How about a Plant Files Black List?

you rock. :)

Groan, Baa's off again.

Is there anyway the top tens can be a choice rather than compulsary viewing? Not only are many going to stay the same day in day out for a long time but there are so many images on the page.

Several entries feature in more than one top ten, Ipomoea alba seems to be a star, appearing in 3 top tens. They might reflect what the PF has listed in the comments but could there be an indication that they are purely from PF lists please? One 'thug', Hedera, is a native for me and two others, Cytisus and Ligustrum, are common, well behaved garden plants here.

Baa the list just reflects what we add to the files, It is great to be able to see them when I go right over to the plant files and these will most likly move around at least some and it will be fun to see the movement.

I agree with Baa, there's so much "stuff" now to wade through.

The statistical information doesn't really change often and is only a reflection of the areas where we have the most members. It doesn't really have anything to do with the plant.

It's great to see the new stuff, but I think it would be better to have the "top 10" on a seperate, statistics page.

Also, and maybe this is my misunderstanding, isn't the most photographed encouraging people to continue to add pictures to species that are already photographed to death? I thought there was a point at which enough was entered, there isn't really a need for more of the same plant or flower. Doesn't this encourage more pictures of the same plant?

This message was edited Oct 25, 2005 7:17 AM

I don't deny that it is a useful thing for many of our North American members, and that many people would like to see these kind of lists.

I feel it would be good to clarify that they are purely lists from the PFs point of view rather than as a general list for everyone, to me, they merely reflect where our main body of membership resides. I'm just asking if it is possible to have a choice on what we see on the PF front page like we have on our member page on DG. Like Sweezel, it's a bit too much of an information overload, it can't be easy for members who are on dial up either.

After the "top" lists being in place for a couple weeks, I'd have to chime in with those who have asked to have the lists condensed or made optional - they take up a LOT of real estate on the PF homepage and

1) they're fairly static (unlike photos and comments, which change throughout the day);
2) with such prominence, they're likely to become a self-fullfilling prophecy (what plant can possibly compete with an incumbent?);
3) the page is undoubtedly hard on dial-up users; and
3) the lists are not intuitive/self-explanatory for visitors or new users (and there's no room for an explanation)

Yes, it was my idea, but I'm still kind of fond of having a PF Hall of Fame list of links in the intro:

* PlantFiles Top Picks (link to a page with the 30 most popular plants)
* PlantFiles Thugs: Plants We Love to Hate (link to page with the top 30 thugs)
* Most Frequently-grown Plants (link to page w/ 30 plants having the most ZIP code reports)
* Most Photographed Plants (link to page w/ 30 most photogenic plants)

I'd be happy to provide little intros for each page, even ;o)

I would mostly like to see the newly added images be at the top of the page, rather than at the bottom, after all the other stuff.

It would also be nice to see a list of the most recently added plants, with or without images.

Terry and Joan, I agree. The features really need to be flipped, and the photos condensed to links.

I would also like to see the newly added photos at the top of the PlantFiles section of the DG newsletter.

But I will say this, all of the newest features and improvements have really made PlantFiles much easier to browse through.

Maybe one tiny suggestion? On the search page, where you can search by family, ect, would it be possible to list a common plant out and label each section of the whole latin name as an example? I am forever having to go back and plug part of the name into a different box because I'm not sure if that is the genus or the family or the species, ect. I don't always get the one I'm looking for if I use the common search, so I'm trying to do it the "proper' way.

Sigh, I have soooo much to learn. Thank Goodness for DG and all of it's information!

mg

MG

Re your search question, you can use the generalized search if you are unsure of the genus etc, you just type in the names you know rather than having a form to fill out.

Thanks Baa, I have resorted to that, but I'm really trying to learn the right orders. I'm trying to concentrate on learning things by families right now.

Hmmmm. Perhaps top 10 thugs by zone. Things that I would not dare let touch the ground in my area are precious babies in some folks greenhouses. Just a thought.

oh by zone... that would be a great idea...

I would like to see the general search option on the same page as the advanced search so you don't have to follow a couple links before getting to it.
Jan...

If there was a "White" List, put Trumpet Vine at the top. Durr says "If you can't grow this vine, give up gardening."