I thought I'd suggest we may want to create a new forum heading for stuff like .....Global Plant Issues or Environmental Plant Issues or Globar Warming etc or something similar.... Items such as the world seed bank, vanishing honey bee's, world's wheat blight, global warming - don't really fit into any of the current headings etc.... Just a thought... Cheers & have a real nice day...
Just a question from a cataloguer's (library) point of view. Is there a keyword search that would pick this sort of stuff up out of the text portion of the e-mails or is the system reliant on thread headings to access things. If thread headings then it probably should have its own thread. Just a question Liz
I asked Aussiebob to post it here when he approached me with the idea to see what other folks thought. Liz, yes, there is quite a powerful search mechanism on the forums - upper green bar -> search. See this post from this thread
Looking more closely, Aussiebob has made posts in Conversation and Chat before, so I see that the idea is a subforum of C&C focused specifically on ecological issues. That may be a very good idea. C&C takes in every kind of issue right now. I think most forum members are concerned with environmental issues, such as loss of habitat and climate change, and would like to be informed of research and social/political policy on these topics. It is hard to imagine that people would not want to be informed of and discuss ecological issues that affect the survival of plants (the focus of the forums) and other life. Ideas brought forth on these forums, could actually make a difference. As an example, I posted a weblog entry about gardeners leaving decaying plants in their gardens at the end of the season to provide habitat for insects, birds and other creatures, which in turn benefit our gardens and natural environments. If 50 people came across that information and changed their gardening habits because of it, maybe a few wild creatures are doing better now. These topics can be contentious, so I would prefer they remain in a members only forum. When discussing these issues, it is doubly important that people keep the conversation on the higher ground.
