It would be even better as a knowledge archive if the search facility worked properly. I also bookmark things for future reference- but only because I know I have no chance of finding them again using a search 🙄.
I am sure the GW web team monitor all the visitor stats closely. So maybe a bit of investment in a proper search tool would be money well spent 🔍
I am only a casual poster, so far, but feel sure as the gardening season kicks in proper I will have lots of questions to ask. I like the chats, it connects us to each other, allowing us to empathize, laugh, occasionally cry with each other, form solid friendships etc. Some like that aspect, others may not so much. But it's a public forum, so we get all sorts (after all, I was let in!) who use and abuse it for different purposes. Great stats, @Fire, thank you for starting a very interesting thread.
This is why, for instance, when I found out that you can root cuttings from chocolate cosmos - I posted the answer on the GW discussion I found via Google. As when I’d first found that discussion, wondering myself whether it was possible, there was no answer, but hopefully now if someone does a google search in the future they’ll find something more helpful!
It is handy as I regularly google gardening questions and often the top answers do come from this forum.
Pondering on the term knowledge archive I realised that the huge advantage this forum has over any more concrete archive of past questions and answers, is that its knowledge archive is contained in the brains of its contributors … an increasing number of gardeners with varied and increasing experiences, who are also capable of asking the questions that the person with the query does not yet know they need to ask, and of finding a way around a seemingly impossible problem using our combined experience and lateral thinking.
A simple archive of knowledge is little more than an old-fashioned encyclopedia … a useful resource but hardly using the great tool that is the worldwide web to its best advantage.
Simply referring a questioner to an earlier thread is often not what questioners consult the forum for. Sometimes, when I’ve done that in the past, I have met with the response ‘I know how to Google … I came here because I wanted a discussion about it’.
😊
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
This forum is the difference between a) getting a load of info from different websites via Google, and trying to sift through what’s relevant and what’s not, or b) asking a question, being prompted to provide relevant additional information, and getting a tailored response from a variety of experienced and friendly experts. Priceless. And I’m very grateful it exists.
Exactly @Ergates ... and more than that, it's about sharing and community rather than just 'looking stuff up on our own' and that's good for us and the planet There's not enough of it about.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I think one of the points that @Fire was making is that there will be countless people reading the threads without asking the questions or being asked to clarify or any of the other interactions that those of us who do interact benefit from, so for them the forum is a 'knowledge archive' and resource - and it's a more useful one if those who do post keep that in mind.
Obviously the chat / off-topic / potting shed threads have a different and no less worthwhile purpose, primarily for active forum regulars - but we are almost certainly a minority of users given how often individual posts or threads pop up in Google searches.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Indeed @LG👍 _ it's one of the reasons I try to always include the proper names for plants, warnings about toxicity etc, and clear instructions and caveats when using chemicals or other 'treatments' , even though it may sometimes appear that I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs ... I don't think I'm the only one
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Posts
I am sure the GW web team monitor all the visitor stats closely. So maybe a bit of investment in a proper search tool would be money well spent 🔍
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I like the chats, it connects us to each other, allowing us to empathize, laugh, occasionally cry with each other, form solid friendships etc. Some like that aspect, others may not so much.
But it's a public forum, so we get all sorts (after all, I was let in!) who use and abuse it for different purposes.
Great stats, @Fire, thank you for starting a very interesting thread.
It is handy as I regularly google gardening questions and often the top answers do come from this forum.
A simple archive of knowledge is little more than an old-fashioned encyclopedia … a useful resource but hardly using the great tool that is the worldwide web to its best advantage.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
or b) asking a question, being prompted to provide relevant additional information, and getting a tailored response from a variety of experienced and friendly experts.
Priceless. And I’m very grateful it exists.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Obviously the chat / off-topic / potting shed threads have a different and no less worthwhile purpose, primarily for active forum regulars - but we are almost certainly a minority of users given how often individual posts or threads pop up in Google searches.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.