[Killietalk] Killitalk, forums and the AKA's future

[Kyle Osterholt <snakeskinnerkyle at yahoo_com>]

hey everybody, I've been a quiet entity for awhile now just lurking and reading.  I felt compelled to write my thoughts after a few of the last posts that have been coming through
   
  As for the Killitalk vs. Forums issue, I can understand both sides of the fence and there will never be a way to please everyone.  My local club just made the same sort of change going from a yahoo-based group mailing list/forum to a pure online forum setup (you can see this at www.okcaa.org if you feel like it).  There were several people resisting the change but in the end, the reliability of the forum outweighed the convenience of the mailing list.  The necessity for the change came from numerous posts that were never delivered using the yahoo-based group, the order of posts were mixed up so much that sometimes you'd receive a reply in your mailbox before you ever received the original post.  
   
  Even after we made the decision to go with an online forum, there was another split of ideas on how this should be performed.  Several people were proposing having a different forum for every type of fish, plants, inverts, health, etc.   I and several others opposed this method mainly because of our volume, plus those that wished to see more than one subject would have to visit more and more forums to see everything.  We finally settled somewhere in the middle and have a short list of forums and it seems to work well so far.  
   
  Setting up the AKA forum to please everyone will be impossible.  I am suprised it is not used more but I think that results from the use of the killitalk.  If killitalk were to ever go away, the forum would likely change into a more used and more friendly entity.  I really don't have a strong opinion either way.  Killitalk is not un-reliable like my local club's mailing list was so I don't really see the neccessity like we did there.  
   
  Some people only care about diapterons or epiplatys or aphyosemions and they will want a separate forum just for those because they don't want to sift through everyone's posts to find what they care about.  Others (like me) would rather have one forum where everyone posted everything so I don't have to click on each and every forum to read everything. 
   
  Just remember, you may think one or the other is the worst idea in the world but there is just as big a group that thinks the other way and they have just as good of reasons.
   
  As for the future of the AKA which was sort of touched on in the newest JAKA by Peter.....   I have not really been an "active" member of the AKA, mainly due to location, interests and local duties.  I am in central Oklahoma and there is no killifish club here.  There are a good handful of killi-keepers in my local club (a few are nationally known) but there is not enough to actually spawn off a killi-club so we infect those around us with killies and have done quite well in our general aquarium club.  
   
  Having the AKA convention close enough for me to attend is not very likely and I can't blame the AKA.  The convention requires people to work and without that, there is no convention.  Simply begging for the convention to come closer is not what needs to be done, you need to find your local killi club and have them contact the AKA and follow the channels that need to be followed to bring the AKA to you.  I can only hope the Texas killi-group can someday host such an event and I can attend.  I am an active member of my local club so I'm doing a lot of work with them and between that and my personal duties around the house and my fishroom, I have little time and money left to try and travel across the country for a convention.  
   
  What does the AKA do for me?  That's not really the question that should be asked...  This is a hobby, you should join a hobby group to have fun, make friends and gain knowledge.  Has the AKA achieved this?  Definitely...  I have met more killifish people, learned more about killifish and had more fun being a distant member of the AKA than I could have asked for.  My money was well spent.  The JAKA/BNL alone is worth my money.  The AKA is full of great people and the majority of them will help you out as much as the can with whatever you need, whether it be with information, fish or live foods.  
   
  Peter said there will be some changes coming....  I'm sure these will be great changes and I can't wait to grow through them.....  Embrace the changes, Embrace the AKA, Do YOUR part to make the AKA better and we'll all benefit
   
  Kyle Osterholt
  Okarche, Oklahoma  


Kyle Osterholt

		
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