Reorganizing the Breeders forum and volunteers

[FMarini]

Hey Guys-
Hope everyone had a great holiday and is looking forward to 2006.
In this out w/ the old-in w/ the new idea. I would like to purpose some reorganization of this forum. In the past months I have recieved comments from members asking if all this information in this forum could be organized into a better, more useful manner. Fred and DavidM have proposed grouping topics into folders or under large headings, thereby facilitating finding info on each species in a more concise manner.

In this regard, i would like to get a few volunteers to assist me in creating a a number of subgrouping. As an example major heading could be

nutrition
rotifers
nutritional suppliments
breeding setups, etc
fish species
Clownfish
cardinal fish (other apogons-pyjams, orbic, red strip, blue eyed, etc)
banggai cardinal fish
Watchman gobies
Mandrains
Damsels/chromis
Invert species
etc etc etc

So i would like a few volunteers to assist me in this reorganization. These volunteers would spend time compiling the different species, foods, suppliments, ideas contained in this forum, and paste them in a specific thread w/ a global heading- such as "rotifers". The posts would contain links to the pertinant threads which contain all the useful info under one heading- followed by a few word synopisis on whats important in that thread.

I can envision about 50+ threads covering fish, invert, breeding setups, nutrition, etc, I will either sticky these threads, or i will ask the powers at RC to make a folder in which to archive this info.

so first things first-
what are the major topics we want to cover

Happy new year to all
frank

 

[ediaz]

Happy new year to you too,

I think that is a great idea

Your example is good , gives an idea of what to follow

like live foods, larval tank basics, broodstock set up...larval care/difficulty...

An up to date step by step guide on how to care for clownfish larvae, since that is the main question asked here.

I would also like to see that those"super threads" get screened and edited for accuracy. There is a lot of confused people coming in the forum looking for answers.

I would like , even when it might be off topic, I seen it in another forum, a thread with pictures and a little bio of the regulars here in the FBF.

Edgar

 

[NicoleC]

I also think this is an excellent idea. Here's something like what I would like to see:

Nutrition and Culturing: (including links to FAO and other major culturing info sites)
rotifers
brine shrimp
phytoplankton
other microfoods
nutritional suppliments

Breeding Setups
RC Breeder's(Bios and species' raised)
Vendor Info & Reviews

Fish Species': (including Breeding and Pairing FAQ's, step-by-step guides, links to Breeder's Registry and online articles, etc.)
Clownfish (links to Clownfish forum FAQs, too)
Banggai Cardinals
Other Cardinals
Watchman gobies
Mandarins and other dragonettes
Damsels/chromis
Shrimps and inverts

 

[Atticus]

What if we compiled most of the redundant info into a few key articles? That way the information is easy to find and in a short read format. Obviously, these articles would need to be throughly researched and edited a few times before they are locked. A good example of this can be found in the JHardman's articles in the clownfish forum's FAQ's.

 

[FMarini]

Okay-- i think some of the FBF regulars are thinking like me...scarey but useful
Lets mull on this for another week, then spring into actiuon.
I do like the idea of editing some of the threads for accuracy, but -who determines whats accurate or not?
Also compiling threads into articles sounds great. Who will draft said articles? or are you talking about what the breeders registry forms look like

 

[NicoleC]

One FAQ is needed for sure. I get PM'd this question at least once a week:

"Why do YWG turn gray?"

Then I can just send back the link

 

[jnowell]

Great Idea Frank!

Although I may be one of the less knowledgable in this particular forum, I might be willing to take on some of the "article" creation. I used to write and moderate for RCgroups.com (an identical forum/magazine, but about RC aircraft).

I'd be glad to help in any way I can. I had already considered building my own web page about raising clownfish, just as a place to compile the loads of info I've scoured from this site. Maybe instead of having 30 sticky's, we could have one super-thread (nice term Edgar) and as new info or links get prepared, they are added to that thread.

I'm not sure if I like the idea of folders to divide things up. Seems like for people like me, who love watching Nicole's YWG threads, Steve's Bangaii threads, and everyones clownfish thread, it would make navigation more cumbersome, plus I might miss something!

Great ideas, I think this will be very good.

Jason

 

[Kathy55g]

I've written and published several scientific papers for my professional work as well as reviews of the scientific literature about a topic of research. I can also perform editor services. This would be a lot more fun than anything I've done professionally!

Kathy

 

[Coraldynamics]

Eggselent Idea! Count me in for help as needed.

 

[FMarini]

Hi Kathy- Thanks for the help. Join the club, actually for me writing research articles is part of the job description
I'll see how this all shakes out- lets give it a few more days
cheers
frank

 

[phender]

I am all for organizing old threads into folders.

I am not excited about dividing the forum into folders. Searching 10 or more folders to find new posts is a real pain in the behind. In many cases it would also be difficult to decide what folder to post a question to. I'm not sure if that is what you are proposing.

 

[NicoleC]

I don't think the suggest was to put the posts in folders, but rather to create folders for the reference materials?

 

[spk]

Hey folks,

Count me in Frank. Would love to help any way that I can.

Have also been talking with some work collegues and it was suggested that I set up some sort of Knowledge Management site that has access to
all this information is a more advanced searchable interface.

But still early days and do not want to duplicate things.

Let me know how I can assist.

Steve

 

[NicoleC]

wiki.fishbreeding.com?

 

[spawner]

Must we always lump the superior inverts in with the inferior fish species?

 

[spk]

Maybe we should change the name from FBF to BF, that way there is no superior/inferior complex to worry about .

Just my 2 pennies.

Steve

 

[FMarini]

I could careless if we call this forum the sausageworkers of the world breeding forum. When the powers that be called our home the fish breeding forum (FBF) back in 2000, they figured few if any could/would be successful w/ those invert species. But the breeding forum is fine by me.
Any one else have ides...not on the forum name

 

[Atticus]

I like the "Sausageworkers of the world breeding forum". It has a nice ring to it...

Maybe we could set this up a bit like wetwebmedia.com where all current files are displayed individually, but after a set period of time they get archived to their proper location. An example would be, if you have a thread on clownfish breeding that has not had a post to it in 1-2 weeks it gets archived. The only draw back to this idea is that people may start posting in that thread again. To remedy that all archived threads could be locked so that new ideas and topics are brought up in their own threads.

 

[spk]

Atticus,
Great idea.

Steve

 

[mako56]

Well I'm just an old farm boy from the midwest but if there is anything I can help with let me know. I do have some free time.