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A Year Ago!

May 2, 2008

I’m always going on in the newsletter about how the time flies between the one I’m writing and the next. It’s true too, though time is constant of course it does seem to disappear at a phenomenal rate.

Now the start of May is here this website has been running for a year. Again, it is hard to believe.

It seems such a short time ago that the concept of the website arose – a source where beginner marine aquarists (and more experienced ones) could come and answer their queries, obtaining straightforward simply put information.

Individual texts (blogs if you like) have gone on being submitted under different categories at a rate of very nearly one a day, so using my mathematical genius there must be around 365 – I haven’t counted them! The most useful ones in our view have been put into the Articles list. All of them are divided into different categories to make any search easier.

The electronic books that can be downloaded continue to go out in a steady flow. These too were prepared to lead an aquarist on the sometimes confusing path to a successful reef or fish only aquarium. They are certainly comprehensive and cover everything from the absolute beginning to maintenance after it is all done. They’re good – but we would say that wouldn’t we! Fortunately, many purchasers of the books have confirmed the point, which makes the considerable effort of producing them in the first place worthwhile.

The website doesn’t look as it did when it first began. It is now very comprehensive in the home page area from blogs to articles etc. Then there is the latest addition, the ’social area.’ This includes a forum and a chat room. Aquarists can have their own accounts and view videos etc, and additionally put up their own blogs, videos and photographs etc. There is more to the social area than that too.

It could well be that a further enhancement will appear before long. New aquarists need equipment and other supplies at competitive prices from a reliable source. So do aquarists who have set their aquariums up. So a possible ’shop’ is being looked into. That would be the icing on the cake in a way – how to set up an aquarium put simply, and reliable equipment at competitive prices when the knowledge is gained. We’ll have to wait and see how things progress.

All the website enhancements are done by Peter, who is as committed as I am in the drive to provide a really comprehensive service without any mumbo-jumbo techno speak.

I cannot guarantee it as the internet is a big place, but I haven’t seen a website such as this one before. Peter created it and should be proud.

We are both delighted at the comments that have been received, they have been positive overall. The numbers using the website are very high. We both hope that the information provided continues to be of use over the next year. Above all else, we hope that there are happy successful marine aquarists who are really enjoying the hobby.

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Introducing – Aquarists Online Social

April 11, 2008

Some of you may have wondered recently why a lot of the posts and articles have been published by John and why I have been so quiet.

Three reasons really.

1. I have been exceptionally busy in my ‘day job’.

2. I have been ill of late with a touch of the flu.

3. I have been busy in the background getting a new application ready for you all to use.

The first two aren’t really that interesting but the third one (hopefully) is.

So what have I been doing?

Well basically we looked at our domain name a while ago. We chose this domain name as we are two ‘aquarists online’. But then we got thinking as to how other people may read the domain name and we suddenly realised that some of our visitors may already be aquarists looking to ‘hang out’ online with other aquarists.

A plan developed….

After a lot of research a software package was chosen to host our new application and the development began.

So what is the new application?

Have you ever heard of MySpace?

How about Facebook?

I bet you have. These are great sites yet they are also very general in their nature. The application we now have ready for use is a mixture of both MySpace and Facebook all rolled into one and is aimed directly at Aquarists – people like you and I.

Probably you are asking youself – why?

And also what benefit can I get from that?

Great questions.

I shall cover the first one first – why – I believe that the internet is a fascinating place, a place full of information and resources but it is a very cold place to be. There is very little interaction between reader and website. The whole of the Aquarists Online website is aimed at interaction – comments on articles, the community forum which is actually being integrated into this new application. I am a firm believer in chatting, socialising and meeting people. A great man once said to me – ‘If you surround yourself with successful people you will also be a success’

So onto the second one – what’s in it for you – quite a lot I believe. This can be an area where you can interact with others, you can share things, chat about things, ask questions, answer questions, show off your aquarium, have your own blog etc etc etc. Below is a list of features which you can find inside Aquarists Online Social

Before that though I thought I should briefly cover why we called it ‘Aquarists Online Social’ – We did think about calling it something short and snappy but when we looked at this well to be honest it looked quite meaningless. We called it this purely down to the fact that Aquarists can come Online and be Social with other aquarists. I know, i know not very imaginative!

Another point I believe needs covering before I cover the features is that we have integrated the existing forum inside the new application. We have managed to retain all member accounts as well as posts etc. I know that quite a few of you are already members on the forum, however at the moment you do not have an account in Aquarists Online Social. The good news is that you will not lose your forum membership. All you need to do is sign up to Aquarists Online Social using the same username as your forum username and the scripts under the hood will align the two together. Short, sweet and simple – it only takes two minutes and you are good to go.

Of course there are also people who are not a member of the forum. So can you join? Of course you can. This area of Aquarists Online is for anyone who is interested in Saltwater Aquariums. It is an area for us all to ;hang out’ teach, learn and ultimately enjoy.

There are areas of Aquarists Online Social which we aim to implement and improve in the future, however we want to do this based upon what our readers/visitors want rather than what we believe they should have. We host it but at the end of the day this is for all of us and I for one am not going to dictate what you are going to get.

Anyway let’s have a look at an overview of the features :

Streaming of videos directly from sites like YouTube, MySpace, Google etc…
Public and private photo galleries.
Public and private personal blogs.
Integrated community forum.
Polls module loaded so that all members can create a poll.
Concise groups area with various features.
Classifieds section if you are looking to purchase and/or sell items.
Integrated events module.
Instant Messenger loaded which provides an easy way for you to communicate with other members.
Chat & Shoutbox module loaded.
Your own individual account page.
Your own personal profile page.

As you can see there is quite a lot of functionality loaded on Aquarists Online Social.

I hope that you are as excited as we are by now. Both John and myself have created our memberships and look forward to socialising with you more inside Aquarists Online Social.

So what are you waiting for click on the link below, sign up and let’s get social!

http://www.aquaristsonline.com/social

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