Newbie Creation Suggestions

Johnny Reefer · #1 01-17-2006, 03:05 AM

This post is in no way meant to be critical of CanReef. It is meant to provide observations and feedback with the intent of improving an already good thing.

When I first joined CanReef in May 2005, I was only 3 months into the saltwater aquarium hobby and felt quite intimidated, to be honest, about starting some of my new threads in the Reef Forum. Depending on the question(s) I had, Newbie Creation sometimes seemed a better fit to what I was asking. I did not want to waste more experienced reefer's time in the Reef Forum, with simple problems. I feel more comfortable, now, on the board, but still, from time to time, feel that a question I have is too simple for the Reef Forum. It was nice to have the option of the Newbie Creation Forum to start such a thread. One might say that the answer to a question posted in such a forum may be overlooked by someone with a good answer because the experienced reefers would generally ignore the forum. Possibly, but I figure not all experienced reefers would ignore such a forum and that some would actually look for such threads, intending to help. Also…I either had a hard time grasping the board’s intention of the Newbie Creation Forum, or…I didn’t want to grasp it. (Maybe both).

Having said that, a few suggestions, if I may…..
-Create a new forum for articles called….well….”Articles Forum”.
-Change the name of the Newbie Creation Forum to just “Newbie Forum”, (I never did understand the word Creation in that title, if I may be so bold as to admit that), and open it up again to the members for posting questions. (I can’t speak for other CanReefers but I think others might agree with me on this).
and finally….
-Create a FOWLR Forum. I had a thread in Newbie Creation that was moved to Tank Specs, but I don’t really think that it fits there. Being a thread about an FOWLR tank, a forum for those tanks would be nice, IMHO.

Might I also add, please, an observation that Newbie Creation, as it is now, is hardly ever used.

Thanx much for listening and cheers,

christyf5 · #2 01-17-2006, 03:52 AM

The Newbie Creation forum (don't ask me about the name, I don't get it either

) was originally a place for articles to reside for newbies. It quickly became a place for "newbies" to post. But very few "experienced" reefers would hang out there as they weren't "newbies". Previously I have seen threads go for days in there without a response. As the reef forum gets the most traffic we had hoped that people would just post in the reef forum with their questions and those that browsed that forum could answer them. Many people don't use the "new posts since last visit" button and only visit certain forums they are interested in and miss out on "newbie" threads they could give experienced advice to.

I understand the intimidation factor of posting "newbie" questions on a reef board but you have to remember that if you don't post forum where the "experienced" reefers hang out, what kind of answers will you get from those hanging out in the newbie forum?

titus · #3 01-17-2006, 07:54 AM

Hello,

Quote:

-Create a new forum for articles called….well….”Articles Forum”.

Christy is working on this at the moment.

Quote:

-Change the name of the Newbie Creation Forum to just “Newbie Forum”, (I never did understand the word Creation in that title, if I may be so bold as to admit that), and open it up again to the members for posting questions. (I can’t speak for other CanReefers but I think others might agree with me on this).

As Christy said, it's best if the questions are posted in the Reef forum as that gets the most traffic. We are trying to come up with a forum that contains useful articles but as Christy said, it quickly became a question/answer forum which should have been taking place in the Reef forum. So now Christy is trying hard (from what I know

) to gather good articles and place it in a new forum.

Titus

StirCrazy · #4 01-17-2006, 10:45 AM

I am going to have to agree with Titus and Christy, having a second area for newbies to ask questions is kinda silly as you will be getting replies from newbies on newbie questions. I think I was one of the original people who complained when the newbie forum (which was supposed to be an article area) turned into a second Q&A area. when you read every post it becomes a pain to have to search two different areas for the same kinda stuff so I just quit reading in the newbie area. so simply put Questions about reefing, Should be in the reef area.

Steve

Johnny Reefer · #5 03-27-2006, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by titus

Hello,

Quote: (Johnny Reefer wrote):

-Create a new forum for articles called….well….”Articles Forum”.

Christy is working on this at the moment.

Is this still in the works or has it been shelved?

Thanx much and cheers

,