Need Your Vote!

Trying to make it easy for everybody to have their "final say". Please vote for your favorite semi-finalist:

#1. Garden Watchdog
-OR-
#2. Gardener's Mail Order Companion

Here are two things to consider when voting (in addition to your own personal preference):

a) How easy it will be for 'net surfing gardeners to find and understand/relate to this feature, based on its name; and

b) How companies will feel being rated #1 by [insert your vote here]

Vote by posting to this thread...we'll keep it casual. Let's get out the vote! Thanks!!!!

#2

#1

#1

#1

#1

#1

As much as I like the name of #1, it doesn't inform the user what it's.
I vote:
#2

#1

#1

#1 I think that it is pretty descriptive.

How about Gardener's Watchdog? I know, I know, where was I earlier...

Sigh. I suspect I'm going to be outvoted. But see, once upon a time, we had a dog named Buster.....oh never mind, it was a long time ago :) Long story short, I have an aversion to watchdogs, LOL.

More seriously, I'm trying to envision myself as a gardener with no inkling of Dave's Garden. And I just received my rotting order from Dead Shrubs Limited and wanted to know if anybody else had the same experience I did. So I got on the web and I came across a site called "Garden (or Gardener's) Watchdog", would I think that it was a consumer forum for rating gardening companies?

Hmmmm....

Or let's say I'm the president of Perfect Plants Inc. And I get an e-mail from some website called "Dave's Garden" and they tell me that I'm #1 with their Garden Watchdog. Would I be very very afraid? Or would I understand (intuitively) that it was a GOOD thing to be given this honor?

Keep the votes (and discussion) coming....please?!?!

Very interesting points, vols. This is a tough call!

Number 2, without a doubt!

Gardener's Mail Order Watchdog -so that 1 and 2! :]

Hey Dori - I like that!

I like Dori's also...

I voted on #2 cause I was thinking about the new members that are coming in and I do believe that they will understand #2 much better than #1 would. To me,if I where a new member,#1 sounds like there is someone watching my every move that I make,just watching and waiting for me to make a mistake,and then pounce on me. I was just trying to put my place as a new member of Dave's Garden so that is why I do think #2 is more fitting.

I, too, was trying to think of what a total stranger to the site would think, but my grandmother had a dog named Buster (honest!) and he bit me when I was four. But after thinking about it, #2 might just sound like a catalog. I like Dori's solution. #1+#2

Me too Dori - kills two birds with one stone!!!

i like the combination too.

I like the combination also. But if not then I vote for number 2.I like the name of number 1 the best but I don't thing people will realize what number 1 means.

Love the combo but if I have to pick then it's #2!!
sue

like the combo but have to go with #1 if it is one ot the other neither one states it true purpose by it's self when you think as some one that doesn't know the site

A Garden Watchdog,protects and serves the gardeners':D

really like the combo, but if i had to pick it would be #2

I like #2. If someone who didn't even know about Daves garden was using a search engine to find a rating for mail order sites, I think if we named it #1, they would get a whole lot of sites about watchdogs, dogs etc. I can't find anything that would steer them wrong searching if it was named #2, so my choice is:

#2

This message was edited Friday, Nov 30th 7:50 PM

Ilike #2 best. It sounds like an all around information site, whereas the first one looks like criticism only. (which I guess it is).

This message was edited Friday, Nov 30th 8:29 PM

Is that the only two choices? Maybe I'm lost here. Why not something like "Garden Suppliers Report Card". (or the like.) Wouldn't that spell it out more succinctly?

#2

#2

'shoe, you're not lost. We (I?) narrowed it down to a couple of contenders since we weren't making much headway with a wide-open field. If you have a write-in vote, please post it :)

I like Dori's answer myself. Otherwise, my vote will be for number 2.

I am like the others if this is open the general public then the name needs to really be more to the point.
garden site report cards is better than garden watchdog,only for the reasons stated earlier, if this was to come up you may not link to it thinking it was about dogs.
I was thinking this was only going to be for DG members use and didn't realize it was going out to the general public.

So the name needs to be worked on a little more, before it goes out to the public.

If you name it garden site roport cards there will be negative feed back from some of these companies,and other people so be prepared for that as well.

Think about if you found a site that rated Dave's as all negative, too chatty, too silly, or Etc. How would you feel and how would Dave feel.

This is not a light subject, so think before you speak!

I'll step down off the soap box now.

Mike

#2 says it all

But it isn't a general garden site rating, it's for companies or individuals who sell to gardeners, sell to us. So that has the effect of limiting personal opinions of style, unless that style interferes with good buying experiences. I really don't care if someone strikes me as a good social contact, or if they speak in monosyllables, if I go there to buy a product or service online and they sell it to me in a business like manner, in a good time frame, at a fair price, according to their stated intentions. I don't see how you would even know those social or subjective factors. As for how they will feel, they should be grateful to Dave's for doing this very valuable market research for them, free. If they don't like what the gardeners, their unhappy customers, are saying, they surely know they need to change something. I don't suppose anyone likes to be criticized, but smart and successful business people pay attention and use it as a tool, a gauge or thermometer. Many large companies pay megabucks for just this sort of input, and from a less focused or targeted source. If the name accurately describes the feature, anyone thinking of buying a tiller or a packet of tomato seed or a greenhouse or beneficial insects from an online source, whether they think of themselves as gardeners or homeowners with sick lawns, will be likely to hear about this customer driven rating service and use it. Four star hotels get those stars by having a preponderance of satisfied guests. They welcome and promote the rating system.

I like Mikepiper's suggestion... Report Card days a lot, as would Garden Store Ratings by Consumers.

Does that database only address mail order companies, or does it also let us rate local garden shops? I know several people have come to visit Asheville and asked me about good garden shops here. If the database can list shops by state, or city, we could list our best bets, and comments.

About revising # 2 to Gardeners Mail Order Ratings??
I don't think that would offend anyone

Paul

Just when I thought we had it narrowed down (grin), it looks like we have some new contenders:

Gardener's Mail Order Watchdog
Garden Suppliers Report Card
Garden Store Ratings by Consumers

And after pondering these for a bit, this one came to mind:

Gardener's Buying Guide?