Announcing the Garden Watchdog!

For the past couple weeks, go_vols and I have devoted our full energy to the launch of this new feature on Dave's Garden. This feature is the first major addition to Dave's Garden since I launched the Gardener's Journal, almost a year ago.

What is it?

It is a database of mail order companies, rated by the members of Dave's Garden. We have already compiled a list of 164 companies, and ratings have already begun to flow in from the beta testers of this feature.

Through this feature, consumers with access to the internet will be able to look up companies who they may be considering doing business with, and read the comments left by other members.

It is similar in design to the Plants Database, and it is just as useful.

I could talk about this feature for a long time, but, thankfully, I'll step aside and let you rush in and take a look at it, add ratings to your favorite (or least favorite) companies with whom you have done business. Find out who is the best (and who is the worst) in the world of online gardening commerce.

A quick word of caution: When you are adding a rating to a company, be careful of the words you choose. You will not be able to retract them, once you say them.

Thanks again to go_vols. She put at least as much effort into this project as I did. She is the one who originally came to me with the idea. She deserves at least as much credit for this as I do.

The address to the new feature is: http://davesgarden.com/gwd/ and it will soon be appearing in the menu (and other places).

Dave

When someone abroad adds a company there and their address, it looks very odd. Postal adressing system is different in each country, also, could you put the country names also, now there's only FI. Someone might think it's Falkland Islands.. hehe. Anyway. Hope it works.

Evert, Finland is there. You can scroll down or keep hitting the "F" key to pull up all the countries that begin with "F"....

Yeah but I meant when you add a country f.ex. Finland, it just reads FI there...

where?

and (if you missed the other thread), we're still looking for a name for this feature: http://davesgarden.com/showthread/144910.html

Please throw in your "two cents' worth" on either thread!
Thanks!!!

Kewl!! You've both done a Great job. I love it ;-)

Thanks, Sue. We're real happy with it, and we can't wait to see its usefulness increase as more members add ratings.

dave

This is really a cool forum Dave and Go_Vols...thank you so much. I've already ordered a new catalog :-) I love it......Thanks, vic

Great job--Dave and go_vols!! I love it. Very easy to use. Thanks to you both.

Awww, shucks. It was a lot of fun to work on. And I must say, I took a very "raw" idea to Dave and he ran with it. The next thing I knew, I was busy shoveling company information into this new feature.

I think Dave has created a wonderful and extremely innovative new application. It's definitely one of the very best uses of the internet I can imagine, and I hope that all gardeners worldwide come to find this site useful for sharing their mail-order experiences (good and bad) with other gardeners.

It's also hopefully a way for us to discover and share those "little gems" - the small gardening companies who deserve our business because of their outstanding products and service.

Ok - the bird brain here made an error adding a company. The mistake is in the name - I added Roger's Rabbit Patch when it should be "Rabbit's Patch Daylily Garden". Dumb mistake and I should have been more careful. Can it be edited or deleated? Should I just re-enter it under the correct name? Sorry to be such a ditz.....

Wonderful stuff as usual - what a team!!!!!

Sue, try to edit it. If you don't see (down near the bottom) an "Edit this entry" link, let me know (post here or e-mail me) and I'll take care of it.

Glad you like it Louisa :)

I don't see an edit link ....

Question, about who to add. Is this just for actual businesses, or could someone like Tom Clothier be added to the list? He is just wonderful to do business with, I've already ordered seeds for next year from him. But he doesn't have an actual business, I guess it's just a hobby.

Wow! Great feature - kudos to Dave and GoVols - this is an awesome addition to the garden :)

momcat, since Tom sells his seed he is up for listing here. But I would caution against adding eBay vendors (or others like that) unless they have a website and sell outside of eBay, et al.

Reasoning - eBay has its own rating feature.
If you have doubts, send me an e-mail of who you're thinking of adding, and we can talk about it :)

Rise, glad you like it - I'm pretty excited about this newest feature of DG!

Sue, I changed it for you :)

Thank you Vols. I promise to be more careful ;-)

The site is going great... 25% of the listed suppliers have been rated allready.

Paul

Dave and Terry, You both have done an outstanding job. Thanks for providing this to us. Especially for newbies, this will provide a great deal of information for ordering from companies for the first time.

Great Job GV and Dave. This is a really great feature.I can see me using it all the time. Thanks for another great addtition.

You guys make a great team. The new feature is wonderful. Great Job!!!! Once again Dave's Garden has added a truly useful new feature.

Very Very Cool you guys!!!!!! Another job well done!!!! As for the name call it what ever you want it is a GREAT feature!!!!!!
sue