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
April's Entries - And Results.
- JohnH (John)
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Entry #01
Entry #02
Entry #03
Entry #04
Entry #05
Entry #06
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- JohnH (John)
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Location:
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- JohnH (John)
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Entry #14
Entry #15
Entry #16
Entry #17
Entry #18
Usual terms and conditions apply - here's a 'copy-and-paste' from an earlier round:
Above are the entries you are being asked to vote on.
As before, please cast your (three) vote(s) for those in preference - in other words please vote - entry number - order of preference (with #1 being your favourite, #2 being your second favourite and - you'll never guess...#3 your third favourite). In other words #1 gets three points, #2, 2 points and =3 one point.
Look them through, make your choices then send them to
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before midnight on Sunday.
Please add your Forum user name to help the process run smoothly. I think that's about it, oh no - a reminder that you may not vote for your own entry.
But do please vote, if we only receive a handful of votes the final result is not really an accurate representation of the Forum membership.
To a small degree I can see why some competitors do not vote - but if everybody votes the poll rather evens itself out and becomes a more equal reflection overall.
Thanks again to the prize donors for this month's round.
John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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- JohnH (John)
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Voting closes midnight Sunday.
John
Location:
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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- JohnH (John)
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Anyway, the final tally was as follows:
First place was a dead heat between photos 3
and 17
Third place was also a dead heat between photos 11
and 13
Fifth was photo 10, Sixth #9, Seventh #12 and Eighth #9.
Congratulations, therefore, go to the members who submitted the entries above.
As to the prizes #3 was from Bill, 17 was from someone who only enters for the fun of it and has told me they don't wish to figure in the prize list so, therefore, it's a bit of a 'toss-up' between Craig fishmad and Jonlate as to who the other prize is given to.
Since Bill is donating the portion of glassworms I rather suspect he'll plump for the Catappa leaves from Ger so if I'm right in this assumption it will be up to Craig fishmad and Jonlate to work out between themselves who will be the recipient of Bill's food treat.
I think it's pretty safe to accept that having this round wasn't exactly the unqualified success we might have hoped for - perhaps because of a lack of a 'Donated' prize from a Sponsor? But the thing is we cannot expect Sponsors to give us prizes for such poorly-supported competitions.
The temptation is to put them back onto the proverbial 'long finger' but in fairness to those who do enter (and vote) in each round we hold I think it should be thrown open for discussion, as I've said on previous occasions, I'm quite prepared to continue running them - question is: do you want them to continue without Sponsors' donations?
John
Location:
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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- Jonlate (Jon Late)
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It hardly very difficult, snap a photo and email it to you!
Anyway, I think it's quite good fun, it means those 100s of photos I have on my phone were taken for some reason.
I am quite happy for Craig to take Bills glassworms, unless he doesn't want them, or Bill can send out two lots.
Thanks again for putting this together.
Let's hope we do it again in a few months time.
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- JohnH (John)
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Do Members want a (short) round for May? One can be started now...
John
Location:
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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- robert (robert carter)
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- Bill (Bill Hunter)
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Anyway, I'm not so sure missing May will help. We gave it a rest for January, February and March and it didn't help. However, having said that, I'm still very willing to offer a prize each month, including May. Live food, maybe on occasion a couple of young fish if available, or whatever, P&P free.
Why do I do this? Simply because I like to help encourage people to come into the hobby and stay in. Once they are in I like to see them widen their interests within the hobby. There's nothing else in it for me except loads of fun and seeing what others are doing/keeping/breeding. The competition is actually an opportunity to spread and receive knowledge in the hobby.
Question: How many minutes in a 30-day-month?
Answer: 43,200 minutes
Question: How many of those minutes does it take to enter and vote in the comps?
Answer: 7 - 10 minutes
OK. I know that only leaves us with 43,190min - 43,193mins to do other things each month, but...
I will pass on taking a prize, I have loads of Catappa leaves and I also use Beach leaves etc. So I'll let Jonlate and Craig choose which they want. Drop me a PM with address and I'll post the live glass worm when my fresh batch arrives next Tuesday/Wednesday (16th/17th).
Bill
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- robert (robert carter)
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- iain54 (Iain Minchin)
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