TFP Methods

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We have given many products and ideas due consideration here at TFP. Some of them make it to pool school. Some of them don't. We are not closed minded. As mentioned a number of members tried bioactive with poor results. So, now that is what we say when asked, we tried it and it didn't work. There is a big discussion and series of experiments going on right now about phosphate removers, which is something not currently recommended by TFP. A number of longtime members are conducting experiments and tests and providing info for analysis by others. If something meaningful results then it could change our response regarding phosphate removers.

Everything in Pool School has been sliced, diced, discussed, tried at home, debated, tested by dozens of members first, then hundreds and then thousands. We frequently revisit things to discuss tweaks, member feedback, contributing member actual results and a number of things have been changed in the years since I have been a member. TA levels, OCLT, SLAM, recommended levels, how to add CYA, PH recommendations are all things that have been studied and tweaked recently. We have several behind the scenes forums with varying group sizes of contributing members where all of these things are discussed regularly.

If any member who makes a meaningful contribution to TFP wants to try something new or run an experiment we would very likely support them in that effort and maybe even try it in our own pools. It has happened before.

Every contributing member at TFP has a pool, uses TFPC, loves TFP, has a good test kit. It is not a requirement they just did it and it worked. Most got here with a green pool, swamp, high cya, pool store problems, etc. They were not recruited, they love their pool and they want to be here. I was not recruited. I love my pool and I love TFP And I want to pay it forward. Nobody "working" here is paid, we choose to spend our personal time taking care of our pools and helping others do the same. I had a couple of green Intex pools and lurked here for a year before I even joined.

What if this were a Karate forum dedicated to teaching karate and 98% of people showed up to learn karate and help others get better at karate. And then 2% of people showed up to argue that judo, jujitsu, or kung fu is the better martial art to practice and tried to convince people that their idea is better? I would say to them go start your own kung fu forum and teach kung fu. And we won't join your forum and try to convince them that karate is better.
 
n240sxguy said:
The second we decided on it, I started scouring the Internet for information about pool care because I didn't want a 30k gallon swamp....
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I am much the same way about any major purchase, and many minor ones, I often invest way too much time in picking the best / most appropriate anything, just the other day I spent 10-15 minutes online researching before buying a new $33 shovel (ended up buying a Bully Tools 82515 14-Gauge Round Point Shovel with Fiberglass Long Handle ).

Anyway to get to the point I am amazed at the things people seem to buy without doing any visible online research or asking questions on web forums like this one. A case in point, a few months ago I bought a used electric golf cart primarily so my elderly mother could get out and about around the yard (large yard), the cart came from a nearby large wholesaler of off lease used golf carts, they typically sell off lease fleet carts,either as refurbs or plain used mostly to small dealers, but will sell to individuals if you come in knowing what you want. The one I bought was an oddball private party trade in as-is at a very good price where the previous owners were upgrading to a gasoline powered cart. Anyway to make a long story somewhat shorter, the cart was a 2010 EZ-GO RXV and while functional needed a few updates and some TLC so I joined an online forum or two learned more about electric golf carts. In the process I was amazed that it seems virtually no one that buys used electric golf carts do any research on message boards before buying, instead the first thing most people seem to post is almost always I bought an old XYZ and now it does not work can you help me fix it. Often times the answer turns out to be yes, but you need to replace a long list of outdated / no longer available parts.

This just does not make sense to me, sure its not as big of investment as an inground pool, but a typical used electric golf cart is going to cost at least $2,000 to buy and get in good running shape even if bought for a bit less, and there are many $4,500 -$5,000 refurbs out there as well as $10,000+ customized ones.

Ike

p.s. I did my online electric golf cart research when the topic of buying first came up a year or so ago, and the RXV was already at the top of the list when this deal came along.
 
We just had a new 21' pool installed in July and lucky for us we stumbled upon this TFP forum before we fell into the pool store ways. We have no issues with our pool water. Every bit of advice is what I read on these message boards. We were hesitant at first because it's definitely going against the "industry norm" but only because we were worried we wouldn't do something correctly. Thanks so much for giving me this choice!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
 
Rollercoastr said:
That my lack of posts can GIVE me credibility is something I hadn't considered. That makes a lot of sense. I think I can and will leverage that.
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I think you definitely have a point in this thread...

Another side of this, that rubs me the wrong way at times, is those relatively new forum members who preach the gospel with evangelical fervor, while clearly not yet having grasped all the information on the site themselves. It's always important to have a healthy awareness of one's own level of ignorance!

I think that preachy and bossy approach can be off-putting to a pool owner who comes to TFP for the first time, not yet persuaded that TFP is the way to go, but hoping to find a solution to their pool problem (especially if it is a problem that is a bit unusual or off the beaten path).

By the way, I second or third (or whatever number we're up to) the suggestion that you start giving advice, in the areas where you feel comfortable. Your posts show a reasoned and thoughtful approach, which we can always use more of here!
 
singingpond said:
I think that preachy and bossy approach can be off-putting to a pool owner who comes to TFP for the first time, not yet persuaded that TFP is the way to go, but hoping to find a solution to their pool problem (especially if it is a problem that is a bit unusual or off the beaten path).
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I can agree with this statement, but.....

TFP pool care is kind of an all or nothing system. Most of the threads that start to fee "preachy and bossy" get that way because the new member wants us to fix his pool remotely with test strip or pool store water testing; or they just want the "magic potion" to fix their pool today. This is the thing I have difficulty with, how to make them understand that without what we consider accurate testing we are not going to be able to help.
 
I may be addressing a slightly different issue than Rollercoastr, and don't want to move the thread off track. I'm reacting more to those new (and obviously fairly inexperienced, judging by join date and/or post content) members who climb on the soapbox and give orders to even newer forum members. The mods and most of the more experienced posters tend to have a bit more nuanced approach, and clearly have a wealth of knowledge to back up their suggestions (especially if the OP is patient enough to stick around and post follow-up questions).

There's obviously no easy way to regulate enthusiastic newcomers who want to spread the gospel.
 

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Isaac-1 said:
I joined an online forum or two learned more about electric golf carts. In the process I was amazed that it seems virtually no one that buys used electric golf carts do any research on message boards before buying
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Small world - we're both members of BGW! I haven't been there on quite a while, but that's also a great group of people. Just a few days ago I was cruising around the island on my cart, getting pained looks from the rented-cart folks as I passed them going 10 mph faster (all thanks to advice from BGW) :cool: I found that forum within the first week of ownership, but I can't say that I did my due diligence. If I had to do it over again, I'd have looked for carts with a 350 instead of my 290.

A big difference between carts and pools is that people aren't out there getting "cart $tored" or insisting on spending extra money on poor results based on a lack of data. In fact, I can't think of another consumer segment where that exists. I read here that maybe hobby fish tanks might have some of that, but I doubt it's to the degree or significance of what we see in pools.

I may have already mentioned this, but I have a former colleague with a new-to-him AG pool. He's as much a data/fact junkie as me, if not more, but he refuses to not be pool $stored. I'm baffled and frustrated by his attitude, and that's just the kind of example that Dave is looking for as he bets against me in my quest to turn a resistor!
 
Rollercoastr said:
Small world - we're both members of BGW! I haven't been there on quite a while, but that's also a great group of people. Just a few days ago I was cruising around the island on my cart, getting pained looks from the rented-cart folks as I passed them going 10 mph faster (all thanks to advice from BGW) :cool: I found that forum within the first week of ownership, but I can't say that I did my due diligence. If I had to do it over again, I'd have looked for carts with a 350 instead of my 290.

A big difference between carts and pools is that people aren't out there getting "cart $tored" or insisting on spending extra money on poor results based on a lack of data. In fact, I can't think of another consumer segment where that exists. I read here that maybe hobby fish tanks might have some of that, but I doubt it's to the degree or significance of what we see in pools.

I may have already mentioned this, but I have a former colleague with a new-to-him AG pool. He's as much a data/fact junkie as me, if not more, but he refuses to not be pool $stored. I'm baffled and frustrated by his attitude, and that's just the kind of example that Dave is looking for as he bets against me in my quest to turn a resistor!
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Resistance is futile!
 
singingpond said:
Another side of this, that rubs me the wrong way at times, is those relatively new forum members who preach the gospel with evangelical fervor, while clearly not yet having grasped all the information on the site themselves. It's always important to have a healthy awareness of one's own level of ignorance!

I think that preachy and bossy approach can be off-putting to a pool owner who comes to TFP for the first time, not yet persuaded that TFP is the way to go, but hoping to find a solution to their pool problem (especially if it is a problem that is a bit unusual or off the beaten path).

By the way, I second or third (or whatever number we're up to) the suggestion that you start giving advice, in the areas where you feel comfortable. Your posts show a reasoned and thoughtful approach, which we can always use more of here!
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I appreciate that. My current strategy for this "DMZ" I'm in is to pose questions. Sometimes comments look "off" to me, so instead of giving advice or making a statement I can't necessarily back up, I ask about it. I figure opening the dialogue has a good chance of helping, at a very low risk of damage.

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pabeader said:
Resistance is futile!
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and expensive!
 
Another side of this, that rubs me the wrong way at times, is those relatively new forum members who preach the gospel with evangelical fervor, while clearly not yet having grasped all the information on the site themselves
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This so rubs me the wrong way too. I admit it, I am a newb. I often preface my posts with 'i am not sure but...' or end with 'I am fairly new so hopefully someone with more experience will confirm....' However there are times when I can offer advice and feel confident to do so.

I was recently involved in a thread that had 5-6ppl in a row preaching 'get a TF 100 XL with speedstir, its the only way' to a new member. From their first post the OP were dubious about the system but asking good questions. I get the good test, you really do need something to rely on, but in the case the OP had a 10 ft 30 inch intex pool. Noone suggested the temporary pool guide, the tf 50 or the HTH kit. Pretty hard to convince someone to buy a test kit worth twice what they paid for the pool
 
Rather than complain about the manner in which people answer questions, it is far more proactive for you to jump in and respond in a manner that you feel is better.

You and others can change the "culture" of the forum by simply responding to questions.
 
And always feel free to click the triangle with the ! in it, lower left of every post. That reports the post to a Mod forum, share your concerns and we can jump in and help or discuss with some of the people responding. We try to read every post and make sure things are great in every thread but sometimes we miss one. :)

Don't be shy about hitting the report button and sharing a concern. We appreciate the help. And thanks for your activity replying to threads. We definitely notice.
 
Have you read the note at the bottom of the triangle page? Makes me think twice before I report a post that might just need a deeper look.

Here is the text:

Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts.
 
pabeader said:
Have you read the note at the bottom of the triangle page? Makes me think twice before I report a post that might just need a deeper look.

Here is the text:

Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts.
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Good call. Maybe we need to see if that message can be lightened up a little. Any concerns anyone has should be reported.
 

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