High Tide Aquatics

2016 Regional Swap feedback

I agree with some of what's been mentioned above. I've never been a fan of the bonus groups. But I'm in the minority and that's ok. I do the like the bonus table idea. Doesn't mean it will happen but I like it. It may have already been mentioned ( at work and read everything ) but what about switching to numbers instead of letters? Easier to understand I think
 
I agree with some of what's been mentioned above. I've never been a fan of the bonus groups. But I'm in the minority and that's ok. I do the like the bonus table idea. Doesn't mean it will happen but I like it. It may have already been mentioned ( at work and read everything ) but what about switching to numbers instead of letters? Easier to understand I think

I think numbers would be better especially when you run into an emergency situation with no projector system like we had last saturday.
 
I had a great time as well and hat's off to the BOD for a really well organized event! There was a great turn out and I was able to pick up some nice pieces in the swap and a few from the vendors as well. I really enjoyed the raffle and the BOD did a great job procuring some really nice prizes. I was lucky enough to walk away with the Legendary Corals prize pack and the Frag-A-Rack.
A suggestion for future raffles would be to use the raffle ticket method some of the other clubs employ where they sell tickets in groups of 20 that have the same number. Makes it easier to track down your number especially with the faster pace of the raffle.

Yeah i know exactly what youre talking about. They had those type of raffle tickets at Reef-a-palooza and NVR. I can ask their president where they got em.
 
I know I had a ton of positive feedback from my Aquascaping meeting - pretty sure you couldAs a sponsor for a number of clubs, it seems there is a shift towards Social Media that the clubs are not picking up on. Forums are increasingly quiet with the exception of the bigger "internet only" forums like Reef2reef, Nanoreef or that other big one I never look at...Not sure what the answer is; however I do sponsor a club that does not have a traditional web page forum set up - they are exclusively Social Media based and are very successful. I'm past the age curve to really understand how all that plays out, but just know there is a new trend for sure.

Every member of BAR has something to contribute - this is a great club with a fantastic history. Please get involved - many hands make for a light and successful event. Thanks to the BOD, the members and especially those that spent their hard earned money with me! Thank you for letting jestersix be involved...

Ive been studying the decrease in forum activity here, on nvr, chico reef club, cvr. Forum activity is going downhill across all clubs with a shift towards social media facebook groups and reef2reef. Some clubs showing massive membership/event declines.

Ive considered closing down this website and shifting us to a local club subforum on Reef2Reef but they dont have the option for admins to create subforums within the subforum.

Its tricky. We're managing a club and a forum and theyre both connected right now.
 
Well part of the reason why we left ReefCentral as a club was partially because we wanted to be able to police our own forum, make rules, etc. Not to mention it works wonders to have subforums for our club, where at RC half of the shit was buy/sell speak, oh hey I have a question on... whoops too late someone wants to buy a vortech for 50% of cost, or I need to sell this frag pack, or no one wants to be me $5 less than full retail for this Radion kit so I'm going to bump my post (TTT, bump, etc) so yeah you newbies with questions don't matter.

IMO this forum does a lot in different areas because we can customize it to how we want. Now I'm not sure how financials work (cost of keeping this running) but the decision to remove the forum should not be one made lightly. And sure you can do social media, however you're going to definitely lose old curmudgeons like myself who don't do social media and we're stuck in ways to the point where we're not going to do social media, forums are the extend of social media that I use.
 
+1 on being able to police our own forum. One thing that would help boost club liveliness is more social events. It doesn't have to be big/flashy/technical. Tank tour like the one Dick hosted was a perfect social gathering to talk fish. We could do pot luck to lessen the burden on the host.
 
Well part of the reason why we left ReefCentral as a club was partially because we wanted to be able to police our own forum, make rules, etc. Not to mention it works wonders to have subforums for our club, where at RC half of the shit was buy/sell speak, oh hey I have a question on... whoops too late someone wants to buy a vortech for 50% of cost, or I need to sell this frag pack, or no one wants to be me $5 less than full retail for this Radion kit so I'm going to bump my post (TTT, bump, etc) so yeah you newbies with questions don't matter.

IMO this forum does a lot in different areas because we can customize it to how we want. Now I'm not sure how financials work (cost of keeping this running) but the decision to remove the forum should not be one made lightly. And sure you can do social media, however you're going to definitely lose old curmudgeons like myself who don't do social media and we're stuck in ways to the point where we're not going to do social media, forums are the extend of social media that I use.

What Mike said. I work in I.T., but I refuse to waste my time on social media like Frackbook. I read a book or interact with human beings in real life instead. This forum should remain live if financially viable. I was about to renew my dues, but if you're dumping this forum, I will have to reevaluate my options.

John/J6: while you bring up valid points, I challenge your dismissal of my travel time to the event versus yours. As a vendor, you are running a business and can deduct your travel costs, including driving time, as a business expense. I cannot; therefore, it's not a fair comparison. Aside from that, it was nice to meet you at the swap, and I wish I had picked up one of those mushroom builds. :)
 
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What Mike said. I work in I.T., but I refuse to waste my time on social media like Frackbook. I read a book or interact with human beings in real life instead. This forum should remain live if financially viable. I was about to renew my dues, but if you're dumping this forum, I will have to reevaluate my options.

John/J6: while you bring up valid points, I challenge your dismissal of my travel time to the event versus yours. As a vendor, you are running a business and can deduct your travel costs, including driving time, as a business expense. I cannot; therefore, it's not a fair comparison. Aside from that, it was nice to meet you at the swap, and I wish I had picked up one of those mushroom builds. :)

I apologize if I was insulting - I tried to convey that I was amused in a good way. But to be a bit serious, ask around - I was attending and supporting BAR events as a dues paying member for years before jestersix existed, brought scores of frags, and was the first person on site to set up and last to leave most times when I was traveling four hours and others were local. Ask the same of NVR and CVR. Those that know me understand I appreciate every single person that takes a moment to share in something I'm passionate about. Guarantee I've put my money (and time, travel and resources) on the line a bunch of times taht were not business related - so if I mistakenly came across as dismissive your travel time it was because I've been there/done that in aces...

And I wish you had bought one of those mushroom builds, I ended up having to bring one home...LOL
 
+1 on being able to police our own forum. One thing that would help boost club liveliness is more social events. It doesn't have to be big/flashy/technical. Tank tour like the one Dick hosted was a perfect social gathering to talk fish. We could do pot luck to lessen the burden on the host.

Big agreement on increasing the Social Events! One of the groups I am involved with as a sponsor makes a point of including social events in their calendar. I've even attended a few because it is fun. I really wanted to head up for the event at Dick's place, but sadly had a prior family commitment. I think we need to replace Social Media with Social Interaction - I for one would love to see that happen! One of the reasons I fell in love with BAR was the people involved, we always had a good time even at the "serious" events...I still do when I make the trips up.
 
Yeah i know exactly what youre talking about. They had those type of raffle tickets at Reef-a-palooza and NVR. I can ask their president where they got em.

Raffle Ticket.

I already brought a sample back from the NVR swap and gave to Mike. He said he hasn't shown it to the rest of the BOD yet.
 
Complete newbie here. First time post, first frag swap, 5 months into reefing. So probably almost as newbie as an opinion as it gets.

Overview, I felt it was a great experience. Thanks to all that hosted and set it up. Some feedback that I have though:

- I felt time was too short for later rounds (newb perspective). For someone that doesn't know everything by name yet or know exactly what they want, 1-2 minutes to decide is near impossible which leads to random grabbing of a frag that I may or may not want. The problem is compounded if something that I did want is gone and 30 seconds was spent to figure out it was already taken.

- For the first and last "draft" pick when it snakes, I didn't think it was fair that the were allotted the same amount of time as the others in the round for one pick, (i.e., those pickers should have been given the additional time of the next round to make two picks).

- This is a newb question and there's probably a reason for it: Why is that we can't preview what's there before the picking? It'd be different if everyone is allowed to go in at once, but I would think the mad rush to the coolest or rarest item is taken care of with the bonus/ultra round and the random letter draw spacing. This could also speed things up as rounds won't have to last the entire time allotted for the round.

Randy
 
I have not thrown in my two cents as what was given as feedback was spot on.

I know that I lurk from time to time, I will give my advice when it has not already been give within the tread of the post.

If you didn't have this website I would have never joined to meet a bunch of great people that can get together and enjoy a hobby that we all love and make grow. I have been doing reefing for about 20+ years and by no means would call my self an expert. I have self taught myself most that I know and am always learning new things. I get great ides reading all the post here. ( I don't believe everything that is said on a RC posts).

I am not a big Social Media person so if this was the way that BAR wants to to move forward I will be supportive, however myself and possible others that are soial media handycapped or just to stubborn to learn the ways of social media will drift away faster then if you kept the Forum active. This could be because I am old school and was around of the BBS days and would gladly read forums over Facebook. On a positive note you might get more of the younger generation via the social media route.
 
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Info about group picking at the swap: People reached in and took a group letter from the bucket, then the letter was placed in a "used" bucket. There were equal numbers of each letter in the original bucket but not all were picked.
I agree that 10 groups is too many because you have to wait so long between rounds.
Not sure how you control for not knowing how many people will attend.
 
What Mike said. I work in I.T., but I refuse to waste my time on social media like Frackbook. I read a book or interact with human beings in real life instead. This forum should remain live if financially viable. I was about to renew my dues, but if you're dumping this forum, I will have to reevaluate my options.

John/J6: while you bring up valid points, I challenge your dismissal of my travel time to the event versus yours. As a vendor, you are running a business and can deduct your travel costs, including driving time, as a business expense. I cannot; therefore, it's not a fair comparison. Aside from that, it was nice to meet you at the swap, and I wish I had picked up one of those mushroom builds. :)
Hi Benaminh, I was unable to attend the last swap but always interested in "after" comments to help improve events in the future. I hope you will renew your membership as we always need energetic members to help our group grow! I hope this Forum will always continue and the idea of shutting it down is not anything the current BOD is seriously considering - at least that I am aware of.
 
Info about group picking at the swap: People reached in and took a group letter from the bucket, then the letter was placed in a "used" bucket. There were equal numbers of each letter in the original bucket but not all were picked.
I agree that 10 groups is too many because you have to wait so long between rounds.
Not sure how you control for not knowing how many people will attend.

A slight modification, as I mentioned ... only have ONE card per group. So once someone picks "A", that "A" card goes into the used bucket. (ie, only 10 cards in bucket if it's A-J) This ensures every letter is picked with equal frequency. Then also write down how many times the buckets were swapped, this tells you how many people per group, and from there decide on the time.

4 minutes for the FIRST round is fine, then drop it to 2 minute all subsequent rounds.

As mentioned, a pad of paper with the letters written on them is a fine low tech substitute for a broken projector.

As I mentioned, it might be fun, during the swap, to have people come on stage and show pics of their tanks and give a brief description. Maybe show what equipment they used, etc. Just as a time filler between picks to keep up the "energy" of the swap.
 
- Remember the spirit of the swap is that we want to share (and thus "back up") our corals with each other, and of course to get a piece of something you don't have. The idea of "ultra" frags is understandable, but what makes them "ultra rare?" is it that they are extra beautiful AND hard to keep? Well consider that Bubble Tip Rose Anemones were once so hard to keep (and beautiful) that a single specimen would sell for around $200. But as time went on, some hardier specimens were introduced, that cloned well... I have one and have brought MANY of them to the swaps.
So .. it is no longer "ultra". If there was some "Nuclear Sunburst Acan" that everyone covets as "ultra", it's probably because when it was first discovered and harvested for hobbiests, each tiny frag was $100, so OF COURSE we consider it rare and ultra. But as time goes on and as frags are shared, it is less "ultra rare".... isn't this part of the goal of the swap? So that we can share beautiful pieces with each other and help the frags stay in the community? Like I've said before, I love GSP, it's colorful and looks so very cool ... but it's banned because it's so hardy and every one has them. Ditto with devil's hand and toadstools....common because they are hardy and almost everyone has them, but they are nice! Frogspawn and torch corals are great, but "common".

BUT ... who determines what's banned and what's ultra rare? and why are there rules for them at the swap? I think all frags should be welcomed...and to some extent I think ultra should be less ultra BUT I totally understand that if you paid $100 for a cool zoa colony, you want to swap polyps for other $100 frags... I get that.
So maybe there SHOULD be a ultra rare frag table ... but I suggest that maybe the ultra rare table be it's own side-swap... So along with the regular swapping, the few ultra bringers can simply gather at another table, put their frags down and just swap them among themselves if they want. OR they can put their frag into the common swap.

I'm just sort of against the idea that "These 10 people get to pick 5 times first because they brought five frags of Nuclear Sunburst Acans each". I'd much rather have those 10 people, if they want, swap their rare corals among themselves, but then for the common pool of frags, they simply take their place in their groups like everyone else.

- As for groups. I think the numbers can be spread out better with a less random group picking.
Currently, you show up, put your hand in a bucket and pick a group. That's great except ... you put the letter back into the bucket. A simple method to get a more uniform distribution is what we call a "greedy algorithm" in programming. After someone picks a letter from bucket A, they place the USED letter into bucket B. People pick from bucket A until it's empty, then they pick from bucket B and discard the consumed letter into bucket A, repeat. This way at the end, there is a uniform distribution of people in each group with only a few groups with at most one extra person.


V
I don't understand the rational for separating ultra corals? How is that different from those people picking first aside from everyone else not having a chance to get those corals after?
 
Yeah i know exactly what youre talking about. They had those type of raffle tickets at Reef-a-palooza and NVR. I can ask their president where they got em.
Arnold gave me a sample of them I am planning on sharing w the rest of the BOD next time we meet. We do have plenty of old tickets to work through still though...
 
Ive been studying the decrease in forum activity here, on nvr, chico reef club, cvr. Forum activity is going downhill across all clubs with a shift towards social media facebook groups and reef2reef. Some clubs showing massive membership/event declines.

Ive considered closing down this website and shifting us to a local club subforum on Reef2Reef but they dont have the option for admins to create subforums within the subforum.

Its tricky. We're managing a club and a forum and theyre both connected right now.
Interesting. Never heard this idea from you? I am not for shutting down this forum, why would we do that? Anybody that likes to debate these types of topics should come to the next BOD meeting. Time and location will be posted soon so stay tuned!
 
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