Tank of the month? Moderators?

[corpusse]

Originally Posted by WarDog

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.

[WarDog]

Originally Posted by corpusse

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

Bingo

[Reef Pilot]

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.

[Ryan]

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.

[Reef_kid]

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

[Trigger Man]

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.

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by Trigger Man

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.

[Reef_kid]

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

[kien]

[corpusse]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Bingo

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.