AquariumAdvice.com under new leadership

[reefrunner69]

FWIW, the sites that Andy owns are listed in the link I provided in the first post, www.socialknowledge.net and for that matter I haven't had an aquarium set up and running for the first year I owned the site and haven't for the last couple of years.

 

[black hills tj]

FWIW, the sites that Andy owns are listed in the link I provided in the first post, www.socialknowledge.net and for that matter I haven't had an aquarium set up and running for the first year I owned the site and haven't for the last couple of years.

Hence your apparent lack of interest in the forum as of late...[/b]

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Thank you Kevin and Aaron for the time that you have invested into this forum. The countless hours that you have both spent working on this forum is greatly appreciated. Without you guys we would not have the membership that we have today. Priorities change and the family should always come first. I wish you both the best for the future and hope to see you around the boards.

Welcome to the site Andy. We have some of the most knowledgable members on the web. I look forward to working with and getting to know you in the future.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Mike: Kevin's lack of posting recently is not up for ridicule. He has priorities and his career comes first. It would be irresponsible to ask someone to give up a job they have worked hard for so they can post on an internet forum. If you continue in this path of posting, your abilities in this thread will be gone.

 

[rkilling1]

In what amount of time will the forum be turned over? IE when will Andy replace Aaron and Kevin?

 

[plecoperson]

Thank you, Kevin and Aaron for all your time and effort in making this an excellent community for fishkeepers.

And welcome, Andy-hopefully the negative posts will be in the minority. Change is always difficult, but I'm sure any bad feelings will smooth out shortly.

 

[black hills tj]

Mike: Kevin's lack of posting recently is not up for ridicule. He has priorities and his career comes first. It would be irresponsible to ask someone to give up a job they have worked hard for so they can post on an internet forum. If you continue in this path of posting, your abilities in this thread will be gone.

I'm not ridiculing anyone or how anyone has spent their time. I'm simply saying that AA has gone downhill as of late. If the forum admin does not/did not have the time to take care of the forum, then they should have sought assistance sooner.

I'm simply trying to figure things out here. I think I'm being rather civil about it, don't you? What good would it do to silence me in this thread?

 

[Fishyfanatic]

The problem was trying to be fixed. They spent countless hours trying to figure it out. There is a lot more to a forum code than a few clicks of a mouse. It can take months to re-write all of the code. Assistance was sought as posted in the previous thread. What is done is done. The site is fixed. We can all move forward.

 

[Zagz]

I think it is extremely important that we all remember that Kevin and Aaron are the founders of this site and built it into what it is today. Which was obviously desirable enough to generate interest by outside parties. The site will continue to grow I am quite sure. I am in both Kevin and Aaron's debt for creating AA.

 

[Andy R]

Black Hills, I understand your point. It's my philosophy to enable the mod/admin team to manage the forum community and suspect our team has plenty of aquarium experience. This philosophy has been very successful on the other sites because I am a forum/software person and let the subject matter experts (mods/admins/members) guide me. You know how many things you have learned fostering your aquariums over time? That's the same kind of experience I have with forums. There is a lot to learn and unless you are passionate about the topic you probably only have a high level of understanding. I might not know about aquariums but I really know about forum software and hope that my understanding of that software will bring some cool new features to our community.

 

[Alshain]

Ah, a fellow Texan, this can a really good thing or a really bad thing. Unfortunately there is no in between down here.

Welcome Andy

 

[Alshain]

Guys, don't forget. Teaching people how to raise an aquarium and get satisfaction from doing so is what Aron and Kevin designed this forum for. So what if now we are going to be teaching the owner. He needs our help and he is no different to me than any other newbie to newly register on the forums. Think of it as a challenge.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

The problem was trying to be fixed. They spent countless hours trying to figure it out.

If you're talking about the trojan code... I don't believe fixing it was a priority. As I mentioned in a different place, I'm not an IT guy, but someone that is somewhat familiar with html. I found it in 2 hours total time.

It can take months to re-write all of the code. Assistance was sought as posted in the previous thread. What is done is done. The site is fixed. We can all move forward.

There was no rewriting required. Once found, it took highlighting one line of code and hitting delete.

I don't think Black Hills TJ is pointing out anything that wasn't obvious. Now that I see that a purchase was in the works I can see why there was no real effort to get rid of the code.

Welcome aboard Andy. I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes us.

 

[Andy R]

Actually, I just found out about this trojan horse stuff last week. I kind of popped up out of the blue after being at a friends house who has an amazing salt water aquarium. I was thinking about how intricate the ecosystem is to maintain and thought it would be a cool topic for a forum. I Googled, found AA, and approached them. I can't tell you how much work a forum community can become. The behind the scenes things like answering the support requests, software upgrades, working with the mods, etc. are endless. If you have other priorities in life the burden seems to loom in the back of your mind.

In response to the trojan stuff, I'll do a thourough review of all the files on the site when I move it over to my servers. We will be upgrading to vBulletin, the software that runs the forums. The Gallery and Reviews will be incorporated deeper and some other new features will be released. I'll also make sure that we get the word out with a newsletter about the upgrades and that the site is secure.

Don't loose faith, we have a some ground to recover but I know it's going to happen. This forum is really an amazing community (kind of like an aquarium) and even though things might not be as bright as their peak there is plenty of life and there is no reason we can't thrive!

 

[austinsdad]

Good stuff there Andy! We should all give you the benefit of the doubt here and help where we can. Otherwise, we go to another site and keep the grumbling down.

A few crtitical memories for us all to take from this IMO....

1. We're moving forward.
2. The past is the past (getting kinda tired of hearing about it - who was at fault, etc, etc)
3. Got a great community established from a lot of hard work - Lets see you try it! Thanks again Kevin and Aaron!!)
4. Gotta get Andy's tank up 8)

Psst... he's a saltie. Hah!

 

[fishfreek]

As far as the question when will the transition happen. It has already happened. Full control was turned over to Andy prior to the site wide announcement.

While the site still resides on my server at some point the files will be moved. When that occurs is up to Andy.

This transition is going to be done as smooth and as professionally as possible.

 

[rubysoho]

Good stuff there Andy! We should all give you the benefit of the doubt here and help where we can. Otherwise, we go to another site and keep the grumbling down.

A few crtitical memories for us all to take from this IMO....

1. We're moving forward.
2. The past is the past (getting kinda tired of hearing about it - who was at fault, etc, etc)
3. Got a great community established from a lot of hard work - Lets see you try it! Thanks again Kevin and Aaron!!)
4. Gotta get Andy's tank up 8)

Psst... he's a saltie. Hah!

I think this is an excellent summary! Though, you can't claim Andy as a salty yet! Who wants to take bets on how many tanks Andy will have once he settles down from his travels? I'm guessing no less than three.

 

[roka64]

when I settle down I am planning to start watching Craigslist in hopes of finding a nice salt water setup for me to foster.

Or you can check the classifiesd on this site and get great deals from our members!
Welcome Andy, it sound like you are here to help and learn, just like the rest of us!
Aaron and Kevin, thanks so much for your getting this site up and running. It has helped me and I have enjoyed the peaceful nature of the other members/mentors and mods.

+++EDIT+++
Oh, we'll get him to the saltie side!! LOL!

 

[An t-iasg]

Guys, don't forget. Teaching people how to raise an aquarium and get satisfaction from doing so is what Aron and Kevin designed this forum for. So what if now we are going to be teaching the owner. He needs our help and he is no different to me than any other newbie to newly register on the forums. Think of it as a challenge.

Excellent point - not helping a newbie, nevermind that he is the new owner, is not what AA stands for

About salt vs. fresh: Andy probably hasn't seen my betta pics yet!

 

[rubysoho]

I bet Andy hasn't really looked at some of the amazing aquascaping in our member's freshwater tanks either!