I think its a bad idea to have reviews. To many legal problems and to time consuming to oversee. It's just to easy for anyone to write a bad comment about a business, and some would do it just out of spite.
That leaves just a list. I recently found a list of fish hatcheries/farms that was provided by my state. I thought I would give some of them a call, trying to find a few things. Boy, was that scary and a waste of time. Very un-business like. I could write paragraphs about the different bad things that they said or how things could go extremely wrong for someone who just wouldn't know. So, this left me with a bad feeling about "lists" and also how they get outdated.
I still feel it would be nice to have a list that an interested party can go to. Why? because many times someone wants to know right away of a place to go. That is the times we live in. They can't and don't want to wait for responses to a post. How many times has someone asked for a pond builders/fish suppliers in an area, with no real good reply or it takes a long time for someone that lives in their same area to even log on to the forum to see the request.
So, how about the list be the resource guide that is already here and available? If you like a fish hatchery, tell them about PondBoss forum and get them interested in being on that list. I would not think that it's expensive to just be on the list, and I would assume that the banner ads are an extra cost if they want it. It would also keep the list current. A business that's gone isn't going to keep paying to be on the list. We just all need to be a little more proactive in getting them onboard. Perhaps we need to look at/discuss ways to make more of this to happen.
With regards to any list, the person contacting them has to be savvy to "good and bad". Perhaps there could be some kind of thread (archives)for referral to newbies that may handle this.
