# Is it just me or ???



## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

BCA has slowed down?? I'm sure this is not the first time someone says this but it is somewhat quite here 

I understand people go and people come but it seems to me that BCA has slowed down a bit(?) especially this year....

I'm not being negative or anything but really wondering where everyone is..


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## DBam (Aug 9, 2010)

I haven't done much to my stocking plan for a few years, so I don't spend as much time reading and corresponding. I'll check the new posts feed every week or two, sometimes longer. When the forum gets really busy it's usually because it's a bit of a circus anyways.


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## smash (Apr 28, 2010)

I don't think you're wrong, it does seem BCA has slowed down considerably in the last while. But I think it's probably the whole fish keeping industry/hobby that's slowed down as well here in Vancouver. Maybe it's the economy or lack of decent housing in this expensive city that prevents any sort of growth in the hobby. But yes, I've noticed things too, loss of sponsors, members who used to be more active are no longer posting and some importers/group buy organizers I've talked to have even said they struggle to bring in enough volume with such a low demand floating around. My two cents.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

The entire hobby is slowing down. Not as many young people are into raising fish nowadays (can't compete with online videogaming, etc.) so low recruitment rate overall for the hobby. The high cost of living and lots of people moving, so they sell their tanks, move farther out to a smaller place and have little time or money to restart their hobby. Also just changing priorities can have a drastic effect on how much time people spend on hobby sites.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

Yeah it is sad.. I used to see lots of interaction ( group buy, tank journal etc) here about a couple of years ago.. Now there is hardly any group buy or other stuff.. 

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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

I think there's still lots of hobbyists locally but the drop in numbers is more localized to the generation that is comfortable with using resources like forums. Agreed with others too that there is now a huge competition for our time and money and likely aquaria starts to fall down that list pretty quickly. That being said I know plenty of other fish keepers that know nothing of BCA. 

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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

tony1928 said:


> I think there's still lots of hobbyists locally but the drop in numbers is more localized to the generation that is comfortable with using resources like forums. Agreed with others too that there is now a huge competition for our time and money and likely aquaria starts to fall down that list pretty quickly. That being said I know plenty of other fish keepers that know nothing of BCA.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk


I wonder how they get all information though...

it is sad like I said


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

I've noticed this myself - however, I do like to think that I'm trying to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem. Just gotta keeping posting 
I do miss the contests we had a couple years ago - that really helps with getting involvement within the forum.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

jhj0112 said:


> I wonder how they get all information though...
> 
> it is sad like I said


Unfortunately there's plenty of options online.

But yeah would be nice to have a more engaged community here.

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## rich16 (Mar 25, 2011)

I've been wondering the same thing. I had to leave the hobby for a while, and now being back I was looking forward to reconnecting with folks here...only to find most of them gone...


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## Shrimpette (Feb 17, 2015)

I was told things slow down here during the summer but once September hit it should pick up again a bit. But I'm still waiting for that to happen. I was really looking forward to the VHAS meetings starting up again and expected a bigger group to attend than what came out. Hopefully everyone was still busy with end of summer/back to school stuff and the October meeting picks up a bit.

One thing I noticed is that I don't know which of the VHAS attendees are members here, how many of them don't even know about BCA, and how many BCA members attend the VHAS meetings. It would be nice to make the connection between the faces at the meetings and names from this forum. I know VHAS isn't part of BCA (although they do advertise their meetings here), but would it be possible to cross promote the groups a bit more and help members recognize and connect with each other?


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## stratos (Apr 21, 2010)

I've noticed forum use is down for the "large fish" or "monsterfish" part of the aquarium hobby, pretty much world-wide. www.arofanatics.com (Singapore), MonsterFishKeepers.com (USA), www.arowanaclub.ca (Canada) are all down in traffic. In chatting with a Canadian Youtube aquarium personality, he tells me that Facebook is where the action is these days. I am not convinced as I think a lot of Facebook is just bots. In any case, aquarium forum use does seem down, not only in Canada, but around the world. I agree with Anthony - blame the video games!


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

I remember members had their name tag with BCA id and their real name at the monster auction!!  I hope it can happen this year as well.


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## AquaAddict (Dec 4, 2010)

Good idea! Remind the VAHS members if attend the auction.

AquaAddict/Eileen
PS remind me, Membership table


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Facebook is full of actual breeders and farms all posting photos of their facilities, fish , who's getting ship,e td etc. not bots and now you can speak directly to the farm owners and get references etc . It's not just fb it'd fb pages for companies. A large network worldwide.
There's also lots of group pages. 
But fb and forums can work togeather if the fb page is run by the admins of the forum. 
You can draw fb page users over for things like contests, discussions etc. but it does take a bit of work.


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## TomC (Apr 21, 2010)

In the old days, when BCAquaria was a labour of love, effort was put into contests, auctions, etc. But now that it's a business, it just isn't worth the money to pay somebody to do those things. That, plus an ever-changing internet, means a lower user base for forums. Unfortunately, that's just the way the world is now. Facebook has its uses, but I like a forum because it gathers different sources into one place. Forums' days are probably numbered, but even sites like Facebook will likely be gone, or changed unrecognizably before not too many years go by.


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

Yes things change. But on the whole bc aquaria has held its own. New people come. Some leave, some return..and winter will get busier. 
There's also lots of forums whereas many years ago there were a few for each hobby.
There's new posts everyday. I've seen some forums they go weeks with no one posting. 
It's up to the members to keep interesting conversations going.



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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

I haven't been in the hobby for a while now, things got too hectic and I couldn't maintain 3 tanks, let alone 1 at one point so I sold off\gave away everything I had. I'm really only on here as a moderator this year. I'm sure just like many others, I'll come back to the hobby in the future and be an engaged member posting photos and stuff again.

And yes, April is right, we have had plenty come and go, some return after a hiatus, but we've held it together.

And, there were talks about contests happening, I just don't think we have the time to dedicate to prioritize such a task to make it really work.


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## Hammer (Apr 22, 2010)

I think there are stages and cycles. Just like any hobby, we get excited about something and it occupies us for awhile until the next thing. Yet, there is usually some consistency. There is also point of equilibrium. Case in point with myself. I kept fish as a child and teenager, then stopped. About 12 years ago, I suddenly picked it up again and was floored with how far the hobby had moved. It was so exciting. 
I got into making my own 3-d concrete background for a Tanganyikan tank. Bred some cichlids, had a little colony for 5 years. 
Then, I couldn't help but notice the advancement in planted tanks and some outstanding examples by people on forum. So I am into that now with a South American community... Lots of little colourful fish. I noticed that my time on BCA always increased with each new project. There is a wealth of knowledge and opportunity for the hobbyist here. There are many generous contributors and lots to learn. It is important to keep it going.


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## datfish (Sep 7, 2012)

stratos said:


> I've noticed forum use is down for the "large fish" or "monsterfish" part of the aquarium hobby, pretty much world-wide. www.arofanatics.com (Singapore), MonsterFishKeepers.com (USA), www.arowanaclub.ca (Canada) are all down in traffic. In chatting with a Canadian Youtube aquarium personality, he tells me that Facebook is where the action is these days. I am not convinced as I think a lot of Facebook is just bots. In any case, aquarium forum use does seem down, not only in Canada, but around the world. I agree with Anthony - blame the video games!


Hey hey, I make time to be active on bca and play video games! The aquarium subreddit (reddit.com/r/aquariums) is still a very active forum worth checking out and I've only noticed it growing.


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## Dawna (Jul 29, 2013)

That's funny. I stopped games and have spent way more time with aquarium hobby


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Getting involved with the aquarium hobby and BCAquaria have in several ways changed my life for the better: I've gotten away from video games, modifying cars, and generally wasting my time. I've met a bunch of great people. When my friends and relatives visit they love to stare at the tanks and talk about them. I've learned a lot of very relevant things that ACTUALLY APPLY TO LIFE rather than useless video game knowledge like how "equipping X weapon makes my character cast spells X times more frequently."


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## Atom (Apr 21, 2010)

Personally I think the rise of social media has led people to interact and find information outside of forums. I'm not a big Facebook user but I can see how that would draw people away. There is actually quite an active pet/aquarium community of Instagram. However, when I need to speak to an expert or access and archive on a specific topic I'm researching forums are still the best place to go IMO. I mostly use the forum these days to check what's new with the sponsors and what new and exciting stock is coming in.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

I think another reason could be that when BCA first took off a decade ago, good information was a lot harder to find online and what better place to ask a question than with the local group of hobbyists. It was also a nice place to just hang out and chit chat, trade livestock and equipment, and just generally be good neighbors. Nowadays its so easy to get good information as there's a group of solid niche aquarium forums such as MFK, Reefcentral, Planetcatfish, Plantedtank, Simplydiscus, etc... Those guys have all done a great job gathering expertise as you can tell from the number of worldwide users. So if I'm looking for advice on plecos or need to do some pleco related research, I'm going straight to PC. 

I think now BCA is largely a local buy and sell and a place for sponsors to promote their shops which for what it does works just fine.


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## April (Apr 21, 2010)

I sell on here but I also read and I use it for seeing trends and what people want or seeing new things I haven't seen or tried etc. . Then of course I google .
There's lots of knowledge on here for planted tanks etc. always lots to learn . 



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## Hammer (Apr 22, 2010)

Tony1928,
Many of the sponsors here are also strong contributors that add significantly to the pool of knowledge. In fact, at least one of several of sponsors almost always adds to a thread. Because of what they said, I make a point of purchasing from these because I feel I am getting more in terms of customer service and in many cases, quality. I see several of these sponsors as active members of bca which I have learned something from or have influenced by.


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

Hammer said:


> Tony1928,
> Many of the sponsors here are also strong contributors that add significantly to the pool of knowledge. In fact, at least one of several of sponsors almost always adds to a thread. Because of what they said, I make a point of purchasing from these because I feel I am getting more in terms of customer service and in many cases, quality. I see several of these sponsors as active members of bca which I have learned something from or have influenced by.


Agreed. Look how long I've stuck around so I'm still a very happy participant. We've got a good group of long time sponsors who have stuck it out. It's all good dialogue. For me this is what BCA 2.0 or is it 3.0? Lol

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## rescuepenguin (Apr 21, 2010)

its a time issue for me... Family moved to a different city...2 jobs...etc...etc...


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## charles (Apr 21, 2010)

Summer is always slow. Sun and fun outdoor in BC and vacation for other ppl. Hopefully, it picks up.


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