New forum name

[NoGi]

A forum staying relevant in today’s connected world is no easy task as we are competing against platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and whatever comes next. Doing this by specialising on only one aspect of the hobby is even more of a difficult task. This is why a number of dedicated shrimp and speciality fish forums have become inactive or gone altogether over the past 12-18 months. Despite this, the forums that have taken a balanced approach to general aquatic topics have continued to thrive.

Here at SKF, we stand at the precipice of what comes next. We can put our blinkers on and deny the trends around us and risk cyber extinction or we can embrace the change and continue moving forward. I understand that many of you don’t like change but the reality is that we must move forward in order to survive the next wave of threats to forums like us.

So what’s changing? We are going to rebrand ourselves so that we appeal to all parts of the aquatic hobby. We are going to be different to other all-purpose sites by sticking to our roots and keeping the shrimp stuff first and foremost. For our diehard SKF fans, the shrimp keeper’s URL will remain and point to the shrimp section of the new forum. So for you, not much will probably change and the forum will continue to remain synonymous with shrimp keeping.

This is not a decision I take lightly but as the ship’s captain it’s my duty to ensure I steer us in the direction that enables us to remain viable and strong as we are here for the long run. As Albert Einstein once said:

Quote

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

Please take the time and vote on the name(s) you like in the poll.

[NoGi]

Oooops, just fixed up the poll to allow multi-vote

[inverted]

I see where your going..... why choose this forum over aquariumlife for example?

 

[NoGi]

11 minutes ago, inverted said:

 

I see where your going..... why choose this forum over aquariumlife for example?

 

I am not looking to compete against them, I am wanting us to be the #1 alternative. Why choose us over AL, well because our specialty is in keeping and breeding inverts.

[inverted]

What other catergories are you thinking of adding?

 

[NoGi]

3 minutes ago, inverted said:

What other catergories are you thinking of adding?

This first part is about branding the site to appeal to a wider audience, which in itself will be a great thing for the sponsors that support the site as well.

Once we have established our new identity we can look at seeing what else to add in terms of categories. That said, if something new needs to be added now, ask away.

[revolutionhope]

I have mixed feelings about this but appreciate why you've made the call Nogi.

I'd like to say that insideaquariums.com is the clear winner for me given it has "in" at the start of it as in invertebrates :-)

[NoGi]

At the end of the day shrimpkeepersforum.com will still point to the forum [emoji3]

We just won't actively promote it as SKF. The new site URL will be the main one we put on our artwork.

Going with a more aquatic name also aligns with a few other things I have in motion for the benefit of our community and hobby.

[zn30]

11 hours ago, revolutionhope said:

I'd like to say that insideaquariums.com is the clear winner for me given it has "in" at the start of it as in invertebrates :-)

Ditto, also to break it down insIDEAquariums everyone has an idea to hopefully help others in all aquarium related issues. 

[Grubs]

13 hours ago, NoGi said:

I am not looking to compete against them, I am wanting us to be the #1 alternative. Why choose us over AL, well because our specialty is in keeping and breeding inverts.

For me it would be nice if the branding reflected that specialty somehow - the currently tabled options are very generic.

Edited August 17, 2016 by Grubs

[NoGi]

Just now, Grubs said:

For me it would be nice if the branding reflected that specialty somehow - the currently tabled options are very generic.

The new logo would feature the shrimp up front more than the others. Speaking of which, we still happy to keep using a CRS or should we use something else?

[Grubs]

 I'd like a plain red coloured shrimp so that:

• The aficionados will think its a fancy Wine Red
• The beginners will think its a Red Cherry
• The native enthusiasts will think its a red Paratya australiensis

Something for everyone!  :p

..and a snail.. a spiny marsh snail behind the shrimp,

.. and a spider crab in the back corner

 

...but yes I think the CRS is OK as its clearly recognizable. :D

[Clansman]

I read the reason why time for new direction and name change but while I agree it's a needed change I don't like any of the 4 names for me the name should still include the word shrimp, IE Aquarium fish and shrimp fanciers , 

[NoGi]

5 minutes ago, Clansman said:

I read the reason why time for new direction and name change but while I agree it's a needed change I don't like any of the 4 names for me the name should still include the word shrimp, IE Aquarium fish and shrimp fanciers , 

The name would be too much of a mouthful as you also have snails and crabs that are very popular too. The description and what gets indexed by search engines would definitely contain all those words so would still be easy to find.

e.g. The Aquarium Keepers Forum home of the fish, shrimp, snail, blah blah fanciers… etc…

The list of names is limited due to domain squatters grabbing the short and easy names and then trying to extort $4k+ to buy them, versus finding a name they haven’t squatted and paying $16. I do have a few more names I could add to the poll if there is enough interest.

[NoGi]

Looks  like Aquarium Keepers Forum is in the lead so far.

[uslanja]

I am new here so my opinion does not mean much............. my new hobby is keeping shrimp and when I searched the web I querried "shrimp keeping" and steered clear of the other aquarium sites.  Just saying that is how I found my way here.  However, when running a web site you must do what is necessary. I will abstain from voting because I just joined and will leave it to the other members.  Good luck in choosing a new brand and looking forward to new growth.

Dave

[NoGi]

All opinions matter [emoji3]

As I am not removing the current domain and we have pretty good indexing you would still find the site and SKF name even after the rebranding.

[Baccus]

I can well understand the need to revitalise and attract more members in todays online world, but I have a bit of an issue with making the new name too generic, ideally I believe the name should still hold to its roots which was shrimp. The other reason I think that SHRIMP and AUSTRALIA (or Australasia)  needs to be in the name somewhere is because otherwise we will be attracting (potentially) a lot of people from overseas who do not have the same invert/moss/ plant/ fish restrictions that we do. Believe me as a MOD on another international forum it gets very tiresome having to explain over and over again that in Australia we can not just go buy some assassin snails to clear up pest snails. And that is just one instance, then there are the people that can not believe some of the extreme prices we can end up paying for certain creatures/ plants in the hobby and can not figure out that what is common in their country is probably down right rare here, and with more things being added to the banned import list going to get rarer.

Also being too generic the site could end up with people wanting Aquatic Frogs sections for species such as African Clawed Frogs, or Newts and Salamanders. Although I could see merit in having a section for aquatic amphibians and reptiles we can keep, I see it as a bad idea if we had lots of people asking about ACF and we have to keep redirecting them to other sites better suited to them.

At least with a name like Australasian Invert Keepers people in this general part of the world looking for Invert forums should be able to find the site easily. The site can always add more topic areas for the planted, fish, and even photography followers of the forum.

[revolutionhope]

I can well understand the need to revitalise and attract more members in todays online world, but I have a bit of an issue with making the new name too generic, ideally I believe the name should still hold to its roots which was shrimp. The other reason I think that SHRIMP and AUSTRALIA (or Australasia)  needs to be in the name somewhere is because otherwise we will be attracting (potentially) a lot of people from overseas who do not have the same invert/moss/ plant/ fish restrictions that we do. Believe me as a MOD on another international forum it gets very tiresome having to explain over and over again that in Australia we can not just go buy some assassin snails to clear up pest snails. And that is just one instance, then there are the people that can not believe some of the extreme prices we can end up paying for certain creatures/ plants in the hobby and can not figure out that what is common in their country is probably down right rare here, and with more things being added to the banned import list going to get rarer.

Also being too generic the site could end up with people wanting Aquatic Frogs sections for species such as African Clawed Frogs, or Newts and Salamanders. Although I could see merit in having a section for aquatic amphibians and reptiles we can keep, I see it as a bad idea if we had lots of people asking about ACF and we have to keep redirecting them to other sites better suited to them.

At least with a name like Australasian Invert Keepers people in this general part of the world looking for Invert forums should be able to find the site easily. The site can always add more topic areas for the planted, fish, and even photography followers of the forum.

What he said ...

[zn30]

2 hours ago, revolutionhope said:

What he said ...

 

Yep, I second that.

understand your not looking for more names however ...........................

Australasian Inverted Aquariums

Inverted Aquarium

All Australian Aquariums

Worldclassaquariums

Sorry couldn't help myself ?

[NoGi]

4 hours ago, Baccus said:

I can well understand the need to revitalise and attract more members in todays online world, but I have a bit of an issue with making the new name too generic, ideally I believe the name should still hold to its roots which was shrimp.

It's the forums that have generic names that are outperforming the specific ones. That's part of what's driving this change, I can see a lot of analytics in the backend around what people are searching for and what drives organic growth on the site and it isn't specific to just shrimp.

4 hours ago, Baccus said:

The other reason I think that SHRIMP and AUSTRALIA (or Australasia)  needs to be in the name somewhere is because otherwise we will be attracting (potentially) a lot of people from overseas who do not have the same invert/moss/ plant/ fish restrictions that we do.

See above, this is intentional based on current traffic flow into the site, that and we've been a global shrimp forum for some time now. We dropped the Australian in the description a while back but we are the only global site that has a strong focus on Australian natives which won't be changing.

4 hours ago, Baccus said:

Also being too generic the site could end up with people wanting Aquatic Frogs sections for species such as African Clawed Frogs, or Newts and Salamanders.

A great point and this would be a valid concern and something we would need to monitor closely to see if it would become an issue for us.

4 hours ago, Baccus said:

At least with a name like Australasian Invert Keepers people in this general part of the world looking for Invert forums should be able to find the site easily.

Don't forget that www.shrimpkeepersforum.com will still be active and point to the shrimp section of the new site. People would still find it easily. With the change, I am not turning off the existing domain, rather pointing it to the core shrimp area of the site.

1 hour ago, zn30 said:

Yep, I second that.

understand your not looking for more names however ...........................

Australasian Inverted Aquariums

Inverted Aquarium

All Australian Aquariums

Worldclassaquariums

Sorry couldn't help myself

lol, this was my full list:

• thefriendlytank.com
• thefriendlyaquarium.com
• aquariumcreatures.com
• aquariumtopia.com
• aquaticmates.com
• fishtankers.com
• insidetank.com
• tankinsider.com
• insideaquarium.com
• everythingfishtank.com
• glasscastleaquatics.com
• natureintanks.com
• talkaquariums.com
• theaquariumenthusiast.com
• aquariumdevotees.com
• theaquariumfanatic.com
• aquariumkeepersforum.com
• theaquariumforum.com

[NoGi]

It's not live yet but by the morning, if you go to http://invertkeepers.com/ you'll see what I mean about the shrimpkeepersforum.com url still working after the change. The invert keepers url should (if I've set it up right) take you to http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/forum/79-shrimp-keepers.

[Odin]

fishtankers.com is short, snappy and very nice. id pick that one.

[NoGi]

Still open to ideas guys, happy to run another poll if another suitable name comes in the mix.

[zn30]

10 hours ago, NoGi said:

It's not live yet but by the morning, if you go to http://invertkeepers.com/ you'll see what I mean about the shrimpkeepersforum.com url still working after the change. The invert keepers url should (if I've set it up right) take you to http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/forum/79-shrimp-keepers.

Works, well done @NoGi