Is it just me

[cthegame]

Dont know anything about reefcentral and i dont care...i'm 100% about LivingReefs. The greatest site with the greatest members and the greatest mods. No reason for me to go anywhere else.

I'm housebroken here...

[Bifferwine]

And that's how we like it!!

[McCrary]

I have been a member on RC for a few years now and have close to 3,000 posts there, so I am obviously a fan. I find that it has some amazingly knowledgeable people who are willing to steer you in the right direction.

The mods on RC dedicate their time for free and have to deal with a lot of stuff. They give you, very clearly, what you can and can't do and the rules are generally good ones. The reason you can't sell without 50 posts is that they want the members to contribute before they try and sell stuff. Members that have less than 50 posts are not considered to have contributed enough to sell. Selling on RC is an extra that allows the hobbyists there to get rid of stuff.

The search button works really well for members, like me, who pay for a premium membership, it doesn't work as well if you don't pay, but thats one of the benefits to being a paying member.

It isn't easy to get banned from RC and almost all bans are for only a few months, members are usually allowed to come back after a cooling off period. As Ironman said, the rules are mainly for 10% of the people and they impact the other 90%, but that doesn't mean they aren't very reasonable and well constructed.

There are a lot of people on RC that have egos and many, including myself, try to push people in the direction of quality equipment that is usually expensive. The reason for this is because we have owned a lot of the cheap stuff and are trying to help save you some money when you buy the cheap stuff and then realize you are going to have to buy the good stuff anyway. This isn't snobbery as most like to think, its simply trying to help you get the best tank possible and my experience usually points people in the direction of more expensive stuff. People also get on RC and try to tell you how much there "brand X" skimmer produces when they have never seen a H&S, Deltec or BK in action. So they are usually going to get told, sometimes bluntly, that "brand X" is very close to useless and the only reason it is producing so much skimmate is because its incredibly undersized for the tank. For instance, the AquaC Remora is not considered, by me, to be a good skimmer, and since I owned one I am not just going off of others opinions. Now, there is data to support this, but most don't think about that; the sprayer that the AquaC remora uses is pretty dated and not as efficient as the pinwheel/needlewheel designs, the units are hand made which allows for variability in the placement of the injector nozzle, which creates skimmers that have different levels of skimmate production. So, instead of saying all that, someone on RC might simply call the skimmer junk and recommend a different one, which is likely going to be more expensive. Or they might tell you that the setup you have isn't any good and you need a sump. This is because a sump allows for a skimmer that can produce twice as much skimmate with half the cost. Once again, that might not be explained, so people often think that they are being criticized or something.

RC is huge and the mods/staff have a lot to deal with, so sometimes things happen. I have found the mods/staff of RC to be very competent and fair, but people don't often realize that when the mods tell you something, like "don't bring subject X up again" or "don't personally attack someone" they aren't kidding and you will be banned if you violate it. RC also has some amazing resources, Klaus Jansen posted recently about his BubbleKing skimmers. He has written a lot of the book on current skimmer design, so to be able to ask him a question directly or have him respond to your question is phenomenal. Its an amazing resource and to post there regularly you often have to defend your statements or be prepared to find out what you previously thought about something is dead wrong. The people who have big egos on RC usually end up eating humble pie or they have served so much that others deal with their egos because they are very knowledgeable. Obviously it would be a better site without some of the egos, but some people tend to let their egos inflate as they gain knowledge, this is especially true of the internet where people are not face to face with another person.

[dustin_P74]

well i have met my reading quota for the day

[lightcs4]

McCrary,

Nice overview and explanation .

[Rcpilot]

I do not like RC at all and refuse to even visit the site. They get paid by advertisers off the number of page clicks per day. Everytime you click a page on RC, they get paid by their advertisers. I do not like RC, therefore I do not click a single page on the site.

I asked to be permanently baned from Reef Sanctuary about a month ago because I was torn between here and that site. I made one little off topic joke and a mod came down on me like a total butt head. I asked to be banned so I wouldn't be tempted to go back. He was happy to do it.

LivingReefs is my permanent home. Cool people and easy going attitude here. We're all just people with a common interest, but we can joke around here and get off topic--and back on topic and on and on. I like that. Some of the build threads are pages and pages long and they wander all over. I read a lot of them but never post. I enjoy the personal banter amongst members.

[yote]

This site IS with out a doubt the friendliest on the net.But that also help make it more personal when advice is offered up.More like talking you next door neighbor than some meat head that really dont care what you think.

[McCrary]

One of the reasons that I like this site so much is because you get to know the people that are posting. RC is too big to know many people outside the local forums, so personal relationships don't develop. I really enjoy this site and find that I am posting more here than to RC, probably because of the personalities and friendliness as everyone here.