Jestersix

Dbtc thoughts, comments and issues

Not to sidetrack to much, but there are definitely very different corals called purple stylo. I have (or had) 2 kinds- one was from ORA, is short and stubby and the skeleton was literally harder than rock (almost uncuttable including with a band saw). The other is thin branch, and easy to cut- actually if I bump it, it breaks.

But yeah, supporting your point that we should keep chains separate.
Also sometimes people get poccilopora and even serratopora confused with styllophora. If we lumped them together that could cause a lot of confusion with one mistake
 
Speaking personally I looked at dbtc as a honor in a way and it kind of worried me. Someone is giving you something that they paid for and cared for. Its kind of like watching over a friend's pet and with that it is your responsibility on keeping it alive and well taken care of. It's one thing burning my own money on coral but i feel entirely different asking to do it at someone else's expense. So that is why I wanted to try and offer some coral before I even asked for other people to offer coral to me.
That is a reasonable way to think of some of the higher end offerings. But 95% of the available offerings are stuff that overgrows in our tanks and should not be thought of that way.
 
Speaking personally I looked at dbtc as a honor in a way and it kind of worried me. Someone is giving you something that they paid for and cared for. Its kind of like watching over a friend's pet and with that it is your responsibility on keeping it alive and well taken care of. It's one thing burning my own money on coral but i feel entirely different asking to do it at someone else's expense. So that is why I wanted to try and offer some coral before I even asked for other people to offer coral to me.
Saying this makes me want to share with you!
 
I bet @jhuynh would love to respond here. Too bad he's not a supporting member and can't. Lol
you-rang.gif
 
Could we start by consolidating lineaged pieces? For example, every JF Beach Bum could probably all be lumped together, but users can add themselves as a new source (a separate chain, under one name. That way if there's issues with a couple corals they can still be traced back to a source.) This way labels aren't not just intermingling, but people can request for beach bum 1 time, and one of the threads will give it to them.

Instead of outright deletion of old threads, however, maybe hide old threads and move them to an "archive" folder. Some corals may still be around and it may be useful to long-time members, but I don't think the average user should need to wade through so manydead threads.

I agree with Derek that transportation is the limiting factor. DBTC lockers would have to deal with dips, coordination if frags die (maybe they could be "shared" with the locker on barcode), tank costs, time, etc. Shipping is not exorbitant but still not cheap, most places in the Bay Area cost $15 to ship 2 day shipping, and supplies / packing time and experience are an issue. A DBTC van would be cool but it would take someone's whole day. Not quite sure what the solution could be.

I also think that while incentives aren't the problem, I still think "every x frags given = some prize" could still be a fun mechanic. The prize could be BAR sticker, a raffle ticket at a swap, maybe a t-shirt at 50 or 100 dbtc shared. Doesn't even have to cost anything; profile badges or name colors etc are all options
 
Could we start by consolidating lineaged pieces? For example, every JF Beach Bum could probably all be lumped together, but users can add themselves as a new source (a separate chain, under one name. That way if there's issues with a couple corals they can still be traced back to a source.) This way labels aren't not just intermingling, but people can request for beach bum 1 time, and one of the threads will give it to them.

Off the record - this is what I was proposing and I agree with you, but it got shot down pretty fast.

On the record - @tribbitt's inflammatory and offensive comments do NOT reflect the views or opinions of my 2025 campaign for office.


I agree with Derek that transportation is the limiting factor. DBTC lockers would have to deal with dips, coordination if frags die (maybe they could be "shared" with the locker on barcode), tank costs, time, etc. Shipping is not exorbitant but still not cheap, most places in the Bay Area cost $15 to ship 2 day shipping, and supplies / packing time and experience are an issue. A DBTC van would be cool but it would take someone's whole day. Not quite sure what the solution could be.

It's a tricky problem, it may just be as simple as making it easier for members to make more efficient trips and/or coordinating some regional DBTC swaps.
 
Could we start by consolidating lineaged pieces? For example, every JF Beach Bum could probably all be lumped together, but users can add themselves as a new source (a separate chain, under one name. That way if there's issues with a couple corals they can still be traced back to a source.) This way labels aren't not just intermingling, but people can request for beach bum 1 time, and one of the threads will give it to them.

Instead of outright deletion of old threads, however, maybe hide old threads and move them to an "archive" folder. Some corals may still be around and it may be useful to long-time members, but I don't think the average user should need to wade through so manydead threads.

I agree with Derek that transportation is the limiting factor. DBTC lockers would have to deal with dips, coordination if frags die (maybe they could be "shared" with the locker on barcode), tank costs, time, etc. Shipping is not exorbitant but still not cheap, most places in the Bay Area cost $15 to ship 2 day shipping, and supplies / packing time and experience are an issue. A DBTC van would be cool but it would take someone's whole day. Not quite sure what the solution could be.

I also think that while incentives aren't the problem, I still think "every x frags given = some prize" could still be a fun mechanic. The prize could be BAR sticker, a raffle ticket at a swap, maybe a t-shirt at 50 or 100 dbtc shared. Doesn't even have to cost anything; profile badges or name colors etc are all options

While I agree with everything you just said, I want to highlight the first paragraph. I think that could really help simplify DBTC.
 
Not a bad idea. We used to have meetings almost every month. Then mostly every other month. Now we mostly just have frag swaps. Making a monthly dbtc get together would be cool imo. Could be combined with other stuff like fragging workshops etc easily
I think that would be great to have workshops mixed in as well. I think the main thing would just making something like this set in stone that we have a monthly thing. I think that it would make not only the DBTC the chain stronger but also build up relationships with members as it gives more opportunities for people to show up.
That is a reasonable way to think of some of the higher end offerings. But 95% of the available offerings are stuff that overgrows in our tanks and should not be thought of that way.
Alot of it is just my personal feelings of having a hard time excepting things from people that i didn't have to work or do anything for. @ReyDeFarts has been very generous with me and it still feel awkward with all the generosity received.
 
None of those points have any interest to me at all to start a new DBTC. I used to start a DBTC in hopes to spread the coral and bank a coral. Most people here have used it to get free coral. Almost all chains don’t last past a single level. I don’t even participate in DBTCs anymore because I’ve seen that they eventually die because only a few members pass on frags after getting them.

If you’re going to encourage anything, it’s not the originator that needs to be incentivized, there are plenty of those types of members here to do that, it’s the continuation/propagation of the coral that is the largest problem and finding a way to get rid of the “freeloaders.”
IME - this pretty much sums it up. I tried to be more active and started adding high end sps, but didn't end up well. I even changed my rules when barcode was introduced and some members (@iani) still uses it. the dtbc is only good for spreading common corals around to get memebers started. high end dtbc won't survive long enough through phases. I've passed out 15+ frags of high end sps and maybe 1 survived. if that person still has it, i would like a frag if possible since it's the only linage I want to collect.

my main impression of the dtbc - people think they are entitled to join any dtbc as they wish and expect things in return because they paid their membership fee.
 
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This is what I think about DBTC...

1) I think it would be good for the club to spend some money and get some corals that are not common in our group. Get a bigger colony and spread it to 3 or 5 active members and have it as CLUB DBTC. You spread the CLUB DBTC to member that have been successful in that category and have a good number of DBTC spread in that category, and they would be the leading DBTC member. And you can have category's like Zoa, Soft Corals, SPS and other category. I'm not sure if it wil be a good idea to get the corals right from the wild from a wholeseller. It would make more sense to me, to get it from somebody that had that coral for at least 1 month in their system to avoid getting bad corals that will die in our systems. I participate in a group buy before and we got the coral from wholseller and proabably ike 50% of the corals we got died over the spend of a few weeks.

2) The other problem that I see is that members will sign up for a DBTC I have and they never come to get it, because I might be to far away from them and there is no way for them to get the frag. So if you are like an hour away from that person is not that great to spend the time and money to get 2 frags. So we would need to have some kind of logistic improvement

3) Maybe it would be good if I could somehow select a location let's say San Francisco and than you see all the DBTC that you can get from San Francisco area, in that way you could potentially arrange with multiple members from that area and you can get lets say 10 frags from 3 different members.

4) For the DBTC it would be good if I could add a picture or change the picture of the colony after the DBTC was created. I wanted to add some pictures of the coral to my older DBTC chains and I can't.

5) Also if I have more valuable DBTC frags I will always try to give them to another member that are active DBTC contributors. Maybe others should do the same if they have higher valued corals.
 
Off the record - this is what I was proposing and I agree with you, but it got shot down pretty fast.

On the record - @tribbitt's inflammatory and offensive comments do NOT reflect the views or opinions of my 2025 campaign for office.




It's a tricky problem, it may just be as simple as making it easier for members to make more efficient trips and/or coordinating some regional DBTC swaps.
If we could identify a regional person willing to hold things same for bar equipment, south bay, east bay, north bay, and peninsula, it would make things easier for most people. All around would make dbtc corals eaiser to pick up as well assuming they have a quarantine/ holding tank they would be willing to house random corals from random members.

The thought of driving 2 hours scares me so limits me alot. This those is something we can eventually overcome with more thought. Region bar Hub person.

Than we find volunteers willing to once or twice a month brings things from one hub to another.
 
If we could identify a regional person willing to hold things same for bar equipment, south bay, east bay, north bay, and peninsula, it would make things easier for most people. All around would make dbtc corals eaiser to pick up as well assuming they have a quarantine/ holding tank they would be willing to house random corals from random members.

The thought of driving 2 hours scares me so limits me alot. This those is something we can eventually overcome with more thought. Region bar Hub person.

Than we find volunteers willing to once or twice a month brings things from one hub to another.
The regional people to hold equipment are the BOD members and the past-presidents who are willing.

Regional people/stores to hold and manage DBTC/PIF corals is unlikely to happen for a number of reasons. Facilitating bringing them to our meetings/events like we do at swaps is more realistic, could be expanded.
 
Just wanted to throw it out there, picked up some rainbow polyps at the swap, they were/are pretty tiny, but they look like the green center yellow/orange center line overall purple clove polyps. They are growing pretty fast, started with 2-3 polyps, already up to 7 polyps. Looks like maybe 3 active chains for this coral at the moment. I was thinking about starting a dbtc for it soon, probably 4-6 weeks. My thoughts are:

Pros: DBTC, easier access for some members that might be around me, since I’m on the outer vicinity of the club territory.

Cons: adding more filler DBTCs that people might not be interested in and could become DOA
 
This is what I think about DBTC...

1) I think it would be good for the club to spend some money and get some corals that are not common in our group. Get a bigger colony and spread it to 3 or 5 active members and have it as CLUB DBTC. You spread the CLUB DBTC to member that have been successful in that category and have a good number of DBTC spread in that category, and they would be the leading DBTC member. And you can have category's like Zoa, Soft Corals, SPS and other category. I'm not sure if it wil be a good idea to get the corals right from the wild from a wholeseller. It would make more sense to me, to get it from somebody that had that coral for at least 1 month in their system to avoid getting bad corals that will die in our systems. I participate in a group buy before and we got the coral from wholseller and proabably ike 50% of the corals we got died over the spend of a few weeks.

2) The other problem that I see is that members will sign up for a DBTC I have and they never come to get it, because I might be to far away from them and there is no way for them to get the frag. So if you are like an hour away from that person is not that great to spend the time and money to get 2 frags. So we would need to have some kind of logistic improvement

3) Maybe it would be good if I could somehow select a location let's say San Francisco and than you see all the DBTC that you can get from San Francisco area, in that way you could potentially arrange with multiple members from that area and you can get lets say 10 frags from 3 different members.

4) For the DBTC it would be good if I could add a picture or change the picture of the colony after the DBTC was created. I wanted to add some pictures of the coral to my older DBTC chains and I can't.

5) Also if I have more valuable DBTC frags I will always try to give them to another member that are active DBTC contributors. Maybe others should do the same if they have higher valued corals.
your #1 isnt going to work. how i see it, if you want less common things, buy it yourself, and add it to dtbc to pick a banker who has success in the hobby as your backup. or do what everyone does, wait until a high end comes onto dtbc and add yourself to it, hope they pick you to get it to stock your tank after you get rid of your less common corals that hogging precious real estate.
 
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I was trying to avoid rabbit hole'ing too far, but now that the thread is renamed: for me the main issue with DBTC is it's not about the coral and propagation, it's about the individual. "This is my chain, I control how these corals are used in perpetuity until you meet my criteria, even recursively for future frags". To me the purest version is PIFs where it'd be wonderful if you could see how other people's are growing and how they were later distributed, even without special conditions on what you give out.

I don't think unconstrained giveaways (PIF) are in conflict with constrained ones (current DBTC) though. Not to go too computer nerdy, but it's all trees and sub-trees.

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The top of this tree is the coral (#0). Some people give away that coral with no conditions (#2), others might give away with conditions (eg #1). They're all the same coral. Ideally the setup is oriented then around the coral and within it you can see info about it. Here's what this coral looks like in tank A vs B, and growth over time. Oh and btw personX has said in the past they can give it away free, while personY wants $10, and personZ gives it free but requires you to name your first child after them.
 
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