Gardenweb gets all this attention?

I wondered the same thing Misty. No reason not to mention you belong to DG and are an avid gardener.

You could always post this thread over on the Ohio River Valley forum. Several DGers live near Zanesville...

I'll email her and offer her a subscription to DG with my personal compliments. :)

Dave :) I told her you were a good person with a great heart :)

***BRAVO*** clap clap clap!!!! Who wouldn't love to join Dave's Garden! Imagine her surprise---all these emails from Daver's and THEN the PRESIDENT OF DAVE'S contacts you!!! WOW that would be so cool! :)

Thanks for all the hard work here at Dave's. This site is the best!

I didn't write to her, but my frustration was that the thrust of the article was on finding gardening products and plants. And in that arena, DG wins hands-down by any objective measure.

Even if cost is a deciding factor for the forums, not so for the Garden Watchdog and Go Gardening - they are completely, entirely free for participating vendors and readers alike; PlantScout is the only free (to users) plant-finder tool of its kind in North America.

With that being the case, I would gently assert that another website (with almost nothing to offer gardeners looking to buy) shouldn't get "top billing" while DG gets overlooked ;o)

Right - I used them for almost a year before I payed anything. They are a great tool - really a tool you cannot live without in this day and age.

Well, I heard back from Toni and she said she has had about 20 emails today regarding this. She said she was going to do an article on Dave's Garden itself and I told her she had at least 20 people that would be ready to answer any questions she might have ;)

So the squeaky wheel does get oil and I have no quams about sending an email when every option is not offered to all that will be reading the article.

Just today there was an article in the Louisville newspaper about no access to fresh produce in the downtown area for people in the "low income" side of town. The article said it was easier to get Twinkies than it was fresh broccoli.

An email was sent back to them, by our market manager, regarding our farmers market that IS downtown and that we have publicized highly. This same newspaper has even done a few articles as recent as September and taken pictures at the market...yet there is nothing available? Well, I wrote a comment at the end of the article....yep, giving our farm a little free publicity that we are still selling fresh broccoli and no we don't sell Twinkies!

How can one grow if people don't know about us....same stuff, different day. I hope 100 people email her.
BTW, she didn't ask how I found out about the article in Ohio.

:) Kathy

sneak, sneak, anybody interested in a convention? Dave's Garden, Volunteers for conference. Just thought I'd through that in while we are all feeling so up.

Christi

Christi, As we say in Kentucky "You're a mess!" ha, ha, ha....
I know, can't blame a person for trying. :)

I didn't know GW was free. When I did a search way back when for plants DG kept coming up with plantfiles and that won me over hands down!

Thanks, Misty Meadows. In the end DG wins, the reporter wins and even the people who want broccoli win.

GW is free...but you get what you pay for! I have an account over there too, but find their constant popping up, flashing, in your face ads so annoying that the only time I really go there is when I'm searching for something and a post over there comes up on a Google search (and even then I usually check out other sources first and only go there as a last resort!). I don't have anything against ads that sit and behave themselves in the corner of the page or something, but their ads are truly, truly annoying.

I agree ecrane3, I also have a login name there-but there are no great photos, you have to really watch your threads as you are not told when they are added to or even the way the contacting is done-all through private e-mails, it gets really messy. The reason I paid after going free was I enjoyed how organized this was-my life was messy enough-I didn't want to have to spend more time at a messy website :o)

Good for you Dave!! :D
Here are two other gardening articles she's done. Maybe if she is willing to come join us, she'll write some articles here? I like her writing style.

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071029/NEWS01/710290308/-1/rss06

http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071008/NEWS01/710080312/1002/rss01

This message was edited Nov 29, 2007 1:47 PM

I use Firefox and do get those huge floating ads, cover the whole screen. If I don't click on the Skip button in time, the entire ad plays, I end up hitting the Back button. Very annoying.

Same here - and the adds you have to watch before you can click it off.... yuck.

I'm not sure why but I do not get the ads when lurking at that site.

I have to tell you, I've never been to GW before...so I just checked it out. Yes, there are ads, but I could close them and shrink them and they weren't that annoying. I didn't find it as easy to get around as DG, but it wasn't bad. I don't think they have half as much as we have here.

We should all get along and not think of the other as a rival...both have their gifts (DG has more, but who am I? :) ) See, I believe that one can enhance the other....

I did find it harder to look up things in the forums; DG forums are much more organized and readable. Thank you Dave :)

I think the ads are hit-or-miss, depending on your browser and your settings (recently, GW has crashed my system anytime I've had the misfortune to stumble over one of their links. Other times it's smooth sailing without any intrusive ads or floating "surveys".)

I know some people may compare the two sites and see little difference in the amount of advertising displayed to visitors and non-subscribers, but we give our subscribers the ability to turn off all ads without fiddling with their browsers - an option that is is no longer available at GardenWeb. And we do pay attention to the ads that are displayed, and when someone complains that an ad is inappropriate for a gardening site, we'll take steps to eliminate it.

Our respective membership numbers reflect a big difference - we have steadily grown to nearly 350,000 registered members while GardenWeb has around 260,000, despite their five-year headstart on us.

Over the years, we've been pretty circumspect and refrained from openly discussing "the other site" as a professional courtesy. But over the years, we have done a lot of head-scratching:

1) They don't have anyone on staff who appears to answer any questions (their "Suggestions" forum is pretty forlorn these days.)

2) They haven't made any improvements or enhancements to their forums, despite repeated pleas to add DG-type features (edit, thread watching, etc.);

3) Their plants database has several years of dust on it - no new entries, photo count has been stuck at 14,000-something for years, etc.

4) Their list of mail order vendors has become a free-for-all with disreputable companies and competing gardening forums creating entries for themselves among the good gardening companies.

And yet GW will still pop up in articles like this one...which can only be explained by Newton's law of motion ("an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.")

I think Dave is saying, let's be that unbalanced force, and create more awareness for DG through the garden writers ;o)

here, here. I've never been to GW and don't really have any desire. There is more on DG than I can get to in a whole lifetime. It has all of the perks and none of the aggravations.

LOL-turn off adds? How?-LOLOL

Interesting to read the statistics and some of the comparisons between the sites. GW does seem to be losing some of its momentum and some of its best, most knowledgeable posters. And the ads are so annoying.

And, yes, I think anyone who pays even the minimal trial subscription fee on DG will quickly realize there is much more here for the real gardener in terms of research and general info. And the organization and tech of DG is really amazing.

I have noticed a number of remarks on blogs and at my garden clubs comparing the two sites and the two impediments' to joining or highly touting DG seem to be the subscription fee and also the 'Christian' orientation. And I think these comments were from posters who hadn't paid the fee so didn't really understand the full scope of DG. In reality, I don't think either of the two critical observations (the fee and religious-ness (?)) should be deterrents (and some might say they are positives).

As I've said before, I think DG is a fascinating cultural phenomenon--not just an internet garden site. Dave and the executive staff have done a great job. And let me know when the IPO is coming! (Just kidding---or not?)

DG is the first online gardening website I found. I consider myself a newbie here - 1 year. How I found DG was googling info for plants .... I noticed one of the results always began: " Detailed information on: such and such". And, I found myself always checking out that info first. One day I decided to click on Home and began reading about DG and decided to try it out, so I got a 1 yr subscription. I have been so happy with it, I just renewed for another year. I've read on different threads where people discuss the GW site and one day went to check it out .... No Thank You! Not the same! No comparison! Someone else also gave me the name of another plant chat website which was a free one. I signed up and after the first day or so of checking it out, I asked them to remove my name from the subscriber list which they did. I have found the Perfect Garden right here, and this is where I will remain. I love the other friends I've made here, the great information, the wonderful photo's .... Plant Files (which I use a lot), everything about this site. It is so easy to navigate and when you have a question about something, someone will help you out rather quickly! I LOVE THIS GARDEN!

I will definitely contact the garden writer of my local newspaper regarding DG! Just think, we could have every single newspaper in the U.S. referring to DG in their garden columns!

Plantladylin-welcome to Daves :o)
I found it exactly the same way you did :o)
Been a happy gardener ever since :o)

I don't think the spirit behind this thread was intended to be as you've described, Terry. We are all very proud of this website because it truly does feel like family here. Even though all the credit really goes to Dave and the admins, somehow we feel a part of it all and there is a certain amount of honest pride when you belong to something you really love. I have a free membership with Gardenweb also - and still check in periodically, but I have to say that Dave's is 100 times better. Everyone has their favorities in life and the desire to "advertise" or show off a good thing is completely natural. I don't think there is anything juvenile about that.

Well said SongsofJoy!!

Oops - I probably spoke too soon - it looks like the post that prompted my reply was deleted.

This message was edited Nov 28, 2007 12:44 PM

Yes, I deleted it. I don't think promoting GW is a useful function of this forum. :)

I saw the post and applaud SongsofJoy.

Dave, You can delete mine too if you wish - for continuity's sake :o)

Please don't delete it. It so eloquently describes the feelings of the majority of all of us.

I will admit the Christian orientation definitely presented a stumbling block for me yet on the other hand I wanted to get away from overly sexual content being interjected at other gardening sites. I hate to say this but I wanted a gardening site that was a gardening site not a doitintheagarden.com or bashthePresident.com site. Interestingly enough, it was the flip side to the Christian orientation that was appealing in that I figured no way no how would "these people" allow sexual crap on the site. When I saw the prayer forum appearing in the line up of boards, I vascillated over paying to subscribe thinking uh oh. I wholeheartedly believe in prayer because sometimes it's all we have and when a person says may Jesus bless you to me here, I know to take it in the spirit in which it was intended which is generally from the heart. I think what it boiled down to was that I thought there were little Christian cliques here and was frightented I would not fit in once people found out I wasn't a Christian. Perhaps some less than than positive experiences with a small minority of charismatic Christians originally influenced my preconceived notions about this site. I was wrong in thinking I would be treated differently by other members based on religion. Glad I joined. Hope others can get over the hump if the Christian orientation is a stumbling block to them because I'm not spotting any Christian cliques here at all. They don't exist to the best of my knowledge.

What is odd is I never noticed any Christian overtones as that would have been a big issue for me. LOL-Go figure :o)

Not only do you take beautiful photographs SongsofJoy, but you are very eloquent with your words. Like you and others on this thread, I like to concentrate on the positives. I cannot even imagine anything else I could possibly need from a garden community (exteded). And like LouC says...there is more on here than I can possibly see in a lifetime! Makes a great little gift to a non-subscriber also - I've signed up a few of my friends as I just can't keep such a good thing to myself! :)

Kat

Really all the rules on the forums are well worth it - just knowing their are Chirstian vaules behind the things being done here makes it well worth it to me. I dont have to worry about having it open at church, or home, or school. Nice to when I talk to my church family I can send them here and not worry about what they will read or see.

Thank you all. ;o)
I never thought I'd feel this way about a website - but I love Dave's Garden!!!

Side note: I never knew there was a "Christian orientation" to this site. I've noticed that there are a good number of Christians here (myself included), but I think Dave does a wonderful job of keeping things neutral and nobody should feel out of place. We all have one thing in common - our love of gardening.

I don't know why people continue to propagate the myth that DG is a "Christian" website when we have always welcomed all members from every persuasion to the site.

If this was a Christian website, I would obviously only allow Christians to be on the site.

I think that this myth is propagated by our enemies as a smear campaign against us. It's the only possibility I can come up with.

I got the impression that this is a non denominational garden .... for people of all belief's who share the joys and beauty of nature.