Did you know we are one of the last?

[brewmaster15]

Did you know we are one of the last Discus Forums? Several general fish keeping sites have sub-boards for Discus but most of the dedicated Discus Forums are either gone or inactive . There was/ is a forum in Australia that for a time was very active, DiscusForums.com, but when I visited today it looks like its no longer active. MondoDiscus.com, an Italian forum that was once very active also appears largely inactive. There used to be so many Discus Forums.

Did you also know that we are one of the few Fish Forums that are independently owned and run? Its true, Over the last decade forums have been consolidated and bought up by companies that use the traffic as a revenue stream through advertisements. One in particular has been buying up alot of fish and hobby forums. This company is a Canadian company named VerticalScope .You may not even realize it. They make offers to the forum owners, buy the forum and run it in a way that maximizes profit. There are other venture too that do the same. I get contacted regularly about Simply by several.

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There still are some very good independent forums out there, which is good for the hobby. I'm not sure consolidation is what Forums need .

Just sharing ..

al

[Charlyc11]

Fish lore has awful amounts of advertising lately so something happen there. So now I barely participate there. But I just posted there I could not resist posting after Tom.

[Iminit]

Lol! I don’t see the advertisements on fishlore. Are you signed in when you see the ad’s?

[Charlyc11]

yup and I just posted. I can upload a pic I don't know why I have some screen shots. I think they updated the firewall at work.

[Iminit]

Lol! I don’t see the advertisements on fishlore. Are you signed in when you see the ad’s?

[brewmaster15]

Thread thieves

[Charlyc11]

Woops..

Thread thieves

[Discus Fever]

Glad to see that we are still going strong after all these years!!!

[jeep]

If it weren't for the way this forum is owned and operated, I wouldn't be here. Anything less is too impersonal and generic.

I wish I could post more good stuff, but good grief it took me 10 minutes to get that out, lol... ^^^^^

[seanyuki]

BIDA (UK) gone and also the Dutch one (forgot the name) . The Asian forums like Malaysia Discus and DCS ( Singapore Discus Forum) are gone too.

so sad.

[Iminit]

Lol sorry about the heist there. But I’m thinking it’s bigger than this. What it comes down to is the whole idea of having a hobby is disappearing. Hobbies are pretty much past tense. Yes you may counter that the Facebook sites are busy. But even they only have 20-50 followers. Yes they’ve got thousands of members. But again not many day to day.
Next many members have moved on. Just don’t keep fish any more. Discus being what they are have even less keepers.

[brewmaster15]

I think its also alot of simple dilution. When Forums were at their peak facebook was just hitting mainstream. A few forums concentrated hobbyists. The ease of making a facebook group diluted the pool among a bazillion groups..

[Vanman]

I for one am glad the forum is still here. I don't do FB and never will. Keep up the good work, Al.

[brewmaster15]

I for one am glad the forum is still here. I don't do FB and never will. Keep up the good work, Al.

Thanks Gary.. trying my darndest.

[Sandip]

Many of the popular fish forum around the world has closed.
Indianaquariumhobbyist, the most popular fish forum in India, where I was an active member, closed for a while and then re-opened again. Currently, hardly any new posts or activity there. Most of the sub forums are dead. Compared to hundreds of daily posts just 10 years ago.
Forums in general are usually losing popularity for a while now. This is not just fish forums. Photography forums, Dog forums, Astronomy forums...all forums are becoming less active. Social Media like FB, Instagram, twitter and new age forums like reddit has gained ground and taken over these days. Do consider moving our community or opening a subreddit forum in future if things get very difficult.
I would hate for this forum to close. This is the best source of discus info there is and there ever will be.