[jiggly75]

Hey all, I have a suggestion. I dont know if anyone else will think its good, but I think it could be good for new people to the hobby. Well my suggestion is to have a topic in the forums like u have equipment, diys, reef only, etc. well why not have one where people can list under the state they are from the local fish stores they go to, and if they know of any clubs. the reason I suggest this is because I live in OHIO and there are a few pet stores in the area but you couldnt pay me to buy anything from them (unhealthy fish, plants and nobody knows anything) I have a pretty good lfs that I go to but would really like to check out others. I dont really like the idea of buying livestock online (I like to see what I'm gonna take home). So thats my suggestion, let me know if u think it would be feasable to put together somehow.

[Ninong]

There is a lot of potential for abuse with a forum of that sort. One of the larger boards offers a forum on vendor feedback that serves the same purpose while at the same time trying to limit the potential for abuse. It that forum anyone can post their actual experiences, good or bad, with any vendor, online or LFS. Other members are allowed to respond with their own comments based on their personal experience or even to point out what others have said about the same vendor that might be of interest to the topic starter.

We do not have a separate forum on Reefland but we have always permitted members to post their experiences with vendors, good or bad, in the Reef Aquarium Forum, since that is the forum with the most visibility. This has worked out satisfactorily in the past with only one or two notable exceptions that involved employees of vendors pretending to be happy customers posting about their recent wonderful experience with such and such a company and why everyone should drop what they are doing and place an order right away. Even more difficult to uncover are negative comments by a member who is in fact an employee of the competition. While rare, we have had to deal with both types of situations in the past.

A few of the boards in other countries have separate sections where there is a listing of virtually all known vendors that might be of interest to their members. Each member is allowed to "rate" each of the vendors based on their personal experience. I have no idea how they police this feature or whether a member is entitled to change his rating once given. Something like this seems designed for abuse. It reminds me of the book reviews on Amazon.com and other online vendors. The author's friends and family flood the website with favorable reviews on their guy's new book and post terrible reviews on other authors' works that might be considered the competition. The same thing happens all the time with online restaurant reviews. Employees of the restaurants post glowing reviews of their employer while trashing the competition.

I see nothing wrong with anyone posting anything they wish in any forum as long as it is truthful. If someone decides to trash a particular vendor before they have even contacted the vendor to try to resolve the problem, you can bet your bottom dollar that other members will be quick to offer their own advice on the more ethical course of action.

P.S. -- My suggestion for "new people" in the hobby is that they do a search on this and other boards using a single keyword in the search engines. If the vendor you wish to learn more about is Premium Aquatics, search using the word "Premium." If it's Marine Depot, enter "Depot." If it's Aquacon, just enter "Aquacon" and see what pops up.

P.P.S. -- Just as a point of information, there are 34 listings under the category "Tropical & Saltwater Fish Retail" in the Ohio yellow pages. California lists 423 in the same category.

[jiggly75]

thanks for the reply. i hadnt thought of it like that thanks.