No action in saltwater ?? And classifieds

[bandit]

I used to be an admin for a car forum in ottawa and things were great, then they insisted on charging members $10 fee to post in the classifieds, a group o members left and started there own forum with free classifieds and relied only on sponsors and donations. The flourished and our site ended up closing.

With all the sponsors on here it's hard to believe they need to have a $20 fee for members. 

Another site I'm on has free classifieds and a $10 member donation fee you get a gift with your fee and the gift chages from stickersd to a t shirt to sweater ect.. pending on your donation. the member fee allows you to enter a member only discussion, and they do monthly contests with prices donated from sponsors. This makes it fun.  It also gives you a large pm box the ability to have a nice avatar ect.. For example non members can ave 10 Pm's supporting get 250. 

By doing this it allows new members to post thing for sale and once they start get replys there box gets full, forcing them to upgrade

Free classifieds brings people to he site then once there here they start surfing around..

[fish]

Maybe collapsing all saltwater discussion into a single forum might help stimulate a bit more activity. I really only come here to see what the sponsors are selling these days. That big US centric Site has has alot more action and diversity and costs nothing to post to classifieds and you don't have to go through a bunch of stuff at the front end of the site to get anywhere (as far as I can tell this is the only forum in the world like that). I see more Canadians there than I see here, including some of the members here (you know who you are).

I visit the LFS fairly regularly. There are more people in the store on any given visit than on this forum on any given time. They must be out there.

I used to be active on Aquaria Canada and I find it hard to believe that there are that many fewer salties in Ottawa than there was 6years ago. That site, in its heyday was something to look forward to each day.

I don't visit often or post here because a) I find the policies of this forum to be a bit draconian and b) I don't feel like spending my time digging through multiple forums to find anything new. I would love to be part of a good local forum again.

I realize I sound like a jerk but I am just trying to offer a perspective of someone in Ottawa who is actively engaged in the hobby but tuned out of this forum. Feel free to ignore me:-)

[bandit]

Maybe collapsing all saltwater discussion into a single forum might help stimulate a bit more activity. I really only come here to see what the sponsors are selling these days. That big US centric Site has has alot more action and diversity and costs nothing to post to classifieds and you don't have to go through a bunch of stuff at the front end of the site to get anywhere (as far as I can tell this is the only forum in the world like that). I see more Canadians there than I see here, including some of the members here (you know who you are).

I visit the LFS fairly regularly. There are more people in the store on any given visit than on this forum on any given time. They must be out there.

I used to be active on Aquaria Canada and I find it hard to believe that there are that many fewer salties in Ottawa than there was 6years ago. That site, in its heyday was something to look forward to each day.

I don't visit often or post here because a) I find the policies of this forum to be a bit draconian and b) I don't feel like spending my time digging through multiple forums to find anything new. I would love to be part of a good local forum again.

I realize I sound like a jerk but I am just trying to offer a perspective of someone in Ottawa who is actively engaged in the hobby but tuned out of this forum. Feel free to ignore me:-)

Well said god it's annoying to have go through the 3 steps to get on its like filling out government forms lol

[Greatwhite]

Well said god it's annoying to have go through the 3 steps to get on its like filling out government forms lol

3 steps? I made a bookmark to the forum, and I have it set to auto log me on.  I click my link and am even scrolled down to the salt section.  *shrug*

[Darth]

3 steps? I made a bookmark to the forum, and I have it set to auto log me on.  I click my link and am even scrolled down to the salt section.  *shrug*

I agree the first time u come its very redundant but afterwards wards I just set my favs as www.ovas.ca/forum

[Katcouti]

I used to be an admin for a car forum in ottawa and things were great, then they insisted on charging members $10 fee to post in the classifieds, a group o members left and started there own forum with free classifieds and relied only on sponsors and donations. The flourished and our site ended up closing.

With all the sponsors on here it's hard to believe they need to have a $20 fee for members.  

Another site I'm on has free classifieds and a $10 member donation fee you get a gift with your fee and the gift chages from stickersd to a t shirt to sweater ect.. pending on your donation. the member fee allows you to enter a member only discussion, and they do monthly contests with prices donated from sponsors. This makes it fun.  It also gives you a large pm box the ability to have a nice avatar ect.. For example non members can ave 10 Pm's supporting get 250.  

By doing this it allows new members to post thing for sale and once they start get replys there box gets full, forcing them to upgrade

Free classifieds brings people to he site then once there here they start surfing around..

With all the sponsors we certainly could have free posting, but I was also made aware that some sponsors were rejected like link removed a local store, starting up and the owner is also OVAS member. Those people are very honest, they go by the book, no gimic or cheating and still we cannot find them here. This is very bad for the members, unless saltwater sponsors are not needed anymore ?

[Darth]

With all the sponsors we certainly could have free posting, but I was also made aware that some sponsors were rejected like canadacorals.com a local store, starting up and the owner is also OVAS member. Those people are very honest, they go by the book, no gimic or cheating and still we cannot find them here. This is very bad for the members, unless saltwater sponsors are not needed anymore ?

I can't see why a would be sponsor would be rejected, I wasnt aware there was a requirement to be a sponsor

[Katcouti]

Last time I was at their store they mentioned trying and never got anything back from OVAS team. They were simply ignored. My word is we cannot ignore any sponsors all money is good money specially if it was acquired legally no ?

[Coral beauty]

 when I first start out in salt 4 years ago, was a  paying member under a different user name.
was very proud when I received my card, until I try to use it at a store that should be remain nameless.
the owner told me the card does work there his price is low as it is and he is already paying to advertise there already why would he give discount. he say next time I want to use the card tell him  so he can raise the price and give me discount.

[Darth]

when I first start out in salt 4 years ago, was a  paying member under a different user name.
was very proud when I received my card, until I try to use it at a store that should be remain nameless.
the owner told me the card does work there his price is low as it is and he is already paying to advertise there already why would he give discount. he say next time I want to use the card tell him  so he can raise the price and give me discount.

having a membership NEVER guaranteed you a discount at retailers, there is a list though of which ones do offer it

[bandit]

I can't believe the would turn own a legitimate sponsor like Canada Corals, I hope there was no politics involved. It's possible there is more to the story.

I too brought my card to I believe the same store and got the answer but though it was funny. One thing I did notice is I just payed a couple weeks ago and my card set valid only till sept? 

Maybe they should drop the member fees and increase the sponsor fees. 

[Coral beauty]

having a membership NEVER guaranteed you a discount at retailers, there is a list though of which ones do offer it

it was one of the sponsor store.  only store that would honour the discount was fishtail and bigale.
why advertise the sponsoring store when they laugh at you when you try using it.
bigale  made it clear that no discount given on tank and equipment.

[Stussi613]

I'm not sure why the sponsorship request on OVAS is being discussed on this thread, but I'm going to advise everyone that is posting links to external sites on here to stop doing it. It's against the policies of the forum. As long as people play nice I'll leave this thread going, but I'd appreciate it if people are being told things by a potential sponsor that they refrain from posting about it on here and potentially causing this thread to start getting out of hand.  

Stuart
OVAS Library Chair and Head Moderator

[Stussi613]

it was one of the sponsor store.  only store that would honour the discount was fishtail and bigale.
why advertise the sponsoring store when they laugh at you when you try using it.
bigale  made it clear that no discount given on tank and equipment.

I've been a member of this forum for 6 years and I've never had one of the sponsors you mentioned refuse a discount on the items you've mentioned. If you are experiencing this at a store that advertises the discount on OVAS you need to email the corporate relations chair.

[Stussi613]

The membership this year is 3x what it was last year.

The classifieds were closed to non-members because moderating them was a full time job. Many people broke the rules about re-posting ads, and argued with (and in some cases verbally abused) the mods who are volunteers just doing their jobs.

In my opinion the classifieds, specifically for corals, is slow because of a few reasons:

- The number of people fragging corals is higher now than it was even a year ago.
- There are allot of stores in Ottawa that have frags for sale.
- There are several home based business people importing corals into Ottawa and selling them at low prices due to low overhead.

If people aren't posting topics on the forum because they cant post in the classifieds then I feel bad for the salty community on OVAS.  The sponsorship of the forum is very heavy on the salty side and there are lots of great people on this site with great knowledge...

[JetJumper]

Sure membership is up however it has no baring it seems on the use of the classifieds.. I am sure its mostly due to the fact that the club has done different actions then previous years and actually gone out to go get those members.

I think part of the "NO ACTION" is because the past 2 years has left a bitter taste for a lot of people with all the drama.  

Fully open Classifieds --> Lets Close the classifieds except for the free section --> Lets Open them with restrictions ---> Lets lock em down to paying members only (Atleast I think that's how it went? )

People just got too confused and now they just don't bother.  In all honesty if moderating them was the major reason there are plug-ins that could have solved multiple postings, abuse.. etc.. The Karma system was good too in my opinion.. however it seems that once one person complains.. it too got shut off.

***This is not a complaint.  this is just me simply rehashing the events as close as I can remember***

[bandit]

The membership this year is 3x what it was last year.

The classifieds were closed to non-members because moderating them was a full time job. Many people broke the rules about re-posting ads, and argued with (and in some cases verbally abused) the mods who are volunteers just doing their jobs.

In my opinion the classifieds, specifically for corals, is slow because of a few reasons:

- The number of people fragging corals is higher now than it was even a year ago.
- There are allot of stores in Ottawa that have frags for sale.
- There are several home based business people importing corals into Ottawa and selling them at low prices due to low overhead.

If people aren't posting topics on the forum because they cant post in the classifieds then I feel bad for the salty community on OVAS.  The sponsorship of the forum is very heavy on the salty side and there are lots of great people on this site with great knowledge...

I'm sorry to here about the abuse.

One would dthink if the number of people fragging was so much higher there would be an abundance of adds in the classifieds. If there are more stores popping it would mean there is more demand and more in the hobby, shouldn't we be getting more members?

One would be worried that the salt sponsors would soon decide its not worth it to them, if things don't  change and go somewhere else.

[Darth]

n o
when I first start out in salt 4 years ago, was a  paying member under a different user name.
was very proud when I received my card, until I try to use it at a store that should be remain nameless.
the owner told me the card does work there his price is low as it is and he is already paying to advertise there already why would he give discount. he say next time I want to use the card tell him  so he can raise the price and give me discount.

you are right I know there used to be a list of participating sponsors that offered a discount, it seems now the "supporting sponsors" now lists all the sponsors, and you are correct I def know of one sponsor where I asked about ovas discount and told we don't offer that discount  they are always cheaper then the big chain stores, now this was 3 years ago don't know if it changed or not, but perhaps maybe a better way to know which sponsors do offer the discount and on what, as stated big al's offers it with the exclusion on certain hardgoods, but this is way off topic =)

[az]

some of you may not know this but there are 2 types of sponsorship one is pay less and offer members discounts and the other one is pay more and you do not have to offer discounts, we decided to pay more and offer no discounts this term as our wknd specials is cheaper than regular price with discounts.

now back  on topic the slow down has todo with ECONOMY, esp Ottawa first lost IT jobs and for last 1+ year so many gov jobs, also living cost ie food/utilities etc has gone up a lot, lot less time/funds for hobby IMO.

[JetJumper]

some of you may not know this but there are 2 types of sponsorship one is pay less and offer members discounts and the other one is pay more and you do not have to offer discounts, we decided to pay more and offer no discounts this term as our wknd specials is cheaper than regular price with discounts.

I think this is why people might be confused then, because OVAS states there is a discount.

http://ovas.ca/ovas/sponsors/aqua-valley