Please vote: Should GWAPA Open Most of Forum to Non-Members?

[krisw]

As I mentioned at the meeting, the board has discussed the possibility of opening up a portion of the GWAPA forum to allow reading and posting by non-members. We feel that having a closed forum may be driving away potential members, and may not be fully in line with GWAPA's mission to help grow the planted aquarium hobby.

We are proposing that we allow reading of all forum categories except for those in the Members Only and Vendor areas.

Any non-member wishing to gain posting privileges the newly readable forums would need to contact a board member just like GWAPA members do now. This should prevent any spam bots from posting in our forums.

The Members-Only and Vendor section would still only be accessible to GWAPA members, no exceptions.

Since this forum belongs to GWAPA members, please vote whether or not you would like this change to occur. Voting will run for 2 weeks, ending April 12th.

[Jeff120]

I like it as a closed forum. Plenty of other plant forums out there. Here you can speak freely and honestly about a vendor, ect without repercussion. What non members need to know about meeting times ect they can find on the home page.

[krisw]

That's why we're putting it to a vote. With both PVAS and CCA having open forums, it at least begs the question why we don't, particularly when that's the number one question I receive via email from non-members.

Keep in mind that we'll still have a number of forums that are restricted solely to GWAPA members if everyone votes to open it up, so you'll still be able to speak solely to other members in those areas.

[DonkeyFish]

I think opening more up to "outsiders" can only help pique interest and help the community. Also, I've heard over and over complaints about why we are closed to non-members, the sentiment being much like we are "elitists" or at least unwelcoming.

Which we are NOT.

Yes, there are plenty of plant forums out there, but not locally.

[Jeff120]

I always looked at it as an incentive to join the club. As a member you get access to a local forum. Im sure you guys thought of this, but you realize that opening it up to anyone requires moderation and sure enough the spamming will show up as well.

[Cavan]

I'm with Jeff here. I don't think that having the forum open to only members necessarily means that we aren't welcoming and friendly. We have enough out there to wet people's appetites. A wide open forum can, as Jeff mentioned, bring more problems and change the nature of things. Both of us have been mods on APC for a long time and are unfortunately familiar with the kind of moderation and problems that are alien to this forum as it is now. Be careful what you wish for! If anything, a way to better steer new members here and get them to join would be better.

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

...the sentiment being much like we are "elitists" or at least unwelcoming.

Which we are NOT.

Are too!

[Ltrepeter2000]

I concur with Cavan and Jeff in that requiring membership to use the forum has allowed the club to develop its members in a more welcoming format. Opening the forum to non members might increase membership in the long run but it will likely take away alot of why I continue to return to GWAPA where I have declined my use or attendance at other forums and meetings. I enjoy the personal settings that we are able to utilize as a smaller more dedicated club compared to what we likely will become with more people and less focused knowledge. This club has cycled through different levels of members for the five years I have been associated with it and when we are at our smallest with those veteran enough to teach and enough newer members to learn is when I feel we are at our best. I do not look forward to this forum being open to everyone as it will likely lead to quite a bit of clutter and if it becomes like APC where everyone is an "expert" I will likely find other avenues to enjoy the hobby.

If the intent is to bring in more new members than I think organizing more local demonstrations such as the one I attended in Ashburn oh so many years ago that led me to join the club would be a better avenue of approach than opening all aspects of the forum. Offering demonstrations to middle schools would be a way to develop a newer generation of hobbyists before they are too "cool" to learn how to do things but old enough to grasp the technical information offered by senior members.

I think a vote on which portions of the forum should be open and which portions closed to membership should also be proposed as the general option instead of what the current layout holds.

I do not feel that the community tank should be open to non members since this is the area of the forum that many of the members share personal goings on in their lives or offers for non planted aquarium events that they might not feel comfortable sharing in an open forum.

I question opening the Articles section to non members as well. I think that the Articles posted to the main home page without comments should be where non members see the Articles as this section could really blow up without close moderation.

I am also not sure that Tissue Culture is necessarily a good portion to be open but I dont have a strong motive for this feeling.

DIY could be good or bad. I know that many of the DIY projects lead to discussions of group purchases and I am not sure how good an idea that is for an open section so this either curtails the conversations or confuses non members when the members take a group buy discussion to a closed portion of the forum.

The creation of a Beginners link on the forum would be good for an open area so that those people looking for the basics could get the right information without necessarily needing to join the club. Make sticky's of all the basic topics (substrate, lighting, fertilization/dosing, plant types, algae, hardscape, etc)

Request for community demonstrations might also be a good open area of the forum to consider. Have a standard form that visitors can fill out and submit requests to the board as a sticky and allow non members to suggest a location as topics and see what feedback you get from other nonmember users on those locations.

This is my three cents and I apologize for making it a book but if its going to happen I want these things considered.

[chris_todd]

All good points so far, so I won't restate them, but try to add another consideration:
Does GWAPA really want or need to be bigger?

There's a "Goldilocks" size to every hobbyist club, regardless of the hobby. Every club has membership turnover, as people move or drop out of the hobby for whatever reason. To remain viable, every hobbyist club needs an infusion of new members. But there's a saddle point, that if maintained, results in having a nice balance of experienced veterans and enthusiastic newcomers. I've been here less than two years, but it seems like we're in that groove. What we do is different from CCA, PVAS, and others, and almost by its nature is more personal and intimate. I can't imagine a GWAPA meeting with 100+ people attending like CCA has been having, even if we had members whose homes could accommodate that. Well, actually, I can - imagine being able to bring in speakers like Amano or Jan or the Senskes for one of our regular meetings. CCA has had enough growth they can do that sort of thing, and if we had their growth, maybe we could too. But GWAPA would be a different kind of club, then. Not sure if that's good or bad, just different.

So I'm on the fence about opening up the forum, even though I voted for it. I'm willing to try it as an experiment and see how it goes, and if it fails miserably, we can just reverse the decision. I understand the concern about forum spam, but unless I've missed something, I can't recall ever seeing it on the CCA or PVAS forums. Maybe Pat and Sherry are just really good at catching and deleting it before anyone sees? Have we asked them how bad their spam problems are?

[ddavila06]

the compulsive part of me says "yes, open it". the more concious part of me says, noooooooooo, we are going to get overflown with people!! i read good reasons to keep it closed, but i hear complains from friends asking "why pay, if i can google" whichever the decition, im with it and hopefully it will work, if it doesn't it can always be reversed