nominations for July's Tank Of The Month (TOTM)

[nunofs]

July is gone but I'd still like to keep to an "every other month" frequency for the "Tank Of The Month" (should probably be renamed "Tank Of Every Other Month", but for some reason TOEOM doesn't sound as good as TOTM )... so I'm asking for nominations for the next TOTM.

Last time there were only three nominations, I'm hoping to get more this time... as I mentioned on the last thread, it doesn't matter if it's a huge tank, a small tank, a softie tank, or something else that's not everyone's "dream tank"... the previous TOTMs are a very tough act to follow but all tanks have a story behind them and we all learn by sharing it with others... so send in your nominations, don't be shy!

To make it more interesting, the BOD has approved a prize for the winner of the TOTM: a $50 gift certificate to the sponsor LFS of your choice!
(just for the record, this will have retroactive effect, and the same prize will be awarded to previous winners)

Here are a few rules for submitting nominations:

- the idea is to collect nominations from all members, you can nominate your own tank or another member's tank
- one nomination per member
- nominations should be sent by email only to an account I've created for this purpose: brs_totm(at)homeontheweb(dot)org
- in the email, please include the alias/screenname of the tank owner, and your own alias/screenname (so that we can make sure it's one nomination per member); no real names needed, but screennames are required
- the deadline is Saturday, August 6th (until the end of the day)

I will be collecting the nominations and on 8/7 will do one of two things:
- if there is a tank that has a reasonable lead in number of nominations, I'll announce that tank as the TOTM
- if there is a tie, or if the top spots are very close together in number of nominations, I will post a poll thread and we'll be able to vote to pick one out of those tanks.

Please don't post your nominations on this thread, and don't PM me directly, all nominations must be sent by email to: brs_totm(at)homeontheweb(dot)org

Nuno

 

[nunofs]

Since there are a lot of newer members who may not know what other people's tanks look like (and vice-versa, longtime members may not know about the great tanks of people who just joined the club), feel free to "campaign" for your favorite tank (yours or someone else's)... so feel free to post pictures, or links to a website, or a description here on this thread to help other people make their nomination.

The actual nominations should still be sent in by email, as described above.

Nuno

 

[nunofs]

We're halfway through the nomination period... you have until Saturday to send them in!

 

[~Flighty~]

Bump

I wish I could get out to see other members tanks more. I know there are some really nice ones among us. For now I'll have to live vicariously through Nuno's pictures

 

[nunofs]

Only two people (thanks, Casey and Abbey!) took the trouble to send in a nomination... as much as I value those nominations, this is in no way representative of the membership of the club, and much less representative of the hundreds of people that browse our forums, so I'm cancelling this TOTM contest.

Given the general lack of interest and the fact that this is a thankless "job" (I've dedicated dozens of hours of my free time putting together the last two articles and still get criticised for being late with the articles), I'm quitting my role as "TOTM guy"... if anyone wants to step up and handle the TOTM in the future, please let it be known.

The only thing I ask is that the prizes that were awarded to the two previous winners are actually delivered, as I personally promised Bec and Chuck that they'd be receiving their prize (after the prizes were approved by the BOD).

Nuno

 

[clamm]

Thats too bad, you did a great job. But what can you do if no one wants to participate.

Thanks for the past service nuno, the articles were great.

 

[PTucker]

that stinks, but I do understand where you are coming from nuno. Personally I look forward to the TOTM as the first two TOTMs were great, I dont know how many others feel the same but I have not had a chance to see many other members tanks at all. If I had to go by the "show your full frontals" in the photo forum I could choose based on those photos, other than that I wish I had more input to give regarding nominating someone. Your efforts dont go unnoticed, and maybe mid summer is not the best time to get people into the habbit of voting on this fairly new topic. I would suggest to give it one last try in the fall maybe, when more folks are at the computer, if more people begin to vote over the winter than it would make sense that next summer it may be much more common. I will surely be voting on the next one. Thanks,PT

 

[Moe_K]

I second what PT said.

 

[nunofs]

I understand what you guys are saying (btw, thanks for the kind words) but I was expecting that some people would nominate their own tanks, especially now that there's a prize involved... but that didn't happen at all (the nominations I got were for other people's tanks). IIRC there was some talk when I started this that the nominations could be made by a smaller group of people (BOD? officers? a "nominating committee"?) but that never seemed very fair to me, to be honest, and I doubt it would receive much more interest than it receives now.

Also, this isn't the first time that participation is very low, last time (March/April) I only received 3 nominations... there was a vote after that, and many more people voted, but still only three people cared enough to submit a nomination in the first place. That's what leads me to believe that it's not the slow time of year that's to blame.

Nuno

 

[Moe_K]

I think there might be an intimidation factor at work.

 

[nunofs]

Moe: do you mean that people feel intimidated by the earlier winning tanks? Or that they feel intimidated at submitting a nomination for themselves? I tried to address the latter concern by having the whole process be as anonymous as possible (ie, when I say "these are the tanks that have been nominated", I don't say who nominated them, if the owner or someone else)... this should put people at ease, no one will know if someone submitted their own tank (not that there's anything wrong with being proud of your tank and submitting it, quite on the contrary)...

Regarding the first concern, there's really not much I can do about it, other than posting what I posted above when asking for nominations... doing "themed" TOTMs (eg, a softies tank, or tanks under X gallons, etc, to exclude the large, beautiful SPS dominated tanks) would be another possibility, but I don't think it's very fair or very easy to do in practice (and I'm not sure if it would create any more interest).

Nuno

 

[Moe_K]

Yeah, the first concern, and the summer doldrums.
Maybe we should feature my nasty cyano ridden 20 gallon tank.
That way everyone will see they have a better tank.

 

[nunofs]

But this is not (in my view, anyway) about being the "best" tank... it's about being proud of what you've achieved, and wanting to share it with others.

Nuno

 

[Ray]

Maybe pick a size each month and people could put in there size tank. like one month it could me nano tanks (under xx gallons) another month 25-45 gallon tanks then maybe 75-90 gallons, then 110-150 then corner tanks, mixed reefs, SPS only,yad ayda yada
That might get more people submitting their tanks. I know I would submit my tank if you were looking for types.

 

[Valexia]

Ray makes a great point, i really don't even feel worthy of TOTM based on the fact that alllll my tank volume combined= only close to a hundred gallons, my tanks are small, i keep mostly softies. I am proud personally of my tanks but I would be afraid of people really "downing" my tank b/c it isn't an acro dominated tank, i don't have the best gizmos and i must admit, i keep it because I like it, not for bragging rights.
Maybe if it was less of a contest and more of a sharing with others there would be more participation.
I recently was honored with TOTM on another reef board, i was asked if i would participate. The way it is run there is that the TOTM owner writes the article, and includes pictures.
I think this would be a more successful approach.
Just my two cents.

 

[One Eye]

Ray/Nuno, that's what we used to do. We selected a tank size range and asked everyone in that range to submit a photo. The photos where voted on just like in Nunos photo contests. Doing that again could open things back up. After the voting is over Nuno could ask the winner for an article OR he could go work his magic!

We never had an article about the tanks before and that might scare away the average reefer, we used to give away BRS hats or shirts at the next meeting. So Nuno may have to work his magic, but I think participation would increase dramaticly.

 

[Triggerfish]

i agree having folks just send in their photos...then open up the voting...
same tank could win continuously..something that could be an honor to have the TOTM for like a year running...and then perhaps TOTY depending on how many months that systems was voted for. something for members to strive for to achieve such status.

it may turn into a popularity contest with the majority favoring some type of look..(system overload compared to a more realistic "complete" ocean reef look).

the established systems and perhaps enhanced with better photography equipment, will have an advantage starting off, but this is an ever evolving hobby.

 

[Shallowwaters]

NUNO - DON'T QUIT!!!!!! Your tank profiles are as good as any forum out there!! Eveyrbody is interested and the page views have been huge. I actually haven't seen the numbers, but I know I personally looked at Bec's and Chuck's tank photos enough times to get them ranked really high on Google.

Your photography and tank profile should be the prize!

It's a great idea to rotate tank competitions by size. Let's put a schedule for what's coming up by month - or quarter - so people can prepare.

It's also a great idea to allow self submissions. I've been waiting for a nomination, but only two people have seen my tank. One is my dog - I count him as people because he such a good boy.

Nuno - We need you to run this!!! Please?!!!

 

[~Flighty~]

I like the idea of having people submit their tanks just because they fit a size. I would never submit my own tank for tank of the month, but I would submit it as a 120 gallon if we were asked for any 100-150 tanks.

I also think the name "Tank of the month" is very intimidating. People feel like tanks that aren't in the calss of Bec's don't qualify because of other contests using that name. Up against that mine would only qualify for the April fools issue.

Oh ya, please don't quit. Thank you for the wonderful job you have done on the two previous ones.

 

[Yaktop]

NUNO - DON'T QUIT!!!!!! Your tank profiles are as good as any forum out there!! Eveyrbody is interested and the page views have been huge. I actually haven't seen the numbers, but I know I personally looked at Bec's and Chuck's tank photos enough times to get them ranked really high on Google.

Your photography and tank profile should be the prize!

It's a great idea to rotate tank competitions by size. Let's put a schedule for what's coming up by month - or quarter - so people can prepare.

It's also a great idea to allow self submissions. I've been waiting for a nomination, but only two people have seen my tank. One is my dog - I count him as people because he such a good boy.

Nuno - We need you to run this!!! Please?!!!

I agree with mark, you do a great job - professional an talented. reefers are strange people and all most all of them that have fabulous tanks are anal at it and are never satisfied. they want their tank to be better than it is and certainly as good as previous winners. not surprised people are nominating themselves; but for those who get to the level they feel is worthy to be on the forum I hope you can step forward (again) and do an artlce. this is one of the problems with TOTM, very hard to succeed it monthly when you have so few. hope you would consider continuing under different guidelines. great job and thank you.