Tank of the month? Moderators?
 

Hey,
I've been around the block, been here yet silent for many years. But the silence must end. I feel Canreef needs to grow back into its former glory. It was amazing back in the day and I see it picking up again.

1) who are moderators , how do you become one. I've been a member 20 years (I was to young and not aloud to sign up before this haha).

2) What happened to take of the month????

3) is there a way to make a thread of all the past tank of the month?

Just a few questions maybe someone can answer? And help maybe with these?

Take care everyone! Happy Reefing
Jeremy David wade
@CanadianReefMaster on YouTube and Instagram

I love this!
Yes! Let’s get Canreef back to it’s glory days.
Current Mod sucks

They sure do!

Sometime this year im going to get back into the hobby. So yeah get this forum booming again ! 😂 Alright good night

The main page is a Tank of the month from september 2020, and the featured tank from 2017.
I am not sure if there is a way to update this.

Can moderators comment on how we can get things rolling again? I know they are probably busy.
Adding a few more moderators of people that want to update the forums?
we need to show some canreef pride.

How about everyone start by adding a picture in the tank of the month forum ;)

There's no interest. We were doing POTM up until people stopped submitting. Mods are not spending hours writing code when no one participates.

Yes, this forum is so old, you still need to write code to moderate. So unless you have experience with vBulletin, we haven't bothered looking for new mods.

Tank of the Month was getting so hard to find, that we changed to Tank of the Quarter... and even that was proving a strain. Then there was the curse of the tank crashing right after being published. This happened several times.

We have no sponsors. Facebook took care of that years ago. Therefore this forum has no source of income. Sponsors can't even be bothered to advertise for free, when Facebook gives them better metrics. We are lucky the server is even still running.

We (the mods) were promised a new modern mobile friendly forum years ago by our Admin. He has been MIA for about 1½ years. He does that from time to time (family, work)... and why should he care when there is no hope for profit (due to social media)?

People can't be bothered to upload pictures. The Photobucket fiasco a few years back screwed that up. Lots of members lost access to hundreds of photos. And new members have a hard time learning how to upload pics, because this ain't Intagram or TikTok.

Basically this is just a Buy and Sell now.

I check in once a day, hoping for some drama to moderate but there is none. Lots of the old chatty members have departed. I approve new members usually once or twice a week if I remember.

This sounds very similar to Reef Central - which btw has been down for several days without explanation. Although without the jerk moderation.

If social media killed forums why is Reef2Reef so popular? Other smaller forums like Humble.Fish are also seeing good growth. While you might be able to ask traditional newbie questions on facebook or even TikTok good luck doing a build thread on any of those platforms. The fact that reef tanks are journeys of several years or longer makes a forum setting the ideal platform to share compared to most of those other ones.

It sounds like lack of owner involvement is the biggest issue and probably lack of money.

Bingo

Need to rekindle the hobby. Covid has kind of killed it, too, these last couple years. I still have my tanks, with same corals and fish (some 20+ years old now), but just staying status quo. Would like to get serious with the fancy SPS again though.


And I do think showing off your beautiful tanks inspires others.

So why are you still moderating? Are you still being paid?

Reef Pilot's original post had me thinking of posting some things, but then your post made me think why bother. I was never a crazy active user here, it was always my second favourite Canadian forum - yes I am a kid of AP, back in the mid to late 2000s it seemed like most of the stuff here was west coast and AP was Ontario.

AP of course is long gone, I don't post on R2R anymore due to their bigotry but I am still active on other forums. While I do post in some of the facebook groups which are very hit and miss as I originally mentioned for this type of hobby the format of them is just not very efficient. Good luck searching for a post from last week, let alone last year or 5 years ago.

I’ve been a huge supporter of this forum since I joined way too long ago and it’s still my go to for many issues I face

Even though I refer this site to many new reefers they have issues doing some basic leg work and want everything handed to them on a silver platter these days. They have hours to spend on TikTok and Snapchat but ask them to read and it’s like you asked them to cut off their arm.

Many of the forums I frequented are either now offline or no longer updated and only the big ones like Reef to reef, AA and canreef seem to still have regular traffic on them but less posters.

As stated already Photobucket created a disaster and now unless you can directly load from your phone many can’t be bothered with uploading photos because of reasons.

As long as this site is here I will still visit and post. This is a place to learn to do things right not watch TikTok or read off Facebook and think you’re an expert.

Mods are supposed to be paid?

If anyone is interested in moderating, let me know. It needs to be done from a desktop.

I look at the popularity of Reef2Reef and don't see how Canreef can be dead because of social media. It's lack of life and it starts from the top. Not the moderators, how do you moderate something that is non existent, but from the site owner. If you don't want to play in the sand box, that's fine, then give it or sell it to someone who will.

At this point vbulletin is so outdated it's time to abandon this site and go with a new platform. We just need to find the Canadian that's willing to take on the cost and work.

I try to stop in once per day just for the classified, however even those are going down hill and seems to cater more to people on the west coast. Now I am finding myself checking in every 2nd or 3rd day.

Can reef needs a younger leadership base who is more familiar with leveraging social media and YouTube, then it needs a newer and significantly greater platform.

Canreef has always been a great place to sell and trade coral, and get information. I wish i knew more about how to use the computer to moderate. Maybe we can promote the buy sell and trade aspect of the website :)

I sure do miss the glory days of the past. This Canreef was full of new content and a place where newbies could get some great knowledge. It does seem that saltwater marine in general is dying down, at least in Calgary. The fish stores seem to continually be shrinking down their Marine and coral sections. I remember that Q1 of every year used to be the busiest time on Canreef, with so many new members joining after receiving their first setup for Christmas.
Hopefully something changes and this site starts to get more traction again.

I agree. I am in Lethbridge and remember making day trips. You barely had enough time to hit all the stores and maybe double back for that item you regret not buying. It was super busy and very popular. Now we would be hard pressed to make 3 hours depending on traffic in the city.

I think the hobby has gone underground. More basement and garage sellers, plus corals being easier to grow makes for alot of resell.

To me it seems the Brick and Mortar are so focused on trying to compete with the hobbies that it is a loosing battle for them. They need to focus on bringing in new, different livestock that the hobbies wants to buy, grow, and sell. Dry goods need to be more on point with online, if I can order and ship to my door for significantly less money than walking into the store then the hobbies won't shop there. The last thing, INCREASE SOCIAL MEDIA PRESCENCE. It's a 5 hour gamble when we come to the city. Did the stores get an order, are the tanks full, is it new stock? All questions Noone should have to ask with how easy and cheap it is to reach people in this day and age.

How do people become moderators or admin, what computer skills are really required? Do you need to know coding?

:pop2:

I'd pay a subscription fee to be a part of a forum that was more active.

I may be biased because I don't operate on social media and don't have any.

I wonder if a lot of us would feel the same way.

The question is, what makes a forum “active” ?

We’ve tried resurrecting Photo of the Month (a few times). Interest has tended to drop off. People stop bothering to submit photos.

We’ve tried resurrecting Tank of the Month/quarter. Sadly, there just aren’t a lot of people updating their tank threads. All you have to do is go over to the tank thread forum to see that there just isn’t that much activity.

To me, activity relies more on the user community than the admins or mods. There just doesn’t seem to be as many people interested in posting compared to the “glory” days.

Im not sure that paying a subscription to a forum would promote more interest in people. What would you be paying for, exactly ?

For a site that has some funds to run better.

This thread mentions no sponsors.

I'm a member of a few forums for niche things where members chip in to make sure the site has what it needs to be as modern and as easy to use as possible.

Things like prizes could generate more interest for totm, for example.

It could be a kick in the ass for the site given by the members who really value it.

I recall a few years back I think there was a poll which asked if people would be willing to pay a subscription. I don't remember what that subscription got you though. You could try making a poll to gauge interest in that?

We haven't had a poll in ages.... someone do one on Best Salt!

my favourite is Windsor Salt.

Want to increase build thread activity. Step 1 is to make posting pictures easier on Canreef.

I believe this forum needs to be abandoned and a new one brought up in its place.

Ya, posting pictures is definitely an issue for a lot of people. I'm not sure there is an easy fix for this though. We were supposed to get a new forum a few years ago. But that hasn't happened. Maybe there just aren't as many people reefing these days ? :shrug:

reefing
 

there are actually more people reefing than ever. there are more garage/basement sellers , and more reef shops. There is more online information on youtube and different forums. As well as a huge instagram/youtube community. The information needs to be accessible and easy to use. This site needs editing of the content and updating how posts are done. Making it more like the new reef central that just was relaunched. Maybe with some better graphics.

I dunno.

In the GVRD there used to be Island Pets, Ocean Aquatics, Rogers Aquatics, Another one in Abbotsford who's name eludes me.

Now there is JL Aquatics, Fish Addicts, Aquariums West still left.

Canada Corals has opened since.

In our local community (Calgary) it does not seem like there are more people reefing than ever. We have lost a lot of reefers over the past few years. Likely due to a combination of a lot of different things. Our retail situation has also tanked (pun intended). We used to have a decent selection of retailers to choose from. Now there's really just 3 and a half. It's kind of sad but it is what it is.

We are seeing it down here in Lethbridge as well. There used to be 3.5 stores and now we are down to half a store that's over pricing sick fish.

I wish the hobby would bounce back to its former days but I don't see it happening. We have a pretty strong community here that's SCREAMING for supplies, healthy livestock at market value. If someone was opening a store this would be a great market.

We are lucky enough to be one of the newest stores in the lower mainland…with what we feel is a growing hobby again! SHORELINE CORALS!!!

Nice. Kinda jealous, we don't have such lucky or luxury here in Calgary :( It's probably because Canada hates us. I can't blame them :lol:

I used to rely on Calgary for having a good selection of fish stores. Edmonton, well not so much. Now I would say Calgary local reefers… although some have priced up as if they are @candy :wink:

I actually ordered some stuff from CuddledCorals a few weeks back. It was amazing! Everything turned out great. This was the first online coral order I had done in over 5 years? These vendors have definitely stepped up their game since the last time I ordered stuff.

Oh well that’s good to here! Went by their store but they didn’t have very many SPS to choose from.

YOu're right they didn't seem to have a tonne of branching SPS. I grabbed a bunch of encrusting SPS (monti's, etc).