How are people liking this new part of our site? Should it become more than just a part?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by COPE Farms Caretakers Of Planet Earth on February 12, 2008 at 9:44am

Seems great I like the interactive part of the forums being able to ask and give people advice. There have been some good discussions there.
Obviously not everyone will see eye to eye on somethings but its been very civil.
I would like to see more people find this site. However as more people come in you have the problem of policing it. more people also means more problems. Not just with infrastructure on your end but also needing mods to make sure inappropriate behaviors or content is not posted.
I enjoy your videos and wish there were more how to videos and articles.
The website is great and looks to get better.
Thanks Mike :)

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Permalink Reply by John Walker on February 12, 2008 at 2:35pm

Dear Roger et al,
Its working in terms of numbers of people and discussions. However there needs to be a way of easily sorting through who is on the list, discussions, etc etc. This may require members to do some work up front in establishing parameters, such as excluding/including posts based on interest. Local groups may help and I realise that the friends link probably could be used for this. A how to guide might be very useful. A friend gave up when he couldn't join the kgb. We also may need some thought being put into how we reach those people without or with limited internet access. Maybe a list of documents that we use that can be downloaded, amended and used for another purpose.
Other than that I like it and trust that it continues to be used.
pax
John

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Permalink Reply by Carola on February 12, 2008 at 10:02pm

This is the only internet site I'm involved with. It's a bit confusing sometimes, but overall I think it's great. I don't have time to read and write as much on the site as I'd like but I've found some online "friends" who share the same interest in front yard gardening and school gardening. I especially enjoy being able to share some of my thousands of photos of gardens and gardening with others. It's encouraging that others care about food issues and the environment. It's also great to hear about growing food in countries other than my own.... I'm in southern California. I know nothing about the technical aspects but the site itself is perfect for me.

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Permalink Reply by Roger on February 13, 2008 at 9:12am

Thanks for the helpful feedback. The platform we're using (Ning) is still fairly new and we're new to it, so there might be some things we can do to make it easier to use. On the speed issue, that's out of our hands as the data is located on Ning's server. I have looked into other community-building platforms, but none seem to offer as much as this one. The forums, although the most popular feature, are just a part of the Ning package.

We're going to be introducing some other community features on the main site in the next couple of months. Some people may want to use them instead or both.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on February 13, 2008 at 10:11am

I'm enjoying the new site. People are really friendly and fun to visit with. I love the photos of gardens, people, things. I was just mentioning to a member how computers make it possible to experience everything about people and places except the people and places :). With my new computer, the pages load quickly. I'm really pleased I took the plunge and moved into the 21st century a bit. Now if I could just keep from killing my indoor/wintered-over herb plants.

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Permalink Reply by Brook on February 13, 2008 at 10:28am

I'm involved with a lot of mail lists and forums. And, frankly, this is the most cumbersome and awkward site I've ever visited.

I suspect the relative lack of use revolves around that. People are not willing to waste their time just trying to figure out how to respond to a post.

Even before reaching that point, you have to be able to register. And even that is confusing. I know several people who have given up trying.

My advice is that you find a more user-friendly way of achieving your goals.

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Permalink Reply by Kitchen Gardeners International on February 13, 2008 at 10:51am

Brook: see my reply above. This is "technically" not just a forum. It's a platform that allows people to:
-create their own profiles and blogs
-set up interest or geographic groups
-post photos, videos, and music (if we want) to a common repository
-participate in forums

Ning has many features in the works include setting up a group wiki.

We can, of course, set up a more traditional forum, but that would involve making some sacrifices.

As for the relative lack of use, lets' not pronounce judgment too early: it's only been up for a few weeks and we've had over 200 people sign up and several of them have done at least one of the things mentioned in the bullet points above.

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Permalink Reply by Penelope on February 13, 2008 at 11:21am

I haven't had any problem signing up or using this site. Maybe the "problem" is more in what people may expect, so they're not seeing what IS. There is a lot going on on the site, yes. Maybe some people want to deal with one thing at a time. If so, this isn't the place for them. I like the fact that the site seems endless, kind of like roaming through a large city and every day finding a new fascinating shop or restaurant or tiny park or courtyard. At the end of every post is a reply button; how is that complicated?

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Permalink Reply by Steph on April 19, 2008 at 5:00pm

I completely agree. I stumbled upon the site this morning and have lost most of my afternoon gobbling up all that I can. I am excited to participate and hope that my experience in my own garden and those for whom I work might be of interest to others.

First post and I already realize the neat things that one everyone can do to express their thoughts...

AND IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES TO MAKE CORRECTIONS! WHOA! THAT'S PRETTY FANCY!

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Permalink Reply by Ian on February 13, 2008 at 1:53pm

Hi Roger, I only joined the site a few days ago and am enjoying it tremendously. I have had an opportunity to share conversations with people in different countries and areas where I am unlikely to visit. My one regret is that there are not Non US folk participating, but I believe this will change over time. I think the site works well I have had no problems with clumsiness although there are one or two things I would change in an ideal world, but I have yet to find any piecee of software that is perfect, no matter how simple.
There has been a lot of talk about page load times, I'd like to put some meat on those bones!
I ran page load time tests for several web sites:
kitchengardeners 1.439 secs
yahoo 2.400 secs
Alta Vista 1.276 secs
Microsoft 2.885 secss
My Own Web Site 1.817 secs

I certainly can't read much of War and Peace or Anna Karenina in 1 and half seconds!!!!!!

I admit these time were measured loading from my cache. But as a cache is provided for precisely the reason of increasing load time I do not think this is unreasonable. It may explain such differing views on load times though

I ran test with my cache cleared and got the following results
Kitchen Gardeners 12.474 secs
Yahoo 4.734 secs
Alta Vista 1.448 secs
Microsoft 9.128 secs
My Own Web Site 5.229 secs

Now I admit that 12.5 seconds is a slow load but it is not unreasonable. I planted some bean seeds and I'm still waiting after 9 days. Now 9 days would be a long time to wait!!!!! but we have to do it.
I don't think gardening is essentisally a high speed, instant gratification subject and I don't think 1.439 seconds is long to wait
Ian

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Permalink Reply by Ian on February 14, 2008 at 6:24pm

Storm, All I can say is that I am not suffering any of the sorts of delays you are experiencing. Out of interest I went to the front page and made the link to this discussion. It loaded in under 2 secs and scrolled straight away. Also, I have never had any problems with delays showing on links - they pop up as soon as I cursor over them. And I'm actually getting these results when my computer is telling me that 68% of resources are being used elsewhere.
Ian

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Permalink Reply by David King on March 10, 2008 at 12:10pm

I'm about as 'non-standard' windows as it gets, running W2K and nothing else from Microsoft (soon, I will take the plunge to Linux as I have paid my last dime that I will pay to Bill & Co). This site loads fine using Opera and Mozilla on my platform. My connection is cable modem through a wireless set up. I've spent most of my computing life with a university and I am SPOILED with T1 connections. But this site loads no worse than anything else I load.

You might be right. It might be a windoze thing. Good luck - I'd hate to loose someone who writes with your flair.

david

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