Buy - Sell - Trade?

[Kendall’s Aquarium]

Idea for a selling section on the forum?

[Duane Perry]

I was wondering if this was allowed as well. 

[Cory]

Currently we don't plan on allowing buy/sell/trade.

A list of some of the reason, and I'm sure there are more.

• Aquarium Co-Op's liability in such matters.
• Competing against Aquarium Co-Op's Bottom Line.
• When something goes wrong with a transaction, that'll lead to drama
• We want people to be here to help each other not set up shop. In previous communities this always happen, people who are there solely for business instead of the bigger picture.
• Making sure personal data is protected

I'm sure there are other cons, as well as pros. There are places to sell things online already such as aquabid or ebay, I believe it's better for us to focus on one area to improve on at a time and that will be a friendly community.

[SpiffyBB]

Are we allowed to show links to fish from aquabid or other sites if we are going to buy or sell and want any suggestions?

[Master Photographer]

1 hour ago, Cory said:

Currently we don't plan on allowing buy/sell/trade.

A list of some of the reason, and I'm sure there are more.

• Aquarium Co-Op's liability in such matters.
• Competing against Aquarium Co-Op's Bottom Line.
• When something goes wrong with a transaction, that'll lead to drama
• We want people to be here to help each other not set up shop. In previous communities this always happen, people who are there solely for business instead of the bigger picture.
• Making sure personal data is protected

I'm sure there are other cons, as well as pros. There are places to sell things online already such as aquabid or ebay, I believe it's better for us to focus on one area to improve on at a time and that will be a friendly community.

Great policy Cory! Nothing will derail a group like sales situations that go south.

[FishLove]

I’m with you on this David Humphrey

[Cory]

2 hours ago, SpiffyBB said:

Are we allowed to show links to fish from aquabid or other sites if we are going to buy or sell and want any suggestions?

For now no. I'd say for sure not stuff you're selling. That's essentially the same as posting it for sale here.

Over the coming weeks we will have a white list of links that can be posted. Aquabid will be on the white list, as would companies we work with and other places that don't have a negative impact on our business. However our direct competitors links won't be allowed. It just doesn't make sense to have people talking about our competitors even if it's negatively about them. Aquabid links would be fine if you're saying, I am about to buy this auction, does anyone have any tips for breeding or keeping this fish etc.

There will always be grey areas, Like the dollar per gallon sale, linking to that would be fine, but linking to them selling a food we sell at say 50% off, just straight up hurts us. Whether they are clearancing it out, or just have a price mistake, it also changes what this forum is about, we don't want 20 posts a day about what is on sale, instead of conversation. People can use deal websites and such or even just follow other youtubers for such information. 

The ongoing cost of running this forum is going to be quite high and thus we need to make sure we aren't investing a lot of time, energy and money into something that goes against our goals in both community and our business. 

[Logan Kendrick]

Curious about the potential of a database/thread of local breeders on this forum. Not as an active way to sell or advertise but more along the lines of this is who I am, where I am, my aquabid/eBay usernames are X. The reason I ask is to my knowledge there is not a great way to find local breeder outside of in person fish clubs that for most in US are not meeting for health and safety reasons. 

I’m sure you guys might already be considering rules around fish as I anticipate that as people post about breeding projects and grow outs others are likely to inquire on how to get fish from them. 

Being that the CO-OP doesn’t ship fish I don’t think this has a large concern as far as hurting the bottom line. Although I’m sure there would be some concern about if someone had a bad transaction from a breeder they found through this forum does that have negative impact on the co-op brand. It’s a lot to consider, thank you in advanced for all the effort this forum will take but I believe there will be a great culture here. 

[Cory]

No plans currently to do anything like that. Everything takes oversight and building. This is the same reason why we don't do 20 other tasks. We target what we want to work on carefully as 100 projects done poorly is worse than 1 done well.

A project like this is literally just recreating aquabid, they have a review system, a forum, etc. All breeders could post there if they want to and I do champion for aquabid because I believe it is a good space to accomplish that. 

[RovingGinger]

4 minutes ago, Logan Kendrick said:

Curious about the potential of a database/thread of local breeders on this forum. Not as an active way to sell or advertise but more along the lines of this is who I am, where I am, my aquabid/eBay usernames are X. The reason I ask is to my knowledge there is not a great way to find local breeder outside of in person fish clubs that for most in US are not meeting for health and safety reasons. 

I’m sure you guys might already be considering rules around fish as I anticipate that as people post about breeding projects and grow outs others are likely to inquire on how to get fish from them. 

Being that the CO-OP doesn’t ship fish I don’t think this has a large concern as far as hurting the bottom line. Although I’m sure there would be some concern about if someone had a bad transaction from a breeder they found through this forum does that have negative impact on the co-op brand. It’s a lot to consider, thank you in advanced for all the effort this forum will take but I believe there will be a great culture here. 

Maybe state-specific (or smaller, if you’re CA/TX) forum threads of hobbyists and local resources/shops that don’t ship would be a good fit. I’m a newcomer to the hobby as of COVID and I can source plants, equipment, food, etc. but I can’t find a local guppy expert. A database of any kind would be a nightmare due to how fast the information would be outdated. Most of the good shops I’ve found in MN don’t even have websites so it is hard to get connected. 

[Master Photographer]

18 hours ago, Cory said:

For now no. I'd say for sure not stuff you're selling. That's essentially the same as posting it for sale here.

Over the coming weeks we will have a white list of links that can be posted. Aquabid will be on the white list, as would companies we work with and other places that don't have a negative impact on our business. However our direct competitors links won't be allowed. It just doesn't make sense to have people talking about our competitors even if it's negatively about them. Aquabid links would be fine if you're saying, I am about to buy this auction, does anyone have any tips for breeding or keeping this fish etc.

There will always be grey areas, Like the dollar per gallon sale, linking to that would be fine, but linking to them selling a food we sell at say 50% off, just straight up hurts us. Whether they are clearancing it out, or just have a price mistake, it also changes what this forum is about, we don't want 20 posts a day about what is on sale, instead of conversation. People can use deal websites and such or even just follow other youtubers for such information. 

The ongoing cost of running this forum is going to be quite high and thus we need to make sure we aren't investing a lot of time, energy and money into something that goes against our goals in both community and our business. 

Cory, 

I want to make sure I'm not breaking any rules. I've been asked to recommend some camera gear, and I posted a couple of links to Amazon (although the links I posted don't seem to be active), and want to make sure this is OK. I have a desire to help, but want to make sure I'm operating within the guidelines of the forum.

Thanks again for everything you do for the hobby!

David

[Cory]

1 minute ago, David Humphrey said:

Cory, 

I want to make sure I'm not breaking any rules. I've been asked to recommend some camera gear, and I posted a couple of links to Amazon (although the links I posted don't seem to be active), and want to make sure this is OK. I have a desire to help, but want to make sure I'm operating within the guidelines of the forum.

Thanks again for everything you do for the hobby!

David

For now that would be fine, I think a lot of links wont be "active" until we set them up. Also just for anyone reading, affiliate links aren't allowed. 

[Master Photographer]

Sounds good. If at anytime this changes just let me know.

Also, I don't have an affiliate page, or whatever it's called, for Amazon. 🙂

David 

Edited July 15, 2020 by David Humphrey
Added the line:If at anytime this changes just let me know.

[Daniel]

I would like to give to another forum user some of my nicest fish (no charge for the fish, just shipping costs if they are interested). I need to re-home these fish and because of the pandemic, donating them the local club is not currently an option. I love these fish and I also worry what will happen when the next fish keeper gets them. I want them to go to a committed aquarist. There is a user in this forum who has made comments indicating that they are the fish keeper who would love and respect these fish. Is there a proper channel in this forum for letting the other forum member know my intentions? Even giving fish away seems perilously close to 'buy, sell, trade' so I can understand not wanting to open that can of worms, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask the question. 

[ForestJenn]

On 7/16/2020 at 2:46 PM, Daniel said:

Is there a proper channel in this forum for letting the other forum member know my intentions?

The administrators will have to provide you with their call on this, but maybe the messaging functionality is an option?  I haven't used it, but clicking on the button provides you with the space to add a single member's ID.   I took a couple screenshots that might help.

Edited July 18, 2020 by ForestJenn
Just call me the queen of typos

[Daniel]

I thought about messaging, but this forum is such a great place. I'll trust whatever judgement the admins make.

[Cory]

Until I declare otherwise, donating fish with at most a reasonable shipping cost is allowed. What I don't want to see is Fish are free, shipping is $300. That is just selling. I also don't want it to be super common place where each week everyone is trading/selling instead of purchasing from aquarium co-op or local fish stores etc. I also don't want to see threads popping of of , looking to rehome X. This should be going on in say a thread about the person's fish room and it be natural conversation. We don't want the forum filled with for sale type posts.

I've been thinking on this for a bit, thinking of a Random Act of Kindness Threads also known as ROAK from the forum days. This is a fine line to toe, where it's not too detrimental, but also still a good way to deal with a situation such as Daniel's. I believe that if people understand where we are coming from, and will take the warning if we see it getting out of control we can keep it fair. However if we have to, we will just make it a no go if we can't keep it as an easy going thing.

[Tedrock]

Wow these topics are a mind field.  I have been away from the forum for a while, things sure have become complicated.  Stuff I never even compilated. My brain hurts even reading them.