New forums?

I was talking to my wife (Trish) tonight about davesgarden. I was telling her about all the excellent conversation that's going on in the forum, and she was wondering if it might be time to make some new forums.

She had some suggestions for some forums, and I think she has a good idea. I think we've grown enough to warrant some new discussion areas.

I'm thinking, in specifics:

1. A suggestion/davesgarden/members-only type forum, where we discuss things like what we're talking about right now - the future of this site, ideas for improvement, stuff like that.

2. Mail Call!! Trish tells me that she thinks this would be a lot of fun. It would be a forum that is intended as a place where people can talk about the exciting things they received in the mail that day. I think it kinda sounds like fun.

3. Tough call on this one - a seed traders forum. I've seen many posts here where people are wanting to initiate trades, and am wondering if we should go ahead and create a forum for this. I know that gardenweb already has this (that's their strongest point, in my opinion). Should we replicate that effort? Do we want to?

That's all the new forums that I had to suggest. The real question is: Do we want the new forums, or should we stick to just one general forum for now?

Your host,
Dave

I think all of your ideas sound great...PLUS a page to add garden-related links to! *s* One thing tho....In my opinion, I think if you're going to have a specific forum that's just for trading seeds you should also have at the beginning of the forum a little message that tells people please don't post anything but trades here. I don't know if you noticed my "banned from Garden Web" post or not...but I was banned because I accidently posted about some gardening software on the seed exchange forum. If there would have been a little "reminder" at the top of the screen when I went to post, I wouldn't have done that. I think that most people don't chek out all the rules and regulations to a website when they first try it out...which is what I neglected to do when I started checking out the Garden Web site. So I wasn't as aware as I could have been. (my fault, I know) But....I think that's an easy mistake to make, especially for newbies, so if you could give a little note to remind people when they go to post, I think it would be a lot easier on everyone. What do you think? Too much hassle? And if you don't do that, are you going to ban people for screwing up? At Garden Web, you get one warning, then the next time you screw up they ban you without saying a word to you. I think that stinks. Just my opinion, Dave. Thanks for listening!

AuntyB, I will not ban anybody. The mere idea of this is extremely offensive to me.

No garden-police here. Just a group of friends, coming together to have some garden-fun!

Dave

I think Trish must be a very smart, patient, lady. Tell her I said hi! Grow for it.

Thanks, Dave! I feel SOO much better now! *s* This old (garden-jail?) bird is just a little bit forum-shy at the moment....not use to being banned from ANYTHING, and really timid about pressing my luck with even more forums! *lol* It's a big relief to know I don't have to worry about that here. Can't wait to use YOURS! *S*

Rise Ann: I'll pass the word along to her. :)

AuntyB: Welcome and post all you like! Everybody adds their own flavour to the pot, so to speak.

Back to the forum idea: Does everybody agree or disagree on the new forums idea?

Dave

I agree on the new forum idea. I think it would be great!!! If you need any help, just say the word...

I spend more time checking in to this forum nowadays than I do the other. I thought it was a really good forum and still do. But there are just some people that tended to take the fun out of it. I enjoy my little space here. Keep up the good work. And like I said before, I will help all that I can. I have some really great books finally and am about to get another. Thanks for everything that you have done.

Sounds great!!

When you go to the homepage, you'll see that there are now four forums listed.

I'm working on a new frontpage for the forums.

Dave

Hey Dave,

Thanks for working so hard on the site.

Tim

Thanks.....Its nice to know that someone appreciates my talents :)

We have lots of fun putting this together, and watching it grow. Its great to have a "garden family"!

Just found your Forums (only checked out the lists before) - guess which Forums I used to spend all my time at? It's way past bedtime here, so just a couple of points.

First, posts on the GardenWeb Seed Exchange Forum only last for a couple of weeks - not really enough time to get organised for replying for a big trade. If you get enough out-of-US members, could you consider an International Seed Exchange Forum, or one mainly for perennials? Most of the posts on 'that' site are for annuals or common plants, and it's really hard to find people to do international exchanges of uncommon plants with.

Second - in the last few days, I've had e-mails from a couple of people who've been really upset by the treatment they've had from Spike, which is apparently a reflection of how the whole GardenWeb setup operates. Now that there's somewhere their attitude to their customers can be made public, people will stop going to the GardenWeb Forums. In the end no posts means no visitors means no customers for the sponsors and advertisers, means no money for GardenWeb.

I'm attempting to build my own website, and now that I know more about how GardenWeb operates, I'll downgrade my recommendations for them, and add more about this site.

Mary

I am, of course, happy to setup a forum for international seed trading, but there would have to be at least a few people internationally who would want this.

So here's your chance - speak up. Do we want an international seed trading forum?

Dave

How is international trading different from states trading? I have had several trades from Canada and they are just a bit more postage. Please clarify the concern?

I think they are talking about European and South American traders. It's my guess that nobody has taken any special effort to serve the non-North America audience.

Did I get this right, Mary?

Dave

There was a post on GW about this a while back, and many people from outside the US thought it was a good idea. It's mainly that if we're looking to trade outside our own country, we often have all the usual plants already, so pages of posts about foxgloves, columbines or lupins aren't of much interest to us. If we do post, we get lots of replies asking for our uncommon (in the US) seeds in exchange for things we already have, and it's awkward to keep refusing when you've posted that you want to trade.

Generally, too, we're used to using Latin names, and as many of the posters dealing in US common plants are using the familiar common names, we don't know what some of the things are and they don't know what we're talking about either. And there are some people who don't feel comfortable about trading outside their own country at all and sometimes post inaccurate information which puts other traders off too.

Having said all that, I don't know yet how these Forums will work compared to the GW ones. Maybe only the sort of people who like to be different will come here so there won't be any need to separate people into the type of trade they're looking for.

Mary

I agree here also I would like to see pics of plants be it exotic, herbs, trees, bushes, native/zone, perennials & annuals.

I, for one, would love to see the new forums you have mentioned. There are so many "criminals" (LOL) here from GW and I am proud to be one of you now. Niki

I am curious!! I have been trading on the GW forums for over a year and have had no problems at all! I especially like the Canadian Garden exchange as I prefer to trade plants rather than seeds and therefore wish to trade in Canada. I hope these have been isolated problems. Eva

I would love to see an International trade page here. I was born and live in the U.S. and I'm not "bashing", but have found most of the Canadian and European countries traders to be far more generous with the amount of seed they trade. This brings to light two points: Those of us willing to go the extra postage and trade outside of the U.S. would have a wonderful place to do so as well as probably acquiring enough seed from a trade to split it and be able to "re-trade" the seed to someone of another country. I have been trading with others in Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, England, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland who are not at all concerned with "trade per packet trade." Just my thoughts. The sooner, the better, Dave!

P.S. If I inadvertantly left a country off, I do apologize. :)

Dave, You have created a wonderful site and your wife must be a saint because it had to take a lot of time to do this. THANK YOU!!! I would be interested in a forum that is just pictures of plants. The earlier suggestions in this thread are great too.

The international forum is created - you'll find the link on the homepage.

hi all

I'm quite happy with one trading site.

I'm not interested in trading for really common plant seeds that grow readily here but would go for US natives.

would it be difficult to offer a US trading page or a Euro trading page so people could look for plants that are specific to a region.

Mark

Mark,

I think that, in general, the 'Seed Trading' forum is the general trading place.

The international area is for non-US trades to occur.

What you may be looking for, however, is a bit more advanced trading. No fear, because I am currently working with Chooch (a member here) to produce an entirely new site for professional gardeners. Common plants will be discouraged at best, biological names only, etc.

So, stick around, when the new site is ready, you will be able to access it using your davesgarden account that you've already created. It will be hooked into this site and will look and feel very much like this site.

Dave

There are be quite a few here from the FarmLife forum. Any chance we can get one here? Farmers, farmer wannabes, and former farm dwellers seem to have a different lingo and slant on life as well as different interests than town folk. Like lambing and calving, long drives to work, cutting wood for heat and cooking, dumped animals, FFA &
4-H, etc.

Really like the idea of a seed/plant trade forum! Thank your wife for us!

You're doing a great job!
Grits