Older Members

pacu mom

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2006
3,310
2,105
179
northern CA
I joined MFK because I had filtration questions. I quickly became addicted to browsing MFK. After 11 years, I rarely have questions, and if I do, I shoot a PM to the member who most likely could help me. I check MFK out of habit. Old habits are very hard to break. I now browse MFK mostly for entertainment.

It's interesting to just observe the dynamics on MFK. Young newbies join with questions. They very quickly become experts and start parroting the answers they receive to others. They generate multiple posts and threads every day trying to get their post counts up fast. Within a year or two, they are gone.....bright stars who quickly burn out.

Every once in a blue moon, a new big tank owner joins MFK and shares their build with us. Their posts are few and far between. I love threads like this one:

https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ter-tank-discussion-and-brainstorming.681814/
 

ermgravy

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 1, 2007
2,084
4
68
behind my iMac.... Southampton UK.
I admittedly was one of that generation once, Some of us do how ever stick around, learn a great deal and form a life long passion here, (even if it requires a few years out whilst we sort our priority's and get a proper stable foundation under ourselves.)

I think there is a element of nieveity of youth there too tho. like over here in the uk for example and pre river monsters airing on tv. There wasn't that much access to good solid info on certain sp. a lot of members keep, that over here in your average lfs havnt got a clue about, so certainly i became addicted to learning about various sp and finding out about new ones constantly for a good proportion of time being a new member.

From there i kind of found my thing and what i was into and concentrated more on those sections of the forum. there are many sections out side of ancient fish that I have never posted in and some i don't think i have ever opened except back in the busy days when the new posts button was actually relevant

I mainly come back now due to friends I made here who supported me through some rubbish times. people who reached out for no apparent reason sometimes from across the globe just to help. Friend who influence the person i am now and some the choices i made leading me to be here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DiXoN and pacu mom

Hendre

Bawitius
Staff member
Moderator
MFK Member
Jan 14, 2016
9,848
10,928
438
South Africa
I admittedly was one of that generation once, Some of us do how ever stick around, learn a great deal and form a life long passion here, (even if it requires a few years out whilst we sort our priority's and get a proper stable foundation under ourselves.)
Pretty much me in the making haha. :)

Everyone's gotta get their style and way of thinking. I enjoy the debate and conversation that happens here! That's one thing social media will never have
 

StIcKy~RiCe

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
May 24, 2005
2,564
738
150
~ Laos ~
I joined day before you and you’re 100% right, there was so much more enthusiastism back then. Facebook and Instagram has killed off much of that.
Curious how many member joined in 05 year like us that still visit the site.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Killduv

castro1212

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2012
869
13
18
27
metairie louisiana
The server crash started this problem. When the servers went, so too did the membership. I was still active at that time, and watching the traffic dwindle to nothing when we were having these problems was heartbreaking. The problem was caused by the old vBulletin software no longer being supported by the manufacturer, so we had a hard time ironing out our database issues to get the site worked out.

In the end, we had to migrate to different software: Xenforo. The problem is that the migration killed the old app: the way 80% of the member base accessed the site. XF is optimized for the mobile web, and was in every way a better UI than the old app, but members simply didn't want to use their browser for the site. I can't point fingers, I didn't want to, either.

At this point, we still had most of the member base. The members were loyal and willing to work with us, even if activity had dwindled.

The fact that we could not roll out a new app right away is what made people finally give up. After the Monster Energy battle, we just didn't have the resources to develop a new app from scratch, which quite frankly costs a buttload of money for a site this size.

It is what it is though. We've taken a huge hit, and we've been through some hard times. We're still here, though. I've been through hell, but for what it's worth, I am back now, too.

Let's rebuild this thing.
I was guilty of this. Without the app it was a pain to get on but a couple of weeks ago I just decided to search for the app in the App Store and found there was a new one out and here I am. Lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: Itsadeepbluesea

CHOMPERS

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 28, 2006
6,439
63
1,205
Sunnyvale Trailer Park
I was a late comer, I joined in 2006.
I rarely come here anymore, and usually I just look around a little. I am down to one running tank. I still have most of the larger tanks but they have been empty for several years.
 

assortedsorts

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2007
1,479
6
343
Ontario
Not OG, but I used to be very involved for a time!
There definitely doesn't seem to be as much action as I recall.
 

timtk

Exodon
MFK Member
Dec 29, 2017
87
60
26
28
I joined back in 07 with a different username and just got back into the hobby (forgot my password and the email I joined with is long gone). I got rid of all my tanks when I started college and I just finished so I picked up a few tanks. This place is definitely much less active and its a bummer to see that some of the real OGs haven't logged on in years or got out of the hobby. But outside of MFK the hobby seems to be going along just the same as it was. LFS are closing but I think thats just related to the onset of online vendors which is the same for most brick and mortar retail not because the hobby is dwindling. I think a lot of folks get their online fish fix from facebook, instagram and youtube now which weren't really used for hobby groups in 05 or until recently.
 
  • Like
Reactions: assortedsorts
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store