# IAPLC Discussion Thread



## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Please discuss the International Aquaplant Layout Contest here.


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## vafd (Apr 20, 2005)

While many of entries are quite spectacular I, personally, find the usability of site not so hot. Rather than filtering by gender of a contestant I would rather see filters/sorters for tank volume, aquascape/biotope and such more relevant categories. It would be also advantageous to have bigger thumbnails and to be able to set up number of tanks shown per page.

Regards.

Vladimir.


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Thanks for the feedback Vladimir. We'll see what we can do.


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

I don't believe what we are seeing is the final presentation of the contest page. It is only the preliminary voting page. I hope that the final presentation will be much more pleasant and order the aquascapes more nicely.

Aquascape/biotope categories are irrelevant in this contest, as are tank volume, lighting, etc. Aquascape + Biotope are distinctions made by the AGA. 

In the APC Contest, the only relevant categories are Beginner, NON-CO2, and CO2. Only the CO2 and non-CO2 categories are competitive, as has been stated numerous times all over the world in dozens of languages.

Carlos


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

Filtering according to gender is a great idea. This function immediately shows that the female participants are only 6.5% which does not reflect male/female ratio in the forum. To me, this function implicitly encourages female participation. The evaluations can also be done on that basis.


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## Deni (Jul 6, 2005)

I know I haven't posted much -- only an introduction -- but I've been waiting to see the results of this contest ever since it was announced. Just some thoughts on the interface...

I understand the reason for the random display of thumbnails, but since a new random order is generated with each mouse click, it's conceivable that a voter might not ever see all of the thumbnails. Could we get a list of the names of the aquaria -- "Fireworks," "Wonderwood", etc. -- in alphabetical order so that we could print it out and check them off as we see them? That way we could go back through if we found we'd missed some and could make notations by our favorites to help narrow the selection down to one.

One thing that would help with the random thing is to have a new window open when the user clicks on a thumbnail. I try to remember to do that, but sometimes I forget when I get lost in all the pretty. 

I understand that things like tank volume aren't to be considered as categories for voting purposes, but I hope that, once the voting is finished, the photos will be searchable on criteria such as that for educational purposes. I really helps to get ideas for our own beginning planted aquaria to see others of similar size. 

Will we eventually be able to see the ones that were entered in the Beginner category?


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

By using the following mechanisms you can see the beginner category and you can order the tanks according to their titles.

Filter: 
Only entries in this category: Choose Beginners
Order:
Order by: Choose Aquarium title


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## Deni (Jul 6, 2005)

I'm sorry. I guess I thought when they said it was random, that I couldn't choose the order. Duh!!


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## PJAN (Feb 28, 2005)

Forgive me my ignorance..

I don't understand the difference between NON-CO2 en CO2 tanks.
C ( carbon) is only a nutrition element, like P, K, N etc.
With ideal water parameters for instance, one can have naturally already 20 mg CO2/l.
Also the use of Flourish Excel is a form of adding carbon, although in "fluid" form.
I can dose Excel (fluid) or CO2 (gass) to feed the plants some extra carbon....
In both cases, the outcome will be more or less the same.

So, what's the difference between adding Excel or CO2 ? 

Gr. PJAN


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

> Filtering according to gender is a great idea. This function immediately shows that the female participants are only 6.5% which does not reflect male/female ratio in the forum.


But why should anyone really care about that? I am interested in the photos, the layout, the plants and could care less about the male female ratio.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

I believe Faruk is a psychologist. One of the things he is trained to do is look at such comparisions. Also, he has done several studies and published papers regarding the socio-relationship to planted aquaria.

Maybe listening to his comments/suggestions can help us have better forums, generate increased participation and help us sell our aquarium stuff


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## jerseyjay (Jan 25, 2004)

Is there a NEXT button or do I have to go back each time having to see FireFox POSTDATA popup.


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## Robert Hudson (Feb 5, 2004)

Well, I do not mean to take anything away from Faruk, or show him any dis respect. I know he is doing his surveys here, (which I personally have no real interest in either), but I do not see what value statistical data has to an aquascaping contest or why it should be used as a search criteria. Statistical data does have some marketing advertising application, but you can not put too much importance on it because it is often technically flawed. Just like political polling. Look at the poll results of our last Presidential election. It was not even close to the actual outcome of the election.

Anyway, I do not mean to be critical. I am really looking forward to the final show of the contest. How many entries were there? How did it compare to the AGA contest?


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## gnatster (Mar 6, 2004)

The APC Contest has proven to be truly international with 81% of entries coming from outside the USA. Twenty four different countries are represented: USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Turkey, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.

Total entries: 155


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

It may be better to reverse the order of filtering items. The first item is gender and the second one is about the categories. The gender item can be placed after the category item. When the gender item is put first, may be people think that primary importance is given to the gender issue.

144 males + 10 females is not equal to 155. Either the total number of participants is 154 or there is a missing among the photos.

I agree with Jay. Postdata message appears also in IE.

A quick link on the yellow/orange bar to the contest page would be very beneficial.

I appreciate the APC staff's hard work done in an original manner.


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## Faruk Gençöz (Nov 4, 2005)

Inserting "country" item in to the filtering function would be another interesting point. It would give info about the number of participants from each country and allow to make *intra*national comparisons.


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## Gonzofish (Mar 26, 2005)

*Tanks for everything*

I'm sorry to be the first to say that everyone did a fantastic job with their aquascapes. I am very proud of all the contestants who were brave enough to put their creations on the chopping block. I now understand why the judges took so long to decide! I think we should all be thankful for the APC team who put this opportunity together for us. You guys rock!


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## tsunami (Jan 24, 2004)

If we want to draw comparisons with other contests, the APC Contest Ranks as follows:

Participation:

1st -- ADA 2005 (800-900?)
2nd -- IAPLC 2005 (154)
3rd -- AGA 2005 (~122)

Diversity:

1st -- ADA 2005 (31, I believe)
2nd -- IAPLC 2005 (27, there are three countries forgotten in the list: Serbia & Montenegro, Israel, and Russia)
3rd -- AGA 2005 (26)

Unofficial APC Contest map:










I believe about 80% of the layouts in the APC Contest were original or improved layouts from previous contests. There weren't as many repeat entries from ADA/AGA as first thought.

Incredible work!

Carlos


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Jay Luto said:


> Is there a NEXT button or do I have to go back each time having to see FireFox POSTDATA popup.


Good suggestion Jay. I'll look into it.


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Postdata messages should be avoided by using the Return to Entry List link rather than hitting the back button. Working on Next Previous links.



fgencoz said:


> Inserting "country" item in to the filtering function would be another interesting point. It would give info about the number of participants from each country and allow to make *intra*national comparisons.


What you are seeing is only the Popular Vote screens. In order to prevent vote fraud, we have removed certain filter functions and displayed information. Countries is one of them. This will be shown when the contest is closed.


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

Gonzo,

Thanks! Pulling off a contest of this nature is NOT an easy thing, especially the first time.

Most of the credit should appropriately go to Carlos and the judges who all did a tremendous job in carefully considering each entry.

Carlos,

Thanks for the map and country correction. Really amazing to see the worldwide participation.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

I have found it exceedingly easy to use tabbed browsing for the context.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

I just went through the entries and I have two comments:

- Bravo to all the contestants. A lot of very nice tanks!

- I'm glad I didn't have to be a judge on this contest; too many nice tanks to choose from!


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## neonfish3 (Feb 12, 2004)

Good job every one! 
The voting is very hard. 
To only pick one is near impossible!
It's too late now, but if there was a voting system with everyone able to vote a 1-10 on each tank. Ten being awesome, one being ehh(ho-hum). You would be able to vote a 10 on more than one tank or 8's, 4's, etc... Then a total score or average score of each tank could be used to pick the popular choice.
Just an idea.


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## dennis (Mar 1, 2004)

neonfish3 said:


> It's too late now, but if there was a voting system with everyone able to vote a 1-10 on each tank. Ten being awesome, one being ehh(ho-hum). You would be able to vote a 10 on more than one tank or 8's, 4's, etc... Then a total score or average score of each tank could be used to pick the popular choice.
> Just an idea.


Thats an interesting idea Steve but I don't think it would work, from a psychological standpoint. As one goes through the list voting, one's impressions of what constitutes a good scape would change. Therefore the ranking from the beginning and from the end would be based on a different set of values when compared to each other.

Do I make sense?


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## pineapple (May 4, 2004)

I think the 1-10 voting idea, averaging the votes received per tank, is an excellent and fair idea. Choosing one tank from all is virtually impossible, evening using tabbed browser viewing capabilities. To see how effective the 1-10 voting system is go to: www.dpchallenge.com

Or this page for results:
http://www.dpchallenge.com/challenge_results.php?CHALLENGE_ID=431

I'd also say that dividing according to gender is not a worthy or useful category. Gender might be an issue for psychologists to help them earn a living, but it bears little relevance in a person's ability to design a nice planted aquarium.

$0.02 worth.


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## MiamiAG (Jan 13, 2004)

The DP Challenge site is a custom built script. To develop something similar would cost quite a bit.

Be that as it may, we do appreciate that the 1-10 score per image would make it easier for everyone to vote and we will consider adding it to next year's contest.

Thanks for your feedback.


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## waterscapeaq (Nov 8, 2005)

*placing*

i thought the placing beside the tank would be good too


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