What makes R2R so special?

Deezill

Premium member
Good Morning CR,
As you may know, I agreed with the thread "Are we just selling stuff" by Sawdonkey. I wanted to find for one where do we post and it seems like reef2reef is the centered forum for most.
So now I want to know why? I know we might not have as many members considering R2R is a worldwide site and CR is considered a local community. I don't know if you guys have noticed but it seems as if R2R has opened up to every coral vendor and they were having sales every friggin weekend. While this is ok I think if you're a vendor, you should not see the reefing community as a dollar sign and consider it an honor to have such events hosted. I think R2R is growing in a direction to where it's being monetized by vendors so it's changing its direction. This is just my thought so please don't get upset if you disagree, nothing toward R2R however, I think CR can be just as great considering I am able to put an actual face on the actual post and not just an avatar but I have met some of the local reefers here on CR which gives the site a more intimate feel. Just saying. Anyways, here are some questions that I wanted to know for my own personal knowledge. Lets talk don't be afraid. Thanks.

1.) What makes R2R so special?
2.) Are we willing to let a local resource like CR just become an EBAY for reefs?
3.) What would it take for you to drive some of your forum activity here?
4.) Have you updated your build thread?
5.) Do you have a build thread?
6.) Are you willing to share your reefing woes on CR?
7.) Have you met any Chicago Reefers in person?
8.) What can CR do to gain your interest and rekindle the excitement you once had?

Please keep in mind all of these questions I had to ask myself and I am willing to answer each and every last one of them.
 

Sawdonkey

Premium member
Good Morning CR,
As you may know, I agreed with the thread "Are we just selling stuff" by Sawdonkey. I wanted to find for one where do we post and it seems like reef2reef is the centered forum for most.
So now I want to know why? I know we might not have as many members considering R2R is a worldwide site and CR is considered a local community. I don't know if you guys have noticed but it seems as if R2R has opened up to every coral vendor and they were having sales every friggin weekend. While this is ok I think if you're a vendor, you should not see the reefing community as a dollar sign and consider it an honor to have such events hosted. I think R2R is growing in a direction to where it's being monetized by vendors so it's changing its direction. This is just my thought so please don't get upset if you disagree, nothing toward R2R however, I think CR can be just as great considering I am able to put an actual face on the actual post and not just an avatar but I have met some of the local reefers here on CR which gives the site a more intimate feel. Just saying. Anyways, here are some questions that I wanted to know for my own personal knowledge. Lets talk don't be afraid. Thanks.

1.) What makes R2R so special? Just the sheer amount of people using it. More people...more knowledge.
2.) Are we willing to let a local resource like CR just become an EBAY for reefs? I’d rather not.
3.) What would it take for you to drive some of your forum activity here? Not much, just show what you’re up to with your tank and engage others on their tanks.
4.) Have you updated your build thread? Fairly often.
5.) Do you have a build thread? Yes
6.) Are you willing to share your reefing woes on CR? Sure
7.) Have you met any Chicago Reefers in person? Yes, lots.
8.) What can CR do to gain your interest and rekindle the excitement you once had? Just have more threads on actual topic other than. “This or that for sale”.

With that said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with selling stuff. I have a tank full of SPS that is continuously growing, so I gotta sell too. We just need more non-selling dialogue.

Please keep in mind all of these questions I had to ask myself and I am willing to answer each and every last one of them.
 
1. R2R has a large userbase and has more activity. Since it isn't localized it has the benefit of more constant activity.
2. Don't really have an answer for that. I've been working with Tom to try and increase activity for quite sometime.
3.
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. If I had some sure.
7. Yes, plenty.
8. Working on it.
 

xmoji

Eat, Sleep, Reef
1) there’s a wealth of information and people are always active in all forums.
2)NO, we Need more participation
3) participation, peoples interest
4)yeah
5) yep
6) yes and I have e done so
7)yes several
8) I’m already interested
 

Fish_wiz2

Active member
1.) What makes R2R so special?
While I'm not a member, the member count and money they gross makes it more appealing than a club with a local focus. While CR is open to the public, do not forget we have a Chicago focus. Plus I bet R2R is paying google to bump up their search results, they trump any forum I know of with any reef/saltwater related search apart from LiveAquaria (another google animal).
2.) Are we willing to let a local resource like CR just become an EBAY for reefs?
As much as I would not like this, I do understand nothing is free and all websites could use monetary support whether it's from vendor memberships or ads. If it happens, it happens.
3.) What would it take for you to drive some of your forum activity here?
To me, the hobby is like the economy, it's cyclical. Summers I spend away from my reef and more on outdoors and my koi pond, winter is when I'm in full swing which is about now. It's hard to say what will drive people. Some say raffles, meet-ups, and more local activities but not everyone is outgoing. This hobby also caters to lazy people like myself who love to be a couch potato.
4.) Have you updated your build thread?
I really need to get this going for my current tank, haven't done one in ages.
5.) Do you have a build thread?
Yes, for my old tank and koi pond.
6.) Are you willing to share your reefing woes on CR?
Absolutely.
7.) Have you met any Chicago Reefers in person?
Tons, from trades/sales/meets.
8.) What can CR do to gain your interest and rekindle the excitement you once had?
I really do believe if we make it easier to integrate pics and setup blog templates we can really get things going. I'm having a ton of issues with cloud photo sharing right now and need to get away from it, flikr is really trying to **** with me. I know CR has the option to attach pics but I don't personally like that way it works.
 

goat585

Administrator
1.) What makes R2R so special?
While I'm not a member, the member count and money they gross makes it more appealing than a club with a local focus. While CR is open to the public, do not forget we have a Chicago focus. Plus I bet R2R is paying google to bump up their search results, they trump any forum I know of with any reef/saltwater related search apart from LiveAquaria (another google animal).
2.) Are we willing to let a local resource like CR just become an EBAY for reefs?
As much as I would not like this, I do understand nothing is free and all websites could use monetary support whether it's from vendor memberships or ads. If it happens, it happens.
3.) What would it take for you to drive some of your forum activity here?
To me, the hobby is like the economy, it's cyclical. Summers I spend away from my reef and more on outdoors and my koi pond, winter is when I'm in full swing which is about now. It's hard to say what will drive people. Some say raffles, meet-ups, and more local activities but not everyone is outgoing. This hobby also caters to lazy people like myself who love to be a couch potato.
4.) Have you updated your build thread?
I really need to get this going for my current tank, haven't done one in ages.
5.) Do you have a build thread?
Yes, for my old tank and koi pond.
6.) Are you willing to share your reefing woes on CR?
Absolutely.
7.) Have you met any Chicago Reefers in person?
Tons, from trades/sales/meets.
8.) What can CR do to gain your interest and rekindle the excitement you once had?
I really do believe if we make it easier to integrate pics and setup blog templates we can really get things going. I'm having a ton of issues with cloud photo sharing right now and need to get away from it, flikr is really trying to **** with me. I know CR has the option to attach pics but I don't personally like that way it works.

Question on whats difficult about uploading the photos here. When I do it as an admin all I have to do is hit attached file and open then you can insert in the thread if you want. I just wondering if there is some issue I can fix or what I can do to make it easier. Tapatalk works the same. Thanks for the feedback
 

goat585

Administrator
Good Morning CR,
As you may know, I agreed with the thread "Are we just selling stuff" by Sawdonkey. I wanted to find for one where do we post and it seems like reef2reef is the centered forum for most.
So now I want to know why? I know we might not have as many members considering R2R is a worldwide site and CR is considered a local community. I don't know if you guys have noticed but it seems as if R2R has opened up to every coral vendor and they were having sales every friggin weekend. While this is ok I think if you're a vendor, you should not see the reefing community as a dollar sign and consider it an honor to have such events hosted. I think R2R is growing in a direction to where it's being monetized by vendors so it's changing its direction. This is just my thought so please don't get upset if you disagree, nothing toward R2R however, I think CR can be just as great considering I am able to put an actual face on the actual post and not just an avatar but I have met some of the local reefers here on CR which gives the site a more intimate feel. Just saying. Anyways, here are some questions that I wanted to know for my own personal knowledge. Lets talk don't be afraid. Thanks.

1.) What makes R2R so special?
2.) Are we willing to let a local resource like CR just become an EBAY for reefs?
3.) What would it take for you to drive some of your forum activity here?
4.) Have you updated your build thread?
5.) Do you have a build thread?
6.) Are you willing to share your reefing woes on CR?
7.) Have you met any Chicago Reefers in person?
8.) What can CR do to gain your interest and rekindle the excitement you once had?

Please keep in mind all of these questions I had to ask myself and I am willing to answer each and every last one of them.
Thanks for putting this together. There is a lot of great info. What I find most interesting is the site has almost 200 members a day that log in and 400-500 unique visitors a day and most people do not post. We have pretty good traffic but the overall participation rate is low. I've always struggled to figure out how to get people to participate.
 

Deezill

Premium member
This is why am I want to dig deeper and find out why. I know R2R has a lot more members but we make up some of that member base. I am going to do my best to become more active here maybe some others will wake up.
 

Fish_wiz2

Active member
Question on whats difficult about uploading the photos here. When I do it as an admin all I have to do is hit attached file and open then you can insert in the thread if you want. I just wondering if there is some issue I can fix or what I can do to make it easier. Tapatalk works the same. Thanks for the feedback
goat585,

It's not a website issue or that it's extremely difficult but more of workflow suggestion. Let me know what you think of this:

What I envision is templates, like a blog or say new website (with no HTML knowledge). New threads and posts are blank canvases and can be difficult for non-tech savvy people to structure. Say they wanted to do something that looks like a TOTM post but maybe it's a simple build thread.

If we can do something where we have a "text box" and "attachment box" that shows up automatically if we select a template then I feel like it takes a lot of guess work out of posting.

Then we can expand to DIY guides, How-to guides, Fish showcase, coral showcase, and so forth.
 

Sawdonkey

Premium member
I think the people here are plenty helpful, but besides for sale posts, the site is basically dead. There are very few regulars showing off new additions, coral growth, discussing what works and what doesn’t work. There isn’t much dialog or questions being asked (nor answered).

People barely even “like” each other’s posts, and almost never comment on them.

I try to do picture dumps now and then to spark conversation like “what’s that coral?” “What par do you have they in to get that color?” “Does that fish eat other fish’s eyeballs?...........but I’ve come to expect no dialog, so I really just use my build thread as kind of a tank diary for myself.
 

Deezill

Premium member
I think the people here are plenty helpful, but besides for sale posts, the site is basically dead. There are very few regulars showing off new additions, coral growth, discussing what works and what doesn’t work. There isn’t much dialog or questions being asked (nor answered).

People barely even “like” each other’s posts, and almost never comment on them.

I try to do picture dumps now and then to spark conversation like “what’s that coral?” “What par do you have they in to get that color?” “Does that fish eat other fish’s eyeballs?...........but I’ve come to expect no dialog, so I really just use my build thread as kind of a tank diary for myself.
You have hit it on the nail. We can't let the site to continue to die something can be done.
 
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