Just saying we should, I mean Iowa has one why not Nebraska?

Good idea Derek, I think there are enough folks in the immediate area for it to work.
mike

I think the secret is in the acronym.

Nebraska Aquarium Society of The Year

Join NASTY today

I think it's a cool idea.

If you are serious about organizing something like this, I can probably put together a website + forum and host it for free if you want to take care of the domain name (They are like $7/yr). phpBB and vBulletin are both very easy to set up and admin.

I've been considering getting a small business license for the bushynose thing. I will check into it this week and let you know. I might just buy a domain
mike

We (mbovinet, ARB, me & mpp I think) discussed it before but never got further than that. I'd be interested in participating.

If it goes as far as a domain, forum and so on I'll dismantle this place & pass everyone on to it.

Thoughts?

I don't think we should jump to conclusions. And I for one, wish to exclude noone. There's no geographical boundary for us fish keepers here on the net, so why create one? I believe the entire group could be "ported" over to a new domain or we could also leave well enough alone and provide links. This is still the nascency of the idea so we've time to consider things.
all the best
mike

I agree, there would be no reason to exclude anyone based on location, it would just change the scope of some of the posts or just add location specific stuff.

There are dozens of highly trafficked "general" fish advice forums with thousands of users apiece, and I think I would group this one in that category (besides the userbase). Unfortunately, other than the fact that most of you know each other somehow there is really no reason any more users would frequently come visit here instead of a big site.

If some sort of Nebraska/Omaha Aquarium Society website was formed there would be many advantages that a site like this doesn't provide. Bringing in more users through searches and word of mouth would be the biggest advantage because that would lead to more local activities or goods, group buys, plant trades, swap meets, used equipment, etc. Maybe even have LFS stocking lists.

I don't know why it never got off the ground before but maybe it had something to do with the whole website setup thing. I can offer my services or input here since I do this stuff all of the time. It's really not that big of a deal to throw up a nice looking website using free software like what is running this forum now (with no ads of course). Seriously, the hardest part is designing a cool logo to go at the top of the page. The rest takes less than an hour.

You could do like the OMS people did and try to write their own, after almost a year they still can't post pictures or private message. That is out of the box stuff in any decent free forum software, no need to reinvent the wheel here and have someone work dozens of hours of a website unless they are doing it for a resume.

I would assume moderators here would also transition over if they wanted to.

Since it's Derek's thread anyways please nobody take offense at my long post, I just happen to think it's a very good idea and easily doable.

this is an awesome idea. i do live a ways away from omaha, but if we do get this stuff together and can get input to lfs's around omaha maybe i could get one of you guys to suggest aquapets order some bichir!!!! maybe you guys could even fall in love with them. heck once i get my stock fully up maybe i'll swap a bichir with some of you for other fishies!

i guess i'm a little more ]V[onster of a fish keeper then most of you (as to nasty fish i keep)

I'm still looking to do this but have been very busy lately, and need some help on where to start etc.

Derek, I've already gotten some of the research and footwork done to get started. PM me, and I can pass it along.