Hello Rob, I was curious to know if you were interested in creating a Featured Tank of the Month series for the Talkingreef. I enjoy seeing this feature on other Forumns such as Reef central for example and feel that it would make a great addition to the website.

I've seen that done also. It is pretty cool to get to see some very special photos. However, I do realize that it will take time and more work for someone to do something like this and keep it going every month and would also depend on participation of TR as a whole. It would be pretty special for a marine hobbiest to bask in the florescent/MH lime light for a short lived time as personal reward for all their hard work, dedication, and financial commitment needed to maintain such a treasure. That's just my 2 cents thought. Let's see if others will respond with their opinions. :up:

oh, and maybe the winner could even get a Talkingreef t-shirt from the cafepress store !! hmmm, something to look into.

i know this site did have a totm contest before i joined. would be a nice addition, IMO.

I really think this would be a great idea and I would even throw my hat in as helping run this

Of course after my tank wins!!!!! LOL JK

oh yea and a t-shirt would be cool too!!!

We did have TOTM and it went great for 2 or 3 months and then people quit participating. It was a lot of work and disappointing when there were no entries. The format was nice in that the community voted on the entries.

lol i am holding the trone here i was the last month on the competicion

Maybe thats the problem with turnout. Maybe relaying on the community to vote on the totm nominees is were it went wrong. I have nothing against the community voting but if its not in front of you, than you don't really know to vote. It would be smother IMO if a set of people voted. The community can send nominees in but let a set group of voluntees vote and choose.

I don't think that we would have the budget to travel around and evaluate tanks. :) But we can ask Rob about that.

LOL that would be nice though

What I meant was to choose totm thru pics and setup. Maybe a nice video presentation

Just a thought, maybe their no need to have people nominate themselves. Maybe we could include a button and let people select Member Tank Threads from the Members Tank Journal section of the website. ;-)

yes.. there are many ways to do this project, the last time to tried members participation was not high enough to continue. we would get one or two a month and that was it.

maybe if the interest is there we can try again...

I remember the low participation. So perhaps instead of Tank of the Month, we could have a Thread of the Month. This could be about a tank, a particular fish or coral, a problem, whatever. Just a nice way of calling attention to a particular thread. No prize would be needed, as a good thread is a group effort. But a logo could be created to show that a particular thread was voted best of TR. Thoughts?

I remember the low participation. So perhaps instead of Tank of the Month, we could have a Thread of the Month. This could be about a tank, a particular fish or coral, a problem, whatever. Just a nice way of calling attention to a particular thread. No prize would be needed, as a good thread is a group effort. But a logo could be created to show that a particular thread was voted best of TR. Thoughts?


I like it!

I like it! Me too!

Me too!

me three !!

Me four???

Yeah, it seems like a great idea.

carmie.. bobby.. you volunteering to manage/organize this?? :D

It depends on the format and how much time it would take. Even with the community voting on Tank of the Month it took and awful lot of work.

yeah i know.. if there was alot of interest i would be ok with it..
i just need to see the interest and [participation (or willingness) before we commit to it..

i would be game to help out with it.

YES Count me in.

In fact Rob, just tell me what I can do to be a part of this. And I like the idea of the TOTM winner not winning because of the beauty of the tank alone. The creative part of it should count too.

I don't mean to be the proverbial wet blanket on a few great ideas, but I see about 8 folks here willing to give it a shot. For what it's worth, and I'm sure it isn't to much account, but TR will need alot more voices willing to commit to this idea if it is to last beyond its conception. Perhaps it needs to be fine tuned, planned all out and then placed before the community to be voted on. To be picked, pulled apart and added to. A think tank if you will. :cool: What does everyone think? The more people involved with it's creation, the better chances it will have to take hold and root and become a working part of this community. Do you think we could take a poll of various questions and answers of what folks here think. Sometimes people get answers from out of nowhere and when they least expect it that turn into brain childs. Just my thoughts. (While I hold up the garbage can lid to ward off the tomatoes, burnt toast and bubble gum!) :p

I nominate this thread for January "Thread of the Month"

All those in favor say "I" (or is it aye?)

I nominate this thread for January "Thread of the Month"

All those in favor say "I" (or is it aye?)

Now that's the kind of sense of humor I love here at TR! I mean "I or aye"!

*puts on the flame gear* Can i give an opinion here?


.......... no ! - Squish :o - now as i was saying, the problem is choice, Rob has gone out of his way for us so many times, that now we have too much of it, & although high foot traffic visits, its spread over a vast virtual area & even threads like this can be missed. I almost missed it & im a regular! Plus it comes down to how you surf the pages

1st is forum search by topic - to which you already have a topic in mind!
2nd is new postings - often dictated by foot traffic & new can become a massive listing to which you skim down.
3rd is todays posts....also dictated by traffic .snap... gonski posts along with my BS ..... you see where im going ect ect

Cap threads to a max 3 month shelf life, pull out killer posts as periodical stickies ( maybe displayed in our vault under respective titles) & focus on funneling people into a more central corridor with fewer parameters so we can all interact more.

I mean lets look at it - There's realistically 2 kinds of people here -
Person A - will search first ask questions latter -
Person B - will ask first & maybe extra search latter.

Both ways im sweet with, what-ever floats you boat i guess - there's a wealth of knowledge for those that seek out the resource vault, & plenty of people to answer questions in the forums.

Using purpose structure is used everyday & most people dont even know it.

Casino's use lighting & physical structure to keep you engaged, marketing companies use colours ,patterns & associational icons to hold & manipulate your attention, Im splicing flash cards of x rated material into every 15th frame rate, so you see, we're all controlling something.........whether people know it or not, its the "think smarter not work harder" people among us that see patterns in the chaos & can use structure to guide in the general purposeful direction.

Now, who stole my beer :unsure: - Just an out of the box suggestion from this bubble gum under my shoe shhhhhhhhh, be quiet i say!

here is what we are going to do.
i am going to post a new poll, and put a announcement up about it so all people reading threads here should see it (hopefully addressing the valid issues Veriann brought up)

Now how do we make the call?

If the poll attracts a minimum of 25 votes of people interested over the course of 7 days then we will start the contest back up. If after 7 days we do not have at least 25 people voting they would participate we will shelf the idea for a bit and revisit it to see if interest has grown.

why 25?
we average over 100 unique resisted members that visit Talkingreef everyday. so, if 25% of the people that visit each day are interested, that should be enough to keep the contest running for at least a few solid months. and should give enough options so the contest moderators are not picking the best of 2 or 3 entries each month.

Sounds good!!!

Sounds like a good plan, Rob.

Sounds good, of course, "self inflicted disaster of the month!" would be something I would have more entries for!

I voted yes, and I will indeed participate if we get the vote count, but I really liked the idea of a thread of the month. There will always be great threads to choose from, the TR staff just have to pick one. Maybe sticky it and link it from the announcement area at the top of the page.

Rob, sounds like a plan. Hopefully if enough focus is placed on this poll, and the poll is placed in a well populated area, we can get the head count to get it going and keep it running.

Kdone, I hear ya! I will support it too, but all I can offer is buff shots. All I have is bare rocks right now. LOL

Phurst, I also like the "Thread of the Month" idea too. There are some threads posted in here that I enjoy following.

I'll precipitate, I mean Participate.

Let's do it guys!

The poll has closed and we did not get the 25 "yes" votes i was after.

Because of the the Staff and I are currently reviewing the idea of a Photo of The Month contest.
Stay tuned for details

hmm lets look at this, 100 unique visiters per day, 25 votes, 7 days, um yeah! I could pee from space & hit more vote cards than that:huh: I love you guys, but you all suck @ the same time! :madmad: Hell i was even going to create a new tank monthly just to stir the pot! & Im sure Dkone would have joined in on the activity of nano of the month with me

Hmmmmmmm..... Well V, I think the faithful here that did participate in the "sucking" part can not be included in your statement as "we" did our part by voting. Besides, if I'm going to suck, my straw will have an umbrella on it! Thank you very much. :D Instead of looking at the negative here, let's use this time to evaluate things and get a game plan going that will incorporate lurkers into pro-active members, then perhaps we can have a "tank of the month" and other great ideas. I still want to see you up and the wheels turning in that head of yours and get that nano up and running for when we do succeed. :agree:

And another thing. I just thought of a great idea of an incentive to change lurkers into members. Won't mention it now as I'll have to pass it by Rob. I'll get back with you on that one.

you know im only playing around:cool: , takes alot more than to ruffle my feathers, although it was alittle disappointing to see, cause i was thinking we were ready "this" time! Oh well, your all going to be subjected to my luke warm humor till we bridge that gap! :rotfl:

I know you were playing around, as was I. ;) But the disappointment for everyone is real unfortunately. We just have to regroup. I do want to see you at least be thinking of some ideas to surpass Dkone's picto. Creative minds and extreme humour is a terrible thing to waste. Hmmmm..... the work lukewarm doesn't seem to be in your dictionary V. I see "wide open", and molecules expanding and that doesn't come from lukewarm. :D We'll just wait and see if Rob thinks my idea is on the right track or not. If it doesn't fly, then maybe someone else can come up with a better suggestion.

Count Me In!

Hello Budde! Thanks for your support. We need to rally all of TR's regulars to get some good things going. All things worth having take time and effort. :up:

wow... I thought we're gonna have the FIRST REAL T.R. argument here.. too bad you two were just messing around..lol :D

Naw!!!!! Never fight or argue, it's non productive. Just friends sparring with humour. :D Reefers school together like dolphins. I hear V's flipper laugh now. :silly:

Reefers school together

Lori, i like it !! i am going to talk to Rob about making that a bumper sticker and shirt on cafepress TR gear site if you dont mind !!

I'd like a shirt...

I have a humble suggestion.. I hope I don't get 'Moved On' on this.. :D

My suggestion is we start a thread in the General Discussion forum like "Post your Tank Pics here!" Everyone will post their full Tank Shot (FTS) and the Admins or Mods will pick one to be the "TOTM". We will do it every month... Since we don't have that many members YET, we can't be picky.... this is just so we have a TOTM. Once we get more registered members in the future then we can start with the voting. This is how we do it in the other forum that I participate in (car related) Ok please don't ban me it's just a suggestion :D

In the meantime I will try to help by writing some DIYs and other reef articles to (hopefully) attract more lurkers to actively participate..

Lori, i like it !! i am going to talk to Rob about making that a bumper sticker and shirt on cafepress TR gear site if you dont mind !!

Can I order a shirt? I like mine to read like this:: "Reefers school together, Stoners stick together.." http://www.realgm.com/boards/images/smiles/icon_ang.gif

i like that too !! stoners meaning sps keepers (just to clarify to those that do not keep them).

not exactly..
here is what i want to do for starters (along the lines of a few suggestions that have been made)
Lets start with the Photo of The Month contest, i will work with the Staff to hash out the details, but for those interested get your best single images ready. The first one will likely be theme-less, but future contests may get a theme to provide focus or control entries, etc..

rules and instructions should follow shortly, but basically it will be along these lines
* must be your own photo
* bust be of a tank YOU own, owned, or care for
* all members are eligible (excluding Staff Members)
* entries will be taken on 1st through the 15th, voting will be 16th-end of the month

Please feel free to post any other suggestions or feedback, with any luck we can start next month

I'm excited. Let's do this!!

I think the phrase "Tank of the Month" is overused. I see that phrase in every other forum..

How about "Reef of the Month"? or something new...