Re: [APD] APC

["Aqua Botanic" <aquabotanic at comcast_net>]

>>From a technical point these forums are 'expensive' for people to view, 
>>you need a fast Internet connection.You need to download massive amount of 
>>bytes (pretty pictures, avatars, icons) just to read a couple of lines of 
>>text.
So their text to noise ratio is extremly high.(Not very green actually.)
Plus of course they cost more money to run than a mailing list.<<

Stuart, I  think the technology has changed a little since the 1950s! Forums 
aren't much different than any other WEB site now. They are only expenive to 
maintain for the owner of the site when traffic becomes very heavy.

>>Maybe time to think about moving to a Forum based web system if all the 
>>young aquarists are there?<<

One of the leading members of APC is "Hoppy" who is 70 something years old. 
Aquatic Plant Central was started by Art Giacosa, a well known veteran of 
this list. There are a few "old timers" of this list who are not only active 
members of APC and supporters, but involved in the management of it, like 
Paul K. Even Karen Randall has posted on APC once in a while.

The amazing thing about APC is at any given moment, 24 hours a day there is 
over 300 people on the site. At the bottom of the page it tells you who is 
online. The El Natural forum with Diana Walstad actually began on my forum 
before it mergred into APC.  There are over 18 thousand registered members. 
No  other forum comes close to that. 18 thousand members. That is mind 
boggling. Tom Barrs forum has a fraction of that.  Plantedtank.net lags 
behind in membership but equals APC in daily traffic. APC does a pretty good 
job of appealing to every facet of the hobby. Serious Cryp finatics, 
scientific propellar heads, bohemian art crowd, high tech  junkies, low tech 
penny pinchers, and the beginner who is just plain confused.

The gap between these forums and this list is like the Grand Canyon. There 
is no comparison.

Robert Paul Hudson
www.aquabotanic.com 

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