Idea for a new forum

I know, I know, just what we need ... more work for the boss, huh? But, I've been thinking about this for awhile.

How about a forum titled: "Dave's Garden Kids"? and maybe a "Dave's Garden Teens"?

Dave, I know how busy you must stay with all of our requests and the day to day operating of this site but I've often thought it would be wonderful (since so many kids are on line nowadays) to have a forum where kids could chat with each other and maybe do little toy or plant trades if their parents allow. I love the way Administration has kept this site clean and family oriented and just got to thinking that there are so many forums that we adults enjoy here on DG, it would be wonderful to see a "subscribers only" forum called "Dave's Garden Kids". Parents could share the joy of this beautiful garden with letting their children access the kids forum once in awhile where they could chat with other kids and enjoy the fun. With both parents and Admin. policing the forum I think it would be a great place for kids and a great learning experience for them too. I can just picture the joy of a youngster packaging up a little box for a trade and the excitement in receiving a package from a new friend as well.

I was never blessed with children but I hear about many kids being on-line nowadays and so many sites that are not secure and so much bad stuff going on. I think it would be nice to have a safe and secure site for children to visit and chat.

I know there are many subscribers with kids who would possibly like a forum just for kids. Only problem I can forsee is if there is only one computer in the home ... squabbling between parents and the kids, as to who gets to be using the computer! ^_^

As I stated above, I do not have children. I have many nieces and nephews and children of friends I've taken care of and been involved with over the years, but that was long before computers and internet. So, I hope you DG'er parents out there will leave feedback here on what you think of this idea.



Lin

Someone else proposed this once or twice maybe 6 months ago, I think once it was kids in general and once it was specifically suggested for teenagers since we do have some teenage subscribers running around here. Both the proposals would have been in this forum so you might want to look them up and see what happened. I think there was a problem with making a forum targeted at kids under a certain age, but I don't remember the details. For older teenagers I don't think there was anything legal standing in the way but I can't remember if there was anything else besides just not enough interest that stood in the way on that one.

Here is the thread. Obviously, it didn't go anywhere, and there were people who were not comfortable with the idea of kids/teenagers in the forums.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/806543/

I don't think people being uncomfortable with kids/teenagers in the forums was the reason it didn't happen--we have teenagers in the forums now, there's nothing to stop them from signing up and participating now as long as they're at least 13. I saw Terry's post in there about having to be 13 so that rules out the younger kids, but for the older ones it sounded like there were some good proposals in there for what the forum could be and just not enough people posted showing interest. So if you can drum up some more interest this time around maybe it'll make it.

Right, there was the age issue at first, then it was brought up to have a teen forum.

People were uncomfortable with having kids/teens accessing all forums because I referred to a thread where many issues were raised, people argued and said nasty things, and the thread was ultimately removed by Terry.

I remember suggesting having a poll for the teens to see if there would be interest from them, but that never came about and the issue was pretty much dead at that point.

Thanks everyone ... I guess I had the same idea as you, Indiana_lily! I had not seen that thread. And, I was not thinking of kids paying to subscribe to DG. I was just thinking it would be nice to have a forum that parents who are already subscribers could let their kids post on to get involved and chat and share idea with other kids their age.

Exactly, Plantladylin. :)