Ann. What do we all want from Boston Reefers Society?

BiGGiePauls33

Current BRS President
Staff member
Moderator
Officer
BRS Member
What types of content would you like to see on this forum?

News articles, new reefing gadgets and gear, new species of coral, inverts and fish discovered? A beginners section? Mentorship?
Trade shows and events coverage? Reefing deals and group buys? Help us out so we can help y'all out. Not trying to be a Debbie downer but tired of seeing all the normal "WTB, FS, Trade" posts instead of the "Do this, expect this result", educational posts that have helped many us us out in one way or another.

Short stories, long multi paged threads. "Hey, here's some pics and a write up from a reef road trip that I went on, etc."

Let's all help contibute to this forum/club to bet it back to where it used to be and or make it better than it has ever been.

Who's with me? For those in the back, I said "Whose with me"?

Seriously though, I love this community but need everyone's help on making it just that much more. We the Officers and BOD, will be announcing some in person meetings in the next week or two and some other fun things to attend. Stay tuned:)
 
To me, the value of BRS is having access to fellow local reefers. So things like tank tours, frag swaps, meetups, stuff like that is where I see the value. And yes, definitely the classifieds. Frankly, I don't see the need to have educational content. I get that from ReefToReef, which will always have an astronomically higher membership count and more experts than BRS. With most of the questions and learning I do on forums, it doesn't matter how local to me the person I'm talking to is.
 
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A few thoughts:

- The forum itself seems rather outdated and isn’t particularly user friendly to navigate. The search/recommendations function is also often questionable in my experience and often brings up quite old content. Updating the forum software, layout, etc. would definitely help to modernize the club.

- I agree with Dave T that I don’t think educational content should be the focus as places like BRS, Reefbuilders etc. will do it 10x better. Instead, I recommend educational activities be focused more on hands-on workshops such as fragging, aquascaping, parameter testing, tank tours etc. vs. written articles. Or even more intermediate to advanced topics such as dosing setup, adjustment calculations etc. The key IMO is to focus on the local hobbiest aspect that sets BRS apart from world wide forums.

- Building on the idea of member locations, an interactive map similar to the LFS locater would be cool to more easily see members in your area. Obviously not exact addresses but per city pins or something along those line.

- This may be somewhat controversial, but I’ll also say that in general members can often be passively hostile to non-members, and things such as classified restricted to members only IMO don’t foster an environment where people people want to stick around, or join the club for the right reasons. I understand that catch 22 that many members are here for the classified’s but that’s mainly because there isn’t much else.

- For events like FFM etc. a BRS frag table would be cool to offer very reasonable priced ($5-$20) frags, as a sort of club “bake sale” using donations.

- BRS mod threads for things like PAR meter, announcements etc are a complete hodge-podge and are all over the place. I’d recommend new stickies or pinned threads as part of a house cleaning initiative. I’d also consolidate some of the lesser used sub-forums.

- New user tags. Most people have “well known member” even if they are barely active. I don’t know exactly what I’d revise it to but as-is they’re a bit misleading.

- Frag swaps, especially for free to low cost corals could help bring in new members and introduce them to the fray.

- What other local clubs are in the area? Could be good opportunity to tag team with adjacent state reef clubs on more events. Even non sw/reef clubs in Boston to bring people to the dark side.

- Group buys for perish/consumables? Filter socks, media, food etc.

Edit: adding more comments as they come to mind.
 
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A few thoughts:

- The forum itself seems rather outdated and isn’t particularly user friendly to navigate. The search/recommendations function is also often questionable in my experience and often brings up quite old content. Updating the forum software, layout, etc. would definitely help to modernize the club.

- I agree with Dave T that I don’t think educational content should be the focus as places like BRS, Reefbuilders etc. will do it 10x better. Instead, I recommend educational activities be focused more on hands-on workshops such as fragging, parameter testing, tank tours etc. vs. written articles. Or even more intermediate to advanced topics such as dosing setup, adjustment calculations etc.

- Building on the idea of member locations, an interactive map similar to the LFS locater would be cool to more easily see members in your area. Obviously not exact addresses but per city pins or something along those line.

- This may be somewhat controversial, but I’ll also say that in general members can often be passively hostile to non-members, and things such as classified restricted to members only IMO don’t foster an environment where people people want to stick around, or join the club for the right reasons. I understand that catch 22 that many members are here for the classified’s but that’s mainly because there isn’t much else.

- For events like FFM etc. a BRS frag table would be cool to offer very reasonable priced ($5-$20) frags, as a sort of club “bake sale” using donations.

- BRS mod threads for things like PAR meter, announcements etc are a complete hodge-podge and are all over the place. I’d recommend new stickies or pinned threads as part of a house cleaning initiative. I’d also consolidate some of the lesser used sub-forums.
I agree with a lot of what is being said here. Would you be willing to join lend a helping hand as a committee member? We can use more people that can direct the clubs focus.
 
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Sure, don’t know how much time I can commit to drive the ship but am certainly willing to help out where I can.
Appreciate the feedback always. I'll be in touch at some point. We have some plans to announce soon.
 
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i think a cool idea that would help build community and also everyone involved could benefit from us doing some sort of personalized focus on a members tank, and all collaborating on providing ideas and expertise to get that persons tank to optimally sustainable conditions and parameters that stay stable.

i know half the fun in the hobby is to tinker with things and measure their impact, but i also know from personal experience that it can get discouraging at times if results aren’t successful like i wished, or my schedule changes and i don’t have time to commit to my tank like i might at other times of year.

it might be cool to do some sort of like “weekly member tank spotlight” where we all get in a list and once it’s our turn, we provide parameters, equipment, maintenance and feeding habits etc, and rest of the members can provide helpful feedback and as the tank owner makes proposed changes, and follows up with updates on how their tanks respond.

i know this already naturally happens where members who have questions ask and folks are happy to chime in and help, but might be a cool way to gain engagement and also make sure no one suffers in silence with their tank
 
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i think a cool idea that would help build community and also everyone involved could benefit from us doing some sort of personalized focus on a members tank, and all collaborating on providing ideas and expertise to get that persons tank to optimally sustainable conditions and parameters that stay stable.

i know half the fun in the hobby is to tinker with things and measure their impact, but i also know from personal experience that it can get discouraging at times if results aren’t successful like i wished, or my schedule changes and i don’t have time to commit to my tank like i might at other times of year.

it might be cool to do some sort of like “weekly member tank spotlight” where we all get in a list and once it’s our turn, we provide parameters, equipment, maintenance and feeding habits etc, and rest of the members can provide helpful feedback and as the tank owner makes proposed changes, and follows up with updates on how their tanks respond.

i know this already naturally happens where members who have questions ask and folks
I like this idea. I think the main need is for constructive criticism and ideas vs. just “nice tank” and moving on. This could even feature a mix of nice tanks and bad tanks to highlight what works, and help people get on track.
 
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A dedicated “SOS” thread where a member could put out an “all call” for help with a tank situation. Maybe a place to set up a date and time at that persons house to do some on site trouble shooting.

I think it would also be cool if we could help a member recover from a crash by donating frags to get them back up and running.

Some of this may already be happening.
 
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A dedicated “SOS” thread where a member could put out an “all call” for help with a tank situation. Maybe a place to set up a date and time at that persons house to do some on site trouble shooting.

I think it would also be cool if we could help a member recover from a crash by donating frags to get them back up and running.

Some of this may already be happening.
love this! talk about community building
 
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Loving all the idea folks, keep them coming. Let's make this the best reefing community around, lots of works but even greater rewards. Appreciate all of you:)
 
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I'm always late to the party so I'm just bumping. I'm all the way down on Cape Cod so it's challenging to participate in person as much as I would like. I know most people enjoy corals but I got into this hobby in 2003 because of the fish I like the idea of lfs trips and getting to know more reefers local to me.
 
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I'm always late to the party so I'm just bumping. I'm all the way down on Cape Cod so it's challenging to participate in person as much as I would like. I know most people enjoy corals but I got into this hobby in 2003 because of the fish I like the idea of lfs trips and getting to know more reefers local to me.

Come to the may 6th meetup! Good opportunity to meet some fellow reefers!
 
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