Parosphromenus newsletter 87 Bielefeld (Germany), 01.04.2011 Sender: The Steering Group (author of this newsletter: Peter Finke)
Topics this time:
1. Thanks 2. State of affairs 3. The new Forum 4. New members 5. Census completed
1. Thanks
Dear Members of the Parosphromenus-Project, after you have by many small and some bigger donations made possible the development of our website, we asked in
our last newsletter for aid with the translations into the English and French version. And here again you did so: four people presently support us with the most urgent
English translations, in particular we would like to name Christian Koepp, who greatly contributes to success! But David Armitage, who gives the rough translations the
final touch, nevertheless does no simple job, but still adds some real improvements. We could still need assistance for the German – French translations; perhaps there
are some members who could relieve Hugues Van Besien with his work?
One thing is clear from this: The Parosphromenus Project is a true community project and builds a big network! When the site will be published, everybody is able to
recognize that.
2. State of affairs
And that is the subject that concerns us in this weeks and months at the most: the creation of the new website. What is the state of affairs?
Well, many (not all) is done in the German version, but work on the English version is also well advanced. The title page is already available in French, too. There
are a few highlights, such as the integration of Google Maps, the explicit inclusion of environmental political aspects, the first pages on the species-presentations,
technical repression of the usual wild copying and our new forum (more on that later).
Until now we have not published the Internet address of our growing site, for many things are unfinished yet, but quite a few people have already found it! In fact, if
you enter the keyword "Parosphromenus Project" in a search engine one ends up very quickly in the middle of our "building site". Because of this some new friends
of the licorice gouramis have registered already (see below), it is probably no longer reasonable to still make a secret of it. So, www.parosphromenus.project.org is
the address. But be careful! You must not be disappointed that the English pages are still somewhat sparse, that you only find a few pictures, that only a few
species are described up to now, that not everything is perfect, but much still has to be tried out. We probably will arrive in the autumn of this year, until everything is
finished as far as that most errors and the largest gaps are eliminated. Much concern has to be put on everything and almost twenty employees must be coordinated.
And we do all this besides the things we have to do mainly. In particular, Helene Schoubye has taken the main burden and makes this a very big job! So please consider
this when you visit the intermediate result. But do this and make us good suggestions if you have some. A littlepraise would also do us well (if you see it like this!).
3. The new forum
We very much hope that the new forum will prove to become a success. It is a great experiment: an international, even intercontinental forum, where everybody could
use the language he/she prefers. However, we recommend English.
It is not clear from the beginning, how to organize such a global information network. For example, no one is interested in the U.S., whether P. nagyi appear in pet shops
in France, and certainly no one is interested in Asia at which date German aquarists want to meet for a conference. On the other hand, there are issues that might interest
all. We have therefore decided to introduce four basic categories that allow to link the regional and global interests together: "Global" is for contributions without local
regard (eg, identification problems of general interest, care and breeding, techniques, questions, or ideas). "Asian" should collect contributions from the home countries of
our fish and from other Asian countries (Japan!), such as about current environmental problems, field trips and excursions, or many other things; in Europe or in America
many people will also like to look at it, because it could become a window that opens to the world. "European" is waiting for contributions from the European centers of
the aquaristic practises concerning licorice gouramis, and one must also take into account the different interests in different countries. And "American" finally enables our
U.S. or Canadian friends to speak to each other and to the rest of the world, and that could certainly work out as a strengthening of the communication network among
themselves and with friends in other countries. For these areas we seek especially competent moderators, to make sure that not everything is messed up. In this
way we hope to enable a good transcontinental "networking" and a "broadening of our horizons."
4. New members
Because some people have found our web address already, some new members of our network have already signed in, particularly from Norway and the United States.
We are pleased, for example by contact with Tony Pinto, who used to holiday in south-east Asia with Barbara and Allan Brown, and we have posted a mail from him on
the forum. Or Mark Denaro, another American expert on "licorice gouramis" has equally said to be pleased that we have established the Parosphromenus Project.
Therefore we gladly look forward to sharing our experiences!
5. Census completed
Briefly at the end: Christian Hinz has completed (shortly before his next trip to Malaysia) the Spring Census 2011, reminding some people by mail to quickly partcipate.
There were many great changes lately that always cause delay and some losses, but soon we know all the results of what is the latest stock.
We will send the evaluation as we did before via mail, but then put it on the website, too, there only available to members.
So much for today. Best regards, the Steering Group
(David Armitage, Hugues van Besien, Bernd Bussler, Martin Fischer, Herve Gonin, Christian
Hinz, Uwe Küster, Dr. Uwe Römer, Helene Schoubye, Benjamin Wilden), i.A. Peter Finke
