[AGA-sc] cross-group spy report

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

So the ACA has set up their own forum.Two of the new board members are big 
forum supporters and want to see the ACA have "The" forum for cichlids, so 
that people will become ACA members. They're paying some $200-300 per year 
for the software and hosting.  They used to have a forum with compuserv 
(really the "original" forum, as fishnet was a migration from the 
pre-Internet days), but nobody used the compuserv forum.

So now it's been set up, and in the last week they've managed to:

  * piss off some of the 4 or so compuserv people still around by not even
    mentioning the move,

  * request that everyone on the board act as moderators, and

  * have a big debate over whether to make it members only.

In fact, this last point is really throwing them for a loop.  The guy who 
set it up planned to have a small section open to the public, but then 
require ACA membership for the other sections.  Problem is, their 
membership has a 50%/year turnover (worse than AGA's), and their database 
isn't even online.  So after one round of debate in which they decided to 
stick with the members-only plan, there started to be e-mails to the 
entire board like "Are any of these three people members: John Smith, Fred 
Smith, Wayne Leibel?"  Now they're starting to learn.  It is nigh 
IMPOSSIBLE to coordinate two memberships unless their databases are tied 
together.

What they seemingly HAVEN'T managed to do is come up with a plan to 
interest people in participating.  They also haven't addressed the legal 
aspects, especially as it's looking like they may switch to open access.

Another thing worth pointing out is that they do have a way in which they 
give access to all current members to their existing "members-only" 
website:  a single password is printed in the mailed-out trading post 
every 4 months.

  - Erik

--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
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