Forums Restructuring

danc,
Thanks so much for the info about volunteering. Let's hope that volunteers from outside UBC may be able to help save our Forums. Surely there must be some things that volunteers could learn to do that would help Daniel and Eric cope with the onslaught of Spammers, inappropriate posts, etc.
You will find this so naive, but I just thought before that the people who posted to these Forums were just nice people who loved plants and gardening. What an eye opener to learn that Daniel and Eric were keeping all these wolves from our doors with so much effort.

 

When I first started looking for gardening forums, some years ago, there were several non-moderated ones present on the web. What all those nice plant and garden people said to one another then would probably give you a whole new perspective.

Nevermind spammers.

 

I would like to suggest the contact information for the director be posted here, if possible, for those who would like to personally express their views on the subject.

 

Could I leave that up to someone else to give you? It is available on the web somewhere, on a UBC Directory too, I saw it... I hesitate to put all that info out here in case the worst-case scenario happens, that spammers or people with overly condemning attitudes write in haste... It was given to me in confidence by another user from Vancouver, not an Administrator, so I hesitate to betray that confidence. If she reads this she may contact you directly re a PM. Ask me again if you don't find it, or if that person does not send you a PM.

 

Ron, some of those spammers out there are just terrible, it would make anyone hesitate to read the forum if too many of their posts got on... really dreadful, it makes one wonder what humanity really means. A lower form of life? I was watching a series on Wolves on tv the other night, and although they don't always treat each other very well, tending to push out the lower-skilled dogs from the pack, they do it out of a kind of necessity to keep strong and well-fed and reproduce...

 

My post was poorly worded. I'll try again. Would it be permissible and in good form to post a link to the contact information which resides in an online UBC directory?

 

Okay, I'll find it online, although my address was slightly different re email address than what was on the directory. I will send you that after supper -- I'm cooking right now and stopped to read this, as you see, while another family member does something at the stove... I'll get back to this later this evening.

 

the staff directory is here:
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/people/staff.php
I believe the email addresses are on it.

I will come back and edit this to add the mailing address.

The mailing address is on this page:
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/visitorinfo/

I will also send you a PM later in the evening, Junglekeeper

 

Attention, Junglekeeper [above]

This was given to me as the correct mailing address:

Patrick Lewis
>> Director, UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research
>> Faculty of Land and Food Systems
>> 6804 Southwest Marine Drive
>> Vancouver BC
>> V6T 1Z4
>>
>> tel: 604-822-9526
>> email: patrick.lewis@ubc.ca

I sent you a PM as well -- please check your private mail on this site

 

Funny how some things turn up under our noses...if only I looked. Thanks for the link.

 

i just emailed the new director. i think it's a good idea to express our concerns while bearing in mind that these forums are a gift and a privilege. :D

thanks for posting that contact info, guys!

 

Yes, thank you! I know of a lot of people who will be emailing the Director. Thank goodness we have someone of quality that we can voice our concerns with.

: )

 

Well, this is really bad news! And puzzling one...
From curiosity, I went to the UBC main page to figure out what is a UBC interest and commitments. Reading just headlines:
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/research/
"Welcome to the UBC Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, Canada. Our research mission is to explore, explain and maintain plant life on Earth. ", "...to facilitate scientific research and education using living plants."
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/education/
"Sharing knowledge and appreciation of plants with the UBC community, British Columbians and the world"
My impression is that this forum is perfectly matches these goals.

My understanding is that the major problem of maintaining this forum is insufficient human resources for moderating the forum. Mostly, your time, Daniel. I am not sure, how often you deal with topics that need some actions. I saw plenty of moving topics to other forums. I did not see much spam (may be it was promptly deleted before I saw it). However, these functions could be easily spread among people of this community. Just to add a control button for a specified list of actions and let a certain circle of people to decide what to do with the topics. Say, the rule of three strikes for deleting spam or offense. There are plenty of serious people here who can easily classify topics and help decide on their proper dislocation.

Please discuss this again with your managers and try to find a way to save this community for a while. With time going, there might be some alternatives arising which eventually will take over this forum. But for the time being, this is a the most serious and wide discussion about plants on the web.
-----------------------------
PS: I keep forgetting that there are more than one page of the thread... After reading your long comments and replies, I figured out that I was too late to the party and the forum is irreversibly dead. The spammers are suffocating the world, indeed. I stopped picking my home phone completely. And now they crashed the forum. Let's put Darwin at work and find something...

 

This is a really sad news for me. I just got my computer back from the comp. hosp. open UBC up and get this news. Thank you, Daniel for all your work. I know you feel as bad as we all do, after all this is your "Baby".
I will really miss the people and the wonderful advice available here. barb

 

Before UBC closes down this forum, I deleted every one of my posts in the Citrus forum, as I do not want them in the archives. However, unfortunately, with very old posts, one runs into the point where the edit function is no longer available, so the very old posts cannot be deleted. Seems strange. - Millet (1,071-)

 

Thats a rather selfish thing to do millet...delete your posts!

If, for whatever reason this became a 'read only' forums and everyone had previously'paniced' like you have and deleted their posts, , there would be nothing to read only.

In the administrator area (admins only) I would opt for no post deletions by members, and no editing the posts after say a month.

 

There is some discussion and useful information regarding old posts, deletions, and editing in this forum www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=59587 and here www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=32298

 

Am I the only one who feels that SOME in here have taken this on a personal insult level? The forums are still here...they're just being adjusted! Until that is all finished....people.......calm DOWN! Eeeesh.
Also, in NO way, under NO circumstances, can I pay $100 nor WILL I pay that to stay on this or ANY site...no matter HOW much I enjoy it.
I'm a low-income gardener...single parent...no way that asking that extreme amount would benefit me enuf to give up that amount. I learn TONS from this site...but it doesn't pay me back in money or financial profit.
Thanx again, Daniel, for the hard work and for trying to address each and every one of our complaints, comments, thumbs up here..........

 

I couldn't agree more. Sad that people just can't let people speak their mind, and refrain from commenting.

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"

: )

 

Just to let you know, I personally welcome here your freedom of expression, Hollyberry Lady and C. Wick, and others too, but if no one expressed their dismay at the loss of what will be lost, apparently [although by no means everything, we have been reassured of that], the administration of this site would not know how we felt -- those are very valid feelings of loss and not of personal insult. One thing the web allows us to do is to express opinions and feelings very immediately, and all should realize that sometimes things sound too personal to others, and we should ALL take a breather and continue to use this site but don't expect other posts to be just like your own, as we all are very different people. Appreciate it! As my little sister used to say, "Everyone's different!" when her choices were criticized by parents or siblings...

 

Janet, whether the UBC forum remains, or goes away, is not be a big deal in people's lives. There are thousands of various forums on the Internet to catch people's interest. If this forum remains fine, if this forum goes away thats fine also. After all, it is just another computer forum. - Millet (1,070-)

 

Yes Janet,
It is as you state. Quick and unretractable.
I haven't complained too much as this is not my site and as a guest, if I am not wanted, I do not wish to remain and do feel hurt by being deleted so abruptly. Stay on for one forum, PNW, when there are so many others out there?
If I wished to pay for a site, I would go to Dave's Garden where there are extensive topics and areas of interest not covered by the limited UBC forum.

I think it's a case of, we'll take the party elsewhere in the end, that's all.
Why pout and fret?
We'll carry on elsewhere.
When the party is over, our dinner party here, it's ovah dahling.

D

 

Well, I find the lack of advertising wonderful, here, although there are a few forums without it too, or just a little of it. Strictly landscape and gardening-oriented ads wouldn't be too bad! When we are busy and in my case, getting up there in years, the new bother of finding a new forum with a new password, new rules and instructions, etc., etc., is a real nuisance. There's enough of that in one's life already. The other thing is that each contributor seems to be a strong personality in her or his own right, and with a corresponding amount of experience and knowledge to contribute... yes, Garden Web is pretty good, I have ended up there on searches too, quite successfully. When one is used to something one is used to something! I don't want it to stop, because I have become quite garden-obsessive, it must be like being a pet breeder and attender of pet shows -- the obsession becomes very deep, and one looks at plants everywhere one goes, and sharing this obsession is such darn fun!

 

Barbara,
I will miss you too! But the entire site may not disappear. I have already posted a new thread to the "Gardening in the Pacific Northwest" forum and have had a couple of replies. I really hope that some sort of scaled down version can keep going. Only time will tell as Daniel and Eric are trying to sort out all this.

 

Oh yes, this IS very, very sad news:( It was not only a place to talk about plants and discover ids, but to learn something you didn't know as well. Nothing last forever is not always a good thing.Hopefully I will see some of you again out there in computer land again.

This forum will be Greatly missed!