Re: AGA Forums (fwd)

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

Ironic that "sanction" has two opposite meetings, eh? ;-)

Does the world need another set of forums? I think the
plurality might speak against rather than for the need for
another -- especially if there contiues to be a general
fall off in traffic on lists and forums.

Do we have something to add that's missing?

If James falls out -- family emergency, change of heart,
job transfer to Switzerland, whatever -- will Erik end up
with most of the work in his lap because he knows this
stuff and at least some of us don't know diddly-doo about
how they work?

If AGA moderates, does that present liabilities re content
we are prepared/able to face?  I'd like to know what an
attorney says about that. 

Supposing we have good answers for those questions, if
James will and can do the work, then it doesn't sound like
an unreasonable thing. In fact, it might be a way to
cross-market with TAG and boost membership.

Personally, I prefer lists to forums, but as in many
things, the world population largely seems to disagree with
me.


Oh, and one more thing. I wouldn't want an obit forum in
the set.

sh
--- Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com> wrote:
> Wow, two sanction proposals in the same day...
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 15:31:50 -0500 
> From: "Hoftiezer, James" <JHoftiezer@advanceamerica.net>
> To: "'erik@thekrib.com'" <erik@thekrib.com>
> Cc: "'jameshoftiezer@charter.net'"
> <jameshoftiezer@charter.net>
> Subject: AGA Forums
> 
> 
> Erik (erik@thekrib.com),
> Thanks for all the work you did at AGA.  I wondered many
> times if you had
> enough time to enjoy it for yourself.
> 
> At the conference I mentioned starting a bulletin board
> sanctioned by the
> AGA.  I am still wondering if this might be an option. 
> I'll go a head and
> warn you that the rest will sound like a
> ramble/brainstorming session.
> 
> It would cost $35 to have it hosted on
> www.ipowerweb.com(I get a kickback)
> for the first year, then $100/year after that.  There is
> plenty of
> space(800mb) and bandwidth(30gb) available and have
> experience little or no
> downtime with them on my personal site.  The web space
> includes the domain
> name and phpBB board running on a MYSSQL database.
> 
> I am interested in starting this project for several
> reasons;
> 
> -The numerous boards and mailing lists out there prove
> that forums/bulletin
> boards are in demand by people trying to find out more
> about this hobby.
> The number of boards can be confusing and hard to find. 
> Many people find
> themselves members on multiple boards.
> 
> -With some boards having large numbers of members(AB
> 1475, plantedtank 1275,
> AQ 2300, taopa 180, APD, r.a.f.p) they represent a huge
> pool of potential
> members to AGA.  The forums could attract members and
> potentially be an
> added value to membership.
> 
> -The boards out there are commercial or lack any type of
> authoritative
> sanction.  AGA or ADA are the few non-commercial
> organizations that could
> sanction such a venue and have the authority to attract
> members from other
> boards.  The sanction would add credibility lacking in
> home-grown forums.
> 
> -Forums can be moderated to prevent a lot of the backlash
> and unprofessional
> behavior seen on mailing list and other forums.  Forums
> based on a database
> are easily searched and there would be sufficient storage
> to keep libraries
> and articles as well.  With 10x larger memberships on
> bulletin
> boards/forums, it demonstrates a preference when compared
> to mailing lists
> and archives.  It also avoids the spam lists and security
> issues of email
> and USENET based lists.
> 
> What I am proposing is to create a forum for the AGA,
> sanctioned by the AGA,
> for the promotion of planted aquaria.  I will volunteer
> the time, money and
> effort to startup the board.  The AGA would approve of
> the format before
> sanctioning it for public access.
> 
> Ultimate control and ownership of the forum would reside
> with the AGA board
> of directors, not with me personally.  In fact purchase
> of the web space
> could be performed and maintained in the AGA's name.  
> 
> Moderators would be AGA members and if required could be
> appointed or
> approved by the AGA board.  As required, non-members may
> be invited to
> moderate specific topics such as fish:discus or
> fish:cichlids.  We may even
> be able to set vendor specific topics moderated by AGA
> sponsors.
> 
> Topics would be similar to the AB board.  Plant and
> aquascaping topics may
> be more defined.  Topics such as the AGA conference or
> contest may be added.
> If the software allows, paying members could be given
> full access to
> advanced topics which would be read-only to non-AGA
> members.  In addition to
> being value added, this may help to address the concerns
> of advanced
> hobbyists who no longer want to get mired down in newbie
> questions.  Newbies
> would be addressed by moderators and FAQ.
> 
> Domain names are available such as;
> Agaonline.net
> Aga-online.org
> Agaforums.com
> Agaforums.net
> Aga-forums.com
> Aga-forums.net
> 
> So what do you think?  Where should I go from here?
> 

=====
S. Hieber

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