Coming soon: Daveaceae PlantScouticus pdb X gwd

OK, Terry ......now that's just mean!! LOL!

I've checked the FAQ's thinking it might be a new feature. Nada
I've checked Firefox for a tool. Nada

I give.

evil chuckle....

It's up to Dave to decide if he wants to let us use this additional formatting tag or not.

You may give it a try. I'm really just testing the feature right now and I might take the feature back out. But, in the meantime, do this:

[ quote ] Quoted text here. [ /quote ]

(Remove the spaces from the tags above.)

dave

Dave, does that just make it a quote box, or does it also automatically make it red? Does it add the Quoted: before the box?

Carolyn (on the Tomato Forum) often uses a person's quote in her reply but it's sometimes hard to realize she is quoting them. I have gotten accustomed to her style so it's easier for me, but if not over-used I can see this as a nice feature.

Darius - it makes the text red too. I just tried it out in the TEST forum. I like it, but think I'd use it only infrequently. How often does one really quote another? Usually we are just adding new thoughts/comments in our posts. I hope it stays.

Dave - since Daisy mentioned the red color alarms her is there a way to make it so the font isn't red but maybe italicized? I personally don't mind the red, but maybe another format would be easier on some folks' eyes? Do color blind people see the red?

Dave... thanks for letting us try it. Would be a nice feature be used where we quote detailed information from an outside source.

One of the things I wish you'd allow is the html code for some of the Smileys. Sometimes that icon makes all the difference in the "tone" of the written word.

I don't know if alarm is the word but it sure is attention getting which I why it could get overused but if everyone wants to play with it for awhile, I am not going to have a coronary everytime I read a thread! lol

I think it would be nice if the quoted text were italicized and blue. Man, I was so close when I fiddled around in the test forum last night, LOL! I had < and > instead of plain brackets, but had quote and /quote.

About the "red".... It's BLUE on my screen. (As are the poster's name, state, and zone, on the left). I had previously changed the "update" font color in Microsoft Office's "track changes" feature to blue; may be related to how Internet Explorer displays HTML pages???

I use Firefox with default to pick up the web page's colors, and it's blue on mine now, too - must have been changed and I didn't see it before I posted. Much nicer.

First time I've seen this thread and it was blue on my screen. Names have always been blue, too.

Dave, I don't think I can say it better than all of the other posts above, but just wanted to thank you for all you do. Your initiative and helpfulness is so appreciated.
Terrie

It's blue on my screen here, too, whereas it was red earlier. Guess Dave changed the code.

I changed it.

Thank you. : )

I tried it in the test forum, too! It worked for me! (It was fun, too!!)

:>)

Give a kid a present and he plays with the box ;o)

uh oh...don't tell me there is more!

LOL, Terry - exactly! The integration's neat, but look at the pretties!

Thank you Dave! I had done a number of direct quotes on the caregiver forum.......it was nice to be able to box them to show that they were *not* mine.

I was also tickled pink to discover we now can do &hearts !! Ü

This message was edited Aug 30, 2004 7:25 PM

Didn't do it right because I ran out of my daily edits.

Yeah, the daily "Edit" limits is a pain if one is doing a co-op. round-up organization, or something similar.

That it can be...on occassion! ;)

(Smiley face here)
Thanks Dave...it's cool.

~julie~

Lilypon, you can create all the threads and posts you want in the test forum. :)

dave

:) Thanks Dave! :)

Dave, how soon will this new program be activated? I just saw a plant I want to get from a post of Happenstance's and would love to know where to get it?

See, this new program will be used!!

Thanks a bunch.
Donna

Donna, we're not yet completely sure when it'll be launched. Just a few moments ago I emailed 14 companies in the GWD who I'm pretty sure will want to participate.

Once we have a few companies participating, I plan to launch. My goal is to have at least 300 companies participating.

dave

I gotta tell y'all - I think I'm more excited by the potential impact of this feature than anything we've done up to this point. (And the Plants Database and Garden Watchdog are tough acts to follow!)

The tremendous work that has been accomplished with the PDB over the past three years, and the relationships we've built with companies through the GWD have laid incredibly solid groundwork to build Plantscout. I'm not sure we could have reasonably attempted this project if we hadn't laid that groundwork.

For the gardener, this is probably the best feature imaginable. I know many of us enjoy spending countless hours each winter, making those new, glossy plant catalogs into dog-eared tatters. (How else can you keep your sanity until spring?) But when you're ready to buy, it can be terribly frustrating to try to recall which vendors offer the plant and to comparison shop for the size and price you want to purchase.

For the vendor, I imagine the best-spent marketing dollars are those that bring serious buyers to your door because they know you have exactly what they're looking for. PlantScout can do just that.

Dave, thanks for the update. I'll be looking forward to it.

Terry, you are so right about the impact this new program will have for us.
Yes, trying to remember where you saw that plant to buy, is frustrating and....I don't get that many catalogs, so I have to hunt for it on the net.

Thanks you guys,
Donna

I got an email too. Thank you Dave.
I guess the costs quoted are in US $ right??

US $, yes, just like the DG subscription system. In fact, it acts exactly the same way.

dave

Feebay! I LOVE it!

Dave will there be any way of selecting companies by country? I see the Watchdog is by zip code. We don't have zip codes, we have postal codes.

Liz, there is no location information in PlantScout. When a user looks for a particular plant, she will be pointed toward all the companies that sell that plant. There is no search by region stuff.

(I hope that answered your question)

best,
dave

....so....I skimmed through 75 entries and didn't see any mention, what are we talking about time-wise? I think this is an awesome idea, and would love to give it a try!

I wanted to launch it today, but I got busy handling companies who were signing up.

A launch tomorrow is quite likely. Thursday at the latest!!

dave

Glad to hear that companies are jumping at this unique chance to market direct to customers here. The more companies that keep you too busy to launch the better! That means that our searches will be all the more likely to locate that special plant within the listed businesses.

Question? You are taking listings only from companies with no negatives at this time? Does that mean that if they later begin to be evaluated and recieve less desireable marks their listings will be revoked? Or if a company has a good number of positives and one or two negatives will they be refused a listing?

Zanymuse, the point is to keep the really bad companies from participating. Companies like:

Michigan Bulb
Gardener's Choice
Four Seasons Nursery
Burgess Seed
Direct Gardening
Spring Hill Nurseries
Gurney's Seed & Nursery
Richard Owen Nurseries, Inc.
Ty Ty Nursery (aka TyTy Nursery)
New Holland Bulb Co.

(This is the current Bottom 10 list)

Those guys have no business selling any products via PlantScout. Their ratings are so poor that you could expect to have trouble ordering from them. It just makes good sense to exclude them from this, regardless of how much money they want to give me.

If any company has a positive rating, gets included in the PlantScout, and then turns their business around to the worse and ends up in being "one of those companies" then, yes, I think we would have to re-evaluate their participation in PlantScout and issue a refund to them, if appropriate. I don't really think this will be a problem, though.