READ ME BEFORE YOU POST STUFF TO BUY/SELL/TRADE

[spleify]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12267000#post12267000 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
In my opinion, which when teamed with 75 cents will buy you a cup of coffee, all of us would be better off with a non partisan RC forum where everybody is welcome. We just need a neutral party to over see it so none of the old bad blood comes into play. Allow the two clubs with websites a sticky directing people to their sites and DARC one pointing to their RC forum if they think it would be useful.

Grim just wanna have fun, Let me close by saying Sucker socks (I miss Misfit)

I personally think this is a brilliant idea.

I would be more than happy to to offer myself and my time to someting like this.

Spleify

 

[bmwardo]

I saw nothing in Christina's post telling you that you HAVE to do this or you are required to do this...

She is simply offering a new option (something that a large majority of people have wanted for some time), which allows members to escape some of the regulations of RC. If anything this is less restricting! Some of you seem as though you are just sitting and waiting for the board to say something, anything, so that you can choose to interpret it anyway you like other than the way it was meant and you jump on it!

There is no way to please you people, you ask for less restrictions, that is exactly what the board is offering. You can obviously post wherever the heck you like but please think before you do so.

 

[joeyg4583]

I don't really get into the whole club war but I don't get why people get mad that the rocky mountain reef club who started this forum voted to change their name and did. I think since the Rocky mountain reef club started this forum they can change their name to whatever. I don't see why the forum would need to go back to rmrc since rmrc no longer exists in that form. Sorry as a newer person to the reef scene all this drama really gets old. I don't have any idea what all went on and to be frank, do not care. If people like this forum or another forum, post on it. If not don't. It seems simple to me. These are not general geographic forums, they are club forums. Just my .02 cents.

 

[spleify]

Agreed, Christina was only trying to help out everyone, and I also agree that there is WAY to much drama on these boards. Most of the time I don't even get involved, let alone even read them.

I think what Christina and the rest of the MASC have done is great, and I'm sure it takes up a lot of there personal time.

I also did agree with Grim, in the fact that it would be nice to have ONE "playground" where everyone can post what they want, with different sticky's.
I also came around after all of the disagreements and arguments took place, so I don't really know what happen. So there fore it is easy for me to say this. Personally I think we are all here for the same reason, our obsession with reefs, and don't really understand why we can't all just get along. I love each and everyone of you equally.


Spleify

 

[stugray]

bmwardo

"I saw nothing in Christina's post telling you that you HAVE to do this or you are required to do this...

She is simply offering a new option"

That is not the way I took it. First she says that she "invites" us to use the new forum, then she states "please use the RC buying and selling forums"

Then in the very next post she reiterated by posting "Please don't post new for sale or want to buy here. See above.


To me that is a statement of a new requirement, not a suggestion.

Thats just the way I took it. And I feel that it is a little unfair to setup a new webiste/forum, ask the viewers here to go use the new one, then assert rules/regulations over this forum.

That's just my $0.02

Stu

 

[Milhouse]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12274685#post12274685 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stugray
bmwardo

"I saw nothing in Christina's post telling you that you HAVE to do this or you are required to do this...

She is simply offering a new option"

That is not the way I took it. First she says that she "invites" us to use the new forum, then she states "please use the RC buying and selling forums"

Then in the very next post she reiterated by posting "Please don't post new for sale or want to buy here. See above.


To me that is a statement of a new requirement, not a suggestion.

Thats just the way I took it. And I feel that it is a little unfair to setup a new webiste/forum, ask the viewers here to go use the new one, then assert rules/regulations over this forum.

That's just my $0.02

Stu

Exactly! It's not the first post, it's the second one. I think some of you need to read it over again. I have no bad blood with anyone. I just come here to see what's going on. I'm not affiliated with anyone. But that second post made it seem like "Did you read my post? Don't post items for sale here people!", lol.

 

[Clown-N-Around]

It seems whenever I try to take a break for the weekend, the drama gets escalated...

1) Name change: The Rocky Mountain Reef Club established bylaws in 2005 which included the paid members' ability to vote on issues. At that time, the denver, north and springs folks all posted in this forum on Reef Central. The bylaws were written so that we could have some sort of framework to give the different groups autonomy and plan large events together. As the northern president, I had been involved with writing the bylaws and understood the intent, but unfortunately, when the other groups were approached by the then-board of RMRC, it was perceived as an attempt to put their group "underneath" RMRC and they were (rightly so) offended by this. SCMAS coined a name for their group and moved off this forum and DARC did the same. That leaves the northern group and the Denver-area folks who have joined since the bylaws were created. This group voted to change the name, therefore the name has changed. The name change and removal of the chapters is an attempt to (hopefully) break from some of the earlier misunderstandings between the groups and move forward. Not pointless IMO.

2) Separate forums: Between the SCMAS site, the SCMAS RC forum, the DARC forum, the MASC site and the MASC RC forum, there are already 5 different places to post events and stuff for sale. In our site revisions, we tried to make the MASC forums a place where ALL people could come and post things for sale/trade, even if they work at a LFS or have less than 90 days and 50 posts. We welcome MASC, DARC, SCMAS, and none-of-the-above people to post there. Yes, you do have to register, as you do on any site- you can't post without a user name! But you are not required to pay. We have PM's and all of the same features as RC. We also have a section for people to post events that are going on in the community, such as the SCMAS and DARC events. I think that starting another RC forum just further spreads out the traffic and the hobby base. The paid members of MASC have offered our site/bandwidth, etc. for use by all local hobbyists and we welcome you to come participate, even if you never want to join us. I think it would be great to have a "one-stop-shop" for local reefers. A lot of people have complained about RC policies in the past and so we designed the MASC site specifically to address the needs and wants of people and give them some of the freedom they had asked for.

 

[bmwardo]

To those that responded to me, Christina can answer for herself but I took her second post as one that stopped people from skipping all of the above in her first post and wanting to post their FS items on this thread. Simple as that, which is exactly why she said... see above.

 

[Clown-N-Around]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12274764#post12274764 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Milhouse
Exactly! It's not the first post, it's the second one. I think some of you need to read it over again. I have no bad blood with anyone. I just come here to see what's going on. I'm not affiliated with anyone. But that second post made it seem like "Did you read my post? Don't post items for sale here people!", lol.

:lol: OK - you caught me The second post was intended to be a clarification and summary, it is not a demand, but I do waver somewhere between friendly suggestion and strong recommendation.

We really would like to see people using the MASC forums. A LOT of people have had threads closed because of the RC policies. (See the Announcements and stickies from the RC mods at the top here). And many club members have brought up the idea of not using RC at all. The board wants to see us keep the Reef Central forums because we know that many people find us here. Since buying/selling/trading is the main point of contention that many have with RC policies, it just makes sense to keep that on our own site.

People are worried about the traffic at the club forum versus the forums here, and some don't post at MASC because of it. But until people start posting at MASC, there won't be traffic, so it is kind of a catch-22!

To stop having the RC forum closed for violations of policy and drive traffic to the new site, it has been discussed that we set a no-selling policy here. At this point in time, we are hoping that people can see the benefits of moving to these activities to the MASC forums and are just going with the invitation and encouragement. So, hopefully this explains that it is somewhere between you can and you should, but not yet a you must.

 

[emoutz]

a main reason I come here are the for sale posts - traffic is higher here for these activities than any other avaliable site. Let people do what they are doing now - stop trying to further fracture this community. Dont you people have better things to do?I also think it is suspect that a group is trying to shunt trsffic from the biggest draw of this site traffic to their own site by using admin authority here. If you are advocating for another site you have a conflict of interest and should not admin here IMHO.

 

[BrokeColoReefer]

One of the main reasons i DON'T frequent here any more is all the for sale threads.

 

[Clown-N-Around]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12276045#post12276045 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by emoutz
a main reason I come here are the for sale posts - traffic is higher here for these activities than any other avaliable site. Let people do what they are doing now - stop trying to further fracture this community. Dont you people have better things to do?I also think it is suspect that a group is trying to shunt trsffic from the biggest draw of this site traffic to their own site by using admin authority here. If you are advocating for another site you have a conflict of interest and should not admin here IMHO.

It has nothing to do with fracturing the community. The commnity is already split pretty well on its own between people who want to buy/sell and people who do not. RC offers clubs the ability to have forums here (thanks, guys!) but other than the fact that I can request stickies, etc. in our little club forum section I have no "admin" rights of any kind here on RC. As the board, we can request that the moderators start closing for sale threads, but we have never done so in the past, and don't plan to do it in the near future. I can not promise we never will, though, but it would be up to our members to decide that.

Setting up our club's site to have a separate area for buying/selling from the reef discussion, as opposed to here on RC where our club is limited to a single forum with all threads combined, is an attempt to please both groups. You can go to whichever area you choose, or both! IMO, this is an attempt to bring people together!

Our club site is also designed to please people who are new and maybe bought a complete setup but had a protein skimmer already so now they need to sell one- on our site they don't have to wait 90 days. (BTW- this is the main reason that many for sale threads have been closed here in the past, RC policy, not MASC policy).

We had the volunteers to do the programming (thanks, Larry) and the club members who pay for the server hosting and domin (thanks all!) and the willingness to offer this service to the community. The MASC site is our RESPONSE to the concerns that many people have voiced in the past (not just our own idea to usurp the status quo). The traffic there can be as good as it is here, people just have to start using it to make it happen! Do we want people to use this service that we offer? YES! Do I have anything to gain from it, NO! My board position is volunteer and I am doing all of this to benefit the reefing community. We are attempting to solve problems based on feedback from many people.

 

[mhaith]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12275005#post12275005 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Clown-N-Around
:lol:

To stop having the RC forum closed for violations of policy and drive traffic to the new site, it has been discussed that we set a no-selling policy here. At this point in time, we are hoping that people can see the benefits of moving to these activities to the MASC forums and are just going with the invitation and encouragement. So, hopefully this explains that it is somewhere between you can and you should, but not yet a you must.

With the understanding that I am a supporter of MASC and the vision (I think), I believe you stated that you don't want to Moderate but you are discussing the implementation of a no-selling policy on the RC site? Please help me to understand the BOD's position....Dictate or Suggest? Could a 'not-so veiled threat' to exercise power like this be causing part of the antagonism? Once again, IMHO, If the new site has value (which the increased amount of traffic indicates it does), people will shift. Acceptable change takes some time, patience and some sales.

Please sell it, don't force it.

 

[BlueCorn]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12268386#post12268386

 

[Clown-N-Around]

We have had numerous club members give us feedback that they are unhappy with the for sale situation on Reef Central. In response to that, we created our own classifieds with all of the things that people thought were missing:
- ability to see deals from LFS's
- ability for people to post with fewer than 90 days and 50 posts
- ability to post OT items for sale
- ability for people who have frag or fish breeding propagation tanks to sell items
(all of the above are violations of RC policy, and are enforced by RC mods if they see them)

- additionally, many club members either specifically like or dislike the classifieds. The ability to separate selling threads from discussion threads is an important feature not available in a single club forum setup like Reef Central


Do I want to play the "bad guy" that requests that any for sale threads be closed [edit: or moved to the selling/trading forums] by RC mods?? Absolutely not!!! Have many of our members suggested that we no longer allow any for sale threads here? Yes!!! The only reason why I admit that I can not rule out the possibility that it could happen some day, is that I could certainly be outvoted, although it seems unlikely at this point. I have had enough people suggest this tactic that I can not rule it out as a possibility.

My original posts were to invite people to use the new forums that had been designed to their specifications. So, my position is that it would be a lot better for people to have one place to go that they can see stuff for sale from everyone (vendors, newbies, people with captive propagation systems, and others). My intention and plan is not to force people to do so.

 

[BlueCorn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12277232#post12277232 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Clown-N-Around

Do I want to play the "bad guy" that requests that any for sale threads be closed by RC mods??

If the reported thread is within the scope and intent of our [ua], you could report it all day long and the post would remain open.

Just a gentle reminder that this whole site is Reef Central. There are far too many users, forums and posts to try and apply different rules to each situation. You're welcome to continue to use your private forum as you see fit, but here we play by RC rules.

Cheers

 

[Clown-N-Around]

Trouble with for sale threads is not a new issue. I have asked the moderators for clarification. When this same issue was brought up over a year ago (when we did not have a viable club website alternative for local sales), reporting posts to be closed was offered to us by the mods if we set a "no selling" policy in our club forum (just as the no selling policy applies to many discussion forums here on Reef Central). If that is no longer an option for club forums, then there is no risk of it ever happening regarless of me being outvoted.

 

[BlueCorn]

I was pretty sure that I just "clarified" it.




Cheers

 

[Clown-N-Around]

OK - not what we were told before, we were told it was an option to make our club forum like the other Reef Central forums that have a no selling rule. (It was a while ago, and I know this site grows fast!) Good to know that it is no longer an option. Gives us one less thing to decide and take the heat for

Thanks!