Arborquest.com is shutting down :(

If there's any information on Arborquest.com that you want to keep for your own records, you may want to go pull it off their site ASAP: http://www.arborquest.com/index.cfm

A message on their front page says they're shutting down the website effective 2/1/2002.

Thanks, Terry, I will check to see what I can't live without.

Oh no! That is the site I've been using to look plants up since gardening.com shut down. Are there any other sites that have extensive plant info? Our database here has quite a few, but not all.

Joan, it seems that most databases are either large and "shallow" (lots of plants, but not much specific info on each one), or the opposite - only a few plants, but lots of good specific info on what they have.

Which makes sense, because to do both means creating a VERY large database - and quite frankly, nobody's an expert (or even interested) in ALL plants.

Which I think is a good argument for why we all can (and should) contribute to the database here; we each have specific interests, and when you combine the depth of individual knowledge with the breadth of our 6,400+ members - that's a lot of info and interests that can be channeled into a database. (Getting off my soapbox now.)

At any rate, I would encourage you to make sure you've gleaned any info you want to keep (and can't find elsewhere) from Arborquest as soon as possible. It is a shame, but perhaps someone will buy it and keep it up and running.

Any chance we could (or would want to) request their database for our own? If they're shutting down, they might be willing to part with a copy of it.

That's an idea Carla. It can't hurt to ask. Dave would have to be the one to decide if it would work for DG or not. I'm afraid they would probably want to sell it though.

Since I'm such a new gardener, I need to be able to look up many plants to see which ones I can grow here, as well as earning about lots of different things.

Thanks for the info. I just recently added it to my favorite list. I guess I'll have to take it off.

It is a good idea Smiln. They have a "For Sale" sign on the site, so I don't know if they'd give us a copy for free, but who knows? If no one buys it, they may be willing to provide a file just so the information isn't completely wasted.

And Dave would have to decide if the information could be reformatted to fit the database here.

I only posted the alert because I figured there are some folks who use the site as a reference, and may not have noticed that the site is closing.

If the information was free, and if Vols told me it was useful and worth incorporating into our database, I certainly would find a way to incorporate it.

But... something tells me that they -really- want money for it, and I'm not willing to pay money for it.

Dave

Sounds like...Their site says this:

The ArborQuest.com and ArborQuestPro.com plant database, websites, and associated applications are available for sale to interested parties. Email us at staff@arborquest.com with expressions of interest.

Scary to think of this, but it's just possible some investor will want to buy it and hire a qualified person to keep it going. I think Dave could be getting a call from headhunters!

I think the more sobering reality is that Arborquest is one of many websites closing down because there's not enough revenue to support their ongoing costs.

I know that for some people, a subscription is a very real financial hurdle. But let's face it - we don't expect our mail to come to our door without someone paying the postage; our telephone to work without paying the bill; or our computers to connect to the internet without a monthly fee and/or suffering through endless pop-up ads.

Or, to use a "no free lunch" analogy - we couldn't expect to meet daily in a local restaurant, take up all the seats in the place, but never order anything - and somehow expect the restaurant to stay in business. (Ya know, my soapbox just follows me around, and every once in a while I find myself standing on it. Climbing down again.... :)

Terry, you are so right. I think a lot of people forget that the amusement parks charge mega bucks for entertaining us, and that's just for one visit. Or that a movie and popcorn will just about pay for a whole year here. I get so much more pleasure here than anywhere else I would spend the same amount of money, and it is so convenient. The theater and park close their doors after hours, Dave's is open when I'm ready. I suppose there are fortunes to be made on the internet, but it hasn't been the case for gardening sites. Too many have tried and failed, and if no one is able to find the key to survival, the only plant databases will eventually be the universities. Those won't be likely to offer growing information we need across the country. Gardening and genealogy are the two most pleasant uses I have found for my computer, and I hate to see any resources eliminated.

It's been a while since this thread was active, but I had a "flashback" to it this morning when I noticed that Plants For a Future (PFAF) has had their website pulled (it's only been within the past few days that PFAF has been taken offline): http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/

And several months ago (or longer), Neoflora seemed to cease operations as well: http://www.neoflora.com/

You can access closed websites through the Internet Archive. Here is the link: www.archive.org/
All that you have to do is to paste a link into the Way Back Machine and it will take you to where you want to go. It's pretty cool!

Arborquest: http://web.archive.org/web/20020124020600/http://www.arborquest.com/

Neoflora: http://web.archive.org/web/20040214140755/http://www.neoflora.com/index.html

PFAF: http://web.archive.org/web/20020605043007/www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html

Way Back *IS* a neat site - I like taking an occasional stroll down memory lane and seeing what DG looked like "back then" ;o)

When I re-read that two-year old message, what sticks out is this: