Pictures in Garden Watchdog?

I was wondering if it would be feasible to put a photo feature in Garden Watchdog, so people could post pictures of the plants they received, good or bad.

Sometimes when I read about someones troubles with a company, I wonder if they are just an inexperienced gardener, or if the plants are really that bad. And when they rave about the plants I'd just love to see them.

A picture tells a thousand words.

Maybe this has been discussed before, if so I didn't find it.

Thanks Dave and all for considering this.

Polly

I would find PollyK's photo posting idea very helpful too. I have gotten some great plants as well as some that were puny or dead. I always photograph them, but no one gets to see them. It would be a stark reminder of who is doing a stellar job and who is lacking and should be avoided. I sure hope this can happen. Patti

I have seen people post links to their photos stored on outside sites for the Watchdog. See kdj's post here at the bottom of the page:

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/comments.php?compid=3719&offset=60

It would be nice to directly upload photos on the GWD. I do see one possible drawback though. While we hope everyone is honest, we readers really have no assurance that the poster didn't let the plant sit in the box a bit too long before photographing and complaining.

That would be sad, but no different then a fictitious posting of the quality of an order. Patti

I agree Patti, I think the pictures would be at least as honest as the reviews.

I like the idea, too. It would be nice to see the plants when they arrived. I'm often interested in the packaging of plant orders.

The main concern is that too many pictures may overwhelm the main point of the GWD, which is to provide good information, not photos. I do see the value in a photo, but I wouldn't want it to become a picture gallery.

What if each comment was allowed to post only one photo?

That seems like it would work and be helpful. I see few if any situations in which more than one photo per comment would be useful or warranted, especially if people are able to post another photo if/when they make an update comment.

I can't imagine why more than one picture would be needed. I think that would be perfect.

Thank you Dave, I hope that will work.

Great idea. I assume a single collage could be posted when a person wanted to show a big order. I am more likely to post a picture of a great order than a neutral one, but I sure have had a couple of bad ones where a single picture would have spoken volumes. Thanks for considering this new tool for DG Watchdog. Patti

Yes. Thank you, Dave. And I think that one photo would be enough to 'do the job', so to speak.

Just wondering what you decided on this, Dave?

The plants will be arriving soon, yay.

Thank you.

It's on the TODO. :)

What else is on that list???? Please give us a hint about your future treats for us. Patti

My immediate TODO:

Setting up the ability for owners of entries in Go Gardening to post rebuttals to comments left.

Setting up a special internal database for Terry to track press/media people. (This is a big TODO that'll take several days).

Setup newsletter sponsorship to be fully automated (current I have to manually insert any new sponsorships into the newsletter).

Setup an internal knowledgebase feature for the article writers group.

Ability to post a picture along with a comment to the GWD.

Dave, I'm glad to see that datbase on your list!... it will make things much easier for new writers who are learning their way around the article submission software, etc.

Thank you so much Dave. You are such a gem! How lucky we are to be on a gardening website where someone actually listens to us. I'm so proud to be a member of DG, and I promote it as much as I can.

Pssst, Dave ^_^
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/editpost.php?pid=5987184

I'll take care of that, Sue.

Hi Dave,

I was wondering if you ever added this feature? With plant orders coming soon, I would like to be able to take pictures and post them, and would love to see pictures of other orders before ordering from those companies.

I know you're very busy, but was just wondering.

Thanks,

Polly

For example I would have posted this picture of the wonderful iris I received from Iris City.

This message was edited Mar 24, 2009 3:53 PM

I am usually the person who only sees positive in things and
I agree it would be a great benefit to see the greatness or problems for ourselves.

I just hope people would not post ratings multiple times, just to add extra pictures.
Sometimes people get lost in their excitement or disapointments and want to push their point with extra photos, making it the picture gallery that Dave mentioned.

Just a thought.
chris

People posting multiple ratings wouldn't be a problem--you can only post one rating per company you've done business with. You can edit your rating later if you want, but you can't put in a new one. And if things work like they do in the forums where you can only upload one pic per post, I guess that would mean people could only post 1 picture along with their comment so hopefully it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I didnt realize that you can only post once per company.
I think a picture would be a nice addi.tion to the GW

ecrane3 is correct.

One post per user for feedback. You can update it each time you do business with a company, and edit the rating if need be, but you cannot post more than one comment.

We have tools in place to identify those who use aliases to post multiple times and we take care of dealing with the few who do so.

Melody, You sure do and quickly.

I noticed something fishy a while back in the reviews on DG Watchdog. I read a flurry of positive comments all on the same day for a vendor, and all in a style that seemed remarkable the same, though the comments were quite different in content and from all over the country. I noticed almost all the reviewer had just joined (that day) and had not reviewed anything else. Seemed odd to me. They were busted by Dave in a matter of minutes of my posting query of whether they were legitimate. Gotta keep our DG Watchdog safe from phony postings. Patti

Do not hesitate to let us know if something just does not look right...we'll investigate.

Hey, 1 of my teenagers has been awfully nice all of a sudden, could you investigate and find out what she's up to?

Thanks,
chris

You are on your own there! Monitoring of teens is not part of our job descriptions...Dave would have to write a whole new formula to cope with that! :o)

I'm working on that and will announce my work next April 1st. ^_^

LOL

I think Mark Twain had the right idea (and it's timeless AND low-tech.) He applied it to rambunctious boys, but it could be applied to both genders in the interest of equality.

When children are no longer infants, place them in a barrel and feed 'em through the bunghole. When they become teenagers...plug the bunghole.

Having two hairy-legged "man-children" now in their twenties, I can attest there were days I wished I could have stuffed 'em in the barrel. There were also days I would have plugged the bunghole ;o)

I also have 2 "hairy legged man children". I read that barrel idea a few years ago...anyone know how long I am supposed to keep em in there? ^_^
I wonder if it would work on my hairless legged, razor stealing, closed raiding, girl children.

Chris, I think the general idea is once you seal up the bunghole, you kinda seal their fate.

I'm pretty sure it would work for the female variety, too--although they are wily enough to figure out how to pop the bunghole back out and sweet-talk someone into feeding them ;o)