Questions from this week

Oh, okay, I see. Do you have the link showing this information?
I am assuming Dave will verify this, but thanks.
Carol

It's somewhere in that big long "Important Announcement". It will take you some wading but it's there.

Here it is:
http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3119936

Nice use of the Link to Post feature claypa!

Hey, that is cool. I do like the post #'s then. Thanks, Mike.

Excellent Feature Dave and LONG overdue!
I see all that 'extra' time you have isn't being wasted ..... LOL

Ric

I'm curious abt your Standard Out company. Do you still own it and will you still have the KJV on it like it was? I used it a number of times to find passages.
Laura

Yes, we still have StandardOut, Inc, but I am planning to dissolve it over the course of this coming year. It's not needed any more.

Yes, I will continue to maintain cubits.org as a personal project, as I have done for almost a decade now.

Dave

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/689377/

Dave,

I know you're busy, but I've been thinking about this for a while.

Has anyone ever tried to organize a way for DGers, who have plants and seeds to spare, to make a connection with people who need the plants? I'm sure there are a lot of DGers out there who would contribute - they post all the time.

Something like a centralized database of items that DGers would be willing to contribute, and a method to connect the donors to newbies, or people who can't afford them, were wiped out by a hurricane, etc. etc. The plants wouldn't actually be collected by anyone, but there would be a method to connect donors to donees.

Just a thought. My garden wouldn't be half of what it is now if it weren't for the generosity of a lot of nice people here. It would be nice to see more of that; I know other DGers feel the same.

Steve

Tonight I am having to use my toggle bar side to side to see the forum full screen, what's up???

Problem is gone now, you did a quick fix or my problem? Regardless, it's better now!!

This message was edited Feb 6, 2007 11:01 PM

Well I spoke too soon. But the problem only seems to be with one thread on the Bird Watching forum. Here is the link to the one that won't fit on my 19" computer full screen mode. Other threads in that same forum work fine.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/689715/

I think sometimes when people paste in really long links or have a long string of characters all in a row with no spaces it does that.

Refer them to tinyurl.com

It works wonderfully.

mg

It's not a problem with hyperlink length (our URLs are automatically shortened, similar to tinyurl.) It was an issue with too many characters in a row without any spaces, so the system stretched to try to accomodate the string.

Thanks Terry, it is looking good tonight!

Good to hear!

Question:

Why is the annual charge for subscription going up and the "free" access expanding? At this point it seems that members can get almost as much as I get, but I'm paying - they aren't. I don't feel that $25.00 is too much. I just don't see the incentive for members to join/pay when so much is free. I feel like I'm supporting more than I can afford.

No discussion please - I am aware of the features that a subscription gives me that members don't have. I just do not feel that those features are worth me paying for so many "freebies" for others.

I have not been here much lately due to other commitments, but I cannot find a post answering this question, but I have seen other postings asking, basically, the same question.

I hope the answer from Dave will appear in the "Answer" thread, and not lost in a "see this link" or off in another thread.

tgif, answered here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/689174/

dave

Thanks.

I tend to agree with TGIF and would certainly support severely limiting what members only can access since only about 2.6% of members actually subscribe. Might encourage more to pay.
Ann

dave, I've noticed that when my dmail recipient moves a dmail into their "deleted" folder, it also moves it into my "deleted" folder, while still leaving it in whatever folder I'd put it.

Just wondering, was this intentional, and can you explain why, as it escapes me for the moment?
Thanks.

2zeus, I can't confirm that this is the case. I just did a test here and it didn't do what you described.

Now, if you are both the recipient -AND- the sender, then it will indeed do what you described.

Dave

Are there any possibilities of having the $25 annual subscription offered in smaller denominations, such as $12.50 for 6 months or $6.25 for 3 months?

Yes, we'll be keeping the $5 for 2 months deal.

Dave

Oh, okay, that makes sense, on both the ones he tried, they were long back-and forths over days.

On another subject, would humourous articles be appropriate, if they were along the lines of "Murphy's Law applied to gardening" sort of thing? So many of us have hysterical tales of garden mishaps and plants which refuse to grow as promised...

LOVE that new "previously mailed" function, what a great idea!

with regards to Plant Files, Dave you said "PlantFiles still cannot be fully used by non-subscribers. You can only search 10 times a day, and you can't use the advanced search at all."

But if you dont use the search feature and use the pull down menu to access the files, it seems that non-subscribers can view unlimited PF.
I logged out and tried it and could view in full size as many begonias as I could scroll through. Doesn't seem right for non paying members to be able to get around the search feature.

Seems the only thing non paying member cannot do is post comments. Am I off base?

PlantFiles has always been available for anyone. You just have limited searching capabilities if you're not a subscriber.

Dave

The main differences in the PlantFiles area are:

1) You can only do 10 searches per day. For some people, that's plenty, but for many others, it's a mere drop in the bucket. And the "browse-by-category" is only good if you're just browsing...if you want to look up something by name, you're going to eat into your 10-search limit.

2) You can't click on the family, genus or species names to instantly cross-reference all other plants in that family, genus or species group.

3 You can't do an Advanced Search and specify your criteria. We get a lot of requests at the helpdesk, asking for that feature. We point out it's available - to subscribing members ;o)

If you're a "once-in-a-blue-moon" PlantFiles surfer, these probably aren't a big deal. But if you're a serious PlantFiles user - or you become one - those are some pretty big limitations and restrictions. Not to mention the ads that can be turned off if you subscribe, plus the rest of the DG world that opens up - forums you're able to access, plus chat and now the new trading tools.

Interesting. I am curious though about the number of entries that are added to the plant files by non subscribers. It seems to me that if they are adding a lot to the database that that is one area where they should not be restricted in their searches. If the numbers are very low it is no big deal but if the numbers are high it would seem we are taking advantage of their input but making it more difficult for them to use the feature themselves.

One wonderful thing is we do benifit a lot from non subscribers entering stunning photos and information about plants !

It IS true that I was just a member for about a year before I decided to become a subscriber. It was really when I started to ask questions and realized I couldn't access any answers that I decided being a subscriber was worthwhile. I also contributed quite a few pictures before I became a subscriber.

Ann

i have a question regarding the "skip to new" feature. why does it do it on some threads and not on others? it's no big deal one way or the other, but i've always been curious about it. i was thinking maybe it was my computer, but that doesn't make sense to me. thanks!

Tracks,

The forums and threads know where you have been and when you have been there. When you get on a thread and click on "skip to new" it will only show you what you have NOT seen. One exception, if someone posted while you were post. But then it will tell you that occurred so you will miss nothing.

Molly
:^)))

thanks, molly. that makes sense. does it know even from way back? an example, i popped in on "blu" the other day and i haven't been on that one for probably a year. when i hit "skip to new" it brought me to the bottom of the page even though there were a maybe a 1000 posts since i visited last. in all other regards, it seems to work just like you described it. thanks again!

Tracks, even after a year, it should work the same way.

If it skipped to new entries past your last visit, I can't explain how that happened. One of the "pros" may be able to tell you that one.

Molly
:^))))

Sometimes my internet connection is a little slow and hangs up when I'm clicking on the name of a thread, then I click on it again to try and make it move faster, when I do this the skip to new doesn't work, it somehow registered the first click even though the page didn't load right and it'll jump me right to the end because it thinks I was already in that thread a minute before. But if I just click once and then wait and let the computer take its sweet time to load, then it works right. I wonder if something similar is happening to you?

ah, that could be. i have a pretty fast system but i get impatient easily and maybe that's what i'm doing without realizing it. i will try to be aware next time i use it and see what happens. thanks again. another little mystery cleared up in record time!

edited to add: i just tried it out on a long thread i had never been on. the first time i hit skip to new, it kept me at the top of the page. i paged all the way down and then closed it out and went back and did it again and the second time it brought me instantly to the bottom. you were right, molly and on that blu thread, maybe i did what ecrane said, hit it twice without thinking.

This message was edited Feb 11, 2007 2:27 PM

Thanks you Ann :)) And all other members who do and have contributed so much to Plantfiles and Dave's Garden .