this also shows that nearly 41% of members click on the FIRST section in the "Tropical Fish" section, which would be the "New to The Hobby" section. So that is why I think we should put the proposed "How to Start up Your First Fish Tank" section before the "New to The Hobby" section, all in a attempt to get that 40.4% of people to read about how to properly set up a tank first, before moving on to other things.

I was tired when I wrote this...lol.

-FHM

 

[rdd1952]

If you are using the number of threads to calculate the number of people that have posted in the sections, then the numbers are skewed. It's true that there are 8476 threads in Welcome posted by some of our 42622 members for a percentage of 19.88% and for NttH, it is 25699 threads for 60.29% but those numbers are only threads. Based on that theory 53866 threads in Tropical Discussion means that 126.4% of our members have posted in TD which we know is impossible. In essence, that is the number of thread that have been started not posts. Since the Welcome section is specifically for members to introduce themselves, it would stand to reason that a member would only create one thread there and then move on to the other areas. That isn't entirely true though. As you mentioned, some go in the first section they come to and post their problem. That also happens if the person hasn't validate yet as they can only post in Welcome and NttH until the validate. At one time, I don't think posts in Welcome actually added to your post count but I could be wrong about that.

Part of the problem with NttH being "clogged" (for lack of a better word) with posts other than cycling is that we probably haven't moved threads to their proper location as well as we should have and part of that is because a lot of members spend most of their time in NttH and TD. Right now, in the first 6 threads in NttH, there is one about aggressive rams, one about filters and 2 about heaters. If we moved those to the cichlids and hardware sections which are far less active, then it's likely the member would have to wait considerably longer to get the answers they need. Obviously, we want them to get help.

In essence, I think most people look at where they are posting and post in the section they think will get them the quickest answer, not necessarily where it should be. A lot of the time, it isn't the section that it really should be in as the example of the aggressive rams and hardware questions points out but in all 4 cases, they have gotten more replies than they would have in the correct section. I know that too many people don't read pinned topics (which kind of shoots down the theory that they click on the top-most thing in the section or on the page) which in a lot of cases could answer a lot of the questions they have.

What we all need to start doing is going into more areas. I am guilty of not checking the other areas other as often as I should and I have also moved threads from Welcome to NttH or TD when they really should have gone into a species or other section but I put them there because I knew they would get help quicker.

 

[JustKia]

Doesn't this http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=277264 cover what you propose FHM?

 

[youngfisher]

With cycling a tank a HUGE part of fish keeping, and keeping fish properly and safe, I propose the idea, unless it has already been talked about in the past, for a separate section titled "Cycling" or something along that line.

People who are starting a tank, most likely want to get started as fast as possible.

I know there is the beginners section, where people in the past have posted threads about cycling, however, I have found that some cycling threads have been lost among all of the other beginners threads, and have gotten no responses.

With cycling a tank to be one of the main priorities, I think there should be a dedicated section in the Tropical Fish section, just for cycling tanks.

Also in this section, the pinned topics for cycling the tank should also be made avaliable.

OR

In the beginners section, create another section titled "Cycling."

Just a thought; this is something I thought would be helpful for beginners, all in a attempt for cycling threads not to get lost among all the other threads.

Proposed Title ideas:

"How to Start Up a Fish Tank, a Beginners Guide to Cycling"

"Cycling, the Beginners Section"

I dont know...just a thought.

What are your guys opinions on this subject?

-FHM

 

[fatheadminnow]

I see where you are coming from rdd1952, also, I was really tired last night when I came up with those stats...lol.

Doesn't this <a href="http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=277264" target="_blank">http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=277264</a> cover what you propose FHM?

Yes, I know there are pinned topics about cycling and the whole 9 yards, however, these pinned articles are in the "New to The Hobby" section, which is a very BROAD topic/section.

What I proposed, is to create an entirely new section, something called "How to Start up Your First Fish Tank" section.

This section would only be dedicated on cycling a tank, and water parameters.

Like rdd1952 said, there are going to be many people that post non-cycling questions here, but people, myself included, have posted in areas that were not related to their topic.

I also proposed that all of the pinned topics also be made avaliable here in the "How to Start up Your First Fish Tank" section as well.

Okay, lets be honest now, if you are completely new to fish keeping, and you want to start up your first tank, and you come to this forum for the first time, you are probably going to start to browse the home page.

But when that person comes across the section titled, "How to Start up Your First Fish Tank", that person is going to think, "heck yeah I want to know how to start up my first fish tank, that is why I am here."

IMO, I think that "How to Start up Your First Fish Tank", is a very catchy title. I can almost guarantee that almost every new comer, especially the ones that have no fish yet,and are looking to start in the hobby, are going to click on this section first.

I wish I had access to all of the stats of TFF, like how many clicks are on certain topic, that way I could propose a better presentation on how likely new comers are to click on this new proposed section.

Anyways, I understand that this idea is pretty radical, and I thank you all for baring with me thus far. I mean, I have only been a member here for like 5 months now, so how can I possibly have any of my ideas made into reality. lol Well, I hope that this is not the case, and you all look at this as a pretty good idea, well, at least I think it is a good idea, *of course FHM thinks it is a good idea, it is his idea* lol.

I guess you never know what the outcomes are until the future becomes present.

*Fingers crossed* with some luck, maybe my idea will be made into reality.

EDIT: I was also thinking about, rdd1952, was saying that you mods don't always get to move every thread that is not related to the section it is in, to the correct section.

Maybe you could promote more people to the mod position, or assign certain mods to monitor only certain section.

EXAMPLE: Have Mod Bob, monitor the NTTH section, and then have Mod Tim monitor the TD section, and so fourth. (Not actually Mod names)

Thanks You!

-FHM