Lack of activity on this forum.

Discussion in 'Forum Announcements and Feedback' started by Durgan, Oct 15, 2022.

  1. Durgan

    Durgan Contributor 10 Years

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    This forum encompasses a wide range of garden subjects, yet the participients are few and far between. There is no valid reason for the lack of private members posting.

    The form has to be obscured from potential members. This fact should be addressed. There is no reason why this forum should not be the most active on the internet from my observations.

    The lack of particiption should be addressed. IMO.
     
  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    You posted in Fruit and Vegetable Gardening as though you were talking about that. Yet referred to "a wide range of garden subjects" as though your topic was actually all of the UBC Botanical Garden forums instead. So your specific focus is not clear. As for possible reasons why when Facebook appeared that was a serious draw away from other web sites with a social media component. In addition a variety of other attention-diverting entities such as Pinterest and so on through the list are now present. Also when I search the web for plant or gardening stuff often there is a significant payload of hits originating with commercial sites that has to be waded through in order to pick out information coming from non-commercial sources; anyone not being this selective may not be viewing pages from any institutional entities much of the time. Consistent with this links posted by participants to web based discussions of particular plants and so forth are often to .coms.
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2022
  3. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    I've moved this to the Feedback forum.
    @Durgan, I'm not sure what you mean by the forum being obscured from potential members, but I've found a surprising lack of involvement or even awareness of the forums on the part of people related to UBCBG. It's such a valuable resource, but it doesn't seem to be treated as a real component of the garden's offerings. I've always been surprised that the garden staff never show up here, or the FOGs. Hardly any people from other botanical gardens seem to be aware this place exists.

    As for Facebook being a draw, plant IDs there are a joke. I guess there is some advantage that some of the people who recently insisted a rose hip was a persimmon after being told the actual name don't find their way here. But it's true that on Facebook, I follow someone from Longwood Gardens, and several of his 5000 followers seem to be garden people. I've inserted the occasional link in comments there to a posting here.

    There is a lot of good information here, and I'm counting on it being around forever. I'm often asked some question by the VCBF that requires searching through all our postings, back from the start. Try doing that on FB or Instagram.
     
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  4. Daniel Mosquin

    Daniel Mosquin Paragon of Plants UBC Botanical Garden Forums Administrator Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    There is no competing with Facebook groups. We have a high barrier to entry (Yet Another Username and Password to Remember), but for legal and privacy reasons, we can't turn on things like validating against login services from Facebook, Google, etc.

    We're a boutique experience. Frankly, we couldn't handle too many participants anyway. Conflicts that require intervention are exponential based on participants, not linear.
     
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  5. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    There is no competing with Facebook groups

    Yep! I was on an active social media site for years and then the level of activity died down markedly. Posters asking what happened were consistently answerd by other readers that Facebook is what happened.

    The abundance of inapt or incorrect answers there is not peculiar to FB but rather social media. With the calibre of material varying with the particular group and how it is moderated - not all dialogs (on FB or elsewhere) are long processions of fluff ("Beautiful!" "Love it!") or factual inaccuracy by any means.
     
    Margot likes this.
  6. Michael F

    Michael F Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    Agreed - what surprises me is that this even applies to supposedly better quality sites like iNaturalist; I happened to look at their listings for Cupressus sargentii, and ALL of the records outside of California, and several in California*, were wrongly identified.
    * e.g.:
    Cupressus glabra (likely cultivated)
    Cupressus macrocarpa (presume naturalised)
    Cupressus macrocarpa (ditto)
    Cupressus macrocarpa (ditto)
    Cupressus pygmaea (native site)
     
  7. togata57

    togata57 Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    Quality, not quantity, is my measure.
    — Douglas William Jerrold
     
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  8. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    How about some advertising, at least for the local populace? Handbills could be placed at various local nurseries. The advertising could be piggy-backed onto that for UBC Botanical Garden or VanDusen Botanical Garden. I imagine the cost would then be fairly reasonable.
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2022
  9. Margot

    Margot Renowned Contributor 10 Years

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    Is the BCCGC (BC Council of Garden Clubs) aware of the UBC Forums? There are dozens of garden clubs throughout BC and thousands of garden club members, many of which/whom would likely be interested in becoming involved.

    BC Council of Garden Clubs - Home Page
     
  10. togata57

    togata57 Generous Contributor 10 Years

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    No reason it should be, either.

    Why must UBC Forums be popular?
    Activity does not indicate knowledge.

    I fervently hope that it does not happen here.
     
  11. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    While looking into the status of this forum during its downtime I encountered a similar discussion regarding forum inactivity elsewhere: The inactivity on Gardenweb. The forums here were mentioned midway through. Interesting that Facebook is apparently not a very good substitute platform even though many people aggregate there.
     

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