Nate November 29, 2009 Share November 29, 2009 Looking Pretty Sweet. I wish this was available to me when I first got into the hobby. I wonder if we could make a link for the map somewhere on the forums page. Maybe under vendor forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tygger November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 very useful! thx guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trockafella November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 Here is another.. Centreville Aquarium 13830 Lee Hwy # 7 Centreville, VA 20120 (703) 266-2100 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 30, 2009 Author Share November 30, 2009 (edited) Dear WAMAS officers as you can see by the posts several of our members like the LFS finder. I believe that it will prove itself to be an invaluable tool for all. It will be of most help for new and prospective members as it not only serves as a great resource but also as a way to get to know the area and our community. Can the link to the LFS's be added to the pull down menu on our homepage? This is the way that I have seen other reef clubs set it up. I've added a few links to some other clubs below so you can see how they have it set up. Take note of the various names they've used for their list; LFS finder, Local businesses, LFS directory, etc. http://www.delreefclub.org/ http://www.fmas1955.org/index.php http://www.bareefers.org/home/ http://www.panhandlereefers.com/ A very special thank you to Sam/L8 2 rise for doing the leg work. You've done a great job Sam. You are much appreciated. Thank you. Jan Edited November 30, 2009 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyfeet November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 (edited) Super Petz 4415 John Marr Dr, Annandale - (703) 256-2400 While I'd never buy live stock from them, their dry goods are nice they deserve to be on the list. Edited November 30, 2009 by Happyfeet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 30, 2009 Author Share November 30, 2009 (edited) One more thing. I think we should add "WAMAS sponsor" under the names of our sponsors on the LFS finder list or something to identify them as sponors. They deserve the extra plug. Dear WAMAS officers as you can see by the posts several of our members like the LFS finder. I believe that it will prove itself to be an invaluable tool for all. It will be of most help for new and prospective members as it not only serves as a great resource but also as a way to get to know the area and our community. Can the link to the LFS's be added to the pull down menu on our homepage? This is the way that I have seen other reef clubs set it up. I've added a few links to some other clubs below so you can see how they have it set up. Take note of the various names they've used for their list; LFS finder, Local businesses, LFS directory, etc. http://www.delreefclub.org/ http://www.fmas1955.org/index.php http://www.bareefers.org/home/ http://www.panhandlereefers.com/ A very special thank you to Sam/L8 2 rise for doing the leg work. You've done a great job Sam. You are much appreciated. Thank you. Jan Edited November 30, 2009 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyfeet November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 Vienna Aquarium & Pets (703) 242-0553 303 Mill St Ne, #C, Vienna, VA 22180 Almost forgot them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 (edited) One more thing. I think we should add "WAMAS sponsor" under the names of our sponsors on the LFS finder list or something to identify them as sponors. They deserve the extra plug. I totally agree with you that our sponsors should be marked to set them apart. This map was a great idea! Edited November 30, 2009 by Coral Hind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L8 2 RISE November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 One more thing. I think we should add "WAMAS sponsor" under the names of our sponsors on the LFS finder list or something to identify them as sponors. They deserve the extra plug. I'll work on that in the next few days as well as adding the other LFS's just posted. Also, I'll go ahead and report the thread since it seems that the officers have not yet seen it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 30, 2009 Author Share November 30, 2009 (edited) I've already sent Craig and Doug a cc of my post via PM. In addition to ID'ing the sponsors let's also add links to their website and hours of operation would be good too. I'll work on that in the next few days as well as adding the other LFS's just posted. Also, I'll go ahead and report the thread since it seems that the officers have not yet seen it. Edited November 30, 2009 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnybv November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 In addition to ID'ing the sponsors let's also add links to their website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 There's already a thread that includes this information, but it's not very up to date. If you can put together one post that has all of the information, it'd be easy to add to the pinned thread. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3804 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 30, 2009 Author Share November 30, 2009 Where? Why not just add a link as a pull down and use Google maps like everyone else? There's already a thread that includes this information, but it's not very up to date. If you can put together one post that has all of the information, it'd be easy to add to the pinned thread. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3804 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 There's already a thread that includes this information, but it's not very up to date. If you can put together one post that has all of the information, it'd be easy to add to the pinned thread. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3804 Please no more pinned threads! We have way to many as it is and I hate scrolling down past them all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 November 30, 2009 Share November 30, 2009 Please no more pinned threads! We have way to many as it is and I hate scrolling down past them all. It's already there. We often debate about what we can remove and what should remain pinned. Just think if you could see all of the threads that are pinned but invisible unless you're a moderator! And all of the extra forums! Where? Why not just add a link as a pull down and use Google maps like everyone else? It's in the link I provided - LFS recommendations. You can also use the same program we already have in the member's section for member shout out. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5723 As far as adding a link as a pull down menu, I'm not sure of what you are thinking with this. Can you explain it a bit more? If it's another link at top, I don't think that's a good idea. Also, if you check out our sponsor page you have links to each LFS that we have. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?autocom=sponsors There's a lot of what you're discussing that's already on the site, just not always in a single area. If we continue to pin things, you'll never see the forum pages themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 30, 2009 Author Share November 30, 2009 (edited) Sorry for the double post. I don't know how this happened. Please delete this one Mr. Moderator. Edited December 1, 2009 by Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 30, 2009 Author Share November 30, 2009 Hmmm, well Dave those links are are not easily found and they're even worse to maneuver through. Prospective members as well as our own members wouldn't/haven't found these links. Many didn't know they even existed. Why wouldn't another link on top of the forums page or on the home page be a good idea especially if it gives WAMAS as well as our our sponsors an extra plug? Visitors will see how great of a resource WAMAS is. "Just not always in a single area" is right. Information is a little scattered and hidden. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. I agree that there are too many posts that have been pinned. Someone should sort through and maybe consolidate some of the information pinned too. I'm willing and able to do that too, if the powers that be want it done. It may be good to hear from the members via vote on whether or not to add a LFS link and a club directory link to the site. It's already there. We often debate about what we can remove and what should remain pinned. Just think if you could see all of the threads that are pinned but invisible unless you're a moderator! And all of the extra forums! It's in the link I provided - LFS recommendations. You can also use the same program we already have in the member's section for member shout out. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5723 As far as adding a link as a pull down menu, I'm not sure of what you are thinking with this. Can you explain it a bit more? If it's another link at top, I don't think that's a good idea. Also, if you check out our sponsor page you have links to each LFS that we have. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?autocom=sponsors There's a lot of what you're discussing that's already on the site, just not always in a single area. If we continue to pin things, you'll never see the forum pages themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 Hmmm, well Dave those links are are not easily found and they're even worse to maneuver through. Prospective members as well as our own members wouldn't/haven't found these links. Many didn't know they even existed. Why wouldn't another link on top of the forums page or on the home page be a good idea especially if it gives WAMAS as well as our our sponsors an extra plug? Visitors will see how great of a resource WAMAS is. "Just not always in a single area" is right. Information is a little scattered and hidden. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. I agree that there are too many posts that have been pinned. Someone should sort through and maybe consolidate some of the information pinned too. I'm willing and able to do that too, if the powers that be want it done. It may be good to hear from the members via vote on whether or not to add a LFS link and a club directory link to the site. It's not as easy as that. There's a big difference between having a member post some information and having it as a drop down menu on the site. Much as I appreciate all of the ideas here and the legwork that people have done, I don't know that it's a good idea. I have not spoken to the other officers about this, but I will express my own personal opinion on this. First, if I were a sponsoring vendor who donates a lot to the club and gets some advertising in return then I would probably have a problem with what amounts to free advertising for stores that contribute nothing to the club and won't even consider donating anything to us. From my own perspective as a WAMAS member, I really have very little interest in going to a store that doesn't support us. That's not to say that the average member feels this way, and if I happened to be in the area I wouldn't stop in, but my days of hitting every LFS for miles around are far in my past and I try and frequent only the stores that I know or that have shown me that they want my business, which makes our sponsors page easy to go to. Second, I don't believe that having another drop down menu will help us out. If people didn't know that the sponsors page was there in the first place, why would they go and use a drop down menu? Sure, it's easy enough at first, but after a few weeks, it would become yet another area that gets no use. Also, all of the threads I pointed out to you are pinned threads. If people can't find those, it's because they're not necessarily looking for them because they've been there for so long. There's even a discount thread (that's out of date) in the Vendor News section, outdated right now as some stores have gone under, but it's there. I think that simply updating these threads is more important than adding new areas that duplicate the information that's already out there. Plus, the forums for each sponsor provide all of the information that you would need on our sponsors. These areas are available to all, including bulletin board members and unregistered users. Last, I think that doing some digging on stores is a good thing. It will give you varied opinions on the store from different people who have been there and that's always a good thing to go by before buying from a store. I want to make it very clear that I think that this would be great for a thread, but again, I don't think it's great as a new area on the website. We are constantly looking to improve the website and I think that the longer you are part of the club (which will hopefully be a long long time) the more you'll see that we try and do what's best overall for our members, I just don't know that this idea is what's best for our members overall at this time, and I'm including our vendor members in that statement as they are members just like the rest of us. At this point I haven't spoken to any of our sponsors about this, and am just guessing, but I doubt that many of them if any would want to come out and say that they don't like the idea of giving exposure to stores that don't value WAMAS the way they do. We will definitely discuss this, however, to see what we feel is best for the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 With all due respect Dave. This is not personal. I'm not going to respond line by line on this. It would look like we're arguing and there really is no argument to be had. The work has been done. In all fairness to the members, especially the ones that have posted positive remarks on this topic, there should be a vote on whether it should exist as a sticky (pinned), a link, or at all. There was not one negative remark on the thread about the LFS link. There were negative remarks on how difficult this information was to find on WAMAS and how as a new person they wished something likje this existed sooner. Many members contributed information they felt was important. That speaks volumes. Everyone, including moderators and officers, had a chance to say "stop", "it's not a good idea...", "don't do the leg work until we discuss it" or something along those lines. Not one person objected until now, after the work has been done. I posted my thoughts on it and what I was willing to do every step of the way. Sam posted his work and all the updates. It isn't like no one knew what was happening. No one said "don't do it yet". The members do have some say in this, don't they? Wouldn't it be fair to see, by a show of numbers, what they have to say about it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan December 1, 2009 Author Share December 1, 2009 a couple of snipets from WAMAS's Welcome on the home page. "Our society provides resources to the saltwater aquarium enthusiasts in the Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland area by sponsoring meetings, educational seminars, lectures, online discussions, publications, websites, exhibits, and other means, as a social avenue to connect with other local hobbyists in the area." "There are even links to hundreds of places where you can shop for the products that will improve your reef" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 Of course, membership has the right to debate these things and be heard. As I said, I'm not speaking for the officers as a group, I'm merely expressing my own opinion on this at the moment. I would say, however, that a few days is not a long time to consider this and the work was done very quickly on this. I appreciate, and I believe most would appreciate, the legwork that you and Sam have done, but again, as far as making it a tab on the website, we don't make snap judgments on things but weigh the pros and cons before making any decision. Again, considering this from the perspective of all of our members, including those who contribute a lot of stock to help make our meetings fun for all, I don't feel that this is a good idea to make part of the website. I again will reiterate that I feel this is better as a thread, but it certainly will be considered. By the way, I think that this type of discourse is good for the club. It brings out new ideas and hopefully leads to something that will help the club out in the long run. I invite members who don't feel like posting here to PM me or email me or any of the officers regarding their feelings on this, but also, feel free to post up here. Everyone just make sure to respect everyone else's opinion on this subject and try and present your information in the best light possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 Spirited thread.... Sam, I like what you've done. Jan, thanks for noticing a neat idea for a member resource. My only concerns are making sure that the list is always maintained so that it remains valuable and the effort required to do so. For now, hosting a link to this external resource seems appropriate to me. I was looking over a few other "resource" threads and think that maybe I've found one where a link to this could be posted. Look under "New to the Hobby" in the pinned post, "Links for Beginners." I suggest that, if anywhere, the link to this resource be placed in this thread. There are benefits to this: The forum is publicly accessible so it has the widest possible audience. The thread is already pinned, so it doesn't require the space of pinning another page. The context of the thread is appropriate and meets the "I wish I had this when I started out" test. By making it a link to an external resource, it does not add to website maintenance. (It still should be maintained, though, if it's to remain valuable.) (The option to bring it under WAMAS maintenance in preserved for the future.) Your thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 I think Tom has a good idea. I also think a simple clickable icon on the home page would be nice as it really does not have to be here in the forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogurnda December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 Dave, I totally disagree with you. We should provide a user-friendly resource for people to be able to find local stores, whether they are sponsors or not. Pinned threads are a PITA and do not fill the bill, whereas a clickable icon linking to a map of stores would add value for all members. We do not need to endorse anyone, and our sponsors still get big, colorful banners across the top of the site. The only valid point is who should maintain the map. The goal of the club is to help us, the members, not the vendors. If we contemplate not doing something that would help members because we worry what sponsors will think, then the club has its priorities upside down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT December 1, 2009 Share December 1, 2009 I think this is going to be a great resource, you guys have done some good work with it and i understand both sides of the argument. I wish i had something like this when i first got here, some of the stores are a bit of a drive for me(though well worth it) I know i came from RC, Reef2Reef, reef santuary etc and every highly recommended WAMAS. without them if something like this comes up on a goolge loacal fish store search that would bring even more people to WAMAS most likely. Basically i signed up as a public member prior to moving up here, then became a paid member, I like the idea of being able to see the availability of stores when you move here without having to pay when it may just be to much driving for some (especially if public transportation is your only option) though that didnt affect me. I found sponsors and those have been the ones that i have stuck with as they so far have had the best options around. Though when i need something fast/emergency its nice to know there are options on store hours and how far things are away. I think that paid sponsors should be the ones at the top of the google list regardless of alabetic order etc, and then non sponsors after them as they do alot for us. just my 2 cents not trying to put fuel on the fire or anthing, so far you guys have some good ideas on how and how not to use this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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