Need your input!!!

Originally Posted by Milwaukee Reptiles

I don't see a seperate forum for rhacodactylus working, for a few reasons. First, if you create a seperate rhac forum that does get some traffic, the regular gecko forum will still be inactive (if not more so) than it is now. You'd be trading one small-traffic forum for another and a little-to-no-traffic forum. Now you might consider renaming this forum to something like "Rhacodactylus and Other Gecko Species" in order to put the Rhacodactylus name out there and more visible, but it still covers the other species.

I do agree with you that the best course of action is to hit up the Leo forum since many of these people are your multi-gecko species crowd. You need something that will help increase awareness that this forum exists and give people a reason to post here; maybe something as simple as a photo contest where people have some incentive to come here and post. Photo contests get pretty old pretty quickly, so maybe not, but you still need to give people a reason to post. At the moment the people aren't coming, and we need to examine why.

My guesses as to why people don't post here:
- Not enough traffic (they think they won't get a response or that people just don't care)
- They can already (get the info faster / are signed up) somewhere else. There's so many forums already set up for geckos (geckosunlimited, Repashy, pangea, KS, etc) that getting people here and involved is kind of tricky.
- Not enough meaningful discussion (my main reason). I don't mind looking at picture posts but in all honesty, they don't encourage me to get involved. If you look at the front page of the forum there is very little discussion of sales, care, genetics, species descriptions, ect. This might tie into number two (get the info somewhere else faster- eg. Repashy forums), but it's not like the leo forum where the majority of posts encourage active participation and debate. Photo posts just don't tie people emotionally to the forum. Because of this, people tend to avoid real discussion because it will be covered by photo posts which, in all honesty, I don't think many people really care about.

All this info is merely speculation and my opinion, but I hope it helps a little bit.

WTH kind of crested is that as your avatar i've never seen one like that before.

It's not a Crested, it's a Gargoyle Gecko (Rhac Auriculatus)

WOW it's amazing in colors, are garg's the same requirements as cresteds? are they as friendly or are they a little more to look at rather than to play with? my new crested is a nut he's so dang playful it's insane he wears me out all the time lol

Marcia I would first like to say it is great to see you taking over the gecko forum. I have not been on much lately and it was a nice suprise to see you and Kelli taking control of the forums.

Back to your question, I have to admit I am one of those that come here for the leo forum for the most part. When I have questions about other species I usually go to geckosunlimited. I had to ask myself - why? Well I remember when I first started coming here for the leo forum it was because there were names I recognized as being "Big" or "experienced" (GGG, HISS, A&M, USA, etc.) and it was their knowledge I was seeking. I guess that is the same reason I go to the other forum for other species. I don't think renaming the forum would be the solution. As far as starting another forum for just Rhacs, I think that would be cool, but it might also start something that would not fit fauna. Don't get me wrong Rhacs are great and are popular but so are other geckos. The next thing would be should we start an Aussie gecko forum. Make sense? And as Brian as stated it would not increase flow here. Maybe some guest chats in combination with photo contest would be cool. Another thing that would help is for all of us to participate in this forum. Answer questions and give people a reason to come. These are all just random thoughts on my part.

Marcia don't give up! Anything you do can only help.