sirdarksol
- #1
Recently, I've noticed that the number of people PMing me for aquarium advice is rising. As it's happening to me, I'm sure that it's happening to others, as well, and I wanted to comment on it.
The point of the forum is for advice and ideas to be shared publicly. There are two main reasons for this.
1) Advice shared privately can't be seen by the rest of the forum, and therefore isn't of use to the rest of the forum.
and
2) Advice shared privately can't be seen by the rest of the forum, and therefore can't be checked, disputed, and debated, which is one way we learn. Most of what I've learned in the past year here has not been from me asking questions. It's been from people disagreeing with me and explaining why. Even in cases where I still disagree with the other person, I have been exposed to another source of information.
This second one is particularly tricky, because if you're asking questions, it is very possible that you don't know enough to differentiate between a good answer and a bad answer (otherwise, you wouldn't have to ask the question).
Therefore, if you have an aquarium question to ask, please do so on the public forum (unless it's something simple like "Hey, BolivianBaby, I noticed somewhere that you were using frozen baby brine shrimp. What brand were those?")
If a member asks you a question via PM or profile message, the best way to answer is to say "you should ask that question on the public forum" or to direct the questioner to a thread regarding the topic. For the most part, PM and profile messages are for more personal communication.
Likewise, if a member tells you to PM them for answers to a question, ask yourself why would they not be willing to share that information in the public forum.
I'm not saying that no questions should be answered in private. Like I said, simple questions that are very specific to a particular aquarist are fine. I'll often answer questions regarding particular pet stores in my area, or brands of equipment that I use. But anything that is getting more into the practices of keeping aquaria should be left in the open forum.
The point of the forum is for advice and ideas to be shared publicly. There are two main reasons for this.
1) Advice shared privately can't be seen by the rest of the forum, and therefore isn't of use to the rest of the forum.
and
2) Advice shared privately can't be seen by the rest of the forum, and therefore can't be checked, disputed, and debated, which is one way we learn. Most of what I've learned in the past year here has not been from me asking questions. It's been from people disagreeing with me and explaining why. Even in cases where I still disagree with the other person, I have been exposed to another source of information.
This second one is particularly tricky, because if you're asking questions, it is very possible that you don't know enough to differentiate between a good answer and a bad answer (otherwise, you wouldn't have to ask the question).
Therefore, if you have an aquarium question to ask, please do so on the public forum (unless it's something simple like "Hey, BolivianBaby, I noticed somewhere that you were using frozen baby brine shrimp. What brand were those?")
If a member asks you a question via PM or profile message, the best way to answer is to say "you should ask that question on the public forum" or to direct the questioner to a thread regarding the topic. For the most part, PM and profile messages are for more personal communication.
Likewise, if a member tells you to PM them for answers to a question, ask yourself why would they not be willing to share that information in the public forum.
I'm not saying that no questions should be answered in private. Like I said, simple questions that are very specific to a particular aquarist are fine. I'll often answer questions regarding particular pet stores in my area, or brands of equipment that I use. But anything that is getting more into the practices of keeping aquaria should be left in the open forum.