WOW!

I won't try to calculate the actual numbers yet, since the clock hasn't run out for those of you on the West coast and beyond. But the clock has sruck midnight on the East coast and I'm ready to say 'nuff. (You can stop or keep 'em coming if you want - I'll be sure everything gets counted in the totals as long as they're added before midnight SOMEWHERE in the world :)

Let's look at what we've accomplished in the span of 13 months. The PDB now has almost 53,000 plants and over 8,000 photographs! That is truly incredible, when I think back to just a year ago, when we were pleased as punch to have 2,000 plants in the PDB, and several hundred photos.

My hat is off to everyone who participated in the 2nd annual PDB challenge (especially those of you who worked on it two years running - that takes some perseverance!)

While we wait for Dave to calculate the totals (it'll probably take him a day or two) I just want to give everyone who has contributed to the PDB a well-deserved pat on the back. Thanks again!!!!

I posted 4 photos last night to help out. Sorry I haven't had time to imput more but I do use the feature often and I do appreciate all the work you have done as well as all the members to put it in place. Thanks

Me too GRC, I was just getting off last night when I saw that Go_vols had posted that more were needed. I did not have many pic's left that were not already in but I did put the rest in!!!!!! 53,000 sure is alot of plant's, I wonder haow many I have???????
sue

Sue, you can check your member page to find out how many plants, photos, etc. you've added :)

GRC, I saw you adding and mentally thanked you!!! The database is certainly meant to be used, and a lot of people do just that. If the majority of users will occasionally take just a minute or two to add a comment or photo, it really adds up fast...

i meant to be adding comments, but found there were pictures I didn't have in there. is there a way to start with a certain letter and find those plants and just look for ones I have alphabetically??

tig, go to your members page and to PDB contributions and click on the plants you contributed. It will show a list of everything you put in the DB.

Aha! I knew I would find this info somewhere! I can't wait to see the results of the contest. Can you post them in the Contest area, or is that just for photo contests?

I have difficulty in understanding how to post on that forum. Maybe I am so interested in the other forums that I don't try hard enough to catch on. LOL I promise I will become a better pdb member in the future.
Why not have it so when a photo is added it ask if you want it to be posted in the PDB forum at that time. Would that work?

snow, I want to know if I can just start with the A's and look at all the plants and see if I can add a comment to something. Most of what I've found already has comments, and want to help where there are none, if I know the plant.

FIFTY THREE THOUSAND?!?!? Up from only 2,000 a year ago?! Good-NESS that's a lot of plants! Fifty-one thousand added in one year, that's 140 a day!!! And don't be modest, Go_Vols ~ you are the biggest reason for that, girl! Just taking a quick peek at your member page tells me you've been a busy girl. Thank you so very much. I'll bet that's what prompted everyone else to upload seven thousand of their photos! If you build it, they will come...

I'll bet THAT'S why I've found myself using the PDB more and more and other databases less and less. Seriously, now that I look back on it, I really do find myself going to the PDB more and more lately instead of the other good database sites I have bookmarked. I still use Google more than the PDB, but that's only because they must have access to hundreds of thousands of plants in there. ;) But I really am finding myself looking in the PDB first 'cause if there is a complete listing in there, it'll have all the info I'm looking for.

You know, tiG, I've been wondering that very thing myself ~ if there's an easier way to browse the PDB. Adding photos is easy as I just go through all the pics I have and see if they're uploaded. But when attempting to add some comments I sat there more than once, staring at the PDB homepage, trying to think of just one plant I wanted to add a comment to. With all the plant names swirling around in my head I couldn't grab just one out of that mess and look it up to add a comment or growing info if needed. I didn't know where to start, so didn't get many of them in.

One of my other fave database sites offers two choices for browsing: alphabetized by common name and alphabetized by genus. I've seen other databases give a list of alphabetized family names, then below each family name were their respective genus members alphabetized as well. Any one or all three would be awesome here! If we could have a list of genuses in front of us, we could start at the beginning and page through, adding comments as we go. Or could start with the Cucurbitaceae family, looking through all it's members to add comments.

Hmmmm ... I think this is a job for SuperDave! I'll go post and ask.

This message was edited Sunday, Sep 1st 2:06 PM

Sue, I meant to say a big thanks to you, too. Between the you and GRC, and several others (Smiln, Evert, tiG, Wingnut, PoppySue, Weezin, - shoot, I know I'm leaving some out, and I'm so sorry!!!!) who kept working as we went down to the wire, we squeaked past the 2,000 photos mark by a hair, so all your last-minute efforts were the deal-clincher.

tiG and Wingnut, you've raised some VERY good points. And you are also correct in sending them to Dave for his consideration, since it's his programming genius that makes the PDB work so well. (Me, I just keep stuffing more plants in there; I let him figure out how to make them all fit, lolol.)

Just got back on Dave's today to see how things went yesterday. I know my fat little fingers were flying across the keys... posting comments, pics, changes. The desk was stacked full of reference sources, my toolbar was filled with database sites, my photo library, & outlook express.

I started in earnest at 7:30am my time on the 31st, and quit about 5:30pm. In all that time I got an egg sandwich and coffee, and I took a half hour to download and edit more pictures. When I thought about stopping and calling it good enough, I would check the new entries on the PDB homepage, and it spurred me on. What a wonderful thing it was! I realized lots of folks were doing the same!

When I woke this morning, my head was full of the things I had not posted.... celery, leeks, wild plants... I was still in PDB mode! So, that brings me to the point I wanted to make. We should all keep the ball rolling. Now that we've gotten in there and dug into the fertile soil of Dave's PDB, we should keep planting things... maybe set a personal goal for a certain number of entries a week. If you don't have pictures, you've got experience. If you don't have experience, you've to a web full of reference materials to update and offer corrections.

I know right now I have twice as many usable photos than I posted... I don't mean duplicate types, but new plants, new views... seedlings, seed pods, flowers, etc. I could add so much more if I just commit to it... maybe not another marathon right away, but a steady committment.

I, too would like to thank Go_Vols & Baa for helping me out when I goofed on a posting. I realize there were probably many more goofs they were dealing with, as well. Neither of them ever grumbled or faltered... and meanwhile they were entering their own data... what wonderwomen! I know there were other people helping with the editing, so hats off to them all!

I started in earnest at 7:30am my time on the 31st, and quit about 5:30pm. In all that time I got an egg sandwich and coffee...

Sounds like a good incentive for this ~ it's a diet plan I can follow!!!

I don't know, Wingnut... I had butter and mayo on the fried egg sandwich, and I forgot to mention the bowl of chili around 2pm... check out my pic on my home page... definitely not a good role model for dieting... maybe a "roll" model! Anyway, had a good time in the PDB, and lots of good company. Maybe next year we can make it a pot luck!

Yeah, I know the feeling ~ I'm a "hoagie". But I did find myself, like you, not paying attention to my grumbling tummy as much while doing this. I enjoyed it immensely! I think I'll make a "bi-weekly goal" of so many plants, too!

Ya'll are too funny - you are definitely my top choices to cater the next challenge :)

A good point to be made is to keep that camera handy - pictures of seed heads, pods, and SEEDS are much needed in the PDB. Not to mention we still have a lot of vegetables to harvest this fall (photographs and ratings are badly needed), and before you know it, we'll be moving into the holidays when we have Amaryllis and Poinsettias to capture on film...

I'd like to do another "official" challenge month this winter. How does January sound to everyone? (For me, it's a great month to spend time at the 'puter - the holidays are over, it's generally too cold to get outside much, and too early to start most plants...)

I just need to put on my thinking cap and figure out what the challenge should entail - getting everyone to add images of plants in bloom is probably NOT going to work! But maybe we could focus on houseplants, or evergreens, or just filling in all the details that currently exist in these entries. Ahh, well - at least there is some time to think it over between now and then!

I think that's an excellent idea! And IMHO it should focus on adding more details to plants that are already there. There are MANY that don't have those details and whiling away cold days by cuddling up to the computer to research sounds great. :)

BTW, Terry, I've seen a picture of you somewhere ~ you're a little old hot dog bun! After looking at your PDB numbers, I see why! Step away from the computer. Easy now... Pay no mind to your quivering fingers ~ that's just a withdrawal symptom. It'll ease up soon.

Oh, Wingnut, you are a caution! Maybe I should have referred to myself as "Puff Pastry". I'm pretty "puffy" and I puff alot going up & down these stairs all the time. I have to agree with you about the database. There is a lot of cleaning up to do, and this winter I know I will have more time to help.

Go_Vols: I'm game for a January 'Mean Green Marathon' on the ol' PDB. I'm willing to help any way I can. As for images, I think most of us have taken photos and haven't gotten around to sorting them out this summer, so we still may have summer pictures to offer in January. Some of those lucky dogs that get to go on winter vacations should have some interesting photos from far away climes, as well. As for house plants, that's a great addition... beside, one person's houseplant is another person's weed in the yard... just depends on where you live.

I have another suggestion... we have so much good information in our forum archives that could be used in the database. If we can track some of these down and get permission from the posting party to use their info in the PDB, we could cut and paste, adding them to the PDB and crediting the person who wrote it originally. It would be an incredible job for a few individuals, but if we can all try to recall some good bit of knowledge we got here, we could make an effort to find it.

Something of interest to me is to have more specific propagation information. Most every plant in my garden was started from seed in my basement. It was helpful to have some tips that weren't necessarily addressed on the package. Besides, when someone sends you gathered seed, you don't often get instructions.

I was really pleased with Dave's old PDB when I first visited here because there were lots of comments and suggestions on propagation. Didn't we discuss coming up with some methods of seed starting? Was that a separate thing or to be included in the PDB?

I wish there was a way to link our journals and the plants database together, so when we enter a plant in our journal, a link would be available to the plants database so we can add comments and pictures if they are appropriate and needed. That would help me anyway, because then I could update my journal and check that plant in the PDB at the same time, then add my comments or pictures if they were needed. It would also tell us right away if we just purchased a plant that wasn't in the PDB. It would also give us an easy link to read about the plant we just put in our journal. This idea might be impossible, but it would be nice.

Joan, we've been tossing around ideas very similar to yours. Stay tuned....

Is images of seeds needed? I have tons of seeds; but I don't have a digital camera. Is scanned seeds useful?

Arsenic, as long as the images are clear, scanning is perfectly fine.

By the way, when I use my "real" camera I send off my film to a mailorder place that hosts my images in a personal photo album, as well as sending me back the photos and negatives. Are there any similar companies in Norway? (It isn't as convenient as a digital camera, but it's the next best thing, I've found :)

I never thought to try to scan in my seeds etc directly. I will give it a try tomorrow! I also vote to have a way to direct-link journals and PDB. Much easier for me to remember where I put things!