Shop Talk

[MissM!]

What are the rules/ thoughts on the forum in regards to talking 'business'?

I work in an Aquarium or LFS in Melbourne.

It's not my shop, I don't own it, but the owner is my longterm friend and I'm sure there will be occasions where I will see opportunities. Some will benefit the shop, some will benefit forum members.

I joined this forum purely for myself, Through my work i have discovered that i love my Betta's, I want to learn more about them, I want to keep them and maybe even breed them and I want to talk to other people who love them too!

I'm super aware of a few things, I don't want to overstep any boundries, i dont want to mention my work in every post, im not going to do the hard sell every chance i get and im definately not about stealing business from James and Maddie, in fact Im confident i'll become one of their customers for some things! it's just that through my work i may be able to offer other things that they don't.

Plus the retailer in me will struggle to pass up opportunities to offer you lot some good specials from time to time, and ill struggle not to speak up when I see people talking about things on the forum that we may be able to offer.

So...... I'd love to hear people's thoughts???

[lodo]

My view, this forum is here for exactly what your saying. Me and maddie aren't in this to make big bucks, or rule the world of fish. We do it as a hobby to help others out, the more people in the hobby doing that the better for everyone besides, we still go buy stuff from local shops we've grown attached to, and the forums been around for a long time so by no means are we anything special around here.

Razzi is the admin for the site so he would be best for what is or isn't allowed in terms of any rules on this matter.

[briztoon]

I'm not an employee, but I used to promote Fishchicks pretty heavily for their live stock. For dry goods you can't go past Age Of Aquariums and The Tech Den. As far as I'm aware, this forum has never had any commercial sponsors, so go for your life. James and Maddie aren't forum sponsors (again as far as I'm aware) so you won't be stepping on anyones toes.

[Bettarazzi]

As the costs of hosting and licensing the forum slowly creeps up I keep thinking I should get sponsorship. But yes for the moment there aren't huge restrictions. However the key principle is interaction and engagement. If someone in the industry is an active member of the forum and contributing to the discussions then it seems natural and relevant for them to also talk about their shops.

What I don't particularly like is when people only post in the classifieds. It doesn't matter if they're just a hobbyist it's still annoying. And I think the AusAqua community generally feels the same way because those posts usually go unanswered.