Let's talk more about what's going on lately

Dave thank you for all that you have done for us always.

I echo the sentiment of all the people that have come to show their support. You have my complete and total support and hope these changes are for the best for you and the admins. Without you there is no Dave's Garden and I hope the new owners realize that.

I'm hoping that this will end being a positive experience for all the parties involved and look forward to continuing my membership, but only if you and the admins remain a part of this great family.

ive never loved a website so much that i fear even the slightest change lol i feel kind of silly but at least im not alone.. im exited about the search engine. if there are any changes it should be there, otherwise dg is perfect. the part of the search that gets annoying is: say you are looking for threads on a specific key word, you have to do a general search then pick the forum. i wish i could just search a particular forum instead of going through 2 searches. i may be missing another way of doing it so ignore me if thats the case lol

This message was edited Jan 25, 2010 9:46 AM

Thank you Dave for all the above answers to our many questions. And may good luck follow you .

Donna

Iris, you used to be able to search from within a given forum, but Dave disabled the forum search a little while back because it was bogging things down too much. Better searching capability would be wonderful! That team of development folks Dave mentioned sounds like just the help he's been needing... he's done so much with this site, but he's just one person!

Dave and crew I wish you and IB success!

I found this site after my DH challenged me. You see I had a black thumb and one day he said "For someone who's Dad is a farmer and someone with your last name you should not have such a black thumb." Well he was right and I set out to fix that.

I did originally start out at garden web... it changed and I left and never went back.
Then I found DG!
If it weren't for this place I would never have entered the gardening dept of every box store around, or started ordering plants off the Internet or many other supplies that go with the "hobby" of gardening. I have grown plants that I never would have been able to grow before. I have made friends that I would have never had either.

The spirit of this place is due to you Dave and the community of folks that are willing to share what they know and willing to be a friend . Its like a family here and I hope that aspect doesn't change.

The garden watchdog has been a valuable resource as well as all the other resources here. I hope those stay too.

However I admit change is inevitable as with all things, just like how our gardens change every year and every season.

I hope IB realizes that this place is an extension of you, your dreams, your personality and also realizes that you can never replace experience (meaning your crew). Lots of folks have technical know how, but experience on the job is so much more valuable than mere technical know how.

Here's to hoping that you and your crew are able to continue doing what you do for DG and the rest of us in the same ways. I hope IB will consult with you and listen to you before they make any changes. If they're smart they will!

Michelle :)

I am relieved to know that Dave will be with us. As for the "mixup" in not telling him that Dave's Garden was sold and giving IB the information that he wasn't interested in continuing was an unfortunate move, but thankfully, Dave let them know he wasn't interested in leaving. I have suggested this site to several of my gardening friends, who have joined and enjoy it as much as I. It would be a shame to lose it.

I haven't chimed in until now. I hope, along with nearly everyone else, that no drastic changes will be made and it'll just be a different name on the door.

Having said that and, if the unfortunate time should come that the new owners determine the pool of DG writers is no longer needed, I want to take this opportunity to thank Dave and the admins for providing not just the outlet but pretty great compensation to gardening writers. It has been a highly enjoyable and rewarding experience for me, and I sure hope it continues.

Thanks Dave, Terry, Melody, etc. Keep your chins up and your petals in the sun.



This message was edited Jan 25, 2010 10:43 AM

There are no finer people in the world than the DG members! No DG = No Tplant!!!

I just visited IB's doityourself.com, Gardening forum and there were a whopping 6 guests viewing the forum. Wanna bet all 6 were DG'ers checking them out?

Doug

I love getting the weekly newsletter too ... can always open home e-mail on Monday morning and find my DG news waiting to be read!

I think Internet Brands was very smart in purchasing the very best gardening site in the Universe! And, maybe some of the folks involved with IB already knew about and frequent some of the forums here. If not, I know that we all heartily welcome them to do just that ... come on in, sit a spell, jump in with any comments .... and share your thoughts, your knowledge and of course your photo's. You are now part of this big, generous and happy family that's so much more than just a gardening website!

Well, I know one of them was me! And I was not impressed.

Dave:

This is wonderful news to hear that things were straighten out between them and you. We all are very protective of you Dave as I'm sure you are well award of and this place in the WWW is were we all coming to learn, meet, and grow as gardeners.... all thanks to you and all of the hard work you have put into this baby of yours.

But make no mistake should IB not do right by you or DG, they will loose as all of us will follow you to where ever that might be, but from the sounds of it, hopefully that will not come to pass.

This makes me feel better about the new company, thanks IB for recognizing what an Asset Dave and all of the Admin folks here are to us subscribers.

Janet

i will be crushed if the articles were stopped . i didnt know that we got compensated for them when i asked if i could try to write a few. i just wanted a creative outlet. i was pleasantly surprised when terry said there was an opening and i got all the info. EVERY bit of the money has gone to buying plants(mostly daylilies on the auction). lol any way im so into writing them now id have to find another way to keep up writing. i have lists of great ideas that i havnt gotten to do yet :(

Perhaps one the very best things to come of this sale, beyond maintaining the status quo here at DG, will be IB discovering a wonderful resource for the improvements it may want to add to its' other sites. The greatest tribute to Dave, would be for IB to emulate all the good, user-friendly amenities he has gifted us with here on Dave's Garden.

Amen Moon!

The "silver lining" of this whole "takeover thunderstorm" has been to reinforce our positive and high opinions of Dave. And, if Dave hadn't been aware of the depth of our feelings and appreciation before, he certainly is now! Although I would have been a paranoid nut-case by now if I were in his shoes, Dave has demonstrated in words and actions that he is a man of integrity, patience, and plain ole' common sense. It's no wonder he has developed such a loyal membership, a.k.a. Dave's Fan Club, with this extremely user-friendly web site.

P.S. As a person of faith, I heartily agree with DG's Religion Policy. I would think that not 90%, but 99.9% of members agree with it.



This message was edited Jan 25, 2010 2:05 PM

Just an opinion but I think members should be compensated for writing articles. It involves work and writing is legitimate work. We've had some entertaining and informative articles here.

I really enjoy reading the articles and I think that they should continue. When I tell friends about DG I always mention the fact that it has great articles on many subjects like a good magazine. Not having paid writers would take something good away from Dave's Garden in my opinion!

:) not so sad anymore.

I too would hate to see the articles stopped and I think it's only fair that the authors are paid for their work. After all, they have to spend the time doing the research, editing etc. to have these wonderful articles published here. They are so educational, I know I've learned a lot about different plants and trees I was not real familiar with or some I had never even heard of before. The articles cover topics from African Violets to Butterfly gardening, Attracting Birds to the garden, Garden Art, building a Sun Room, Water features and Ponds, and even Composting, among other things. I say Keep The Articles Please, they are a great feature, and the authors certainly should be compensated for their great and informative writing styles!

They should definitely be compensated. If IB doesn't want that financial cost anymore, then we'll just discontinue new articles. We'll just have to wait and see.

Regarding the religion topic. I am a very religious person and also respects other folks beliefs whatever they might be.

This is a gardening site and I totally agree with Dave that religion or politics have no place for discussion on DG.

If you want to debate those topics there are other sites where you may do so.

My 2 cents worth.

Paul

ya know its not so much the topics that are the problem its that some people have no couth . and thats when there is a problem. its sad but true and even though there is a rule against debating it dosnt stop people from getting on a soap box. what was it that thumper said in bambi if you dont have something nice to say....

edited to say : even before i started writing i didnt even think of having a subscription to a gardening magazine . nothing could top what is here. the articles are an exiting feature. i grow a lotus now and many other plants because of an article i read, so really they make money for vendors. (and lowes) lol because of one article i spent 45 on a pond liner 30 for the lotus and that was just one plant. from one article lol .

This message was edited Jan 25, 2010 2:25 PM

Goodness what you miss when you are not on for a week or so.

I almost fell off of my chair when I read the first post. Thank goodness it looks a little better now.

You know ... I used to subscribe to a few gardening magazines but have let the subscriptions all lapse since joining DG in 2006. I find everything I need to know and then some, about every imaginable plant ... right here!


As for the topic of religious discussion, one word comes to mind: Respect. I don't belong to a church but I do have very strong belief's. We are all human and all judgmental at times but I try to remember the verse "Judge not lest thou be judged". If someone wants to judge me for having different beliefs about religion, or anything else for that matter, it doesn't bother me in the least because there's only one judge I live to please. I make mistakes just like everyone else but I just try to remember to Respect myself first of all, so that I can show respect to others.

I've only been a subscriber here for a few years and have found, I'd say 99.9% of the subscribers to be very respectful of one another/ If they aren't, and things get out of hand, Dave takes care of it quickly so DG can be the learning, sharing, caring place it was meant to be.

Hi Makshi, how ya doing? It's good to see you posting again!

Regardless of the future of the articles, I'd like to take the opportunity to say how much I've enjoyed writing them! The interactive nature of web publishing (eg, your questions and comments following each article) makes it a lot more fun for the authors. I've especially enjoyed doing "teaching" articles this way. Thanks to all who have read and enjoyed the articles, and thanks for your support of their continuation!

I'm sure IB will do a cost-benefit analysis where the articles are concerned... I think a lot of the article "views" are from non-subscribing members, many occurring after the newsletter goes out (and I think a lot of non-subscribing members get the newsletter). If so, that means the articles are drawing extra online viewing from members who will be seeing the targeted advertising on the site, which gives them a monetary benefit as well as enriching the site in other ways. I'm certain there are sophisticated tools for analyzing website traffic, so they'll be able to make an informed decision. When NM started the feature, the number of daily articles was soon increased to 2 per day and then even higher, so I assume they thought the money was well spent.

I miss writing a weekly article (NM cut back the article budget some time ago when $ got tight, so new submissions have been limited & that's why you've been seeing re-runs), and (like all the other writers, I'm sure) I'd be sad if IB decided the article feature had to go (or had to be limited to re-runs of older articles). With the time involved in photo editing and getting the article loaded onto the site, not to mention the actual writing & editing of the words, the $50 per article works out to significantly less than minimum wage for most of us, in case anybody is wondering! :-)

Just wanted to say, I finally got around to checking out the IB web site and found they also own another "community" that I frequented quite a bit in the past, although not for a year or so, Cruisemates.com. The look of that site is now totally different than it was previously, so I'm thinking, although don't really know, that is a result of IB buying them out as well. I didn't spend a great deal of time looking at it, but at any rate I hope not too many changes are made to DG; as so many have posted this is really an exceptionally user-friendly site!

Sandy

Thanks for the insight on the articles, critter! I sure do enjoy them and sincerely hope there is a way for IB to keep them. I know you all work hard on them - it shows in the final presentation.

Kelly

LOL, I was thinking there were a lot of re-run articles because no one had anything new to write about, or the writers were too busy to submit new ones!

I'm glad there are re-runs of past articles because I've missed a few when I've been away and it's nice to have them pop up randomly again for folks like me who may have missed them the first time around!

I did notice a lot or re-run articles and wondered if it was to save money. I'm glad we have some agreement here about compensation for writers! It is a subject I feel strongly about. I can also understand why a person might want to post articles or pictures that are just shared for practice to gain experience or for fun. But that's different.

Sounds like Dave and IB are off to a good start---that's really encouraging news for all of us!

Glad to hear about a new search engine approach, as I'm sure that has been a nightmare to administer because of the vast amount of data on the site.

One thing I think users love about DG is that the simple design doesn't intimidate people who don't consider themselves "tech savvy". That being said, if there's any way to allow attaching more than one photo to a post without bogging everything down, that would be a "nice-to-consider" for future planning.

Dave, I thought about this yesterday. With the financial problems NM is having a cutting their executives, sounds like they are trying to unload a lot of assets quickly. It is possible that they didn't want to inform you, in case you had any questions or objections that would hender the speed of the sale. This thought came to me yesterday , very strongly. Read the fine print in the papers of agreement between you and Name Media. There may have been an exception clause, they did not want you to find and delay their sale.

Debbie

Dave, I am relieved to hear there have been such productive and positive conversations going on between you and IB. I can't imagine the shock you felt when you were notified of the sale.

I am looking forward to the improvements you mentioned in the search engine. I've only had two lingering "wishes" about how DG runs, and that was that searches were easier to perform (I generally search PF by typing in the plant I want, along with "Plant Files," into a google search, rather than through the DG search, because I get the exact plant I want, not a list of 14 pages), and that once you click on a picture to enlarge it, you could click on an arrow to proceed to the next post, without having to use the back button to return to the thread (similar to paging through pictures in a virtual slide show.)

I'll be anxiously awaiting to hear any decisions about the future of the articles. They were one of the reasons I joined Dave's Garden; I've radically changed the way I garden, and the plants I select, because of all I've learned from the articles. I've only been a member of the writing team for a little over a year, but have found it extremely rewarding. I'd always dreamed of writing, but somehow got bogged down in the busy-ness of life. Having a specific topic and sometimes a specific deadline helped me tremendously in getting the writing DONE! This may seem silly, but there is something very affirming about receiving a paycheck for something you wrote. Besides, I didn't feel guilty about earmarking those funds for spending on my gardening projects! ^_^

Regardless of how it turns out, I have really enjoyed writing for Dave's Garden, and have made some very dear friends among the writers. They are a warm and supportive group, and I'd like to thank them for mentoring me through those early growing pains!

Angie