Social Media or Forums

[intarsiabox]

I guess it depends on what your local Facebook pages have to offer. The couple local pages I look at from just one city get more posts in a day than Canreef does in a week. You can use the search function on Facebook Group pages just like any forums but usually people just ask their questions and get fresh answers. I prefer this over asking questions on forums because people don't usually give the typical response of "use the search function" or behave like jackasses because they have a high post count. The buy and sell portion isn't even comparable in my local market. Of course this is just my experience based on my particular location, lots of other places probably don't have much of a local SW following and social media outlets would be fairly useless.

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by intarsiabox

The buy and sell portion isn't even comparable in my local market.

Where are you looking? The only group I know of is the Edmonton but & sell. I'm always tying to find local people who have decent priced frags for sale.

[corpusse]

Social media is taking over buy and sells, especially since there are less restrictions, but message boards imo still provide a lot more value as far as information and documentation (tank journals, breeding logs ect).

The problem with medium sized boards such as this one is staying relevant when there are much larger boards when you are looking for answers as far issues.

Canreef is also non localized although from the outside looking in it's primarily people on the west coast of Canada what is available in AB has no baring on BC, let alone ON or another province. The larger problem may be the business model as these types of message boards are no longer as lucrative as they once were for the owners. Take J&L who recently stopped sponsoring. I see people commenting on how they will lose money but if you've been shopping there for years, you are likely going to continue shopping there regardless of the banner. If new places come up to sponsor sure you may try them out, but unless it's a brand new store it's likely hard to convince them the investment is worthwhile when things have been trending downward for some time. That being said basement shops probably could still take advantage of a forum type situation as you'd be reaching all over Canada (in the case of canreef) vs your local facebook groups.

I've never been a big time poster here, but I have been a member for 10 years and will continue to check it out and as long as there is something to read or look at I will continue to visit.

It could be much worse. Look at AP...

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by corpusse

It could be much worse. Look at AP...

AP?

Extremely eye opening numbers that frankly, I was not expecting. Hopefully Titus sees this, perhaps it could get the new Canreef here sooner.

[MitchM]

No offence intended, but Canreef would benefit most with a new owner.

Forums have low costs and need members, Facebook is free, but vendors are difficult to find unless you know what exactly to search for.
Surely there is a way to integrate the two for the benefit of all users.

[Dearth]

Example of loss of information on Facebook

Tonight One of the FB pages I visit a new person was enquiring about how to scrape the green algae off her tank. Simple enough question but the answers given were about as confusing As it can get. One question 230 replies of which about 2/3rds were about the same answer but contradicting each other.

One person said to use a metal scraper that you can buy at the LFS and within 30 minutes over 50 replies to the scraper answer was answered with use a razor blade, use a plastic scraper, use a putty knife and so on yet nobody actually gave her a good reason why they used so and so item over this item.

Finally thread was shut down and she was still confused fortunately 2 fellow members who live close to her contacted her and gave her the required information about scrapers what to use and not use.

It can happen on forums as well but they tend to be better moderated imo

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by Dearth

Example of loss of information on Facebook

Tonight One of the FB pages I visit a new person was enquiring about how to scrape the green algae off her tank. Simple enough question but the answers given were about as confusing As it can get. One question 230 replies of which about 2/3rds were about the same answer but contradicting each other.

One person said to use a metal scraper that you can buy at the LFS and within 30 minutes over 50 replies to the scraper answer was answered with use a razor blade, use a plastic scraper, use a putty knife and so on yet nobody actually gave her a good reason why they used so and so item over this item.

Finally thread was shut down and she was still confused fortunately 2 fellow members who live close to her contacted her and gave her the required information about scrapers what to use and not use.

It can happen on forums as well but they tend to be better moderated imo

This is exactly why I never use Reef Central, same thing happens there too. I just stick to local FB forums where questions get answered by maybe a dozen people including a few SW store owners who are also active in the pages. Smaller centers won't have this so have to go on FB pages that include 1000's of people from all around the world were things can be done much differently.

[Myka]

I think the poll answers would look different if you posted it on Facebook or one of the other options you have in the poll.

I agree that good information gets buried on Facebook. I see that a lot - a simple question with 70+ replies, and 90% of them are either confusing or just atypical.

[Dearth]

Originally Posted by Myka

I think the poll answers would look different if you posted it on Facebook or one of the other options you have in the poll.

I agree that good information gets buried on Facebook. I see that a lot - a simple question with 70+ replies, and 90% of them are either confusing or just atypical.

I posted a poll similar to this one on a large FB group (512 members) so far 43% are forums and 39% are for FB so relatively close

[xandraescape]

Sorry for the late feedback as I am new here, but I will definitely agree with the rest of the community. I do prefer forum over social media in terms of gathering and sharing new data. Members of a community like this one usually have the mastery of the subject compared to those who invest their time in social media.