Subcategories

Dear Dave & Everybody else,

I keep seeing requests for new forums. There are discussions pro and con but one suggestion I've not seen directly addressed (perhaps I missed it) is the suggestion for subcategories. Originally I saw no reason for a separate category for Salvia & Agastache. There are however a ton of responses on that thread and few of them are actually pleas for a new forum but rather real commments on the plants. I still believe that the community will be the poorer if there are so many separate forums that we can't keep track of them. I wonder how many of us are of an age that we are not really multi-taskers? I don't have the time to have 20-30 favorite forums. Some smart person made the suggestion that we have sub-categories such as Salvia umbrellaed under perennials. Amaryllis could be under Bulbs, etc. What does the community think? What is possible? Dave- how difficult is this to do? I'm wondering since it hasn't already been tried if it is a problematic setup? Is there a way that we could set our preferences for main categories with subsets or all separate forums?

Warm regards,

Maggie

hear hear ( clapping hands ). It is getting a bit confusing. For instance, I have many perennial beds, but I am leary of posting in the perennial forum or do I have to post each plant in their specific forums, which would be tedious, and nearly impossible to keep track of. I sometimes feel as if I am missing out on good information because I can't watch the clematis, coleus, daylillies, hosta, iris, peonies, violas, etc.
Subcategories would be nice, at least a person could watch the main category and kind of browse the subcategories when a specific help is needed.

Good idea Maggie! The Salvia and Agastache forum request had me thinking about this too. Seems like so much diversity in the forums negates the need for a perennial forum eventually. Then there are some forums that make good sense, like poppies for example, that have annual and perennial forms. It's good to have the potential for growth, but it would be nice to have some sub-heading or overall catagory, like if peonies, iris, etc. could still be under perennials.
Neal

Excellent suggestion

Maggie, I have thought of this too - it would be so much less confusing! Neal, yep - that's what this oldtimer would like to see.

Perennials
Bulbs
Amaryllis......

Add me to the list of fans! Great idea, margaran. It seems so obvious, I'm wondering why someone didn't mention it before.

I'd love to claim it as my idea but it wasn't. Blessings on the person who did.

Maggie

I am wondering just how subcategories under one Forum would be any more seen than separate Forums.

I like to skip down the list on the 'Garden Talk' page and decide which Forums I want to drop into because I haven't looked for a while, those not used as much but which I am interested in I can see instantly if there are any new posts.

With subcategories would they be hidden under a main Forum title? If not, and they are listed underneath that Forum as subs, that is no different to having them on their own. If the argument goes that to find certain perennials one would look under the Perennial Forum, others would equally or more likely look under the Alphabetical list for that named Forum.

If once on a main Forum e.g. Bulbs, one has to then select a specific subcategory, how would this be better? If we don't go to that forum then they would be missed altogether. If we do go to that Forum and go to one subcategory, we might just then decide to go somewhere else having had our fill. How can this be useful?

I feel any category should either be on it's own or incorporated as they are now existing in a general Forum. The Perennials Forum doesn't seem to have a huge amount of posts anyway, and that would be the logical place to look for Salvias.

Some bulbs on the other hand suffer from either being lost in, or overpower the Bulb Forum. I hope that makes sense.

I am neither for nor against a Salvia forum, but hope you see my point!

Hmmm, I see your point Janet. Could be asking for confusion. As it is Caladiums, for example, would fit under Tropicals, Foliage Plants, Perennials (although tender),or Bulbs. Or Coleus, would they be under Foliage Plants, Annuals (as they are often grown, but are actually tender perennials), or Tropicals?

Good point.
Neal

I was wondering if it was possible to still have the specialty forums for those people who only want to see threads devoted to their 1 plant but also to have the same threads copied to the general forum that the plant falls under at the same time so the generalists get to see and post to them too. It would be simultaneous event, one thread but showing in 2 different forums. This way the general forums like the Tropical Forum, would remain robust in topics and plant categories but the people interested in a very narrow plant category would also be served by not having to wade thru threads of no interest on other plants. So plants for example that once were housed under the general umbrella of the Tropical Forum but have been separated out to their own specialty forums would still get to be posted under the Tropical Forum. We could have our cake and eat it too. LOL

This would also boost the number of posts thus interest on the specialty forums for they would now have a much wider audience who would add to their conversations. It would also be a recruiting tool for the specialty forums for more people would be exposed to the joys of a specific plant category and after enjoying them on the general forum, might decide to frequent the specialty forum on a daily basis.

And for us generalists, we would still have the joy of seeing threads on widely varied plants and have the option of clicking on any thread whose topic caught our interest regardless of the host forum it originally was posted on.

It could work in reverse also, but that would be a bit more complicated to make happen. I for one would just be thrilled to get to see the threads posted on the specialty forums without having to go to them. So if I started a thread that could fall under a specialty forum domain on the general forum and it could not be simultaneously posted on the specialty forum, that would be OK with me. While the specialists would start new threads on the specialty forum to keep it going as they do now.

Kell, I think I understand what you mean. Say posts in Hydrangeas or Roses would also appear in Trees and Shrubs, or posts in Clematis would appear in Vines and Climbers. Is that what you mean?

Yes, the threads would appear in both forums and could be posted on in both and the posts would show up in both. Same thread, but in 2 different forums so more people would have access to it.

I am not sure we need to put Hydrangeas or Roses in Trees or Shrubs though. Were they originally in there or always on their own separate forum? There would have to be some limits so the general forums would not be overwhelmed I would think.

I was thinking more of Aroids and Tropical Fruit like bananas back in Tropicals. And yes, Clematis back in Vines.

I like the thought of making it easier to find forums that are related to each other and I agree that some of them seem too fragmented, but I'm not sure I want to see all the specialty forum posts showing up in the general forum--one of the reasons why many of the specialty forums were set up in the first place was because they were taking up so much space in the general forum that they were crowding out other discussions. So I definitely wouldn't want to go back to that, and if you have all the specialty posts showing up in the general forum that's what it's going to look like again.

I see what you mean about how to categorize. Originally I was just thinking that I find posts on Salvias in Perennials, Butterfly, and Cottage Forums. I guess Perennials would be massive so that won't really work. I do think it's great that we're all just nicely discussing it- what a relief fron some sites! Originally I was thinking Salvias shouldn't be separate but if the traffic keeps up I think I was wrong. I had no idea there were so many kinds with different culture needs.

Maggie

I didn't know that Liz, see I learn something new every day! LOL I thought plants were separated out when enough people wanted a private forum to just discuss a favorite plant and not have to wade through other topics. I didn't realize it was the general forum people that wanted the most popular plants out because they took up too much room. Though I admit I do not follow the discussions when people ask for a separate forum too closely.

I have noticed though, that often a plant gets a lot of interest initially, but when a separate forum is made for it, interest declines. And I think the reason is that people no longer see the threads pertaining to those plants on the general forum and in practice, they do not want to add another forum to their watch list or even have the time to go to the yet another forum on a regular basis.

The way I was looking at it all was for example: I know I like dahlias, iris and gladiolas. I grow some of all 3, but I would never go to a specific forum on any of them because I do not have that much interest in any of them individually to take the time. But I have gone to the Bulb Forum and if there was a thread on any of these 3, I would definitely click on it if the topic was of interest or if the picture grabbed me. The other day gladiolas had 4 posts, dahlias had 6 posts and iris had 16 posts while the Bulb Forum had 36. And these are posts not threads.

Same with orchids, I love to look at orchid pictures, but I never go to the Orchid Forum which had only 3 posts but if the threads showed up on the Tropical Forum (21 posts) I sure would enjoy seeing them and learning a bit on the way.

It was just a suggestion to boost interest and beef up some forums that are struggling. I see so many forums with under 25 posts on them daily when I look at the newsletter. If more people had easy access to the threads, I just know interest would be greater. And I just thought this way, we wouldn't have to lose the specialty forums due to lack of interest and at the same time add more variety to the general forums.

Well, I know from experience that the dahlia forum will be buzzing right along with posts when it is dahlia season. I think everyone is hibernating right now. ;o)