The Members only section

[William]

It is sad but I have decided to remove the members only section. I know some of you will welcome this move others will not like it. It has turned into a place to discuss your private life, something AC was never meant to be. AC is first and foremost a place to talk about aquarium keeping. That focus has lately been somewhat lost and need to be regained.

The chatterbox will remain a place where you can talk about non aquarium related topics that you find interesting and that you want to share.
It is not a place to talk about your personal life and what's going on in it. That does not mean you can´t post about extraordinary evets such as getting engaged, getting injured or robbed there occasionally.

[sandy_n]

William, I think with all things considered it was the right thing to do and I can understand why you decided to do it.

[nanaglen2001]

Hmmm I dont really welcome this idea, but the one who pays choses the music (as we say in Germany).

OK its of couse a fish forum, and this topic is of course the most important one, but on the other hand, lots of people here got to know other folks better and feel at home in here, so they just want to talk a bit more, or just need other people to listen to them. I see a good running forum a bit as a big village, so why not behave a bit like in a bit village?? As long as fishkeeping stays the main topic, for sure.

In my eyes "Members only" didnt hurt anyone or anything.

But its your decision, and I accept it, but not happily.

[crackatinny]

I think it was a good move, it was taking away the threads that usually went in chatterbox, talking and having a laugh in chatterbox is totally different to having a section where depressing and sometimes critical subjects are discussed, no-one on here is qualified to help someone in a position where they are suffering depression or personal family problems, and to try to help these people, and not knowing all the underlying problems, can often make thier problem worse.

[Fishalicious]

Goooooooooood riddance.... being blonde I never really got it's purpose anyway. Also confusing when you want to post wether it is a Chatterbox or Members Only topic other than that the general public can't read Members Only I still don't get the difference between the two....I am now off to the corner to put my Dunce hat on :hmm3grin2orange:

[Tolley]

I think you done the right thing. The members only section encouraged people to talk about their personal lives more than fish. I just got bored whenever i clicked 'new posts' and it turned up with 5 posts in the members section and 2 posts about fish.

[NickFish]

I have to agree with this decision.

Aquaticcommunity is an aquarium forum, with of course other discussions here and there. But having an entire section just for personal lives gets very complicated, and that is when you start having arguements and problems.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I too welcome this move. Thank you William. All in all I think it is a move for the better. I believe AC will benefit from this move greatly.

[angelcakes]

good move thank you:19:

[Rue]

Yes...very good move...

[jbeining75]

:19: Great move....

[SkinnyChicken]

I was wondering just the other day whether this site was sponsored by Oprah Winfrey or Dr Phil ... :)

[gm72]

We discussed this issue at great length among the Mod team and all of us agreed that there was simply too much drama going on. It was taking a lot of time to moderate the subforum, thereby taking resources away from the reason we are all here in the first place--keeping fish. I am glad to see it go.

Very good decision.

[Drumachine09]

I too endorsed the closing of the MO forum. Its not worth its trouble to be honest.

[William]

I am glad to hear tat such a big portion of you seem to support this move.

Nanaglen: I partly agree with you but ashad been said. The downsides was just to great and the resources it tookto moderate etc was to great. By removing it Ac will have more resources to improve in fish related ways such as more articles etc.

[Wild Turkey]

I agree with this move. My life is dramatic enough with my fiery redheaded fiancee, i come to this forum to talk about fish. I love to post funny videos in chatterbox and stuff, but the whole point of that is too get some laugh, brighten up someones day. I really havent been reading much of the threads in members only cuz alot of them are really depressing. If you want to chat about your life, theres always the chat room and most people have their aim listed, i dunno about most people but i listed it there because i dont mind if people from AC contact me on there.

[RichBowyer]

I posted yesterday that I felt it was the wrong thing to have. After I posted I went in and scanned some of the threads. Good Ridance is the correct sentiment!

[cocoa_pleco]

I was wondering just the other day whether this site was sponsored by Oprah Winfrey or Dr Phil ... :)

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZZIIIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG !:hmm3grin2orange:

[Drumachine09]

always the chat room



Just for the record, the same rules on AC apply to the chat room. I don't want that kind of drama being started in there, or I won't hesitate to close it down if it gets to becoming a problem. (Not aimed at anyone)

[gm72]

Drum has it right, absolutely. No drama please. Keep it clean, fun, and positive. Drama threads will be closed and a warning will ensue. Please don't make us go through those motions.

[Wild Turkey]

Just for the record, the same rules on AC apply to the chat room. I don't want that kind of drama being started in there, or I won't hesitate to close it down if it gets to becoming a problem. (Not aimed at anyone)


Agreed, the chat room isnt a place to dump your problems on others, i should have worded that better.. But what i meant is the chat room is there for more 1v1 convos and to blab about stuff other than just fish. I dont frequent it but thats because whenever i check no one is on :( I dont want to make stuff any harder than it always is for the mods, the less time they have to spend moving threads and issuing warnings, the more improvements and additions to the site we will see almost undoubtably.

[gm72]

Beautiful post, just beautiful. Thank you!!!!! :11:

[xoolooxunny]

Fully agree, I'm glad to see it go, a lot of times I would read it and feel uncomfortable, to the point where I didnt read it anymore. It was kind of weird for me. Glad to see the decision made William, I think it was the right one. I like reading about peoples funny fish stories or some off the wall stuff that happened to them that day, not problematic family issues and such.

[digital3]

Don't want to sound like a broken record, but I agree as well. I enjoy this community for its friendly people and fish advice. While it's cool to make friends and take things further through the people who you meet at this site, I feel if you want to take it further, that is what personal IM, personal Email, or Facebook/Myspace is for. Leave the forum to its core purpose, our awesome hobby!

Thanks William and Mods. I know sometimes it's tough to make certain decisions and that sometimes not everyone will agree, but all you can do is the best you can do. For that I appreciate it.

[Demi ^_^]

I thought the members only section was great and am peeved its now gone, gotta admit, I dont see why we couldnt have kept it, it wasn't doing any harm and members could share things that they dont want the whole web spying on, I know that my mum and dad wouldnt have allowd me to write up about my new baby sister where the whole web could see it, So the MOS was great use to me,

I understand its a fish forum, but were a community too, and I think the members only forum really helped peops get to know eachother better..

[travie]

I definitely don't care either way. In theory it was an good idea, but nobody really used it.

[Rue]

... I know that my mum and dad wouldnt have allowd me to write up about my new baby sister where the whole web could see it...

I think mentioning that you have a baby sister is fine to post on-line - it doesn't need a higher security level...people have babies all the time! :19:

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I understand its a fish forum, but were a community too, and I think the members only forum really helped peops get to know eachother better..

There are some things that we really don't need to know about each other though. We are a community because we have something in common: fish. If things are too private for you to post in an open forum, then they are too private period. Besides, how private was the MO section anyway? Not private at all, the only thing "private" about it was that it was invisible to guests and search engines, anyone who wanted to see it would only have to join to read it. In case you haven't noticed, there are a ton of memebers here who have never actually posted anything, they have contributed nothing to the community at all yet they could read anything there. We occasionally get spammers here, if someone that unscrupulus can get in here and post, then someone who is equally as shadey can get in and read you private stuff. So as I said, if it's too private for open forum, then it's too private period.

[pinsonpa]

I don't know this for sure, but after reading some of the posts in the MOS over the last month I've wondered (on more than one occasion) if there wasn't a potential liability issue waiting to happen.

I'm not a lawyer, but in our "sue first, ask questions later" society, I was concerned about giving advice to someone about deeply personal matters. I can think of a few different threads by different people that made me think twice about replying (which I didn't).

Yes, I can see why some are sad to see it go (although I can assure you my eyes are quite dry). There are lots of people here who have made and maintained strong friendships and the MOS was a place for them to talk about non-fish related things. However, I also believe the mods when they say the MOS didn't get closed down for one reason, it was multiple reasons. In my opinon each one of those reasons outweigh the benifits the MOS provided (especially since there is still a chatterbox section, Private Messages, etc.).

I can tell you this...if I ever have some deeply personal (and serious) things I need to talk about I wouldn't use the MOS section (even if we still had one). If knew someone well enough to discuss things of this nature with...I'm pretty sure I'd have their e-mail address.

I'll leave you all with this definition from Merrium-Webster...

Hobby

Function: noun
Inflected Form(s):plural hobbies
Etymology: short for hobbyhorse
Date:1816

: a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation
— hob·by·ist \-bē-ist\ noun