Suggestions for improving this site?

Cirrus

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
I noticed this thread started by Trevor: http://www.arowanaclub.ca/forums/showthread.php?p=43922#post43922 (if you can not read the thread in the link it is because you are not registered on the site).

I have to agree that things seem slow these days. It may be that this site and its members have kind of had their "mission" accomplished; there have been a couple dozen great forum member tanks set up over the past few years, and thanks to the various vendors/sellers on the site, forum members have been able to get great deals on fish and equipment. Thus, maybe there is less need to post much these days? I know I have a lot of things going on in life that seem to be pulling me away from the fish hobby; family, work, travel - busy busy. And then there is the old "economy" thing, along with the natural ebb and flow in the popularity of our hobby.

In the interest of serving our hobby, how can this site be improved?

Some of you might notice that the old banner ads have fallen away from the site. This is due to the company that provided the service no longer doing so. Should I try to get the adds reinstalled? Some might see the absence of ads as an improvement. :)

Should we expand the direction of the site to include more general aspects of fish keeping? I know arofanatics and MFK have many sub-forums dealing with ponds, cichlids, marine, etc. Should we do the same?

What if the upcoming contest was dependent on people having to post in order to be eligible for the prizes? I have already contacted the various vendors on this site and many of them are willing to donate $100 toward a purchase from them. As owner of Dragonfish.ca I am prepared to donate a Dreamfish Prestige Gold Supreme. Hopefully this will stir interest and grow the forum?

The main strength of this site is many of us know each other by name and trust one another. This is worth a lot given the high cost of our fish and the difficulty in sourcing them across this vast country of ours :)

Anyhow, when it comes to suggestions for improving the site, any and all ideas are appreciated!
 
I think you hit it on the head about a lot of people getting to the point where they feel they have done what they need to do.

I think there is an evolution in fishkeeping as everyone remembers their first tank, then second then third... then the tank. With so many great fish coming in and rays maybe everyone feels their goals are accomplished?

Speaking for myself, I had to part with my aro but still find myself coming here over mfk, and other forums. However, it appears many forums are slowing down all over the place which could coincide with nicer weather locally? This would be similar to the types of sales I see in my area when the summer comes, fish tanks take second place to playing outside or biking, hiking etc so people sell tanks fora lot better price. Then when the summer is gone and everyone is indoors they are back to their indoor activities.

I know i would post a lot of update pics if I got a Prestige Gold in the mail ;)

Do you have historic numbers of posts per years past, as that could tell if seasonality does play a roll in this lower posting amount?
 
Hmm. Fish video of the day...interesting idea. Want to run it? I am totally serious. :) Pm if you like.

Mitch, yeah, I think you are right on various levels. Overall usage of the site has gone down, but that is mostly the international usage. Domestically we have about 500 die hard fish nuts who seem to check into this site regularly. :)
 
The main thing about this forum is that it has a ton of "advanced" hobbyists on it.

The main purpose of a forum, is people interact. Usually when a question is asked. But with so many advanced aquarists on here..... no one has questions.

On the plus side, this forum has a TON of loyalty. It keeps everyone coming back as the main focal point of their interest in the hobby for the most part.

How to attract more people and make it more active?

Well.... how does someone find a site in the first place?

Word of mouth..
Search results..
Advertising..

There is a ton of word of mouth here.... we all recommend this forum for arowana and stingrays in Canada.

Search results would be low however, due to the niche this site projects to.

Advertising is the best way to promote anything.....

So my suggestions for this is simple:

We already have word of mouth..

Search results will return this site more often with more content. That content will have to be more diverse. Adding more forums and sub forums pertaining to the rest of the hobby will grow that.

Advertising is best done threw social media these days... Arowana club needs an active youtube, facebook and twitter account. This alone can do WONDERS.

I believe with these simple additions, we can attract far more people. Given the current "expert level" of members here already, you have the main attraction in place. People that know what they are talking about. People will keep coming here for solid advice.


With this foundation in place, you could then move into contests and more features on the forum. If you need help with any of this... Let me know.
 
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I think Joey makes a very valid point. I don't think it's necessarily that less people are visiting, rather that we are visiting and not posting. I recently sold off most of my collection, but I still visit this site 3-4 times a week.

What we need is two things:

a) a way to attract new users. This is difficult, given our niche. Anyone that contacts me about getting into aros or rays, I push them to this site. I do think we could do a better job of raising our awareness on other forums. Even if an aquarist is not into aros or rays, they might be interested in seeing pics and videos or learning from the experts on here.

b) something to spark some convo between our experts. More pics/videos (Mike has done a good job of sharing videos that always spark a conversation), contests, etc. I'm always interested in networking with local hobbyists; maybe we organize regional groups? I know in the GTA there are a few of us who are active in the aquarist community and who could put in some work to get some more traffic here.
 
Hi there...
Just joined about a week ago and just starting to get into aro keeping. After having oscars and and different cichlids for 24 years. Just had my jack Dempsey die after having him for 15 years:(((. Figured its time for a different approach. Got my first prestige premium red coming in the middle of dec. I ordered from a member here on this site after reading about all the scams and doing my own investigation online, thought it was wise to listen to all the advice here on this site. I realize you guys are concerned about the lower activity on this site, but I found this site full of knowledgeable people and I thank you. In saying that.

I know I just joined, but I like the idea of posting a pic/video a day of different fish/aro. There was also mention of a pond section. I personally would find that convenient, as I have a 2,500 gallon koi pond outside. Just my two cents if its worth that much.
 
I think its also a time to change this site up a bit too.
Some of you might seen me on here from way back. I got away from this hobby for a few years now, but still goes on this forum from time to time.
I know there are new comers to the hobby and they have lots of questions.
I like to see the pm get directed to email account somehow. if there's is questions that others are asking and mostly everyone has smart phones nowadays we can answer to those questions instead of logging on, then you see a pm.
Or even a thread for locals to exchange or swap tank mates. Sometimes we get bored of looking at the same thing months after months it would be nice to exchange with someone instead of going out and spending more money buying new tankmates.
 
A side note....the contests are a cool idea...maybe a app idea for smart phones....like h.l_Nathan says...for people on the go...like the pm to email suggestion....
 
Here's another idea for you Theo. Something that i thought might be interesting but it would only apply to local BC members. You might have to actually sit down and discuss with my brother first.
An aro judging contest. Where locals can bring their aro to one of my stores and leave there for display for a week. My staffs are more than capable of looking after them and housing them isnt an issue. you can hang the aroclub banner there and advertise it somehow where customers and fellow aro keepers would come and judge and drop their vote off in a ballet box.
After a week of voting we can count down the vote and determine the winner and price to be discuss. (between you and my brother to determine the grand prize.)
That way some of us locals can put a face to locals that been on the forum. Just some kind of get together fun.
But thats just my suggestion.
 
h.l_nathan said:
Here's another idea for you Theo. Something that i thought might be interesting but it would only apply to local BC members. You might have to actually sit down and discuss with my brother first.
An aro judging contest. Where locals can bring their aro to one of my stores and leave there for display for a week. My staffs are more than capable of looking after them and housing them isnt an issue. you can hang the aroclub banner there and advertise it somehow where customers and fellow aro keepers would come and judge and drop their vote off in a ballet box.
After a week of voting we can count down the vote and determine the winner and price to be discuss. (between you and my brother to determine the grand prize.)
That way some of us locals can put a face to locals that been on the forum. Just some kind of get together fun.
But thats just my suggestion.
Click to expand...

Great idea Nathan.

On a side note, how is that ST I sold your brother years ago!? Has that thing grown quite large since!?
 
O that one I have no idea. I think its in montreal at my moms house. I havent kept fishes for a long time now. I let go of all of my stocks. Just a bare 680 gal tank in my family room.
I'll eventually get back into raising fish again once my travel schedule calms down a bit
 
There are some really good ideas here. I should have a fair bit of down time in a few months during which I plan to really overhaul the site. However, it might be time now to open up the moderation duties to some new blood - to get those new ideas happening sooner?

Over the years many serious hobbyists have leveraged arowanaclub.ca to achieve all sorts of hobby related goals. It almost always strengthens the forum community at the same time.

In the next day or so I will send out pm's to everyone who has contributed to this thread to discuss further.
 
I enjoy the community and info on rays and arowana. I enjoy learning about people's setups and experience with these fish.

I have been a member since 2011 and I was disappointed when I was restricted from entering the contest from a lack of posts. I check the forum regularly and contribute and comment where appropriate, i feel as though this contest doesnt promote the entire community.
 
I like the site a lot. I mostly read now since I no longer keep datnoids or any other large fish. Just earth eaters and plecos

The members here gave some nice rays and I know this site is the lace to ask questions if u ever decide to become a ray keeper.

I don't really see any issues with the site. It's just not too many people are keeping these fish that are the main topic if discussion here. Can't do much about that.
 
I have found this with the car forums, too.

If you could bring in another website, like Urua Joey's DIY, you could both 'double' your traffic. Possibly be more attractive to join here because it's an expanding website.

I, like most (assuming), came here because of the marketplace. I'm a member here [obviously], GTA Aquara or whatever it's called, and a bunch of Subaru forums. I find when I'm not in trouble or have questions all I do is peruse the market place. Most of the time I don't even log in :/ . I've noticed your distributors have slowed down on their posting and that turns me away, from their business and yours [this site].

Advertise and drop the .CA I have a few hundred dollars some where of google credits, something like that could raise the hits to your website.

Projects project projects! I love seeing the MFK mega builds, the Urua Joey stuff is wicked and inspiring for us 'frugle' people. Maybe, if some project ideas were brought up it could spark up a conversation.

I like that you have TapaTalk, that's awesome! Maybe add a shoutbox?


Brian
 
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