What Happened To The 'older' Members

[simonas]

I think Shelagh hit the nail on the head. for whatever reason I seemed to have been posted less/ used the forum less in the last couple of months. I can pin it down to all the Emmsy scenario. I know no names to be mentioned but I'm hardly dragging her name by mentioning it here. That changed my attitude to the forum

saying that it is a great forum and I love my fish and discussing them. My wife refers to my using the site as loking at fish porn!!

I pondered the other day what had happened to CFC, Wolf, Sir Minion, Smithrc etc etc. Excellent forum users with a wealth of useful knowledge who just don;t seem to use the site anymore which is a shame

 

[rocknurworld2006]

I think Shelagh hit the nail on the head. for whatever reason I seemed to have been posted less/ used the forum less in the last couple of months. I can pin it down to all the Emmsy scenario. I know no names to be mentioned but I'm hardly dragging her name by mentioning it here. That changed my attitude to the forum

saying that it is a great forum and I love my fish and discussing them. My wife refers to my using the site as loking at fish porn!!

I pondered the other day what had happened to CFC, Wolf, Sir Minion, Smithrc etc etc. Excellent forum users with a wealth of useful knowledge who just don;t seem to use the site anymore which is a shame

seconded

 

[Tacklebury]

I agree but, i think there’s hope yet.

If you want to see a forum where the above has gotten deep into the roots and destroyed it try pistonheads forum.

By far the most aggressive and disappointing forum I have even used. Any posts are replied by low intelligence people that are just spoiling for a fight. It was once a very good place but now quiet frankly I find it disgusting. I'm 28, have a love for cars and enjoy a good laugh but personally it’s not for me anymore.

I find with TFF I can ignore the minority of idiots that post. There is one particular 14 yr old that is currently driving me mad, make me a mod and we'll get some hard but much need 'moderation' going on and I’ll just ban them all!!!

I've been a member on this forum for a couple of years, admittedly I’ve been more active in the last 6 months, perhaps the owners should sit down and devise a section, possibly a 'gold membership' section that requires payment for the year, that'll drive the idiots off in no time.

Just my ten cents worth.

Simon (who is supposed to be up at 6am, but the hamster keeps knocking her water bottle off as she wants out, I’ve given in for 10 mins!!!)

 

[simonas]

I agree but, i think there’s hope yet.

If you want to see a forum where the above has gotten deep into the roots and destroyed it try pistonheads forum.

By far the most aggressive and disappointing forum I have even used. Any posts are replied by low intelligence people that are just spoiling for a fight. It was once a very good place but now quiet frankly I find it disgusting. I'm 28, have a love for cars and enjoy a good laugh but personally it’s not for me anymore.

I find with TFF I can ignore the minority of idiots that post. There is one particular 14 yr old that is currently driving me mad, make me a mod and we'll get some hard but much need 'moderation' going on and I’ll just ban them all!!!

I've been a member on this forum for a couple of years, admittedly I’ve been more active in the last 6 months, perhaps the owners should sit down and devise a section, possibly a 'gold membership' section that requires payment for the year, that'll drive the idiots off in no time.

Just my ten cents worth.

Simon (who is supposed to be up at 6am, but the hamster keeps knocking her water bottle off as she wants out, I’ve given in for 10 mins!!!)

I agree with you on pistonheads although only used it in last 12 months!! that 14 yr old is driving me mad as well!! lol

 

[P&J]

Honestly, from a relative newbie, I really hope there is no "preferred members club" established. I've learned everything I know about tropical fish here, it's been such an invaluable resource. I certainly wouldn't qualify for any special area of the forum, and the available, good info would drop off in no time. I find myself wishing I could contribute more, but I'm still learning! It would be a shame to see such a wonderful wealth of info go under.

-P

 

[OscarWilde]

At the end of the day this is the Internet we are talking about. There will never be a way to control sites where anyone can join and say whatever they like. They can't even be banned as they can change their IP address and create a new account. Ban a subnet and you risk banning legit users.

I look at it like this. If you went to a party with 38912 people (the number of members on this forum) there would you talk to everyone?

No, and the chances are that a fair few of them would be complete tools (like on this forum) so the best thing to do is talk to your friends and the new people that you like and ignore the rest. If you let every idiot on here upset you then you'll go mad very fast..

 

[Inchworm]

i know i am not one of them but recently i have noticed ALOT of new members, and i have also noticed alot of the olded members are not on so much anymore. is it due to the time of year or is it due to the cockyness of SOME of the new guys?

You raised a very valid question, Nick16. It's nothing to get alarmed about though since this happens from time to time. Everyone has things in their own personal lives that sometimes become priorities for them to deal with and keeps them from posting. Sometimes they just need a change of pace for a time. To use myself for an example, I'm just recovering from surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome on my right hand. For some time before and following it I just couldn't participate. Other members have family responsibilities, etc.

Over the years I've been at TFF I've seen many excellent fish hobbyists come and go. It's always sad to realize someone you had appreciated is no longer around. IMHO, the most frequent reasons for this (not related to personal matters) stem from a lack of respect for their efforts. Many of these folks are "experts" in the areas they post in and just get turned off by members who go off topic, use bad language, or have side conversations within a thread. This is not appropriate behavior and there are other forums for them to post in where the members behave properly.

We did have some troubles with spammers and troublemakers recently but, thank goodness, it looks like that problem has been resolved. Since the mods are volunteers and cannot always be here, we rely on the good will of our members to help us out by informing us about problem posts or threads. Just hit that "Report" button and let us know and we'll be notified as soon as we sign online here. We really do appreciate the members who help with this.

If you see a missing member, why not send him or her a quick email to say. "We miss you and hope you'll return." I don't see how that could hurt and might let them know we're back on track here.

 

[jourdy288]

I ask myself that question...

 

[dthoffsett]

refers to my using the site as loking at fish porn!!

You too!? The guys I work with have been referring to my TFF obsession as fish porn for years.

I'm not exactly an old member, but I know I've been on less mostly due to my selling of my tanks in anticipation of moving. Now if I could just get a job where I want to move, I'd set up a tank again shortly after. Sorry, excuse the rant.

I also go on anti-internet kicks. I just sometimes get tired of dealing with anything online and will read for awhile.

 

[Bignose]

Seems to me that the forum is a lot like real life. In real life, guess what... people move on. How many of the same friends do you have now that you were real close to 10 years ago? 5 years ago? Even 1 year ago? People move on, sometimes by choice, sometimes by circumstance beyond their control, sometimes just by slowly drifting apart. I guess I just don't see it as a big deal, because that is life. The forum is really similar, except that instead of 20, 40, 100 people in your life, it is several thousand. But, people will always drift in and out of focus. New people will always be coming to the forefront, only to sink back into the background soon enough, and maybe disappear entirely. Sometimes old friends get reunited and the relationship is rekindled, other times all you can do it sit and wonder what happened.

But, the big thing is that this happens all the time in all other aspects of life, so it is going to happen to the forum too. Maybe a slightly broader perspective is needed to see it, I don't know.

 

[BigC]

I to have noticed the recent fall off in forum activity and the influx of newer members. This always happens from time to time on whatever forum you sign up to. But still TFF evolves and moves on. Yes we have had problems with Spammers and Server problems which possibly didn't help the situation. Human brains are complex and possibly may never be truely understood in they way they function, What makes some folks confrontational and others placid and withdrawn is just one facet of our existance. I too, even as a Mod have missed a few old muckers who have helped me out in a new venture, they mostly left due to personal problems and is a great loss to me and the forum in general.
On a lighter note, there are still members around who will surely still post concise and informative answers to questions, the trick is to suss out these members. A lot of the time they wont even reply to posts simply because they have answered the same question literly time and time again.
I typically mod over the Killifish section http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showforum=104 and I get some repeated questions that I found I was typing the same information over and over again so I decided if a topic of such magnitude came up I would write an article on the subject I then placed it as a sticky and refered folks to these.
So I think sometimes newer members dont use these stickies enough. Older members may have come and gone but the evidence trails of them still remains in the form of sticky topics at the top of each section, so please feel free either to use or refer members to these. They are a goldmine of information.
One the topic of folks attitudes toward each other, there is as said earlier the Report button, the Mods will take things from there. You can also use your profile options to ignore a certain member and block there PM's etc.
So lets drop all this negativity and make this forum what it is, a place for fishkeepers by fishkeepers, we all have a roll to play and its up to all of us to make it a better place.
Regards
BigC

 

[vinylman]

I can only speak for myself, of course, and while it can be erm, mildly annoying to give someone quite detailed and specific advice only to be met with a reply along the lines of ''oh thanks, but my fish look ok, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing'' it wouldn't put me off entirely. I, like several others here, I'm sure, don't have a computer at home and rely on the one at work, so have to 'ration' my visits here, so as not to annoy the boss too much. I tend to come on here at nights usually and post in 'spurts' if you'll pardon the expression. However, I'm sure a lot of old regulars do read the posts, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are reluctant to post advice, which is a shame, but understandable.

 

[Aisha]

Hi,

Have just been reading everyones comments, its really sad to hear whats been going on. Im new to the forum and only had 1yr and hlf of tropical fish.

The amount of knowledge on here that you get is priceless. Id like to thank all those who take out time to answer any queries regardless how big or small the question is.

With everything you get those who know there stuff with soo much experience and those who are starting out who wish they could know even just half the amount as others.

Its a shame that the oldies have not been around for whatever reason(s) but if your out there your APPRECIATED! (",)

And as for the new members it just shows how the forum is evolving, maybe for the good, maybe for the bad BUT it just shows how good you guys are, there are so many forums out there and people are choosing this one, you lot should be proud.

Im not really aware of people giving out wrong advice, giving your own experience is different to professional advice, i just hope theres no one out there who is intentionally doing wrong. Maybe a three strikes and your out rule??

Its been great on here, i hope no one else gets discouraged and the oldies return to the apreciative newbies.

THANKS!

 

[Arfie]

I would suspect that many of the older members are just bored of TFF and moved on to other forums or other hobbies. An aweful lot will have moved into more specialised area's and joined more related forums, be it for predators, marine or planted tanks which all have forums far better suited for people specialising than TFF.

As has been said it can get tiresome answering the same questions over and over again and they tend to go down one of two routes, either telling people to use the search button or more often simply not replying.

Many (who aren't changing) will also have stable tanks with few if any problems, so have no questions to ask themselves and if they have, they'll probably search for the answer first and very often find it without posting.

So you have lots of members who are bored of answering the same questions again and have no questions of their own to ask, if you aren't posting, why stay around?

Others get "promoted" to mods, some of whom stick around, others seem to dissapear not long after. Too many good, friendly, helpful and knowledgable members have become mods only to dissapear a few months later.

When I'm meeting other financial advisers, once we've finished talking business, some will simply leave the meeting, others will stick around and discuss other stuff, "general chit chat" if you like getting to know each other better and in the process developing friendships. If someone then thinks of a work related question later on, those who have stuck around to discuss football, politics, cars etc can join in another work related discussion, those who left have gone and we lose their expertise.

I am a member on other fish forums, diving forums and professional forums, this is the only one which doesn't have a general chat area and the only one which the moderators are not capable of running one. The decision not to have one is fine, but I believe one of the consequences of that decision is that experienced aquarists have nowhere to hang out, whilst staying on the forum, meaning they are here to help when something new crops up. As there is nothing to keep them on TFF, they log off and will log on less frequently until eventually they just stop logging on.

Arfie

 

[england]

ok i know iam on of these people who like to go of track a wee bit, But i do not see a problem in a little light hearted banter between a few forum friends, Its just innocent and it is nice to have a little repour between ourselves.
I to get the same comment about fish porn, but atleast thats all it is I happen to know a few people on here who have disapeared of the face of the earth, but as stated i have sent them a little p/m and they do get back to me,
Usual thing lifes hectic/busy and only get a chance sometimes to glace at the forum and never bother logging in,,,

But also i would like to state that the is a few people i have seen come along who seem intent on bothering and winding people up, There seems to be one name on here that seems to pop up a fair bit and i myself have said a few comment towards this person because this person seems intent on ruining it for everyone

Hope to see the older faces back soon, but i know how lifes become hectic<specially this time of year with christmas looooming and kids wanting the next wii machine<over time/over time/over time