I need y'all quick like for some pros and cons talk!

I would love to hear your talk @revhtree....what kinds of topics are going to be discussed?

I second the idea. @revhtree, any chance you will post your talk on R2R? Looking forward to it.
 
Pros: tons of info on the right platforms (reef2reef, YouTube, etc)

cons: Facebook is a toxic community, this past week I’ve been called every name in the book for asking a simple question. Every one thinks there an expert.
 
Cons:

1) You can be getting advice from:1) people who have no idea what they are talking about; and 2) people who are only trying to get you to buy their product.

2) Not everyone uses social media.


Pros: It is a generally beneficial resource.
 
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Pros:
Instantaneous feedback. Help when you need it most.
Fosters community
Grows the hobby
Crowdsourced knowledge means a near limitless amount of information

Cons:
Crowdsourced knowledge means a near limitless amount of information that might not be accurate
Trolls

I think social media has the same effect on reefing as it does everything else. So really you can think about it more generally and then apply it to reefing specifically.
 
Pro: power of crowd sourcing. This collective of knowledge, experience, and data allows for the possibility of greater and faster advancements within the hobby.

Con: ability for misinformation to spread quickly. Also, although there is an abundance of information, it is widely distributed and at times, difficult to find.
 
Oh Lord... I could write a Thesis on R2R

Without writing paragraphs.... I believe the

PROs = a lot of information is offered and archived. A reader is offered varying "opinions" as well as scientific facts. It's up to the reader what advice is the best path given their situation

CONs = soooooo much information and NOT a way of managing all that info into BEST PRACTICES. A lot of hotly debated subjects form into at least two camps and no one agrees on Best Practices. Thank God R2R is not a Brain Surgery forum. Patients wouldnt stand a chance in the surgical room. Lol


.
 
Pros: Availability of information & experiences (not to be confused with or lumped together with each other.) Also community. Even if you have other local reefers you're likely not going to be chatting, sharing info & experiences etc, as much as you visit forums and the like. Browse R2R at 10pm from your bed? Sure! Chat with Frank down the street at 10pm from your bed? No so much.

Cons: How people use that info. IMO you should still seek to understand a process (at least to a point, we're not all chemists & biologists,) not just follow steps. Some critical thinking and further research can go a long way in avoiding bad advice.
 
Pros: you get to talk and hang out with me

Cons:its online and not in person



Kidding...or am I? o_O:oops:

Pros: Lots of great friendly users who are quick to answer questions and give advice when you're in a bind. I've made many friends on here that I've been able to meet IRL and get to know well.
Also a great place to score some deals on equipment and livestock that you may not have access to if not on social media

Cons: unfortunately its unavoidable, not every user out there is going to be friendly. Any form of social media, no matter what it is, is going to contain those that are simply not happy unless their making someone else miserable and trolling.
Thankfully we try to keep an pretty good cap on that here :)
 
Lots of Pros: Too many to detail, will let others do that.

Cons:
- 1 disgrunted customer can really hammer a business that might be really great except for 1 bad transaction or user experience.
- Some people just take advise face value go out an do it and its not always good advice. (ie: This coral/fish is poison, throw it out now, etc..) (But that is part of being online, need to synthesize opinion from a lot of advise) If you can't do that, then social media can be a problem.
 
Another note: you posted “quick, give me some pointers” on a forum to get quick talking points from a global community and received a ton of them with a quickness - so breadth of reach in near-real and real time go in the pro column
 
I agree with everyone's coments.
I think social media has had an effect in the amount of people in the hobby. It grown leaps and bounds.
It has expanded the amount of fish and coral avail to us. It has also driven up the price of some coral and fish. While lowering the price on basic equipment it has expanded choices at all levels.
It has both hurt the LFS and helped them.
Desclaimer: I dont use FB or any of those fancy opinion sites.
Someday I will learn to type and spell
 
Good luck with your talk in the Keys @rehtree! We’re cheering for you!

Here are a few quick thoughts - Social media provides a lot of information that unfortunately is usually unorganized, contradictory, and anecdotal (hard to verify). Additionally, the expertise of the person and the accuracy of the person are not always easy to quickly determine, however having a community (like R2R) is beneficial and allows some level of vetting. Educational information like 52-weeks-of-reefing from BRS that is on social media (and other similar content) is helpful, however IMO there is still a huge need for additional quality educational/informational/reference content. For example, if someone wants to learn about all of the different major types of corals, their general care, and other key details, what concise source can they use? We have largely moved away from books because social media is more timely, but social media can be more difficult to parse.

+1 to this. Especially if you are new to R2R or new to forums in general.

Also -- and I cannot fully envision what this looks like -- the context of the contributor. Almost like a badge that reflects the general school or method they practise and or the type of reef they keep. I only think 11 dkh is crazy because I don't practise Red Sea. I think .02 PO4 is criminal because I am not an ULNS person. The list goes on.

But I love this place.
 
@revhtree,

I was able to catch some of the live stream, and when i first read this thread, the day before your talk, i immediately thought, "you should've already had your speach/talk/presentation completed and polished". But after watching I realized it was more for supporting evedince through polling to drive certain points home.

One thing that I always held in reserve about social media is that it lends voice to someone who doesn't deserve to have a voice, simply because they're entertaining and can tell a story, yet they posses zero credentials to be on that stage. More particular people we perceive as influencers.

But really the problem doesn't lie solely with the influencers. The audience in which feels they need to be entertained in order to be fed knowledge, information or in most cases opinion on how they should think are really the "king makers". I would argue the audience are in no position to make such decisions because we're using the wrong criteria to seat these influencers.

Case and point was they guy you shared a stage with. I don't know him, and I'm sure he's a cool dude to hang out with and could be the life of a party, my impression was he gave nothing to the discussion and simply filled the air with noise. I mean that in the nicest way possible, he was high energy, but I'm guessing that you at least took time to prepare an outline for your presentation with visuals to direct points and conversation to a particular conclusion (liking the forums to a city was clever). I would go out on a limb and say he gave zero or very little to preperation.

But what surprised me was when the audience was given the chance to ask questions, they were directed to him about favorites this, how often that. Which tells me he was hired to simply entertain nothing more. And there's nothing wrong with that, as long as the designation was given. That's the world we live in.

We have blurred the line between educational and entertainment, and the audience no longer can tell the difference. Because of that, we are elevating these influencers to a position to be seen by new hobbyists, and unofficially (maybe officially) given the task to provide the very foundation in which this new hobbyist will build his/her knowledge and experience. Do we want the people that barely built their foundation with a very narrow perspective to be influencing these new hobbyists?

I draw a parallel to the entertainment industry. We all have our favorite actors and actresses. For the most part, by design we don't know a lot about them, their stance on certain issues. And that's not on accident, they know their sole purpose is to entertain, not to use the platform to push personal agenda. Because let's face it, if my favorite actor/actress weighed in on a subject, I would probably lean their direction, especially if it's a subject I know little about. Is that my pitfall? Who's fault is it that I now have an opinion on a subject I know very little about?

Perhaps we should start separating influencers into categories of entertaining and knowledgeable. Allow the entertainers to tell a story, and give the ones with knowledge and wisdom the platform to educate and keep them separate. I personally would be on board with that. But I know my opinion is of the minority.
 
Pro: everyone knows your business.
Con: everyone knows your business.
Never had a social site and never will.
Thats why I am here.
Love the way this site is run.
Guess im just old school or just plain old lol.
 
Pros: tons of info. Also lots of inspiration via pics, videos, threads etc. also a very fast way to hear terms you’ve never heard before (ex huh, everyone mentions an ATO/skimmer/etc time to look that up and see what it’s for). Quickly let’s you know what you don’t know.

cons: you have to be diligent in parsing the info and researching all the stuff you hear about. After hearing about carbon dosing the reaction should be “hmm, I wonder how that works and if it’s right for me?” As opposed to “cool, let me pour a cup of vinegar in my tank cuz I read about it once.
 
There’s to many pros that already been named and they all good a few of the cons By using social media that reefers may get and not often get mentioned is:

Anxiety
Depression
Over spending
Stress
 
Its so important to understand that each social media is different in terms of their technical offering and thus can only be used for very specific use. For example Instagram is good for photos , YouTube for videos and tweeter for short threads. FB among all allows all three thus has its own place. But all of them common in a way that they scoop your data and sell it and then use that to offset the service cost. This model came from google. And it resulted in massive influx of advertising money that lead to this platforms huge growth. As of it stands today, most niche forums can not beat their technical capabilities . Period.

thematic and user centric platforms, such as thingiverse and reef2reef on the other hand is focused only on specific domain. Thus the user base is very well knit community and generally does not use the data in deceptive fashion as the other platforms do. Put another way my google search will not crowded with brs rodi setup if I read brs rodi setup related posts in r2r.

reef2reef is the only forum i am aware of that is rigorous about community norms and non aggressive , kids friendly discussion. It’s a big differentiator.Staff members here do a stellar job and it feels like an inclusive and welcoming place.

these are the three main differentiator for me
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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