Tip of the Day – 6/23/2014

If you’re looking for advice on aquariums, whether it be a question on equipment or livestock, be very careful where you get your information from. With the ever growing importance of social media in our lives, more and more hobbyists are shying away from aquarium forums and are taking to Facebook Groups. While the thought of aquarium hobbyists coming together online to discuss tips and tricks to aquarium keeping may seem like a totally good and worry-free idea, the problem is that anyone can create a Facebook Group and anyone can come off as being an authoritarian on a particular subject. With an aquarium forum, you have things like join dates, post count, and even feedback scores to let you know that you’re dealing with someone who could possibly be trusted. Not to mention, you have plenty of fellow hobbyists there to validate the advice being handed out. On a Facebook Group, you don’t have any of those perks, and the group operator can delete comments at will with no repercussions from a club’s BOD, fellow moderators, or anything else. So, be careful with who you take advice from. In fact, be not just careful, but be doubtful as well.