What i see in chat lines is an opportunity to take an enthusiastic beginner full of questions and interest and continue to nurture them to allow them to get to the place where they can comfortably maintain a pond with no illnesses. The biggest impass I see is that many newcomers get discouraged and leave the hobby before developing their skills. This is caused by lots of mis information available on the web and antiquated books available but not current. This board in particular tends to attract more of the skilled keepers and i think it may be harder for newbees to comfortably blend in.
remember how hard it was a few decades ago to maintain marine aquariums till the knowledge and equipment was refined to where the average ability could grasp. The same type of transistion needs to happen with koi.
maybe a special section of past posts especially insightful to the beginner could be set up
for them to read first. Then the opportunity to follow up with a board mentor so when they enter the chat line they are not overwhelmed with many with strong varying opinions. In the beginning someone wants to have guidelines establsihed to learn from instead of confusing counter opinions. Once they have arrived with confidence they can they follow different roads to explore based on a solid foundation which is challenging and now allowing them to stretch..
Good question Carl
