Creating a Ratings Guide for NJ SW Fish Stores?

[Carlo]

If the server has the ability to run ASP scripts then I could build the database and application for you guys in very little time. Looks real simple from the discussion so far.

If you can't run ASP scripts I could still do this if you wanted but set it up on it's own site on one of my dedicated servers and let anyone access it via something like stores.njreefers.org or database.njreefers.org.

This would be quite easy to do with the exception of handing over a UserID between sites but even then we could setup an ecrypted one-way handoff of the username from site to site. So anyone could view the list as a guest but would need to login to njreefers.org first to update the database.

If you guys can come up with a robust rating scale and figure out the type of questions you want the person to rate then it can be built.

Quantity of Fish
Quality of Fish
Price on Fish
Quantity of Corals
Quality of Corals
Price of Corals

Besides Fish and Corals you could do equipment and dry goods. A field for discounts to NJReefers with Card would be nice with the discount amount and of course vital store information (address, phone, website, hours) with links to MapQuest would be a nice feature. Maybe a field for user comments. Also a nice touch would be to see historical ratings (at a glance see if the store is doing better, holding it's own or on the decline). Ideally the column type data should be able to be user sortable by clicking on a heading so that a user could for example sort by coral quantity, etc...

All kinds of things could be added but it needs to be simple enough so that people will use it. I think most of the people here wouldn't mind taking a few minutes to fill out a decent little survey on the stores they have been to.

Just throwing in my 2 cents.

Carlo

 

[Sorcha]

That sounds ideal Carlo. Beyond my own capabilities though.

And you know, a store that's consistently rated the "best" could be given a certificate (easy enough to make one up) from the Club saying they were rated the best SW store in NJ. Good advertising for the Club and the store only wins.

Decent way of enticing other stores to give club discounts as well. Honestly, w/o these kinds of forums I don't know how these stores survive these days.

I'm just fed up w/driving out to a store to find that the staff that knew what they were doing are gone and the tanks have gone to hell.

 

[MadReefer]

If you we must use the current tools why can't we just use the New Poll feature on the the site. Most likely one poll will have to be created for each store with the same questions. They could be placed under a separate forum altogether.