Blog / Simple Garden Diary

We've heard from a lot of people concerning the idea of, basically, a brand new feature in the journal area that is a simple little diary-type application. It will NOT replace the current journal, but will be a separate feature, accessed from the Journals tab.

This is definitely on the table and will be the first enhancement I make.

Here is how I envision it working:

You will be able to create "tabs", or "sections". Each section can be called things like "Shade Garden", "Craft Projects", "My day at the zoo", or whatever.

Then, you can add simple entries in each section. This will work a lot like the forums. Each entry will have a subject and body, and an optional image upload. You will also have a checkbox option to limit that entry to be private or public.

Then, other people can come and view your public entries, and COMMENT on them, just like a thread. In fact, they will be able to "Watch this entry" and be updated on the homepage whenever anyone else comments on it.

Basically, each entry in your Garden Diary will be its own thread, and each "section" in your diary will be its own "forum".

Does anyone have thoughts on this idea? Ideas for enhancements to the ideas already presented?

Dave

When will we be able to play around with it? Sounds like what I'm looking for anyway....would there be a way to access the 'posts' made on a certian day/year? I saw someone else suggest that and thought it sounded neat....see what you were growing on April 12,2005 in 2007.

Yes to all of those, and it will have a search engine, too. I haven't really started programming this yet - am looking for feedback first.

dave

This sounds great. So I could have a tab or section for say a water garden project and add all my photos under that section? I could do it all right there like in a forum and not have to keep going back to the start like in the journal to add another picture to the entry?

Yes, exactly.

Super Duper!!

Just make it bone meal...er... bone head friendly...lol, so that I can use it.

Don

Dave,

By George, I think you've got it! That is exactly what I was hoping for. Count me in for beta testing if you need it.

Oh, if this happens, I truly will think I've died and gone to heaven!

This sounds exactly what I would find useful. Am really looking forward to seeing how it all plays out. Dotti

I would love this! Thanks Dave, you're just wonderful!!!
Vicki

Sounds like you hit the nail on the head. I was hoping for a blog-type style because that is something I do now & can handle. LOL
Like the Guinness commercial says, "BRILLIANT!" :~)

Dearest Dave,
A wNet friendly Gardener of this sweet earth,
Us folk too po to subscribe still apreciate all the
"free" zones and stuff allowed.
I wish you the BEST and as with all your endevors,
"God Speed"!
THX Dave...
sincerely ~ martaNFL

It sounds great to me. I'm already frustrated with resizing and cropping pictures to go with the journal. Lord knows when it's light out the last place I'm at is in front of the computer. I am glad however to finally find a place where I can share my fascination for plants.

Dave, as long as it's in the forum format, I think you'll have alot of happy gardeners! You're wonderful, and I'm so excited!

One more thought, we will be able to have links I hope? I'd love to link to the place I purchased the plant and to PlantFiles.

Dave, I've been kind of experimenting with the forum/thread posting format idea. I've been writing a diary of a recent trip, complete with pictures, by e-mailing myself and responding to myself (I already have 5 replies! :-) ) I'm going to love it when you get it all together, it's incredibly intuitive!

I woke up this morning thinking about this, LOL, sad huh? But I had 3 ideas that I don't remember seeing addressed, so if I missed it, ignore me.

First, would we the journal owner be able to make some journals private?
or have control whether we will allow comments on each journal? I think if I was doing one for my own reference, I might not mind others viewing it, but would not necessarily want them to comment on it.

Second, could we have the option of hiding other posters comments so when we want to see what only we have written we don't have to scroll through a long thread?

Third, will we have the ability to delete posts to our journal made by others, who for example, decide to use our thread as their personal chat with other posters?

Dave can answer this for sure, but as far as I can tell..

Thanks Terry. That does answer my first 2 questions.
As for the third, if we cannot delete posts in "hijacked" journals, our only option is to make it "view only" or "public/private".
I can see that it might step on some peoples toes to delete their posts, but in the same respect, the journal is for me & if I have several people posting things that I want to save, I don't think I should have to totally shut off the ability for others to post if it gets off course by a few people.
That is one of the things I like about my blog. I can choose to HIDE/SHOW comments so I can keep the comments I want for my own reference and get rid of the ones I don't want and no one is aware if I deleted their comments but me.

I guess I think of a garden journal as something I might let others see, but not add their own comments to it; whether it's view-only or accessible for comments will be up to Dave.

Yes, I am planning to make it so that any entry can be discussed, forum style. See my first post on this thread for details.

I very much welcome feedback about the idea.

Dave

I must have skipped over that part. (Speed-reading has its downsides.) Sorry for the confusion!

I like the idea of people being able to comment, but I do see PudgyMudpies' point about the possibilty of hijacked threads and/or simply wanting to view only our own comments.

Dave, I know that you're busy getting ready for the CTRU on 4/23, but it's been almost two whole days since you first posted this blog/simple garden diary thing. Don't you have it ready for us yet???

:-)

Chuckling. :) No, it won't be ready for a while.

i'm also totally on board with this idea-- i love the idea of an online gardening journal, but the current one keeps confusing me-- soo many subdivisions and things to do before getting to write the thing. i'll be soooooo happy when it's simplified, and i promise i'll update more often!

~:D

Why would the Journal OWNER not be like the administrator of their Journal "forums"? I guess I would think if we're going to allow people to post comments that it should be the owner's choice whether comments are kept or not. Otherwise I would think that SOMEONE would have to moderate if there are inappropriate language or topics being discussed by posters. I doubt that Terry or Dave really want (or have the time) to have to "moderate" thousands of potential new threads. Just the sheer number of people that are out there (all members, not just subscriber) and that they could create 20, 30 or more Journal "threads". The numbers could be astounding.

My vote would be not to allow others to post comments rather have a link on each page of a Journal "forum" that readers could click on to send an email to the owner. That way if they have a question or comment that discussion could be a "thread" in DG mail. Seems much simpler to maintain and yet gives the flexibility for other readers to participate with Journal owners.

My 2¢

I second langbr's point about not allowing others to post directly into someone else's journal. If that was allowed and you were really trying to keep some sort of order to your "notes", I could see it getting out of hand and become like any other thread where you would have to search through a lot of "stuff" to find the info you're looking for. If it is set up that way, I would most likely just chose to have all of my journal entries marked private.

This message was edited Apr 14, 2005 3:36 PM

langbr, very good points. I agree, I think DG mail is just fine for comments. If people wanted to have more than a two-way conversation, there isn't any reason they couldn't simply start a thread in the appropriate forum, and hyperlink the Journal/Diary in question.

Will it be like the Zero Forums, in a way? This is sounding wonderful, Dave. :)

Please & Thank YOU!
Reading the "Journal "wish list" requests here, please" thread has been great for seeing what other people are doing in their journals. Loved langbr's suggested use of status. But, I have to print it out & try it.. my brain can't remember from the thread to my journal.

Zero Forums? What are those?

They're one of Dave's creations, completely separate from DG, but based upon the same wonderful forum framework we enjoy here: http://myzf.com

DG member Elena's "The Gathering Place" uses the myzf site: http://thegatheringplace.myzf.com/

This message was edited Apr 18, 2005 5:20 PM

Thanks, Dave. This is exactly what I am looking for. You are the best!

Kimberley - are you suggesting that the format of Zero Forums is conducive to a personal gardening (or other) blog space? I see Elena's requires a login so I'm guessing if I wanted to keep it private I could?

My goodness, how on Earth do you keep up with all of this?!

Yes, the format of the forums and posts is what I've been thinking of, but as langbr points out (4/14), I don't think I'd want the comments on my journal. If someone has a comment, I'd personally like to see some traffic on the appropriate forum (maybe with a hyperlink to the journal), so all could join in, or a DG email would do. When I want to review my journal, I just want to see what I have written.

I agree...let the journal owner be able to post, but no one else...maybe a button to the DG email...when I've got a train of thought, I'd like to keep it. conversations tend to get things scattered.

The diary is ready for testing!

Please see this thread for more details:

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/501470/

dave

Dave, Thank you for the Garden Diary, what a big help it will be to us. We keep records, of course, but being in the greenhouse or out in the fields, barn, etc, they tend to get dirty, wet, etc. We can also keep separate tabs for planting dates, chickens, livestock, etc. We've been looking for a program like this forever and now we'll have more reason to be on DG (like I'm not on here all the time anyhow).

Thanks again,
Kathy