Get your Atlas gloves and other items while the existing co-ops are still open.
DG has banned co-ops!
Again? What happened this time?
Co Op forum is now closed. You cannot open a thread on the co op forum. I just found out tonight...it really blew me away. The marketplace and classifieds are all that remain.
Here is a thread that I came upon tonight...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/921605/#new
Get out your hankies, for all of us that have benefitted in a positive way. I don't know who the people are that have ruined it for the rest of us, but I am so disappointed I could cry...[sniff...sniff...]
RatherB
It stinks. Administration got tired of answering complaints from people who were unhappy about their co-op experiences. So everybody suffers. Apparently Admin also felt some vendors were using members as "shills" to put their products into co-ops. I don't quite get this one. If a vendor wants to give DG members a deep discount, wherein lies the problem?
And whose fault is that? Since a lot of the people who could have done good coops were locked out by the rule that no one who sells anything anywhere can run a coop, it seems like many of the coops have degenerated into someone simply calling a vendor and asking for a discount.
I thought a lot of those so-called coops would have been better suited to the classifieds but I certainly never complained about it or any other coops.
I thought that ban on running a coop essentially locked out most of the people who would have the sources and know how to run a successful coop and did nothing about the ones who were dishonest. In fact, I don't know what could have been done about the ones who were dishonest or biting off more than they could chew other than banning them afterwards or perhaps limiting how many coops one person can have going at the same time.
There are a lot of ways all of this could have been dealt with without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
If you haven't seen it, there is a great thread going on fixing the co-ops.Can someone please post a link to it? Please read and offer your suggestions. Hart, member/vendors have been doing co-ops. Please offer your suggestions as Dave is willing to bring them back if we, the members can solve the problems.
Here's the link.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/921974/
I just posted in there. I'd suggest others do as well.
Thank you, Hart. Your post is very helpful.
The link Hart posted is to a discussion thread for trying to fix the issues with the co-op forum, http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/921974/
Here is another thread for discussing alternative venues for group buys, perhaps using existing DG options such as classified ads or marketplace: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/921953/
And for anything other than constructive suggestions (general comments, complaints, etc. regarding this decision), please post on this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/921605/
We're trying to focus the various discussions as much as possible, to keep them easier for admin and everybody to follow. Help us brainstorm! :-)
Yes, I'm really going to miss the Co-ops not only did I get some very nice plants at good prices but they widened my plant choices. Someone would start a Co-op and I would look at the plants and decide to try them. That's how I started growing Cannas. I know there were some problems here and there and some co-ops didn't quite follow the definition of a co-op but I was pretty pleased. Last year I was in a very large live plant co-op that had problems and this year there was another large co-op that I was in that had a dust up. But all in all my experiences were good. Quite a few were going the way of call the vendor get your DG discount and they would direct ship not quite the definition of a co-op I thought, but you really saved on the shipping costs as the plants weren't shipped twice. I'll be following the threads.
Heads up! Co-op Forum has been reopened.
Whhaaa whoooooo...didn't know that