Fingers on Buzzers.

[Mike Allen]

Apologies for the odd title, but I hope you will get my drift.

This is a gardening forum, and we have members from across the world. So! at times ourlanguages, chit chat may be a bit of a problem. However. Sad to say. I selected to ignore a certain member. Why? IMO he/she is over enthusiastic. Glancing down my list of contributors. Ignored member. This member seems to have, his/her finger glued to the reply key. Nobody else gets a look in. I wonder, if this member's expertise etc is simply down to, using GOOGLE, submit a picture etc. for identification. Sorry folks, but this individual, IMHO has destroyed this forum.

 

[Marck]

In the last couple months you have hardly posted anything, and most of what you have posted have been very thinly veiled attacks against me. That seems to be your 'drift'.

If you have anything helpful or interesting to post about plants or horticulture, why don't you do so? My posts do not prevent you, or anyone else, from posting.

 

[Sean Regan]

Everyone gets "a look in," no one can exclude another contributor.
If people don't post, message boards die.
I've always found an "ignore" list unnecessary.
If something is posted that is personally offensive, report it.
No one is obliged to read any post, some I just scroll past.
In the end, anything posted eventually bleeds off the page and is forgotten.

 

[Meadowlark]

"Nobody else gets a look in. " What a preposterous, completely classless and uninformed statement.

Many of the responses you refer to are answering requests for ID and/or help that have gone unanswered for many months, even years. Nobody gets a look in...ridiculous. Destroyed the forum...absurd!

 

[Sean Regan]

Hmm.

Mike has now joined a similar board.

He'll find that one, of which I've been a subscriber/reader for two years will be very liitle different from this.

 

[Mike Allen]

Thank you for the warning.

 

[Ian]

There's no monopoly on being able to reply to threads on the forum, we're all welcome to be able to post and reply here as long as we're respectful and don't post anything offensive, etc...

Some people post regularly, some rarely - both are fine .

As with in life, some people might not "gel", so the ignore button is there as a last resort - so it shouldn't cause any problems just seeing a mention of a name on a list if you're not seeing any posts.

That said, I do hear the frustrations about years old threads being bumped up with replies, and I'm discussing that at the moment and this can be limited via a software plugin if it comes to it.

 

[DirtMechanic]

From a perspective of simply learning about something new, I never have understood closing off a thread due to a time period. This seems a modern mystery to me, also known as a first world problem. Imagine monks at some ancient desk deciding to not add a page of knowledge to some old tome even though the blank pages at the back of the book were left for that exact purpose. It is really just a question of site structure, where two pathways present themselves for election. All answers could be under one title, or topic, which would require cross links really. They could also be scattered like windborne seed across a site over time, which burdens the search function and then the reader too, who must necessarilly consolidate scattered data into something resembling useful information.

But this is a storage perspective concerning plant related data and not necessarily one that addresses the interactive dynamics which drive social media and so must be considered a limited perspective.

Knock, knock?

who is there?

Sorry, this old post is closed to further reply.

 

[DirtMechanic]

And since our nature requires a certain amount of logic, consider the humor threads which can stretch for thousands of posts over years of time. Also, the most famous posts like the K46 lawn tractor transmission post (300 pages by now?), point to an organization by focused thesis and not one of a timed basis. In our case here I would say the tags could include formal plant names or the topic name with subs, such as COMPOSTING: grass;leaves;animals;in-laws etc. So at least most of that work is done already.

 

[Mike Allen]

Forget it.

 

[Sean Regan]

Forget it.

No disrepect Mike but you do seem a little unfamiliar with message board etiquette, it's really "out of order" to criticise other posters.
If you've a problem with anyone, best to discuss it in PMs, not everyone needs to know.

 

[Marck]

From a perspective of simply learning about something new, I never have understood closing off a thread due to a time period.

I must agree with DirtMechanic. The timing of the first post in a thread should not be the determining factor of its worth.

I just want to emphasize four concrete points related to this.

1. A thread is not just for the benefit of the Original Poster (OP). The questions, answers, ideas, opinions, debates, etc. offered in a Forum thread are available for all to benefit from, and add to if necessary or desired, now and into the future, as long as the thread remains accessible.

2. Older threads are actually not 'buried' on this Forum. A whole list of older, related threads is shown at the end of every thread. I am not complaining about this. On the contrary, I think it is a wonderful feature and should be utilized to keep information on the tread interconnected and updated.

3. Some information on threads is factually incorrect, and if it isn't corrected, the misinformation can spread. I am only talking here about clearly egregious errors, such as one plant being mistaken for a very unrelated plant.

4. Conversely to the previous point, I also acknowledge that much of gardening lore is subject to opinion and there are many competing ideas and methods concerning gardening design, maintenance, and problem-solving. In this situation, we should try to hear about many different ideas, so that we can learn from them and hopefully make a more informed decision when the time comes. This only happens when all interested parties are able to add a post to the thread, whenever it is necessary or convenient to do so.