looking in mirror

i belong to a few yahoo groups and in one of them today they posted this http://plantsbymail.net it was like looking in our gardenwatchdog only somewhat different.

our own go_vols is in charge of the site you linked to!

oh good lol i thought we were ripped off.

You know the saying, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ;o)

The original Plants By Mail site was part of the inspiration for the Watchdog. I don't know how many remember it, but it was in an older "html" layout. The companies were listed in roughly alphabetical order, and each one was a link to it's "page" where consumer comments were posted.

It was an excellent resource in terms of content, and the history is tremendous - there are comments going back to the site's inception in late '94/early '95 (that's a loooong time for a website to persevere!) Not surprisingly, the "good companies" back then are still praised highly, (and bad companies are still up to their bad old habits.)

The layout had definite drawbacks - you couldn't search for companies by specialty, location, etc. A lot of information was outdated, most entries didn't have the company's web address or email, and you had to read each comment to know whether the writer had a good or bad experience.

Administratively, it wasn't a good setup, either. Users couldn't post comments directly, they had to email them to Joe Robinson, who (for 7 years) posted them about once every three months. In 2002, comments accumulated from February until November, when we got the new format up and running.

The Plants By Mail site now operates very much like the Watchdog, thanks to Dave's support with technology and hardware. It still has a loyal following, and I'm trying to acclimate them to the new format before we make any other changes. So far, so good - we set up a survey for first-time visitors and the response has been very positive.

now that you mentioned the old format i do remember using this site before i found dg. the new format confused me lol. that and i was just waking up when i found it. i do think site setup is much better and does help more that the old. like you said it is easier to look for the company instead of scrolling down and searching for the companies.
good job go_vols, you and dave never cease to amaze me lol.

I used it, too -- neat concept! I looked up J&P before I worked for them, because I wanted to find out more about the company and their service. That was in 1997, I think.

You worked for J&P, gardenwife? I didn't know that!

I did, from September 1997-July 2000. The distribution and catalog center is where I worked, and we had all three companies' business - J&P, Harry & David and Northwest Express. We only shipped the J&P hardgoods from our center; all the live plants came either directly from the vendor or from our own fields in the San Joaquin Valley of California and so forth. I became "the plant lady" and helped a lot of associates with their gardening questions; it was the company which sent me to the Master Gardners classes and I got to do product training sometimes, too. It was fun doing that, but I didn't enjoy being a supervisor too much. Sometimes I miss it, though; it was a blast talking to customers all over the US and helping them choose plants for their gardens!