Re: [AGA-mcm] Input from stores

["S. Hieber" <shieber@yahoo.com>]

It's an old dilemma, how to stisfy one audience without
losing part of the other. I hope, I believe that TAG helps
beginners become more advanced.

I've heard complaints that "Stranded" is both too advanced
and to much a rehash of "stuff everybody knows." Trying to
select the "right" stuff is the hardest and most time
consuming part of doing that column. And I only deal with
that one small column. I can't imagine trying to wrestle
with the problem for an entire Journal.

Luckily, the commercial mags, like FAMA and AFM are doing
plants articles and they focus on beginners. And then there
are the lists -- Maybe we should put in a banner or
pronounced box mentioning the AGA-member list and APD as
resources for beginners (and advanced aqutic gardeners
alike?


What's the cost of 4 more pages again? If we added a
"beginners" section to try to get more of them early on in
their gardening careers, it would be nice if we could
announce it as *added* pages so the advanced folks don't
think they will be getting any less for their money.


sh

--- Paul Krombholz <pkrombholz@bellsouth.net> wrote:

> It would be a good idea to have a sort of cycle running
> in TAG that 
> covers beginner problems and concerns. These articles
> could 
> concentrate on low to moderate light tanks and the good
> old standby 
> plants that thrive in them without CO2 additions.  Some
> of these 
> plants have been neglected as of late.  There is nothing
> like a big 
> old amazon sword or two for eliminating green water
> problems and 
> maintaining a healthy tank.  The big guppy breeders used
> to use only 
> water sprite in their tanks and claimed many benefits. 
> Maybe they 
> still do.  There could be quite a few articles about low
> tech planted 
> tanks.
> 
> 
> >Over the past few months I have been giving retail
> stores I sell to 
> >copies of TAG, and flyers, and tried to get them to sign
> up some new 
> >members for us. The response has been, as we are well
> aware, 
> >underwhelming. I've sat down and chatted with a few of
> the guys I 
> >know best, and they have all had the same reaction. The
> magazine is 
> >very nice and well done, but the articles are too
> technical. They 
> >all said that they think it would go over better if
> there were some 
> >simple helpful hints for beginners -- that the vast
> majority of 
> >hobbyists who frequent retail stores just want to be
> able to keep a 
> >few plants alive in a tank with fish. Sotat's what I'm
> doing. Thweir 
> >comments are pretty well justified, and I think we need
> to decide if 
> >we do want to go after the newbies out there or keep
> concentrating 
> >on the advanced plantkeepers.
> >I throw this out for any discussion that might preove
> fruitful.
> >David
> >
> 
> -- 
> Paul Krombholz in sunny central Mississippi
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> 

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