Jump to content

Survey time – What do we do with the classifieds?


NoGi

What do we do with the classifieds section?  

20 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you agree or disagree

    • Yes - Remove the for sale sections and keep the rest
      5
    • No - Don't change anything
      15


Recommended Posts

As most are aware, this is something I have been struggling with for a long time now. But one thing is for sure and the classifieds section can’t continue the way it is. Some points to note:

  • The classifieds section is pretty much dead – traffic to that part of the forum confirms it
  • Facebook is where people like to trade now
  • Issues that come up as a result of a sale are extremely taxing and frustrating on the staff here and negates any motivation to keep the classifieds

What I propose is this:

  • Removal of for sale section(s)
  • Keep Free/Giveaway – restricted to subscription members only
  • Keep Wanted to Buy – open to all

Combined with the trader feedback system and the WTB section, members should still be able to work out who they can/should trade with. But we are essentially removing SKF Aquatics from the equation. This ensures that we remain a content driven forum rather than a marketplace driven one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From my experience Facebook is pretty much dead when it comes to shrimp sales, it's like a bargain basement clearance house & most pages now seem to sell more buce than shrimp.

 

Some people sell rubbish quality shrimp without stating the grades & sell them for really low prices which makes others think that must be the standard price for that shrimp. I'm very proud of my yellow cherry shrimp but finding buyers is not always easy - I recently needed to move juveniles because I had way too many & I struggled to sell them off at $4ea (when they're normally $8ea for med/high grade) I don't sell my culls because they shouldn't be in the marketplace - I want people to have nice shrimp, not spend 2 years refining and improving them like I had to. I ended up selling to a good LFS who then resold them for $15ea

 

There needs to be a place where sellers can build up a reputation (like eBay feedback) and where people can go to buy decent quality shrimp from reputable breeders. The administration needs to set up rules that they are not responsible for sales & that those issues should be brought up with the seller directly. There are always buyers out there who shouldn't buy shrimp because their tanks are not ready or suitable for the shrimp they are buying - I don't like selling to people without asking a lot of questions to ensure I'm not sending my shrimp to their deaths. I'm always happy to share my parameters and help people who want to get into keeping shrimp - sadly there are some sellers who don't care about the shrimp they send out or sharing their hints & tips, some breeders treat sales like a competitive arena and keep essential information close to their chests. Some treat shrimp like a cash cow & others like myself aren't in it for the money - I'm a passionate hobbiest who enjoys sharing the hobby - I'm not a shrimp business looking to cash in & rip people off.

 

I was hopeful that this forum would be a better place to offer shrimp for sale - because the members here have access to all the forums and information needed to have a happy healthy shrimp keeping experience - not a nightmare of deaths & disappointment.

 

I would vote for the classified/for sale section be kept & breeders encouraged to offer decent quality healthy shrimp advertised accurately & honestly. If you're selling culls then list them as such. I like that you make potential sellers upgrade their membership to be able to sell on here - because it should help the quality of sellers & support the forum financially at the same time (++ bonus!).

 

This is a great forum & the opportunity should exist for buyers to have somewhere to buy decent shrimp direct from the breeders.

 

That's just my 2 cents worth.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, that's a long message to type on your iPhone but thanks for taking the time to do so. Don't forget to actually vote on the poll. There was an issue that popped up on a different FB group last night which I was following, it reminded me of the headaches you have to deal with when deals go south and you get pulled in to play piggy in the middle.

The last issue I had to deal with took up a good part of a week. That's a week I don't generally have and a week that takes me away from building better things here to improve the quality of information to get out into the hobby.

That said, I've always valued the feedback here by the members hence why I am polling rather than just making an executive decision.?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When something starts to become a problem for the moderators then remove it. The last thing we want is moderator burn out and then a neglected site.

If you follow the forum and read the posts then it dosent take long to work out who has what and where they live. If you want to buy some new ones or get some genetic diversity then a direct PM is not that hard to do. 

Is it against the rules to include a note that you are willing to sell in a Post? PM's between members then exclude the moderators involvement.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Madmerv said:

Is it against the rules to include a note that you are willing to sell in a Post? PM's between members then exclude the moderators involvement.

We try and keep sales out of topics otherwise you end up with for sales topics all over the place. I could work something out, maybe create some self awardable awards for subscription members that flags them as a breeder/seller.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I see what you are saying although i was thinking more along the lines of @VickiH thoughts. She dosent want to sell to inexperienced shrimpers but she does sell them every once in a while. In her post on the Yellows earlier only those people that were interested in them read it. If she had a line at the bottom that she does sell them and was contacted by a person that read the post, well at least she knows they are reading up on what they need to keep them and they are not just time wasters.

I was not thinking that for sale topic posts be allowed to spring up in the different sections.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rather than in the post, what about in the signature?

E.g.

If you are interested in aquiring the yellow cherries in my topic <link>  drop me a PM

or something along those lines. 

Have a requirement that in order to be allowed to place in the signature, a topic must exist showing the colony, tank setup etc...

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/14/2017 at 1:16 PM, NoGi said:

Rather than in the post, what about in the signature?

E.g.

If you are interested in aquiring the yellow cherries in my topic <link>  drop me a PM

or something along those lines. 

Have a requirement that in order to be allowed to place in the signature, a topic must exist showing the colony, tank setup etc...

I think that's a decent idea @NoGi

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it seems that most want to retain the for-sale forum?

Interesting given that the that part of the forum is usually fairly quiet. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it seems that most want to retain the for-sale forum?

Interesting given that the that part of the forum is usually fairly quiet. 

 

I imagine some people are put off by the fact you have to pay (a very small amount IMHO) to upgrade membership - it's sad that some people are so cheap they don't want to outlay to make sales - it's standard business practice to pay to advertise products. So even as a hobbiest it's a good opportunity to financially support (with a small outlay) a great helpful forum as well as having access to interested buyers. I can understand that attitude from kids - but adults should understand that things in life cost money - eBay takes 10% of every sale, newspaper classifieds cost money to post a for sale item, other websites like car sales charge to list your car. The reality is if you want exposure & sales then it normally costs money.

 

Perhaps your suggestion above that people show the entire colony in a separate thread and then can advertise for sale items without premium membership.

 

I'll be upgrading my membership and advertising my yellow cherry shrimp in the next few days.

 

:)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/20/2017 at 9:52 PM, VickiH said:

I imagine some people are put off by the fact you have to pay (a very small amount IMHO) to upgrade membership

Unfortunately, that's the society we live in these days. Everything for nothing. Perhaps people don't realise that 100% of any funds generated here go back into the running of the site. Without the support of our sponsors the site would have shut down years ago.

What I struggle to understand is that we have a majority vote to keep the forsale forum but hardly anyone wanting to actually use it? If it wasn't clear before, the poll is about the sale sub forum only, the wanted to buy would still exist. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • NoGi unpinned this topic

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...