How

V

vest0830

Premium Member
How can we make this little 'club' bigger?

I went to PPM the other day, Lindsay wanted to get a new coral, I didnt have my 'menbers card' but asked if I could still get there little discount. He took me into there little office to find my contract for the members program...while looking through the files I saw a ton of Americans/American names. In just the stack I went through I would say probably 15-20 people, there were 3 other stacks I didn't flip through.

The things that people sell on Japan update, the people around the area, i've seen/talked to various americans at the fish lady, petbox and such...I Know there are people out there. Maybe they dont post? Maybe they dont know how to get on forums...just too busy to talk on the internet, IDK.


We have also lost a few people:
-Arika and Daryll (if I remeber, that was his name)
-Josh
-that other guy that was up north in the Schwab area...
im sure im missing a few people...


My ideas:
a) I've thought about putting together a full fledge "okinawasaltwatergang.com" website/forum. Combine all saltwater activities...fishing, snorkeling, diving, kayacking, surfing, aquariums...
(could probably make a small profit also, with advertising and such)

b) put something in the news paper once a few others get their tanks up and running...do a small article in the paper...

c) run a ad on Japan Update (I have ran the free ads a few times)

d) put up ads at the local fish stores...


-so what do you think? Its cool that we have a small group, but it could really pick up with a little effort. I love helping people put together tanks, that sump was a ton of fun to build...guess what im getting at is it would be cool to get more people involved, or when they have tank problems and they want to give up, they can get re-adjusted and we can all help get them situated, not to mention frag trading.

Any ideas?
 
I'm game for anythign. Posting on Japanupdate is probably the cheapest but our own website would be cool. What about talking to the PX managers and posting flyers in the pet section letting folks know that there are people on this island that know how to set up and maintain fresh and saltwater tanks? Great learning experience for anyone willing to learn.
 
I personally know of two people that are starting on tanks, but still haven't posted on this site yet. I think you need to build the interest and then have some sort of event. You could have some discussions etc.

If you could convince Pet Box or the other shops to help advertise it could be huge. I think you'll need some one to talk with them and convince them it would improve their business. If you hand out our cards, we'll help people establish tanks and improve the quality of their systems and in turn get you more business. You could also hit up Torii Scuba Locker and Tsunami Gear; I bet you could get a few members just from those.
 
We just need to be careful with the scuba lockers and let them know we support each other with the coralfragging /buying it since collecting wild coral is illegal and we want to show we are legit.
 
Business cards, never thought of doing that. I will look into getting some business cards.

im 99% sure that the fish lady would let us post something on her bulliten board, PPM, probably. ACO...probably.

Kinda gathering ideas...
 
Sorta considering the website idea.

Its probably going to take quite a bit of time to get going, but I think if I dedicate myself to it, it could be pretty cool in the end.

Looking at godaddy.com I could start something for really really cheap...$5 a month for just the basic plan, and of course could easily upgrade, should/hopefully we need to.

If I start it, im going to make it a full-fledge saltwater forum to make it expandable. Like I said, aquariums/fishing/diving/snorkeling/surfing and of course you gotta put up a classifides.

From here maybe we could expand it into more, and I think once the word got out...it could be a fairly large site. I've never worked with a forum before, never really got into 'web devolping' but def. willing to give it a shot.

What do you think? Or should we try to build this section up and if we could get it more out there...then expand? I really really like the business card idea....

Ohh yeah, website name... okinawasaltwater.com or okinawasaltwatergang.com
 
Fine! Just leave us mainlanders out of the picture!

I'd be happy to promote at the local fish stores around here if you wanted me to. The more people the better!

I used this a LONG time ago and was very simple:
http://www.vbulletin.com/
Not sure what it encompasses now.

I would make sure your host doesn't have pop-up ads. They can be very annoying. I think that is more for the free domain hosting...and several years ago even paying customers found themselves with sites dominated by ads from the host company.

Dana
 
We might need to change the name to Japan saltwater gang since we do have a few folks up in Mainland. (and Dana won't feel left out even though we still have the best stuff down here)
 
Okinawa Saltwater Gang works for me.

If it ain't broke...throw millions of dollars at it like the government!

Just kidding. OSG sounds good.

Dana
 
I think we will make it okinawasaltwatergang.com or maybe just okinawasaltwater.com

i will get some beer and start working on this, this weekend...maybe. still scratching my head. Everyone that I know that runs a forum says its a very time consuming thing. Not sure if I wanna put myself up to that, especially considering im 99% sure its going to take off like wildfire...giving it 6 months.
 
If we incorporate saltwater activities in it as well I can leg out the tsunami gear connection. That's where my wife works :).

This sounds pretty cool. Can I recommend one thing????








Let's throw a frag party to talk this out and drink it to death.
 
See Don?!?!?! That's what I mean about hangin' us mainlanders out to dry!

When do WE get to drink beer at a frag party???

When do WE get to go snorkeling at a whim to "observe corals in the wild"???

It's all about the beer Don...about the beer...

oh yeah...frags too... :D

Dana
 
bbbeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
beer is good.

frag parties are good.
i will have one if no one else wants to.

and yes, saltwater activities will be incorporated. (see the first post)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8324756#post8324756 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hot4teacher
See Don?!?!?! That's what I mean about hangin' us mainlanders out to dry!

When do WE get to drink beer at a frag party???

When do WE get to go snorkeling at a whim to "observe corals in the wild"???

It's all about the beer Don...about the beer...

oh yeah...frags too... :D

Dana
Click to expand...

UHHH come down here!!! we can give you lots of frags and show you where they are too!!!. (Lots of beer at my place unless I drink it all)
 
We might as well incorportate freshwater into it since a lot of us got our start from fresh water and there is a lot of misunderstandings that salt is harder than fresh. Its all about the care given that makes the difference. If folks want to start with fresh then great...they will turn salty soon.
 
One thing that I would like to clear up before/if we kick this site off...
No talking at all about getting coral from places in the ocean, if you should be someone who does on the new forum. There are no other sites/forums on the internet that pretain to "okinawa saltwater" to include fishing, diving, aquariums, beach-goers...etc. I think/hope this site is going to take off rather quickly and its going to be monitored by who knows. If you should be someone who grabs coral from the water and you do it with someone, find another way to communicate to them on when to meet and what your going for. You and I both know that taking a few corals from the waters really does very little harm to the water, as they probably grow back as fast as you chisled it away...but point is, its illeagal, and the military makes sure we know that it is. With that, i'm just throwing it out there to cover ourselves should this forum decide to take off. A few of us who are on the car forum know its monitored by NCIS, and im sure that if the site gets big, so will this. Just watch what you say.
Hopefully the site will be up by the end of the weekend.

-frank
 
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