Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine

[GaryE]

One of the things I like about this forum is you can be slightly social while following your own interests in fishkeeping. I've tried to convince some of my friends to participate, but they've lost the ability to suffer fools, and won't even look at the good online environment here. This is a well moderated forum. Even just a few years ago when there were still lots of forums functioning, the aggression online was not fun. I accidentally met one of the worst fish forum tr#lls I had ever seen in action - a man who launched vicious personal attacks at anyone who said anything he didn't like. He was an old man who was never sober after noon, and thought he was being funny. He was gunning for what he called the fishkeeping elite (I didn't get it. He was attacking self educated working class aquarists, and he owned a local restaurant chain started by his Dad). That man alone chased at least 15 people who were generous with info and knew as much or more than anyone here off the social internet.

Writing for the old magazines where you would have an editor who had seen it all to worry about and question anything you couldn't back up was easy compared to what goes online.

Hopefully there are thicker skinned open minded young aquarists waiting in the wings, and we can get the hard earned expertise and the sharing of information flowing again. It won't be with print sources, or even blogs. What form it takes we can't predict, and maybe the code is unwritten. We'll see, hopefully.

 

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@GaryE You have a talent for bringing up alternative viewpoints . You’re right , the new information won’t come from print although I hope print survives diminished as it is. We all need to be thicker skinned as you pointed out. The harmless trolls , such as myself , can be overlooked but the vicious ones , as you gave an example of , are hard to deal with. They are best ignored. They will go away if you don’t feed them. I left Facebook because the verbal poison was just too much. Sometimes the vicious trolls drive others away and I understand your friends reluctance to “suffer fools”.
But , onward and upward , I will enjoy my subscription to TFH and I’ve decided to let the moths out of my wallet and take Amazonas . If print is to die then I will stay on the ship with them until it slips beneath the waves of electronic media. What else would an old printer do ?

 

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The newest issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine is out . Got my issue # 765 March / April 2024 in the mail today . Something for everyone in there and remember that a six issue subscription is still only $28 bucks .

 

[Ceez]

@TwoTankAmin

 

[Colin_T]

Is TFH magazine still full of adds?

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Is TFH magazine still full of adds?

You are such a grumpasaurus!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I once subscribed to Amazonas. I never renewed because at that time there was a dearth of Americans writing the articles.

There is at least one forum where the science is paramount, Planetcatfish.com. But is has suffered as have the rest of the decent forums because fools can say anything they want on social media. I have known this for many years now. It is why I am not now nor have I ever been registered on any of the mainstream sites. This means I am not registered on Google, Facebook, X, Instagram, Reddit etc. etc.

When I want good information I am on Google Scholar. I trust Seriouslyfish, I trust the Tropica site for plant info. But for good information in an in person fashion, fish clubs and the weekend events they sponsor are a great sources of info. Where else could I have had the chance to meet and talk to people like Ingo Seidel, Hans-Geor Evers, Barbie Fiorentino, Shane Linder, Eric Bodrock, Jools from PC, Stephan Tanner, Dale Ernst, Rachel O'Leary, Mark Denaro and others whose names elude this old brain at this time.

And then there are those pros who do the monthly guest speaker presentations at my fish club. I regualrly buy fish from my club's Master Breeder at out monthly club auctions.

Here is the best part of this. Every one of the people I have mentioned, as well as those I have forgotten to include, have something in common with every one of us using this site. We all began as uninformed rookies. People like Dr. Timothy Hovanec started keeping fish long before he earned his PhD. Many of the names I "dropped" were the same. They began keeping fish when they were pretty young. And all of these folks love the hobby and are always wiling to talk to us and share information at events.

The internet can do one of two thing. It can make you smarter if you are able to locate the good information. But it can also make you more ignorant if you just look for the fastest easiest answer from one of those folks who has no clue but puts on the trappings of an expert. The information on Google scholar has been peer reviewed and is usually the best science on any topic at the present time. But most of us cannot make sense of the science because it is not our specific area of study and expertise. Good science is peer reviewed. Most of what is on the internet as meaningful information/advice is more like P U'd. It really stinks. We have to make the effort to sort it out.

If you want to learn, if you want to get the best answer, you have to do the work to locate it. You have to do the reading to learn. I keep coming back to a saying from an old online friend who had been at this for over 50 years. It was his forum signature:
"We have plenty of youth. What we need is a fountain of smart." A lot of what it out there on the net seems to come from the fountain of ignorance which, at times, seems to have reached flood proportions.

@Colin_T
Aren't you glad you do not have to read anything printed with advertising attached when you can just surf the net where there are no ads.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

Aren't you glad you do not have to read anything printed with advertising attached when you can just surf the net where there are no ads.

Depends what sites youre visiting

 

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Is TFH magazine still full of adds?

They have their share of advertising but it is all fish , aquarium and pet related . I don’t mind ads that are of things I might buy .

 

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Hey @Colin_T there’s an article on Heron Island Australia in this issue too . Looks like a far out place to me . Article says it was first visited by the H.M.S. Fly in 1843 and that Queensland University has a famous research station there . The pictures in this article are pretty cool .

 

[Fishmanic]

Our site has no ads for registered members. And tons of knowledgeable aquarists who do their best to answer fish related questions. If you want to help support this site with a small donation of just $12 per year so it does not fade into oblivion, click on the link in my signature. Donations help support the cost of the software and the cost of storing the many thousands of posts and pictures from our site.

 

[GaryE]

I don't think there is any competition from TFH for this site. They are at a much different level of information sharing than a forum can be. On the positive side for us, you can't discuss with a magazine, and we learn a lot from each other.

When I worked with TFH, people would send snail mail letters with questions. They would be forwarded to 'experts', sometimes to me, and then the answers would be mailed back to the editorial offices. It could take 2 or 3 months to get an answer. Imagine people being that patient now?

In depth magazine articles taught me more about the hobby than anything other than in person fish clubs. But the remnant mags support this site too, by giving many people specialized info they can share on TFF.

 

[Back in the fold]

Our site has no ads for registered members. And tons of knowledgeable aquarists who do their best to answer fish related questions. If you want to help support this site with a small donation of just $12 per year so it does not fade into oblivion, click on the link in my signature. Donations help support the cost of the software and the cost of storing the many thousands of posts and pictures from our site.

This is a great forum and nothing is free . You can do things here like post really big pictures and videos and the emoticon thingies for reactions are not found at very many other forums . There is a lot of traffic here and there are some VERY knowledgeable aquarists here , some with special interests that you won’t find anywhere else . Twelve bucks is not going to kill anybody and I sincerely hope that EVERYONE will support this fine forum . I paid $20 bucks to the comics forum I’m on and I don’t get a tenth of what I get here .

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

This is a great forum and nothing is free . You can do things here like post really big pictures and videos and the emoticon thingies for reactions are not found at very many other forums . There is a lot of traffic here and there are some VERY knowledgeable aquarists here , some with special interests that you won’t find anywhere else . Twelve bucks is not going to kill anybody and I sincerely hope that EVERYONE will support this fine forum . I paid $20 bucks to the comics forum I’m on and I don’t get a tenth of what I get here .

I don't know why but it's made my day knowing you're on a comics forum

 

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I don't know why but it's made my day knowing you're on a comics forum

Check out www.gocomics.com . It’s great !