Message from IB and responses

Michael: "DG is a large, complex and highly successful site"

That's what got me to come to DG, and stay. I bet most others are in the same attitude.

From last week's letter,

Quick Summary
853 new members signed up during the last week, bringing our total number of members to 495,718. We have 7,248 paid subscribers.

18,911 posts

Those numbers to me, are amazing!

Once upon a time there was a man, Mr. Mayor, who had a vision. He had many talents, one of which was building things. He dreamed of building a town that was made up of residents who had a passion for their hobby. He built this town and it grew and grew.This town was very special, unlike any other. The moment one entered the town, they were wrapped in a warm embrace of Welcome. After a while , Mr. Mayor needed some help keeping his town beautiful and so he brought in some people to help him. Some of these folks were volunteers and they were put on the commerce board to help oversee the running of this beautiful town. Everyone knew everyone. And even as it grew, it maintained that small town feel. People took care of each and looked out after each other. If they did not see a resident for a few days, they went looking for them to make sure they were okay. They were always there for each other, whether bad times or good. And if a resident was struggling financially, the other residents chipped in to make sure the struggler could remain in the community.
Every now and then, one secton of the town would get into a fight. Words would go back and forth. Or one town member failed to uphold their part of the bargain regarding their place of business. Mr. Mayor would occasionally have to step in to referee. He almost always did a great job in handling these situations and then peace would rein again. Every so often, he would have to make a really tough decision and would shut down part of the town or make a rule that he felt was good for the community. Now, this is the important part. Sometimes the towns people clammered and hated the new rule or felt very strongly that the closed part of town should be reopened. Mr. Mayor would call a town hall meeting and discuss this with the residents. He would send them home to discuss with each other , a solution to the problem. The towns people would head to the coffee shop and discuss fervently, ideas on how to fix the issue so that the rule could be changed or the closed town section reopened. Mr. Mayor would then call a new meeting, the options were discussed, a plan was formed and the town reopened those streets.
One day a big real estate company came in and bought all the land in which the town resided. It was okay though because the company just wanted the land. They left Mr. Mayor and the town alone. It was such a wonderful terrific town, Why would someone want to change it??
One bleak day, the real estate company announced that the town had once again been sold, this time to a huge company that had giant super center stores all over. "We dont want to change anything", they said "It is such a great town" they spoke out of one side of their mouth. They built a large super center in the middle of town. "It will create jobs, it will be great!!". But they brought in all their own people. People who did not know or mingle with the towns people. They quickly demoted Mr. Mayor but graciously allowed him to be a security guard at their super center. "Think of it positively, you will have lots of time to spend with your family!!"
All the little mom and pop stores, which were the towns peoples neighbors, had to closed up shop because they could not compete with super center and the mindless stores with the strangers who dont even know your name.
And when a fight ensued in a certain part of town, the big company just shut it down. When the towns people attempted to discuss this with them, their emails and phone calls went unanswered.
Slowly but surely , the towns people who were there when the town was built got tired and left. New people came but after a while, the town just wasnt the same anymore. The warmth was gone, the family was gone. It was just another town, like all the others.

Interesting threadssssssssssss. Some of your are too funny for words!!!! I enjoy you all!!! PLEEEEASE leave the chocolate at home...I have gained weight since the first postings...

Carol

Victor, sorry for not addressing your questions earlier.

Dave and I are still talking through things and until we work out a true answer it's probably best to wait on giving any news.

As for honoring subscriptions over on other sites that is a very interesting idea that I haven't given much thought to. Which sites in particular would you be interested in?

We don't have a system set up right now to enable that but if it was something that a lot of people were interested in we could certainly investigate it.

Hellnzn11, not sure what you're asking here unfortunately.

In a very simple nutshell, the way that Google works is that it sends out "spiders" that crawl websites, takes the content from those websites, and then categorizes that content so that when people search the most relevant (based on Google's view) content comes up.

Now whether or not Google is allowed onto a website or onto just part of a website is dependent on whether or not the website gives permission to Google's spiders.

I honestly don't know how Dave has DG set up, but my assumption is that for publicly viewable forums here that the Google spider has access to them, but that it does not have access to the private forums here. So, if you post somewhere on the site that is public there certainly is the chance that Google will pick it up and reference it when you do a search on Google for your name. If you only post into the private areas, it's likely Google will never know it.

I'm not sure if I answered your questions so please respond back if I completely missed the point.

Thanks, Michael. Didn't have any particular sites in mind. Just thought it was a good idea to 'reward' subscription members.

Thanks for posting that. Yes there are a lot of vBulletin forums out there to look at to get an idea about the format and software.

Also feel free to look at some of our other sites: http://www.internetbrands.com for some ideas.

Remember however that vBulletin is customizable from a look and feel standpoint so in this case judging a book by it's cover is certainly not appropriate. We could, if it made sense, make vBulletin look and feel very similar to what the existing DG forum looks like today.

Again though, this is NOT a foregone conclusion so please keep giving feedback on what is important to you from a forum feature standpoint. The more we learn the better we'll be.

Michael, just wondering about the articles. Are they going to be continued?

For anyone who doesn't know-
If you Google your DG moniker it will appear in a Google search result. Example:

victorgardener's Member Page
Leave feedback for victorgardener or read feedback left by other members. View the member feedback victorgardener has written of others. ...
davesgarden.com/members/victorgardener/ - Cached

I knew that, I was just wondering if Hellnzn11 was concerned because her personal info was available from DG on Google.

Already some changes. I had to hunt to figure out how to post a replay and now we have to click on "watch this post" which was automatic if we were interested enough in a thread to post to it.
But here is a worthwhile suggestion: I didn't garden for a long time because I didn't like the sweat nor getting dirty. But I loved flowers and got encouragement. Now I love rooting around out in the soil, trying new things and making things look better. So, for the members of IB, learn a little here to start and plant a few things. Your first sucesses will hook you. And you will understand us better.

I think maybe there's something weird with your computer? I'll see what happens when I reply to this thread, but I had no trouble replying to things an hour or two ago and the thread was still set to auto-watch it unless I tell it not to just as it always has been. If that's not the case when I post this then I'll come back and edit my post but I really don't think anything's changed on posting so you might try rebooting your computer if you're seeing something weird.

I have been reading and have not posted anything until now. Dave, along with everyone else here i have appreciated this site very much. It has not only given me much information from the files but information reading everyones posts about various subjects. This site showed me how to garden the real way. This community is almost unbelievable in helpfulness and caring about others. Whatever problem you have help is a few keystrokes away. Dave I just want to say thank-you to you, your family and your staff for what you have created. A loving, caring and informative community that is also "kid" friendly.

I would like to say thank you to all of the DG'ers. Even tho I don't post much, you all have been a joy to me and still are. I bought my daughter a subscription for her b'day 2 years ago and renewed it last fall for her. She has enjoyed it more that I can tell you. Very few of you know but my daughter of 34 had surgery last May. When she came out of surgery she had lost her memory for the past 12 years, just vanished, and included in that was not knowing her husband or kids, 9-11 or even cell phones! She still does not have it back. Anyway, She had a very large box of seeds that she had traded for last spring and didn't know anything about them let alone know how to garden. This site helped her immensly. In her mind she was 22 and knew nothing She had already planted a lot of her garden before the surgery. When we all told/showed her about it, she had no idea of what anything was. So we both signed up for the piggy swap and then she had to have surgery again. Even tho she didn't let anyone know about her problem, (Starlight, ...Ella knew), she was so surprised about the patience and helpfulness of everyone. She had been a great gardener and now is having to re-learn everything from scratch so to speak. She has been enjoying looking up everything here on here. Reading posts of people that she looked up because their name was on the seed packets she had was so surprising to her. This site was soooo much help to her and good therapy!

NO other site could have helped her and is continuing to help her like Dave's Garden. I hope that any changes made will be only good ones. Dave I don't like the idea of whats been going on but I am trying to think positive. I believe there is a reason for everything that happens, both the things we like and dislike.
Everyone together on here is "Dave's Garden". "People" are Dave's Garden. I hope that "time" will show that this has been a good thing for DGer's and that you Dave will be more blessed, happy and content with whatever the future brings. Thanks everyone for listening. My best to all of you!
CindyK

If the towns people leave, the town will not be the same.

Well, all I can say is...I can't imagine a RE Company buying the town in the first place with no purpose but to make money and then when they sold it...all the townspeople had enough money from the sale to move on!

CindyK, that is an amazing story. I can only say that I hope your daughter continues to improve, that her memory comes back - and that she has a beautiful garden this Spring. Best wishes to your family.

I have a question....

There are an awful lot of us, myself included who have contributed a lot of time, not only in personal time, but we took the time to take lots of photos, did plant files etc, etc etc and give our opinions and such. Dave copyrights our photos...and needless to say our comments... perhaps this was answered earlier, if it was, I missed it, so could someone please repeat it.. Or maybe D_mail the answer.

NOW WHAT? If we move, what happens with all of the data and our photos etc that each of us has contributed to IN THE PAST? Are we gonna lose access to that? IF that happens, that is not fair to any of us who have done so. That would be a travesty and a horrid tossing of history into the waste can. Dave has become the Wikipedia of the Plant world.

What if those of us who have done so and done so so generously do not want the photos and data to go under new management???????? Those of us who were here under the DAVE copyright should have something to say since those are our photos and comments to start with.

What if we are not wanting to go under the new domain? This new management thingee is putting a huge dilemma infront of all of us. And to many of us, that could be a huge peice of Real Estate. Some of us have a big stake here. Some of us have years and those newcomers well, you have not begun to see the situation infront of you.

A few years back, I came from another gardening website whose format was terrible....I have stayed on Daves because of its look, its feel and its people and friends made. Some also came from that website and came for the same reasons.

I also have another question... why was this not annouced in a d-mail to ALL of us???.. or is what is being said here a rumor about the changing of hands? Since this effects all of the contributing and paying members... it really would have been nice to know of the problem as soon as it was known. Or is this still a discussion between the original Daves crew and the new management? Guess we the "townspeople" are the last to know?

Like I said, what happens to OUR DATA?

It has begun: ads that have absolutely nothing to do with gardening. I don't care what my credit score is. And if I do want to know, I don't need some ad to tell me.

The ice is getting mighty thin.

Don

I don't have any ads. where do they show up?

I see no ads - I have a pop up blocker.

You can turn ads on and off in your preferences under the my info tab. Click on ads and check all three boxes. I see the Watchdog ads by my choice but have not seen any other ads in years. One of the perks of subscribing is being able to shut ads off. Most of the questions about content are answered under the About Us tab and the policies look the same to me..

Thanks, I just turned them off. However, my point is, I didn't mind the ads since they were garden related. Now, it's all sorts of ads. Oh well, no bother now. Thanks,

Don

And all of the townspeople had such a bond that they got together again in a new town!

They took all of their equipment and knowledge from their shops with them.

This time they all vowed that they would own their own real estate.

All of their ideas, their comradship, their photos of wonderful times past went with them.

The old town named for the mayor was not the same with the mayor just being a guard at the big super store.

All of the shops that were closed down for lack of guidance when they had problems moved to the new location where they had leadership.

I love happy endings. :-)

No it is not my personal information like my birthday and address that I worry about. I don't want to be a part of a site that is allowing the google spydering to go on, especially if there is an option not to do it. I would rather be set to private as a default here, since I pay for the membership, if given a choice in the matter.

I am talking here to my friends about things that I want to say to them. The whole world does not have to hear what interests me, if I am paying for a membership. Believe me I am not that shy or private, but I share my life with those people I choose to share it with. I only see the same two websites post my home pages when you google me. I know this is not just my issue, when the big thing happened on FB, everyone was in an uproar too. I changed my preferences on that site now, but without the nice person here to tell me how, I did not know what I was allowing or disallowing, the wording is jaded toward pushing you to going public and reasons why you should.

Anyway, this is the world today, it is not any different than the Bible said it would be. We just don't have to like it and we still have choices.

Blossombuddy, if you are referring to the PlantFile photos, Terry has reassured us on the last thread, "Let's talk more about what's going on lately #3," that any photos we posted in PF we retain the copyright to our own photos, not this site. So they cannot do anything with them other than have them in PlantFiles.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=7516871

I know I have been somewhat concerned about this also. I have spent so many hours and hours taking photos and then processing them and uploading them to PF with the intent that they only ever be used in PlantFiles the way they are utilized now. I do not want them used in any other way.

I have been somewhat hesitant to upload anymore of my photos.

If you believe that this site will remain For Gardeners, By Gardeners, then I wish you all the best of luck. You dont know what you got, till its gone.

It would be a terrible shame if you stopped adding to the PF Kell; your pictures are always among the best. It is easy to see the characteristics of a specific plant in your photos - not to mention that they are always dropdead gorgeous. I think I can say with assurance that you have personally caused many to become addicted to plants. :-)

Let's hope we get this issue settled quickly.

Yesterday I found out that somehow, I was 2 continued threads behind.
Still catching up. So far I dont have a happy feeling about the new changes.
I love DG, it is a wealth of love and information. I renewed my subscription on Jan 8th.
So I will be for a while unless they kick me out. I do like looking at new things with lots of potential though.

chris

Well, thats fine.. but what about our trade lists and journals... this is very frustrating

I have spent thousands of hours taking photos and loading them here to copyright them. They are mine, they go where I go. Dave would not own the copyright to them, he only has publishing rights.. first publishing rights I beleive. So therefore I can publish my pics anywhere since I AM PRIMARY OWNER.

Wha a waste of my computer space loading them to JPEG to put them here if all is lost. I could have cdone without that maybe.. but that is water under the bridge. I can deal with that.

Reminds me why I came to Daves. Do you recall the beginning Zany. I was using a garden site, have long since forgotten the name, and I had photo albums of almost every photo I had ever taken, thousands. Dave and several others from here were all members. One day I logged on and found all my albums GONE! No photos nothing, I had a fit as did many others. The company offered us the option of purchasing our photos from them on Cd's which I promptly did as I had not backup of the photos. Meanwhile I got an email from Dave inviting me to come visit his new venture Daves Garden, I think there were about 100 of us or so that ventured there and well the rest is history. So as for your photos, you may want to start right clickin on your entries and saving them to your computer for future reference, better to do it now especially if we get a surprise and you don't have any copies or backup!

Precisly the concern.. And that is BS to have to BUY your own pics back.. New owners.. hmmmm.. You wanna BUY MY PICS??????? As of this moment.. I will sell for the right price. Negotiations are now open.

What's the saying?

"Hell hath no fury like a Gardener scorned"?

Life will move on...



"Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher. "
- William Wordsworth

I must be doing something wrong. I put all my pictures on my computer & then post them here as needed to highlight a post. They are stored on my computer & will not go away without me doing it.

A number of years ago, my entire computer was toast by a power surge. I retrieved any pictures that I didn't have on my backup disk by copying them from Daves.

As far as ads & changes, I have not seen any! Of course I am on here a dozen times a day so they might have slipped them by me.

I STILL WANT TO KNOW IF THE SITE WAS FOR SALE, WHY THE MEMBERS WERE NOT NOTIFIED. WHY WAS NOT A DMAIL SENT TO EVERYONE REGARDING THIS??

It was actually sold 2 or 3 years ago.

This thread is getting to be depressing so I will un-watch it. Bye - ya'all.

and then just recently re-sold.