Expert Exodus

I haven't tried searching, but if past experience is any indication, I'll likely get hundreds of hits.  Narrowing it down to a relevant thread is a PITA (one the reasons I don't spend much time there, it's just too big for me).  Can you point to any specific thread?

It must be hot and juicy if no one here wants to talk about it...

 Expert Exodus

By the way Jon, when I saw this topic I thought you were referring to the end of April.  Then I remembered you aren't going............. yet.

Adam

These are only my opinions.  I used to spend as much time on RC as here, but there's only so many hours in a day and I'd rather spend time here with friends.  Anyway...

#1) Will the new Borneman/Shimek forums be as popular or close to as popular as they were on RC?

I didn't know they were planning new forums?  Are they already doing it?  I would say without a doubt they will be less popular (or populated) then RC.  Both Eric and Ron have devout fans who will go where ever they go and I think most people on RC will lament there leaving, but I think RC will go on as if nothing happened.  Most on RC just want someplace to garner opinion and quite frankly RC is the best place on the net to get that.  You'll never find a more diverse crowd... anywhere.  For example, I'll bet you won't ever read positively about BB in a Shimek forum.

#2) How much will this hurt/help RC?

In my eyes it hurts RC.  Experts, especially ones currently doing research, are THE avenue to none-anecdotal fact.  When they leave or don't participate, you're left wading through everyone else's opinion.  Personally, I felt like both Ron and Eric were (or could be) terse with people posting in their forum.  I can sympathise with them... how many times can you look at a fuzzy photo of a snail and say "It's a harmless algae eating snail" before you start to get cross.  This made them a little unapproachable.  But if I ever had a question regarding sand bed critters or coral disease, I would go directly to their expert forums.

Also, RC looses two major contributors to it's on-line magazine, Reefkeeping.  That really hurts!  Oh well, I always like Advanced Aquarist better anyway .

#3) Did Borneman make RC bigger and better, did RC make Borneman bigger and better, both, or neither? (you can replace bigger and better with popular if you like)

I gotta think that RC helped eric/ron more then they helped RC.  RC was early on the reef forum scene.  I think people would have gravitated to RC even if these experts weren't there.  I'm not saying that they didn't help RC, because they most certainly did.  But on balance, I think they were benefited more then RC.

JAKE-

Please answer my questions as well.  I'm anxious to hear your thoughts.

Adam

Feel free to tell me your thoughts on this.... http://www.marinedepot.com/forums/

I see the obvious "loss of credibility" issue if mods report poorly about a product not offered by marine depot or report positively about a product being pushed by marine depot.  Or worse, mods editing or deleting posts.  If marine depot can keep their hands out of it and allow complete autonomy to the mods then it should/could work out ok.  Lots of big names there...