WHY NO RESPONSE?

[MAKO-MIKE]

:? I'm just trying to figure out why no one had any suggestions for me. Sure, people may be busy but I am sure someone should have a minute (or less) to spare. There are almost 9000 registered members and no one has any suggestions? What about the moderators? Did I not follow protocol for posting? Did I offend anyone? Was my question so unimportant that no one wanted to waste their time? Am I not a member of some secret posting society? Fish poeple are usually full of info and just busting at the seams to share (solicited or otherwise) their knowledge? I was told that this was the place to come to get answers. I guess I was wrong. If someone can spare a minute please reply to my post (5 posts down). Sorry for the rant but I could really use some help.

Thanks in advance!

 

[danmhippo]

I've made reply on your first post.

Just a friendly advice. This is a online community. Unlike some other forum that are for profit, this paticular one is not. No one is "obligated" to answer questions. Not all questions posted onto this board will get answers. Everything is on voluntary basis.

I am not a moderator. I am just a plain'ol member on this board. But I think everyone here will appreciate if people like you that did not get your question answered simply "bump" your post to the top by replying to your own post. Making sarcastic comments such as

There are almost 9000 registered members and no one has any suggestions? What about the moderators?

and

Was my question so unimportant that no one wanted to waste their time? Am I not a member of some secret posting society? Fish poeple are usually full of info and just busting at the seams to share (solicited or otherwise) their knowledge? I was told that this was the place to come to get answers. I guess I was wrong.

usually gets you nowhere.

 

[MAKO-MIKE]

Thanks Jimmy! Unfortunately, one can lose context and tone of inflection in a conversation when undertaken electronically. My comments were not intended to be hurtfull, but lightly sarcastic. You are correct in that no one is obligated to respond. But then again, it was a simple question that wouldn't take much effort to help with. I am a member of lots of groups/forums dealing with all sorts of subject matter. Usually, the general feeling is that if someone has some helpfull knowledge they share it. Thus the point of such forums. To share and help. I just got frusterated when I saw lots of responses for one post and none for others of similar topic. My general experience is that after about a week, mosts posts die. I paroused past posts for quite a while before posting my question. I was just trying to figure the tone of this group and try to make sense. It seemed that moderators had some thoughts on similar posts and I thought they would have the same for my question. Thus comments like being part of a secret posting group. Just a light hearted joke, not a stab. I am a fish guy myself (by training) and I know first hand how we love to share info. Get me on a topic I know about and I spew. I have experience keeping fish on a larger scale. I neeed a little help with a smaller environment. If offened anyone I am sorry. My intention was to spur a little life into the post.

 

[jamesw]

Hi Mike,

We appreciate your question - that's what these forums are for.

But also keep in mind that these are not "Expert Forums" and the moderators here are not paid to answer questions. They do it because they enjoy learning and they enjoy the hobby just as much as the rest of us. The only difference is that they are contributing authors to Advanced Aquarist.

Many of these authors also have "day jobs" or travel a lot. Take Scott Michael for example. He enjoys answering questions in this forum, but he also travels a lot. He is pretty much one of the in-house photo pros at the KBR resort in Indonesia. They just got electricity there recently, so I'd say the internet is still a ways off for them!

So give it some time. The way we see these forums working is that the authors enjoy getting questions about their articles or about their specific areas of interest. They will probably answer questions that look interesting to them, but they are under no financial or other obligation to answer anyone's questions.

If you have a fish question that you think others might be interested in hearing, why don't you "cross-post" it in the General Reefkeeping Forum as well?

Sorry for the confusion,
James Wiseman