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Creating a Ratings Guide for NJ SW Fish Stores?

S

Sorcha

I know this would be subjective in a way...but would it be possible to create a ratings guide that can be kept and updated in this forum?

Criteria can be agreed upon by the members (i.e. Cleanliness of store & tanks, health of livestock, Aptasia/Ich, etc. present in tanks, customer service).

Each time a club member goes to a store they can come back and rate it based on the criteria. The store with the best rating goes to the top of the list.

Does this sound do-able?
 
S

Sorcha

Cool...wonder if we can move this along somehow. Happy to assist with it, but I'm not techie enough to do it on my own.

There are so many stores out there that are just crappy IMO. Sounds like most on here have travelled for the sake of a GOOD store with solid staff, clean tanks, healthy livestock.

And maybe those stores that are rated the best can be the ones the focus is on for club discounts. Gives the store great advertising, they have nothing to lose at all.

Never would have found Aquatic Obsessions if it weren't for the club and they were worth the trip. One of these days we'll take the ride down south to check out Trop.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
To do this the way you described, it would require a database where people could give the store a rating. The database would have to be integrated with the forums software so that it could track who ranked what store (so that if they want to change their ranking they can).

At present we're working on upgrading the software and an undertaking like this is quite distant on the horizon, with integrating our group buys high to our online databases high on the "need to do" list.

That said, if you can figure out a way to do this given the tools we already have (forums, posts, etc), then I'd be more than happy to make sure that you have what you need at your disposal.

Keep up the brainstorming and hopefully we can make it happen.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Is there a place in there to do the ratings, Rich? That would be cool.
 
RichT

RichT

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Every store location bubble has a ratings option. Click on Tropiquariums push pin. I think they have 2 ratings with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. It appears the most of the work is already done and all we would need to do is provide a convenient and well placed link. If we were able to integrate the information into our site somehow, that would be all the better, but not necessasarily necessary.
 
S

Sorcha

I've used that link before, but it's very dated. There are stores listed on there that have been out of business for a year or more. Also, I've tried to update it with stores that I know of and it won't take them.

Better than nothing though.

What if we did something as basic as just a rating from 1 - 4 (Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent). We could create a list of criteria and ask each person to rate each, the overall average is the stores rating. So if there were 5 things in the criteria list, the highest score would be a 20. Then the stores are listed from best to worst, showing their average scores for each of the criteria. It can be kept in an Excel spreadsheet for now and each rating would add to the overall average of each criteria & the total rating. If a link can be created for sending in the ratings, I would be happy to calc them and post the results in that forum. I'm guessing it would be an initial flurry of ratings and then it would be pretty random after that.

I'm also guessing that I'm making this sound easier than it might be. I haven't the faintest idea as to the website's capabilities and won't pretend otherwise. So feel free to put me in my place where that's concerned.

I don't want to make alot of work for anyone, happy to try and put the effort in. I can only imagine how much time the officers are already putting in on the site in their own time.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
If you'd like to accumulate the ratings, people could email you (you can setup a yahoo or equiv account for this) to get you their ratings of the various stores? Then you could summarize in excel and then we can post it somewhere.

That would at least get us started until we could do something more technologically advanced. Think up a rating system and post it here for comments and we can go from there.

Anyone try to create a store recently? I'm curious to know if it does/doesn't work anymore.

I think it is great, as long as it isn't adding to my already full NJRC Plate!
 
S

Sorcha

NJ Reefers Club - Retailer Ratings
1 = Poor 2 = Fair 3 = Good 4 = Excellent
Store:

Tanks:(i.e. Dead "Live"stock, Aptasia, Algea)
Livestock:( i.e. Healthy looking, Obvious Disease, Variety)
Drygoods:
Staff:(i.e Knowledgeable, Friendly, Helpful)
Pricing:
Overall Score:

I have Frontpage at home, I think that will allow this to be formatted better.  This is just a paste straight from Excel for now.  

Very preliminary - any suggestions for additional criteria?

I've set up an account for it, reeferratings@yahoo.com.  Sounds more like a cafe guide for Amsterdam...but you get the idea.   :D
 
O

ocmsolidsnake

I think the usage of just numbers 1-4 provides very limited information. You should look for a format that incorperates text descriptions to backi up ratings so that those who are reading can know the reasoning for the numbers given, and better information on the livestock, quality, service, etc...
 
S

Sorcha

ocmsolidsnake said:
I think the usage of just numbers 1-4 provides very limited information. You should look for a format that incorperates text descriptions to backi up ratings so that those who are reading can know the reasoning for the numbers given, and better information on the livestock, quality, service, etc...
Click to expand...

Open to any and all suggestions to make this better. Don't want to make this too cumbersome, maybe just adding a comments section for each?

If more than 1 - 4, what would you suggest the others "stand" for?
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I like the ratings with a details section for personal comments/impression. Sounds like the best of both worlds.
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I've tried to create a new store a few days ago and it wouldn't let me either.
 
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