# www.aquadeals.com



## brad (Aug 11, 2005)

This site has the potential to help out alot of people. We all care about our cash alot and like to research items before purchasing. Check out www.aquadeals.com to get real reviews by real hobbyists without the sales pitches. It is in need of some good reviews so please help out while you`re there. If everyone could just take 30 seconds to write a review, it`ll be a great lookin` site in a few weeks.

Thanks


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## Wö£fëñxXx (Dec 2, 2003)

I completely forgot about this site, it has been up almost a year, would be nice to get it moving in the direction it was intended. :thumbsup:


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

I checked it out... Sorry to say, but I'm not impressed:

* There is no mention of who runs the site
* There is no statement of purpose, FAQs, guidelines, directions, etc.
* There is no administrative direction or participation

I saw only one post from the Admin, dated nine months ago, which said simply:

"Open discussion about what AquaDeals.com should be ..."

And that's it. This leaves me with the impression that not even the admin knows where he's going with this.

Any site without active administrative participation and direction is doomed to fail. This site has been up a year, and the Admin has spoken only seven words... not looking promising at all.


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## brad (Aug 11, 2005)

Dark cobra, you`re right, there has been little to no movement on this site for quite a while. That`s why I`m here mentionning it. There`s lots of potential here. When you register, scroll down to look at who to email if there`s a problem. I think you`ll see a familiar name and see that if we can put in our share, this guy will make it worthwhile.

Let`s see if I can asnwr a few of the questions people might have.
Purpose? To have a site with reviews for hobbyists by hobbyists. Not the sales team, and no administrators filtering out what might offend their sponsors. It`s also a great place for people to start looking when shooping for something new. It can help more experienced people by simply sending people there instead of typing the same thing about the same products all the time that constantly get asked about on the boards. Just provide a link.

If any of you have any ideas of other purposes, or things that might be done differently, section that Darkcobra mentionned called "Open discussion about what AquaDeals.com should be ..." is the perfect place to let it be known.

This site isn`t very impressive.......yet! With a little help, it soon will be a valuable site to the entire community, so please please use it. Help it. Refer it.


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## gnatster (Mar 12, 2004)

Why do I need to register to find this "familiar name"? If the admin was high on his site they would not make me register to find ownership. 

Why hasn't there been any promotion of the site?

Lets face it, it's been there a year and the admin doesn't care enought to promote it to a self sustaining level. Why should I care?

At the risk mod wrath there is another forum that is only second to PT in the planted realm that has a reviews section. That one has been around about as long as the site but has 144 reviews of 115 products.


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## brad (Aug 11, 2005)

You don`t need to register to find out who runs the site. Actually, you shouldn`t care who runs the site. In the end it`s gonna be hobbyists. What does it matter if it started a year ago or yesterday? It`s there. It`s a great resource for us to exploite. Let`s do it. It takes longer to critisize than it does to help, so if we all pitch in, there won`t be anything to critisize.

So why would anyone bother with reviews at APC if there is one at PT? Simply to get a wider view on different products from a different group of people. Same thing here. 

Is alienating a site just because it`s been ready to take off for a year really a good reason?

I don`t want this to turn into an argument. I simply want to let it be known that it`s there for everyone to share. If you wanna poste a review and read a few others, it would be appreciated. If you don`t, it`s cool. too.


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

I hate "secrets". 

The domain name is registered to *Greg Watson*, and appears to have been so since Jan. 13th, 2003.

The domain name was placed on auction Aug. 27, 2004. Asking price is $5,000, or any "reasonable offer". The auction is still open, and no bids have been placed.

There are no links from gregwatson.com (his PMDD store) to aquadeals.com - an obvious opportunity for promotion, missing.

It appears he'd rather sell aquadeals.com than develop it.

Brad, I don't want to turn this into an argument either. But you're telling people to make aquadeals.com their own, when it's not. It's Greg's. Greg apparently doesn't want you there that badly (if at all), or he would have done a better job on it. And Greg is trying to sell it, so if he finally gets a decent offer, aquabid and everything posted on it are GONE.

Now if you want to post reviews in such an uncertain environment, that's your business; but don't expect everyone to share your enthusiasm.


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## GregWatson (Jan 15, 2004)

DarkCobra said:


> I hate "secrets".
> 
> The domain name is registered to *Greg Watson*, and appears to have been so since Jan. 13th, 2003.


No secret ... obviously you found it <Grin> ... however, I bought it on January 18th, 2005 (i.e. it was registered to someone else before that) ...



DarkCobra said:


> The domain name was placed on auction Aug. 27, 2004. Asking price is $5,000, or any "reasonable offer". The auction is still open, and no bids have been placed.


That auction was not placed by me (you can see the seller was someone else) ... <grin> ... and I bet you can guess that I probably paid pennies for it compared to that auction price ...



DarkCobra said:


> There are no links from gregwatson.com (his PMDD store) to aquadeals.com - an obvious opportunity for promotion, missing.


Absolutely ...

My vision for the site is to have a site for hobbyist by hobbyist - without any special interests constraining what is posted there ...

And that vision takes leadership from the hobbyist community without the "perceived bias" of someone that "sells" something <grin> ...

It would kind of be ironic if I were out there actively promoting something that my vision for it is to not be self-promoting or self-serving ... it should be a place for hobbyist by hobbyist ...

And unfortunately I have not had the time to help support that ...

It needs people like Gnaster and Dark Cobra to write honest hobbyist reviews about equipment that they have found to be the best ... that way when other hobbyists are looking for good "real" opinions about what to buy (without special interests bias) ... they will have a place to go that is not constraining by any special interests ...

So ... would it be appropriate for me to promote? No ...

So ... would it be appropriate for me to support? Yes ...



DarkCobra said:


> It appears he'd rather sell aquadeals.com than develop it.


You and I both know that isn't true <grin> ... its supposed to be a hobbyist site for hobbyists by hobbyists ...

It's nice to see someone like Brad take action to try to build real support for real hobbyists ... rather than so-called "commercial" interests ... 



DarkCobra said:


> Brad, I don't want to turn this into an argument either. But you're telling people to make aquadeals.com their own, when it's not. It's Greg's. Greg apparently doesn't want you there that badly (if at all),


I've tried to steer a couple people who care about the hobby there ... Brad is one of them ... he cares, I care ... that's why he was there, and that is why he started this thread ...

And do we worry about "who owns PlantedTank.net"? I don't ... I often send people here to find an online planted aquarium home ... its the community that makes PlantedTank.net what it is, similarly AquaDeals.com should be a community resource for product reviews that supports communities like this one ...



DarkCobra said:


> And Greg is trying to sell it


And since you know I wasn't the one who posted that auction ... and since you now also know that I bought it in January of last year, it is not going anywhere anytime soon <grin> ...



DarkCobra said:


> Now if you want to post reviews in such an uncertain environment, that's your business; but don't expect everyone to share your enthusiasm.


It would be far less "uncertain" if you would take a few minutes of your time, think about your favorite piece of aquarium hardware ... and then spend a few minutes writing a review of it and posting it there ...

Your contribution would add a lot of value to the hobbyist community ... I know I would appreciate it if you would do that (not for me, but take a few minutes of your time and write a review that can help out other hobbyists).

Thanks ...

Greg


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

I stand massively corrected. :icon_redf 

But my post is an example of what people might conclude about aquadeals.com when there is no better information to go on. What you just told me about your vision should be *on the site itself*. Don't make people rely on 2nd hand information and 3rd party promotion.



GregWatson said:


> And that vision takes leadership from the hobbyist community without the "perceived bias" of someone that "sells" something <grin> ...


Bull pucks. No one thinks of you as a commercial interest. You're more of a patron saint of PMDD.



GregWatson said:


> And do we worry about "who owns PlantedTank.net"? I don't ...


I don't either. Could be the Pope, could be a homeless person doing it all on a public library Internet terminal. Doesn't matter. All that matters is that they're doing a good job. I wouldn't have looked it up if Brad hadn't been elusive about it.



GregWatson said:


> It would be far less "uncertain" if you would take a few minutes of your time, think about your favorite piece of aquarium hardware ... and then spend a few minutes writing a review of it and posting it there ...


Greg, everyone has limited time, and has to make decisions on how best to spend it. It would be unwise to spend it on a forum that has little chance of success. As long as you are unwilling to spend a few minutes to at least post a statement of purpose on your own site, I'm sorry to say that I don't see success in its future.

You asked for open discussion about what aquadeals.com should be. It should be self-explanatory, with a clear statement of purpose and/or vision. It should make people feel like there is an active administration, who will protect the users against spammers and abusers, and who has posted more than seven words. It should be actively promoted by the owner. It should not go out of its way to cater to people who have a problem with the owner also selling something, because they are too closed-minded to be an asset to the site anyway. It should not look like a partially aborted attempt at an auction site, between the site name, the useless buttons (browse/search/sell) at top, and the indescript title "Welcome to the best Aqua Deals Site on the net!".

Consider that my first review - of your site. You even have a section for website reviews. Still want me to post it there?


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## GregWatson (Jan 15, 2004)

DarkCobra said:


> Consider that my first review - of your site. You even have a section for website reviews. Still want me to post it there?


The honest answer is yes ... would I like it? <grin> No ... but that is the entire point of what that website should be ...

So how about a compromise ... how about a reply to the "what is AquaDeals supposed to be thread" ... you could write something like "I understand your vision of the site to be [insert what you believe I believe it should be], however, if you are not going to spend the time to personally promote it, then I believe it will fail!" ...

You will then have expressed an honest hobbist review (doesn't mean I have to like it) ... and the site will benefit because you will have helped convey the vision for what it *SHOULD* be even though it is not there yet ...

So ... if you could help it out by doing that ... I would appreciate it, even if I wouldn't necessarily like it <grin>!!!! Make sense?

Thanks,
Greg


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## Sully (Nov 11, 2005)

I posted several reviews at APC. I think that has a good portion of reviews that people can look through. Not sure many do, but it's there as a resource, just like aquadeals.com. APC reviews section and plant section make their site stand out above the others. But I'll also try to post a review or two at this site sometime in the near future. Thanks for the link Brad.

-SULLY


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