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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

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15 Feb 2011 01:34 #1 by joey (joe watson)
after seeing a few old topics brought back to life for basically no reason (well, no reason i can post without getting wrists slapped) its got me thinking if there is a way/it is plausable to have an auto-lock on old threads/dead topics to keep them dead? and if someone has really useful input to an old and unanswered topic they can contact admin/mods to unlock it or submit a reply through admin/mods for approval before said dead topic is revived and added to?? if you follow my waffle...

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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15 Feb 2011 01:45 #2 by andrewo (andrew)
Replied by andrewo (andrew) on topic Re: automatic lock
Its a noble idea Joey. I think tho the threads were brought up with an agenda.....I might be wrong; need to check with John :laugh:

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15 Feb 2011 10:33 #3 by DJK (David Kinsella)
I see where you're coming from Joey but 99.9% of the time old posts being 'dug up' causes no problems
whatsoever from my experience.

If for example a poster wanted to update the development of his/her tank after a gap of say 3 months and that he/she would then have to get permission from admin, may just put them off due to the hassle involved.

I wouldn't get too bothered from the recent rare incidents and quote.

I've 'lurked' around the forum recently and i'm looking forward to utilizing and perhaps humbly contributing to the wealth of knowlage here on the forum.


Dave

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15 Feb 2011 11:27 #4 by dar (darren curry)
i'm a fan of the older posts, it is nice to see them dragged up now and then especially when there is not much new activity. and i think if you have a lets say ich related question (i know how much people hate seeing them) search for an older related thread and if you have any questions keep that thread alive by posting on that thread

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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15 Feb 2011 12:13 #5 by joey (joe watson)
fair enough, i guess ye are right about the hassle involved unlocking topics.
and i never thought about the progress update dave (even though i'll be doing this myself over time)

yes andrew it does look like there's an agenda behind digging up old posts. my guess is the acrchives weren't searched but a problem was googled and that thread came up as a hit.

personally i hate old topics being resurrected (not including the tank updates), you think its all finished and answered and done to death, then someone digs it with a pointless or already-posted-just-worded-differently post. or to take a stab at someone. old topics, IMO, are old because they have been fully answered or the problem/issue/reason for posting has been fixed/elapsed so they are very useful as reference, and we should otherwise let sleeping dogs lie

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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15 Feb 2011 18:01 #6 by andrewo (andrew)
Replied by andrewo (andrew) on topic Re: automatic lock
another thing that we can look into is thread merging maybe? this way the few topics (that i remember) like ich treatment; shall we UV or not: are juwel internal filters good (ahem) CAN all be merged making this forum less complicated and more user friendly. Although this suggestion does require a bit of work though. Just my 2 cents :)

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15 Feb 2011 19:39 - 15 Feb 2011 19:45 #7 by Puddlefish (Colin McCourt)
I see no reason why old topics shouldn't be brought to life every once in a while. A much better scenario would be to move the better ones to the article section whereby they can be referenced time and time again.
I, like others before me, have written many a good article on various topical matter only to see them plunge to the murky depths and probably never see the light of day again but for being resurrected every now and then.
I am still waiting for them (my posts) to be moved to the article section so as they can be enjoyed and utilised by one and all instead of being lost in the quagmire. The longer this practice goes on then the more information will be lost.
Maybe John could move some of them.
Regards
C
Last edit: 15 Feb 2011 19:45 by Puddlefish (Colin McCourt).

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16 Feb 2011 00:48 #8 by joey (joe watson)
aye but its alot of work for john (i think he might be none too pleased with me causing him more work now) so instead of the onus being on him to go thru it, there should be a way that threads can be nominated for conversion to an article, same as merging threads for their usefulness and to stop limitless repetition but again we should all have our input it is a community after all, and nobody should expect 1 person to do all the work he should just be the "fixer" not necessarily the "finder"

i really dont envy his job...

but after reading ye'rs opinions, surely it could be good to have any replys to threads over x months old to go thru a proofing stage basically to stop repeats of recent events and also to stop alot of pointless posts, so it is therefore up to admin/mods to deem reply's useful to the topic or not

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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16 Feb 2011 18:18 - 16 Feb 2011 18:26 #9 by Puddlefish (Colin McCourt)
I do see your logic but to be honest there is a lot of good work dropping off the page, items that should be moved to the Articles section for reference. Otherwise any person coming along behind (newbies) will not be able to source this relevant information unless they perform a search (they may never even know it's there) from experience, being a mod on a large forum, these search facilities don't always work or perform as they should.
John will not be, or shouldn't be, the only active moderator on here, so there are in all likelihood a selection of folks that have the authority to be sorting things out....otherwise and if the situation predicts then the powers that be should be looking to co-opt new moderators or help teams to collectively deal with the tasks in hand.
Regards
C
Last edit: 16 Feb 2011 18:26 by Puddlefish (Colin McCourt).

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16 Feb 2011 19:19 #10 by joey (joe watson)
exactly, and as a community we can all pitch in by recommending and even voting on topics that can be held as an article and save alot of keyboard and search work for whomever has the power to do what is needed

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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