Good Ole Reef Central

[stagofdoom]

So sorry for anyone who is a big fan of Reef Central. I just need to vent

So last night I posted a for sale thing in the East Tennessee Reef Club section.

Since I didnt have 50 posts It was closed in a very quick time. So I went to the other thread I created about my 125 and such and posted a reply saying how thats bogus but if anyone wants live rock then hit me up.

No biggie

I just got home

and I was banned.

What the hell.

And thats why I love livingreefs

 

[cthegame]

I dont understand why members from this site would even bother with RC. I have only been on it a few times (im not a member) and i just dont see the appeal of that site.

Long Live & Prosper Living Reefs! Hooray, Hooray, Hooray!!!

 

[Hornet]

Sorry about your ban. Sounds like they were a little quick to go for the ban.

I like keeping an eye on Used Goods section on RC. I picked up several items for my tank at a good price there. But RC does have it's drawbacks. Site performance is the main thing I dislike about the site. Activity is very high on that site which is a plus and a drawback. I frequently find interesting posts on the site. But if you open a new thread because of all the activity your thread can quickly be lost and not seen by many people.

I frequent several sites as all of the sites have their pluses and minuses but I seem to spend most of my time here on livingreefs.

 

[RyanG]

Reefcentral has its pluses and minuses. Livingreefs is my home but Ive grown to love it there as well. They are so big that if you dont follow the rules you are made to leave. Basically if a thread is edited or locked forget it and move on.

 

[IraqVeteran]

I recently joined RC and I have to say that I wasnt too impressed with that site. I heard everyone going on and on about it so I tried it out. I like how on this site we have the POTM, but on RC they have the "Tank of the Month". Well to win that contest it seems that you have got to be making some major $$$$ to be able to afford the types of systems those TOTM winners have where 99% of the rest of us dont have anything like that. At least I dont have that kind of cash flow. POTM to me is the way to go.

Whatever......I just really enjoy this site above any other.

 

[dustin_P74]

TOTM is more political then anything

 

[bobby]

RC is quick to ban and the mods are quick to show you they're the boss.LOL I visit RC just because they have a somewhat local forum for me. There are not many reefers around here so I need a way to get a hold of people near me to do trades another stuff. If it wasn't for the local forum I wouldn't visit it.

Livingreefs is much better though.

 

[ccCapt]

RC isn't as "user friendly" as this site and many of the other smaller (compared to RC) forums. Like Ryan said, there is a huge membership there and you got to follow their rules. You don't want to push an issue. They don't care about banning 1 person who can't follow their rules.

The site is just too big to be really "friendly" it seems. If you have pics to show of your tank or fish or coral, you better have an awesome macro or you will get very little to no replies. If you post a build thread, you better be building something fancy or no one will really care. Threads can get buried 5 pages deep in a day if they don't have something really eye catching.

What I like about RC is 1st the Chemistry forum. IMO, you will not get a better answer to any reef related chem question than you will get from Randy Holmes-Farley...and he answers virtually every question. Dunno how it does it. People ask the same thing over and over and over and he keeps helping and answering. The guy is really amazing and a true credit to this hobby.
I also like the DIY forum. From simple mods to complicated engineering schematics. It has it all.
My reef club has a forum there too, so pretty much all the club members are also RC members. I've been an RC member about 5 yrs.

 

[RyanG]

In addition to what Capt said, if you are just posting in the general reefkeeping forums on the top of the front page, or the new to reefkeeping section you are missing what makes Reefcentral so special. There are so many sub-forums its not even funny, between the club forums and the specialized forums you will find a niche that you fit in.

Im not promoting the site as being better than Livingreefs, this is my favorite site for sure, but the ammount of knowledge there is amazing. You just have to lose your sense of individualality to gain it in a lot of circustances.

 

[Awol]

I frequent my local club's board on RC. It is where we determine meeting dates / times, etc. We put up with the rules because no one is willing to go through the hassle of becoming an 'official' club. We like it casual and easy.

Sorry to hear about the ban though. Honestly, if I was in there shoes, I'd throw a temp ban for complaining about it though. I'd say PMing the admin if you disagree is a better option than ranting in public. Just my $.02

 

[lightcs4]

OK, here is my two cents ... RC is great for research. They have a wealth of information. They are not a "family" site, more all business. People are pretty decent but may be set in their opinions.

 

[Piggy]

Good for info but way to high class for me.

 

[JAG107]

Great for research...
IF you can actually use their search engine! ONE TIME it worked for me in a YEAR.
Oh yeah, lots of doctored up coral pics. I'm too embarrassed to post any pics there because I do not own a camera with a macro lens.
Long live Living Reefs, this is by far the best online reef community I've found.

 

[Bifferwine]

Great for research...
IF you can actually use their search engine! ONE TIME it worked for me in a YEAR.

Really? One time? That beats my record of ZERO in four plus years. I visit my local club forum on RC, and that's it. Even within the local club forum, we've had members banned over and over again. One guy runs a small coral selling business out of his house. He tried to set up a web page to show what he has for sale, and was banned for linking to it. Because his business was not one of RC's sponsors.

My club has tried to organize group buys from various online sellers several times. Those threads were locked if the online store was not one of RC's sponsors.

Club members trying to sell/trade stuff have had their threads locked and they've been banned if they don't have the required number of posts.

So even though one of its most popular uses is for communication among local club members, the heavy-handed mods and excessive rules seem to do a fantastic job of stifling that communication.

 

[RyanG]

Even though Ive started this identical thread in the past, which was immature, I really dont think we should be bashing another hobbiest driven site. JMHO

 

[ccCapt]

Here's a little tip for searching RC.
Go to Google.
If you are looking for a thread on skimmer mods for example.
Type in at google.... skimmer mods site:www.reefcentral.com
This will list every thread on RC that mentions skimmer mods. A simple and very effective search method. This works for searching ANY site.

 

[biodarwin]

I can understand RC not wanting to promote business's that don't pay for advertisements. It devalues their current advertising market. Why would you pay for advertising if you could just post crap on the forums for free :)

Now I know a lot of you will knock their commercial approach, but hardly any site as big as RC could run without some sort of funding. It takes a lot of time and money to run websites.

 

[Alexander]

I am often on rc just not as often as on here. I spend a lot of time in the photography forum and have learned lots of cool things from it. As far as knowledge goes there is just so much on there. Plus I do very much enjoy checking out the top ten every month. Although this is my home it never hurts to wander a bit. Sorry to hear you seemed to struggle so bad over there. It is ran completely different but has to be due to size.

 

[project5k]

probably what happened was that you were advertising to sell something, and one of the mod's was wanting to sell the same kinda something, and you posed a threat and competition to them, and thats why they baned you...

I've done lots of reading on lots of different sites, RC being one of them, but i'm just not interested in playing games with people, i just want to learn, so i can make my tank better, my fish happier, and get the enjoyment and fun outa this that i want to.

Thats why i joined here and not elsewhere, cause round here, its about learning, and doing better, not all about how much cash can you put into a 8sq-ft footprint in your house.

one of the things that i have seen on other sites, is "mine is bigger" and then theres, "mines faster".. my reply to it all is "mine's paid for" hehehehe