RE: Judges, Web Links, and more

["James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com>]

I've been kind of busy setting up my big tank , my poor hands are still raw
from washing 400 pounds of gravel.... tomorrow is also the deadline for
Income Tax here in Canada, and my ISP has been having major problems with
its email server - the only way I have been able to see the APD lately is
thru the archives, my "inbox" rarely gets anything, so I've been a bit
distracted...

But Karen, only last night I was stilling worrying about not being able to
get Kaspar Horst as a judge. This is GREAT NEWS! (excuse the screaming!). If
he can persuade Christel K. into joining us I would certainly welcome her.

Horst Kipper was mentioned as an alternative to Kaspar Horst, primarily due
to his association with Dupla and as one of the two authors of The Optimum
Aquarium. I don't know what his current involvement with Dupla Australia is
(or even if he has any involvement in the hobby now). Kaspar Horst on the
other hand, continues to be actively involved in the hobby. If you (Karen)
could ask Kaspar about Horst and what he's up to and would he be interested,
that would be great. That would give us someone from Australia on the
judging panel, and with the continuing silence from Amano, that might be all
we can manage from the Pacific Region.

Dave - don't worry about pointing out good web links that you come across,
they are great. As for exchanging links - well, I'm of a few minds on that
one. The Resources section is basically a place for people to start looking
on the web and I've included a few very non obvious ones (like Britannica
and the Digital Water Quality link with info on the worlds major river
systems) but I don't see this as a place for every Tom, Dick and Harry to
get publicity for their "look at me, I'm on the web" sites. Unless a web
site contains signifigant original material (eg. Steve Pushak and his
substrate research, George Booth and his personal experinces with the Dupla
system, I tend to quickly loose interest in most personal web sites, and we
run the risk of diluting the "information factor" of the sites we have
listed if we open it up too much.

Another issue is maintainability - it's a bit of a pain to have to
constantly check a huge number of web links and ensure that they are all
still valid and on-line. I just don't have the time and we don't have the
volunteers.

With commercial sites, a different set of problems comes up. The AGA has
traditionally maintained a very respectful distance from commercial
enterprises. It's obvious that excellent relations exist beween "AGA
heavyweights" like Karen and Neil and companies like Dupla and Tropica but
this has never been in the area of "you scratch my back, I'll scratch
yours". I also have excellent relations (mainly as a satisfied customer)
with companies like m3 and AH Supply and manufacturers like Seachem.

In my original listing of commercial links, which came from my own
"favourites" list, I just picked out companies which I had personal
experience with and which I felt had something more to offer than just being
on-line retailers. I removed all of my original "editorial comments" about
each individual commercial link so an to not give anyone the idea that these
companies were being especially "favoured" over others which were not
listed.

The idea of commercial collaboration with us is beyond any authority I claim
to have over this event. Our official sponsor is the AGA - I am an AGA
member and while I never envisioned this as purely an "AGA event", it is in
fact, just that. The AGA is paying the bills and I thank the organization
for allowing us to invite non AGA hobbyists to participate (had they
declined to sponsor the event, I may have approached various commercial
enterprises, but then this would be a different affair). You might have
noticed that my constant rantings aside, the AGA never tried to exert much
influence over how this project evolved - I had to practically beg Karen for
guidance on what would or would not be likely to fly with the AGA MC during
the planning stages. At the time, this drove me crazy, but in hindsight I
see how wise it was - this project is OURS, nobody had dictated much of
anything to us other than the requirement to make it just as easy for non
internet capable AGA members to join. By putting notices in the hobby
magaines, it should be just as easy for non AGA, non internet capable
hobbyists to join as well. The AGA has proved to be very "hands off" in
managing this and I like that.

I don't know how free a commercial enterprise would be with their support.
I'm not interested in having to have banners splashed all over the web site
advertising any particular company. The letters I am sending out to
companies looking for their donations/support for prizes do say that we will
acknowledge them on the web site, but I intend to see that this is limited
to one area (i.e page) of the site dedicated to the prizes, giving a list of
companies who have donated prizes - there won't be any flashing, scrolling
banners (I'm sure that Erik will agree with this, at least I hope that he
will).

The aquariumdirect.com site is interesting but of limited direct interest to
aquascapers. From the contents of the e-mails you have shared with us, I'd
venture to guess that they would want more than a text link with no
"editorial" or "advertising" content. My initial reaction is to say thank's
but no thanks - just let the issue drop. If aquariumdirect.com wants to have
closer ties to the AGA, they will have to go in through the front door and
approach the AGA MC directly and by themselves - they aren't using our
coat-tails.

James Purchase
Toronto



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