Hey Blane, I just did a search on your name after a few people asked me whats up with your posts. Out of 12 (of 13) that showed up 10 were selling or promoting something. I really dont mean to be the heavy here but this is a users board that has several paying sponsers and its really not fair to the sponsors or the members. If you had a bunch of posts that contributed to the flow of the board and had 10 " for sale" posts it could be over looked but this is really pushing the limits of fairness

 

Doug,

As an infrequent poster to this board and also someone who posts things for sale periodically I typically post to several boards when something exciting happens (new tank, baby banggai's etc.) and I also post to several boards when trying to sell something. I feel that gives me an opportunity to sell the item quickly for a fair price and that gives all the members of all the boards an opportunity to purchase the item.

Most boards have a separate classified section for this. I know that in the past to boost useage you guys combined all the forums into one and eliminated some of the other forums. The way it sits now you still have "We will also take your trade/Want-To-Buy/Sell items here as well." listed under the general discussion forum.

If you don't want this type of post in the general forum you might want to break out the classified forum again.

FWIW, Nathan

BTW, Blane - what are the input and output on the heater (i.e. 1" NPT or what?)

 

I think what Doug meant by his reply was that blaneperun hasn't been posting much except to sell items. Instead of posting questions or answers to other peoples questions, the majority of his posts are to sell things. It would appear from the history of his posts that he is using this board as the classifieds rather than as a community to help hobbyists.

 

I think the main issue is that Blane is not just a regular hobbiest who occasionally needs to unload some used equipment out of his garage. He runs a coral farm and sells captive bred corals to aquarists. We never see posts from other online vendors advertising their products for sale. We have several vendors here who contribute lots of great information. The only advertising we see from them are in the banners, or a small line in their signature. I don't have a problem with someone posting a few items for sale. My problem is that Blane is obviously successfull at propogating corals. That means he must have a lot of knowledge. It only seems fair that he share his knowledge with us when we have problems or questions.

JMO,
Andrew

 

So maybe we need to add the "No commerical posts allowed" to the "We tank Buy/Sell/Trade" blurb? I see that you are saying that his is more of a commerical operation rather than a hobbyist and other commerial people are sponsoring the forum rather than just using it to sell their stuff.

Right? Nathan

 

blane

actually guys i work in IT sales near Pgh. I am heavy into the hobby and am building a coral farm. If you would visit my site you will see my main focus is not sales. I am not pushing corals down anyone's throat or selling products, In fact I have an .org status, and would not be able to use content from NASA JSC, Vernon, Weather Channel and so forth if I had not proved my intent was not to educate. The site may have led you to believe it's a business and I have worked over the months trying to make it more personal and less commercial.

If you search this board as of late, I have made offerings with regards to advice, as well as on the other boards. I will gladly remove the post, stop posting for sale items to the board, or more the post to a classifieds section if someone would like me to do that.

I hope in the future you can drop me a line if you have any questions or visit the site before you make a judgment.

thanks blane

 

Hi Blane. Thanks for the response. I have been to your web site several times and I admire your work towards raising tank raised corals. As I said before, I would just like to see you be more active in helping the members when they have problems with their corals. You would not be able to start your coral farm without a lot of knowledge about coral care. We would love to see you pass on your knowledge. I don't have a problem with you posting used items for sale here. I would just like to see you participate a little more in addition to your sales. You could be a great resource for us. I am not an administrator or moderator of this board, so they have the final word, but I welcome anyone who will provide good information (along with the new reefers who want good information). Good luck with your coral farm. BTW, I was just browsing through your site and none of the hardware pages loaded. I figured you would want to know.

Andrew

 

oh...by the way...

a ".org" designation (or a non-profit organization) does NOT mean you don't make money on the deal, as a lot of people may think. all it means is that on the books, financially speaking, you don't show a profit, but that doesn't mean individuals involved in the organization aren't making large sums of money. for instance, reference the general accounting equation:

inputs+generation = outputs+consumption

so, any money obtained by donations or generated by a "non-profit" organization can be disposed of by either outputs OR consumption (i.e.-salaries). any excess money can be "used" by the CONSUMPTION part of the equation, resulting in a ZERO profit margin. the whole point of this being, of course, that just because your organization carries a "non-profit" tag does NOT mean you don't make TONS of money on stuff like this. this bulletin board is BY FAR the best i have ever seen, so DON'T ruin it by taking advantage of the nice, intelligent, informative people here! there are other CRAPPY boards out there (like the one on saltwaterfish.com) that you can try to use to your advantage. i find it personally offensive that you would try something like this on a community of people that are truly dedicated to advancing the art of reefkeeping and NOT interested in personal gains or recognition.

 

Blane I think Asmith summed it up very well, no one is doubting your accomplishments or dedication and propigating is an essential part of the hobby but!!!!!!!!! Like I said I searched and 12 of 13 hits were selling something. Percentage wise you get the idea. Please dont misunderstand me, there are other people on here that engage in commerce but they generally throw in a little advice from time to time. I apologise I should have sent an email regarding this matter, I really dont wish to make a big deal of it>
Nathan, I dont mean to get down on anyone, and I remeber when , way back. Granted you arent one of the board burners but your opinion is still valued
I just wanted to address a concern that I had from several members of the board, believe it or not this is a democracy(mostly)

 

Blane:

How soon can you get that Fire Plug heater in the mail? 253-761-1576 Rich--Seven koi are coming in from Hawaii next week to a 1000 gallon garage tank in Tacoma.

Thanks

 

It's off to the classifieds for you

 

The threaD is almost 10 years old... I'm guessing it is sold now :lol:

 

amazing how a thread 10 years old can turn up again. As I was reading it I thought, wait there is a General classifieds form here.