Frustration in the plant and seed exchange

If you click on the member name it will take you to their page and it will tell you the date they are subscribed thru.

I've seen that. I guess my question is more that " Are they an active member?" or maybe "When was the last time they logged in?" Kinda like when you log in to your bank account online it gives you the little message "You last logged in on ??" That way you know if they're still active or not. Am I making any sense? :p

The way I check to see if they are active is to click on "View the threads (member) has started" and see if they've been posting.

X

Katlian - you should be working for DG ... I agree with you 100% plus 1 ... lol :D

You have great ideas ...

Where are the admins ... they need to read these posts... who handles those areas? Especially since DG has been sold .... Maybe we can get the new owners to change some of these areas. ust a thought ... :D

I think we should organize our ideas and send them to Melody or Terry and they can forward to other people who are working on the design.

Oh, thanks X. I didn't think about that.

BTW, it's a little off topic but kinda funny for me. Every time I see you sign X it makes me think of my sister. Her name is Echea pronounced x-a. We've always called her X for short. That is also how she signs her name.LOL
Echea is a blackfoot indian name meaning little princess. My parents knew an indian couple whom they got the name from.

While that tells you the last time the member started a thread, and posted to that thread, It doesn't tell you when they last posted to a thread in general. I now have an outstanding trade due me and the trading partner hasn't responded to my dmails. I'd like to know what's going on with the member, so I can determine whether I'm being ripped off, or if member has been inactive for a good reason. The trading primer gives lots of advice but nothing on finding about one's activity. Other than X's advice on looking at the member's last thread (some members rarely or never start threads), any other ideas? I believe most websites with member forums tell you when a member last posted, whether or not they started the thread. That would help a little more.

Hope there is nothing seriously amiss with your trade partner but sometimes trades do end up as one way deals and someone gets the short end of it. I always leave feedback for the person, nothing inflammatory, just the facts, incomplete trade, time frame, attempts to contact failed etc. Acts as caution to others and I think the admin may even take those feedback reports into consideration if there are enough reports. You can always update your feedback should the person contact you and explain their situation or they rectify the problem. Not sure if that is helpful or not but fingers crossed you hear from your MIA trade partner soon.

I too have at least 2 trades where I haven't heard from the other person. I know in the past I have been "burned" a few times with trades. but I also give people at least a month to 2 months to respond. I know issues happen w PC virus' on the rise and Internet companies becoming more of a pain ... And just issues in general. If I hear nothing I just take it as a loss and mark them in my trade tracker as "DO NOT TRADE WITH"

I've left feedback for one or 2 in the past 1/2 the time I totally forget to add a feedback ... that would be a nice button in the trade trakker ... a "leave feed back" link.
Seeing that in my trade tracker that I haven't left one yet would drive me nuts. lol

I agree with getting all the ideas for changes together and sent to one of the admins. Now who is going to do this ... I'm Not raising my hand on this one ... lol :D I'm barely organized as it is .. lol :D

I like the idea of having a reminder to leave feedback in the trade tracker. I am rather forgetful about leaving feedback for trades and I know it's helpful to have feedback available. Feedback won't write itself!

that reminds me ... I have feedback to leave ... lol

Ok, I started a new thread to post ideas

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1078025/

Great idea Katlian...

You probably want to make your suggestions on the Daves Garden forum, which was designed for suggestions and discussion of DG features The admin will see it there.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/dg/all/

If a trade doesn't arrive, you should try to dmail the person. I recently had sent seeds to someone, but they didn't arrive, so I sent new ones. Similarly, I was waiting for seeds from someone, but they hadn't arrived. The person sent them again. I suspect that bulky envelops are being damaged in the post office machinery or being targeted by unscrupulous post office workers. It may be the local post office, many of my neighbors complain about late and missing mail, things I have never encountered until I moved here, now encounter continuously. I believe that most people are honest, but anyone can have difficulties with their lives or computers.

I've always maintained a list of my plants, an inventory, if you will, in place of a trade list. Until recently, I didn't have it disabled. I've been willing to trade seeds, plants from my list when they were available. And, for the right seed/plant, there is probably nothing on my inventory list I wouldn't trade. I finally disabled the entire thing, because of d-mails I was getting from people practically demanding I send them a certain seed or plant. I realize some people browse the lists, but my plants and seeds have never been available to anyone other than someone I tell to look through my list to determine a trade. I want them listed for people I want to trade with, I wish there was a way so that only certain "allowed" people could access them.

Deb

I feel like I am bothering people when I d-mail someone that I know has been online and that there is a trade or pending trade or a trade has been sent ... I have been a bit hesitant as of late to contact people that I've sent my end of the trade out and have gotten what seems to be a cold response back... especially when its only been one d-mail since I mailed the trade out to them and its been a few weeks...

Does that make since?

Don't be shy!! A quick-- so how is the ???? I sent doing--I can't wait to get the XXXXX from you. will at least let them know you haven't forgotten.

As the one who started this diversion in the topic of this thread (as a side note), I can happily say I finally heard back from my trading partner. Her computer crashed immediately after details of the trade were completed and lost access to my address. Took her a couple of weeks to replace her computer but now she's up and running and hopefully I can expect my end of the trade soon.

Katlian, great idea, hopefully we'll get a bunch of posts, and then continue it over to Dave's Forum, where it will get more attention from the admins.

I never know how to put the d-mails to people ... I like the way you have put that Hillbilly_Gran :D

One thing I've seen others do (& am starting to do myself) is leave neutral feedback for a bit. I am always worried that maybe I am being to impatient but at the same time I dont want others to take a trade with that person & then get nothing in return. So you could leave a neutral feedback that says something like "It's been --- mnths & have not gotten anything or heard from them. Will change this to neg. if nothing is received soon. Trades are not rec. with this person at this time". Then if you get nothing & dont hear from your tradeing partner, change it to neg.


I see alot of people are wanting a "wish" list. Can someone explain the differance between wish list & the currant want list? I guess I am one of the people who use the want list as a wish list. But honestly I don't see the differance. If I want it, I wish to have it. If I wish I had it, I want it :) I don't understand what a "WANT LIST" is if it's not the stuff you wish to have.

Wish list ... aka ... look at my want list ... lol ( 1500+)
http://davesgarden.com/community/trading/list.php?member=bsgardens
Most don't want to have to go through 50+ pages of my wants / wishes ...

A want list should be what I am currently looking for. maybe a list of 100 ...

Wish list ... all those things I see on other peoples want and have lists & "Fun random Plant" on the home page and the beautiful plants written about in the articles on the home page ... Things I would love to have one day or may come across out of nowhere. lol ...................... it should be a list where one can put notes on similar to a journal ... but linked to the plant files to see what the plant looks like. But be able to link it to the have want list through editing ...


Ok so did I totally confuse you ??? lol I tend to do that ... .lo

Brandy

You did confuse me after a while but I think it was because I kept thinking of your initial comment about "a list of 100". I think that's an excellent idea. Still though, as I've mentioned before, what I think we need most is a search engine which will match up complimentary trade partners. This would eliminate the "legwork" in finding a someone to trade with. Kind of like a computer dating service but for seed and plant traders.

that;s a GREAT Idea!!

I have deleted and disabled as much as I possibly can (over half) of my want list and still have 583 wants showing. Sorry, I just can't help it :)

ants

I like the idea of a short want list and a longer wish list. There are things I would like to grow someday, given enough space or the right climate, but which I can't grow right now.

Matching up the want and have lists would be kind of nice but it sounds like more complicated programming. Something for the wish list!

Okay, I asked Terry to move the thread so you can find it over on the Dave's Garden forum now.

kool kool! =D

Thank you soooooo much Katlain

It's only complicated programming if your not a professsional software developer. The new company should have the capacity to do it. Dave was going to tackle the idea himself, that is until the company was sold. Definitely something to push (and wish) for.

This message was edited Mar 2, 2010 12:52 AM