Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

LKB about summed it up when he made this comment in another thread.

We've reached the point where this forum has become more mindless babble than useful information.

I've been pounding the site for the past several days.....just trying to keep up only to find that I'm having to read a dozen irrelevant posts to get one useful one.......and others are having the same difficulty.

I acknowledge that there's a place for humour (so-called) and all of the stuff about Star Wars, chainsaws......and the endless dribble (in which we've all engaged) about all manner of things, but perhaps we've reached the stage where that should be confined to a particular topic.....leaving the rest of the forum to the job of discussing and promoting aquaponics and all of its associated subject matter.

I've no doubt that I'll attract the heat for raising this matter but the Administrators and Moderators should be aware that what I'm saying in this forum, others are saying privately.

What do you think? Is there some way we can accommodate the needs of everyone with a few simple guidelines and a little simple organisation?

Regards.....Gary

I got of the - can't beat em, join em, and it is nice we're comfy enough with each other to have a good laugh

I took an hour to read this mornings posts
I log on daily, to try and help (and learn second).

I'm spending more and more time scrolling pages to find requests for info amongst it. And I say I'll do something, get the info, come back and can't find the original posters questions.

Have to agree. And I'm as guilty as the rest. The banter is fun, but when 150 posts go up over night, it gets hard to find the meaty stuff.

Is it worth it to try to clean up some of the threads? I know I spend/spent a lot of time going through the historic posts to try to learn what worked and what didn't for folks. With the high level of banter, it gets hard to glean the wheat from the chaff.

Hmmm...when you click the 'Report this post to the moderators of the forum' button, how hard is it for a moderator to just remove the post? I know I've used it to report spam posts, and the post then disappeared. But what if we all went through our own threads and reported the posts that we would like removed? If everyone shared that effort, we'd all have a good reminder not to trash up our threads. I think it would be pretty obvious to the mods if we were pointing out 'noise' or 'spam' just by the age of the post. The moderators might suffer a bit, though. I'm also not sure how tedious and/or risky it is to remove individual posts. Comments?

Thanks for the input folks, this sort of clean up is under way at the moment.

Under Aquaponic Systems there is a new folder called Completed Backyard Aquaponics Systems.

This folder will be specifically for completed systems, from threads we've come to know and love, but with all the waffle removed.

The original threads still exist, so if you need to find a particular joke or piece of waffle you can search there, but the completed ones will be "clean".

Once other systems are complete (with growing fish and vege and no major works happening to them) they may be added too, cleaned up and locked.

If anyone has any suggestions for a particular system that matches this plan, please let us know (I know my system doesn't yet)

so we doubling up?........ why not just clean em all up and skip the waffle and have just one clean thread.........

lol maybe those that want their jokes etc can be given up until a certain date to cut n paste what they wanna keep into a word document etc on their own pc's leaving the forum "tidy" after the mods have a spring clean

I think there's plenty to be learned from the uncompleted systems and the trials we all go through as we build. I for one would like to be able to clean my thread, but don't want to offend folks if I indicate to remove their quips (or mine).

I also am not sure that any system is ever complete. I thought mine was, but now I'm building a Duckweed Detour on to it.

I think the jokes etc belong in general banter, sticky the best humour, maybe an AP humour section for snapperheads anonymous, funny photos, big toes....

Sticky the best.

There's also chat here isn't there. That'd give folk a good opportunity to have a laugh without off topic conversations becoming a few pages of posts in someone's thread.

I like the idea of locked and finished threads, very good for noobies.

But my works are never done! Even the 4 yr old system now learning to do new tricks.

Clean 1 thread a day each, if and when mods can, would be a flying start.

And encourage new members to research, (which is done) the amount of times I repeat myself myself myself

It's all about ME!

An "off topic section would be good!

isn't that the General Banter section?

Yep!

I'm one of the guilty ones also - so shall commence administering self restraint

But if we cut out the extraneous stuff all of our rankings will be knocked in half. Knock me back to newbie.

LKB,

Most of us have been into it, at one stage or another, and I take no issue with what's happened in the past.

My post was simply a request to consider a different approach now that the whole forum is becoming so big. Many of us simply don't have the time to sort the wheat from the chaff.

I'm entirely supportive of the idea of having special "chaff" topics so that those who wish to, can exercise their sense of humour without cluttering up the main game.

Gary

I think the banter makes this a friendly place and should be allowed. Having said that, I age with the mods having "cleaned" threads in their own section to make it easier to follow.

If we are conscious about the problem, it should sort itself out without having to resort to drastic measures.

Nova