A big announcement from Dave

Dave, you're an absolute delight - I am absolutely positive that this change will bring only GOOD things (for you and for all of us, your loyal fans).

Congratulations on the big move. I'm sure it was done with a lot of thought. Will it improve DG more than before the association ? Only time will tell. As long as Dave has control I have confidence that it will continue to blossom into the future. My first thought was, will it be like Burpee and Heronswood ? Venture Capital to me means profit first, everything else being secondary. But then I'm not a businessman. Best of luck Dave, I'm happy to support you in any way I can.

Dave,

There's no doubt in my mind that this was well thought out and carefully considered! DG has been a wonderful respite, a place to "chew the fat", and a delightful gathering of folks from all over the world. I don't see that changing, and as I jump into gardening again after withdrawals from a year of not doing so, I'm more enthused than ever!

I'm excited for you, Trish, and Terry, and equally excited for all of us subscribers and members as I see that DG can go nowhere but up. But then, I never doubted that from when I first visited the PlantFiles a couple of years ago. ;)

There's just something outright good about this place.

Warm regards,
Donna

P.S. I especially appreciated the lengthy explanation of what was going on, and why. No wonder why this is such a top knot sight! I imagine your ear might already be sore from holding the phone alongside it -- hope you're using a headset, instead! *giggles*

Congratulations and best wishes to you all!!

Congratulations, I am wishing you both the best.
Teresa in Ky

balvenie, you certainly have a keen mind. Your questions and concerns are the very same that I had starting 4 months ago when we were first approached by NameMedia (as well as other companies).

My first answer is: Absolutely NOT will it be anything remotely like Burpee and Heronswood. I can offer my personal guarantee of that. DG will continue to be DG with no changes (other than the usual updates as I've always done).

Venture Capital indeed means profit, and NameMedia will be receiving any revenue generated by DG and any other site I create. At the same time, they realize that the value is not in the dollars we bring in, but in the community we have. The community here is far more valuable (to them and of course to me) than the dollars.

Dave

Congratulations, and best wishes. Can we start an anxiety forum for those of us who don't like big business? (LOL)

Congratulations Dave, Trish & Terry. I have only been a member for just under a year. I love this site that you created and nurtured. Prayers coming your way for an even more succesful future!!!

WooooHooooooo time to pop open some champagne! Huge Congratulations to you all! I love hearing about such well-deserved successes....little ventures started in garages and then sold for gazillions! Pats on the back to you Dave and to Trish and to Terry. Good luck with garden.com

justfurkids carol

Congratulations to you all, best wishes going out also.I absolutely Love Daves Garden and Look forward to being a Loyal Member for a long...long...time : )

Congratulations on the move!
You mean you will not be moving to suburban Boston? But you will miss trying to garden in soil that is basically rock, with lyme-disease laden ticks, friendly (and hungry) deer, mosquitoes the size of bald eagles.. all the things that make gardening here an adventure ;-)

Will you be attending the MassHort Show in an official capacity (speaker, maybe?)? Your Boston fans would love to meet you!!!

-Melissa

Congratulations! It's not much of a change right now for DG, but I can only imagine how excited and enthusiastic you, Trish and Terry are. What a marvelous opportunity!

I wondered many times how you could continue such a quality operation as DG with such a small staff. Being a VERY SMALL business is one thing, but DG was a HUGE small business even though it had few employees! This is hands down the best move you could have made.

Marilyn

Congrats, and thanks for leaving daves the same. We love it the way it is. Look forward to new enhancements.

Congratulations! I am newbie to DG(less an a year) and gardening. DG is a daily thing now; I take it with my coffee in the mornings. I have learned so much from this site and am grateful that when I "Googled" a plant "Plantfiles" always seem to pop up.

I have only one question? We all have a lot of personal information on areas "subscribers only area" - "address exchange" - etc. Will any of this information be used in a fashion to bring profit to NameMedia or DG? "Address List Selling" as an example.

Congratulations! I'm sure you thought everything through long and hard before making this decision. Therefore I'm mostly comfortable with it, because I know you wouldn't do anything that wasn't best for DG. I have a few concerns, but I'll think about them some more and d-mail you Dave. After I think about them some more, I may decide they aren't a concern at all.

JoanJ, I look forward to your dmail! :)

Congratulations! All the best wishes !!

Wow, such big news. Congrats!!

I have to say that knowing you guys will still be in charge enabled me to exhale when I didnt even realize I was holding my breathe. Thanks for putting in those FAQs as they did help keep me from worrying about what would happen. Its going to be nice seeing more of you around here and know that a lot your worries have been re shouldered (is that really a word?)

Congratulations Dave & crew
and all the Best wishes on your new Adventure.
& Dave
remember all of us here at DG will always be available if needed

Dick

Congratulations and Best Wishes to you and your family!!! I've only been on DG for less than a year and have learned so much and met some wonderful folks. Thank you so much for what you have done here and will do in the future.

Please add my congratulations to the very long list above! One of the very first things I learned about owning a business is that bringing a business to the point where you can sell it is the best thing of all. You have certainly done that. Plus, you have even done one better - you have sold it, but still retain the management of it without having someone who doesn't know us at all managing DG. It couldn't be any better, could it?

Keep up the great work!

Carmen

I'm overwhelmed with the encouraging comments here and in private - thank you all very much!

morningayle:

No complaints or gripes here...I didn't think DG could even GET any better than it already IS !!!
After I got hooked on DG, I promptly cancelled my cable TV subscription...which was 60.00 per MONTH......so an increase for DG is not an issue for me personally.

Best of luck!

Am I the ONLY person who did a double check of the calendar before believing one word of this??? :) Okay, it's not April, it must be true!

Really, congratulations, Dave! I know that the site will only get better. This is such an awesome place to learn and grow and meet other gardeners. Did you ever imagine it would become such a huge community? Who knows what it will be like in another 6 years?

I was wondering who would bring up April 1st. :) Happily, this is not a joke. :)

First of, congratulations on a well deserved recognition and a new job!

As to the future, are you looking at Web 2.0 type of integration of services
between DG and the new NameMedia and external sites?

Congratulations, Dave, Trish and Terry!! I, too, have every confidence in all of you and your decisions about all of this. I'm sure it is a HUGE relief to pass the burdens of the finances and legal issues to someone else and just do the part you love - the creating and community parts of the job. :-)

Dave ~

Congratulations on your wonderful website changes! I've enjoyed it since joining a year ago. My daughter, Osteole, has been in it for much longer & I'd often ponder why she used it until I sat down one day to give it a try. I was hooked. Thank you for bringing this wonderful place to meet & talk about all kinds of subjects that revolve around our lives!

Because of your site, you have helped me get started on my first yard with landscaping & lovely plants but most of all, for the wonderful friends I have found in the forums with our local South Florida Galloping Gardener group!

~*~ Suenell

Congrats!.... I wish you and the site all the best of luck... I loved it from day one... and I support your decision.... hope this turns out to be a step in the right direction...

Allison

Congratulations to you all! There is a point where nothing can continue to grow without additional resources.

I hope that this allows Dave time to do what he does best!

Congratulations,
Six years of staying focused and committed to a dream is a long time particularly when it is tied directly to your income. I wonder if you would be willing at this point to share any future visions/dreams you have for DG other than the new site for beginners. As I can't help but notice how iVillage has expanded into other medias I wonder if Name Media has similar goals? Best Wishes kt

I have to admit that this makes me a little nervous. I have never heard of NameMedia and I don't know a think about how they operate or where they earn their profits. When I jumped over to their website the front page shows the following quotes:

Oh dear, I don't know what the change will do but as a unhappy customer of another garden site when a change like this occurred I cannot say I am pleased. I would have preferred to pay a considerably higher subscription fee then be part of a huge commercial enterprise. I'll wait to see what happens. There is always the possibility to work with local garden clubs instead, but I will be sorry to lose this source.

Brent,

NameMedia owns and manages more domains than any other entity in the world. A huge part of their business right now is in all these domains that they have and they monetize them indeed by showing ads on them, as well as buying and selling their domains.

On the other side of the coin is their recent entry into "Premium Sites", of which DG is the first. They have already completed a second acquisition, which I hope to be able to talk about soon. It's another great site.

Anyway, we are -not- lumped into the first group (the domain name business). We are a separate group and hopefully a good complement to the domain name business that they operate.

So, absolutely never will we be "Targeted Marketing site #xxxxxxxxx". That's not why they were/are interested in us.

dave

sempervirens, just wait and see, okay? If you're not happy and comfortable in 6 months, you can telephone me up directly and complain. :) That's not going to happen, though. If you've been happy with DG these past 6 years, you will be happy with it for the next 6 years.

dave

Congrats Dave, Trish & Terry!!! I luv this group and the information that is available!! Sounds like an awesome opportunity.
:) Donna

I can't imagine being able to offer my congratulations to you all any better than what I have already read. The loving family of gardeners that you have created will support you and continue to be grateful for everything you bring to us. I hope that Namemedia understands that if Dave, Trish and Terry aren't treated well, that they will have to answer to ALL of us. It could get ugly. I am so proud of you all for making Dave's Garden such a wonderful place, that you are being sought out to keep making wonderful things happen.

WOW! I just read all the above posts (took me 30 minutes!) and I'm happy!!

What a nice positive move, Dave! I have a feeling both Dave/Trish/Terry/Davesgarden and NameMedia feel they came out to the better on this great deal! That's wonderful, eh, when both parties feel like they benefited!

I'm real pleased(!) and from what I've read of the other posts above so are many others! Yay!

As stated above, and by you in your announcement, it's great you'll have someone else handling parts of DG (legal issues/subscriptions, etc) while you get to spend more time on pleasant work doing what you do best! Ya done good!

Melody hit the nail on the head when she says,

"Change has come at several points in this journey, and Dave has always been a mindful steward of this place and kept 'his people' first in all decisions."

Again, Congrats! I feel very confident.
Shoe

(Now I just gotta figger out a way to "Billy Hawthorn" Jeff into the fold!) *grin

I congratulate you for what appears to be a positive move for yourself. I will wait and see if it is equally positive for the website itself, which I consider to be an incredibly wonderful resource. I would like to mention that I am willing to subscribe to quality sites that interest me, but part of the reason to subscribe at all is the expectation not to be bombarded with advertising. I definitely do not pay to be bombarded!