Do you guys have anything in the works for a profile section to help out the new comers to the hobby? Or do you just want to link to other forums to provide people with info on different species? I know that I still use profiles alot, just to check out the things I think I might be interested in adding to my tanks.

I don't know how you go about acquiring pics to use in the profiles, so I don't know how much of an ordeal it would be, but I can say that Pete and I would be happy to supply pics of any of the mbuna that we have to use for those profiles on this forum.

Just wondered, since I know of some excellent sites with profiles, but they aren't necessarily good places to steer a newcomer to the hobby, since some of the members can be kind of tough on "newbie" mistakes, and I think that is the wrong way to go...

Kim

Mark and I are kicking that around, but it may require more bandwith and upgrades that the current board doesnt have capacity for. Hopefuly down the road when membership grows this will be a logical next step or progression.
Unfortunately with the current situation we are in, we would need some expensive upgrades and would require us to have to recruit sponsors which would ultimately mean, we wouldnt have a true, unbiased "equipment review section."
My thoughts (for now) are that we use a reputable forum such as Cichlid Forum for the profiles with species pics. I know what you mean about the members on some sites being hard on newbies though saddd .
When the weather turns cooler, I would expect to see an increase in members and posts. Once we see that, a species profile section might not be that far out of reach thumbs up

Makes sense to me, Les...I know absolutely nothing about band widths, etc...And it sounds like you have a plan!

I just know how much the profiles helped me when I first started out, but I'm just hesitant to send a newcomer to the hobby to some of the other forums because it's easy to find yourself "under attack" just by asking the same questions each and every one of us asked when we first started out in this hobby.

So we will just all use our knowledge for now and help everyone that we can, and link to profiles elsewhere when necessary!

Kim

Kim, I agree. Some of the forums have sooo many members that its easy to say that "jeez, that forum sucks, they jump on newbies", when its really a only few members that can be somewhat disrespectful. It tarnishes the name of that forum. I dont blame the forum itself. Every forum out there started for the same reasons- to share in discussions and knowledge of the hobby. I just hope that we dont get a bunch of new members that indulge in forum bashing here as many of us are members of other forums (not that I am suggesting that any of us presently do this).
Hopefully we can get more members like yourself and the ones we have now who are helpful and willing to share their experiences with newbies. thumbs up

I'll try to stay off my soap box about how I've seen forums react to newbies. I just always try to keep in mind that NO ONE can make bigger mistakes than we did at the beginning!

So, should we refrain from posting too many pics in general, Les, or just post away? This band width stuff is beyond my scope of intelligence! Pete says it's okay, that pics will just be removed from older posts as we go along.

Hope you're having a great weekend! We've got spawning activity out our ears here and we're heading out to the beach for some relaxation.

Kim

No definitely post away. We are fine for awhile!

Also, no problems helping newbies. I was just making a point that in the past I have said "man that forum is tough on newbies" when in reality, just a few members were hard on the new guys. All forums have strengths. Most of the weaknesses arent the fault of the forum themselves

I would hope that if people came here and started to bash other forums We would remove them or something fairly quickly. that would be like me attacking a place that I had issues with a long time ago. it would not be right. there are a bunch of great people out there on other forums and If some chose to come here and see what this place is like that would be great. I know I still jump around on other forums to see what is up and how everyone is doing.

there is nothing wrong with having a few different forums to visit as long as every one is friendly then all is good. I think if people are site bashing it brings the whole site down. I don't like to see that I like to have a good time while killing the clock at work uhhuh

Pseudo, that was well said Clap