Fun Idea

[DizTheFreak]

Ok, this is kinda dorky, and probably very difficult/time consuming to set up, but just an idea...
I remember a website that I went on a long time ago where you create your own cell-type. You choose the shape, mode of motility, etc. Then you placed it in an environment, and the site would update regularly, telling you if your species is surviving, growing, or dying out. All this would depend on the combination of factors you used to create your cell.
What I was thinking was either:
1) Something similar, where you create a catfish, choose the number of fins, mouth location, type of feeding (omnivore, etc.) etc. and see how it would survive, either in a certain area of the world or in captiviy.
OR
2) You create a fish tank. Decide how many gallons, it's dimensions, what type of plants, ect. Then, see how certain species of catfish would survive in that environment.

Like I said, I know this is a pretty unreasonable request, but just thought it was cool and that I should throw it out there.
*The little poll is just for kicks : )

[MatsP]

OK, first of all, this is not SERIOUSLY a request for site improvement, right? If Jools or Rusty (or someone else involved in maintaining this site) thinks it's a fun idea, I'm sure it'll happen, but as far as I see, there's tons more productive ideas on their list of ideas for improvement of the site.

On a more serious note: the calculations for a single-cell creature, it's pretty straight-forwards. On a bigger, more complex creature, it's a whole lot more complex to calculate the life-sustainability of the creature.

Of course, one side-shot from your idea is a "minimum tank-size calculator", that would give people an idea of how large a tank you need for a certain type of fish. Of course, this idea will immediately be shot down by a few people who think that keeping really large fish in relatively speaking small spaces is a good idea...

And another side-note: Adding polls to things is probably a good idea if there's something USEFUL to poll about. The level of cleverness in your idea is probably not such a thing, in my opinion - but bear in mind that I'm just a regular contributor to this site, not an admin/moderator, so this is just MY OPINION, not an official voice of the forum.

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Mats

[DizTheFreak]

Sorry, still learning the rules/ettiquite of this board. I'll keep your tip about polls in mind from now on.
As far as the idea, i just thought it was cute & that I would mention it. If other, more important updates are to be made to the site, then I agree that those should be the ones being done.

[Jools]

A nice project for my retirement. That's probably about 20 years off, so a bit of a wait.

Jools