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Who is the APD?
The 'who is Tom Barr' thread go me again thinking about the APD. From time
to time I have suggested that new plant keepers sign onto the list to learn
a thing or two. Generally I warn them that 'the list is the list and the
list believes what the list believes' take it with a grain of salt. I am
amazed that the sheer volume of posts from 'senior list members'. I have
been keeping planted tanks now for many years quite successfully but I have
almost no interest in following or posting to the list weekly, or god forbid
daily, for years on end. I just follow a thread occasionally or read the odd
post. Mostly I just read the message headers and delete if that. I suppose
I read it more in the fall and winter. I unsubscribe for months at a time.
The APD is mostly the work of a few dedicated people, god bless them, but
there is a lot of POTB 'pat on the back' implicit in this. Often times, I
feel, that dissenting opinion from non-daily posters is met with skepticism
at best or total dismissive ness more often.
I, for one, miss the presence of Dan Quackenbush on the web. Dan was a good
maverick. Mostly if I don't agree with something I just don't post. I
don't see how people have the time or energy to write multi page documents
and utilize things like refractometers, spectrometers or even test kits.
I guess that what I am saying is that sometimes there is a certain smugness
pervasive on the list. I am very grateful for the APD, I contributed to the
defense fund, as should you if you haven't but planted tanks aren't even
much of a trick. There is a problem with thinking you know the answer and
that is that you may not be open to other solutions. I have tried a lot of
methods that worked, from soil substrate and natural light to full on Dupla
style. The APD does have a personality and a mood, it's a great resource
but it is not going to provide any kind of definitive answer, because there
aren't any.
Adam, who will bake bread today.