Old members

A place to post thoughts, errors, praise, or other comments about CactiGuide.com
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Spikylover
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Old members

Post by Spikylover »

Im wondering why old members don't post anymore. They are rhe ones with the most experience between us...specially daiv and hob
Rachel
Gardening with my mother and father in war ridden Syria
DaveW
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Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Old members

Post by DaveW »

I gather Hob left years ago, even though his name still appears as a Moderator, in fact long before I joined. In fact both the previous Moderators had left some time ago since people drift away from the hobby to do something else and evidently few want to volunteer to be Moderators.

Daiv, who owns and pays for the board only looks in occasionally since I think he has other business interests. I am not really a moderator, I just reported a couple of cases of spam to Daiv who said if you see any I have given you Moderator privileges just delete them.
DaveW
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Re: Old members

Post by DaveW »

Just looked up Hob's profile and it says:-

"Last active: Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:44 am"

Evidently he was here for a few months after I joined. Which is why I seem to recall Hob got interested in caravanning (mobile homes) instead of cacti, but I may be wrong. Some people do change hobbies during their life time and some often return to an old one later. At our UK BCSS branch we have had one or two who have quit the hobby for a period of years, either due to work commitments or other interests, but returned many years later and started again when time or retirement permitted.
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7george
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New members

Post by 7george »

I have more interesting question about the new members: Why they don't post anymore after their first tray of plants was been identified or not in this furum? Ha?
If your cacti mess in your job just forget about the job.
°C = (°F - 32)/1.8
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Spikylover
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Re: New members

Post by Spikylover »

7george wrote:I have more interesting question about the new members: Why they don't post anymore after their first tray of plants was been identified or not in this furum? Ha?
I'm personally hibernating with my few cacti :lol: :lol: the thing is there's not much to do cactiwise in winter and i have exams and stuff. In addition, i have tons of questions and IDs but i learned to use the search function. Lots of info in there. I don't like posting too much asking for help but there's a reason these forums exist
I think 99% of the new members are here just to ask for an ID. They're not serious about the hobby.
The problem is we lost the vast majority of the old experienced members. I see some very experienced growers on instagram and facebook but i don't think they know about cactiguide or the notion of a forum is outdated. Maybe cactiguide forum needs to be advertised or have a facebook page or something similar.
On another note, i see a lot of the older members online all the time but they don't participate or share their knowledge. Not to point fingers but there's a certain member who has a huge greenhouse and all sorts of cacti and succulents and man are they old. Such member should know a lot right? Not once have i seen him contribute to an ID. Is that fair in your opinion?

Regards,
Rachel.
Rachel
Gardening with my mother and father in war ridden Syria
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Aiko
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Location: the Netherlands

Re: New members

Post by Aiko »

Spikylover wrote: I think 99% of the new members are here just to ask for an ID. They're not serious about the hobby.
I think you are right. There is a big difference for this forum compaeed with the BCSS forum, which I also frequently visit. On the BCSS forum there are hardly any identification requests. Most discussion topics are on content, are discussions, and not there for personal gratificiation of some passing by forum member. And I am very happy for that.

I don't mind helping people out, but not for those that just come here to put others at work to do some work for them (and maybe not even coming back to check back on the help people give them). I do help out where I can if an identification requests comes from someone that has been around for a bit and has contributed to discussions.
Spikylover wrote: On another note, i see a lot of the older members online all the time but they don't participate or share their knowledge. Not to point fingers but there's a certain member who has a huge greenhouse and all sorts of cacti and succulents and man are they old. Such member should know a lot right? Not once have i seen him contribute to an ID. Is that fair in your opinion?
Maybe this person is like me, not unwilling to help, but definitely unwilling to help out those that just come here to leach on forum members for their identification jobs and not contribution in any way (or even saying thanks).

I try to just ignore those that are new. And I suspect others (start to) do too.

I personally am not happy about leaching forum members like 'elquisco' (see: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=40108&p=340567#p340557). Too annoying to even ignore...
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7george
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Re: Old members

Post by 7george »

Such member should know a lot right? Not once have i seen him contribute to an ID. Is that fair in your opinion?
Fair or not is hard to judge. Old members could be sick, tired, too busy, out of hobby or just done with this forum. From other hand, what would be the difference if your cactus is G. horstii or G. denudatum: just to stick the proper tag near the plant, the care for it could be actually the same. I see: that is second tittle of the forum: positive identification of cacti...

I also tend to ignore new users that post small blurred (or no) photos, don't provide any detais about the plant, location etc. and expect miracle IDs from other members.
If your cacti mess in your job just forget about the job.
°C = (°F - 32)/1.8
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Aiko
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Re: Old members

Post by Aiko »

7george wrote:From other hand, what would be the difference if your cactus is G. horstii or G. denudatum: just to stick the proper tag near the plant, the care for it could be actually the same.
I strongly agree.
I can see it might be of crucial help to those growing the more difficult plants to help out the more specific growing conditions they need, or need a proper identification if they are planning on propagating the plant via cuttings or seed (where you need the proper name for distribution).

But for many that do the identification requests, it is usually about the more common plants that basically can all be treated the same way. Beginning growers don't need to distinguish Discocactus from Gymnocalycium, where identification can be crucial to keep it alive. No beginning grower has Discocactus as that one is not available in garden centres or other common places.
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Spikylover
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Re: Old members

Post by Spikylover »

I see your points and i totally agree. But you proved my point about leeching. The member i had in mind never posted anything outside his member topic. He's using cactiguide just to show his plants. What helpful purpose does that serve?
Concerning the bcss, i tried to join but my account never got activated.
As for the IDs, i care mostly about the genus. I think i wanna know the species only in the case of a very large genus like echinopsis or mammillaria or opuntia. Mammillarias are hard to identify...
Rachel
Gardening with my mother and father in war ridden Syria
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Spikylover
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Re: Old members

Post by Spikylover »

On a side note, Aiko, i would love too see your collection. I browsed to see if you have a member's topic but couldn't find it. Since you have so many seeds from your plants, you sure have an awesome collection that i would die for :-D
Now i'm thinking i should have pm'd this
Rachel
Gardening with my mother and father in war ridden Syria
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ElieEstephane
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Location: Lebanon (zone 11a)

Re: Old members

Post by ElieEstephane »

Concerning daiv, he's not posting but he's ever so busy with the forum. He's always fixing stuff. I report problems to him several times a week and he solves them. So you may not see him but the forum wouldn't be here now after all this time without him.
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
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mmcavall
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Re: Old members

Post by mmcavall »

I have the impression that the forum is experiencing a bad moment. I’m particularly annoyed with the way some members view and interact to the forum, and this is not fault of the old member’s lack of activity.
Among the experienced growers, I see two extreme profiles here: at one side, those that have lots of plants, and use the forum only to show them, without helping the other with their experience. At the other side, there are experienced growers that are very helpful and try to provide the forum with good advices, without showing their collection. I particularly prefer the second “type” (I miss Iann!) but I see no problems in the first “type”.
I neither see any problem in asking for IDs, once there is a section of the forum created especially for that (however, I agree that people who asks for ID should at least come back to say “Hi, thanks for taking your time!”. To those that do not show up after have receiving the ID requested, I would not want to spend my time anymore).
The problem I see now concern much more some of the new members. In their enthusiasm, they are kind of overloading the forum with replies in every single thread, many times being pretentious, which is exactly the opposite attitude new growers/new members should have. I feel that there is kind of a competition here to give the “ultimate” answer in each thread.
(Until about six months ago, I have never seen that kind of attitude here. Also, I have never seen people quareling and trying to impose their opinion. Above all, there were no cases of personal offenses, which are beginning to appear now).
Obviously, this is a very particular impression, so I don’t want to create much debate about that. I’m simply avoiding the forum lately.
Nevertheless, it is never too much to remind some basic rules of politeness:
1. Always say “thanks” to anyone who spend some time giving you an ID, advices, etc, especially when you create a new thread asking the members to suggest, for example, species of a given genus you should buy seeds, what kind of shade cloth you should use, what kind of pictures should enter a contest, etc. Even if you dislike the suggestions, just say thanks to anyone who replies.
2. Feel free to disagree (that’s healthy), but be always polite and humble.
3. Note that humble (even experienced growers) always say “I think…”, “In my opinion…but I can be wrong”. Try to do the same.
4. Only enter a discussion if you really can contribute
5. Do not express publically that you don’t like or don’t trust a given member. This is embarrassing.
6. For a more "active" experience, try Facebook. The forum is, by nature, more “slow” (but much richer!). Try to enjoy that calm.
Again, this is a particular impression (maybe shared by other members). I don’t want to point my fingers to anyone. Above all, this is not valid to all new members, just to a few ones (I'm relatively new here too; new members are always welcome). It is up to each one reflecting about your attitudes. Annoyed members will simply disappear from the forum, which may explain partially the lack of activity of older members.
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ElieEstephane
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Re: Old members

Post by ElieEstephane »

=D> =D> =D> =D> =D>
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
DaveW
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Re: Old members

Post by DaveW »

I suppose there is a difference to when I started in the pre computer age in the 1960's. Then we usually bought a basic book to identify our plants and had to learn how to read botanical descriptions since the black and white pictures were often not too helpful. Now people of the electronic age don't read books but use the internet instead to get identifications. However with books we did at least have to learn how to use the index and turn the pages to find what we want, but it is notable those far more computer literate than this geriatric still don't seem to be able to "Google" to find many of the answers themselves.

It is said there are now more pages on the Internet than people on earth, so there is a page there somewhere with the information you want, but you need to look for it. In many cases asking your search engine a simple question like "soils for growing cacti", or "composts for growing cacti" if you are a UK grower, even just "how to grow cacti", then just sorting through the links your search engine throws up.

I guess these type of forums have become the equivalent of the local cactus club or branch. Though Aiko we also used to take our unknown common plant to the meetings for a more experienced member to identify. If you do have a cactus club or society near you it is always worth joining to get the opinions of the more experienced. It is often far easier to identify a plant "in the flesh" so to speak, than from a photo on the Internet. Also remember many plants are hard to identify when small and many of us will have plants we provisionally identified as a certain species, or often genus, until it flowers and proves us wrong.

At least get a basic book on the plants and then if you can't identify it by all means post it. What Aiko is saying is at least try a little self help first and make the effort to identify it and if you can't by all means ask. I know it is difficult as a beginner when you can't even identify the genus to narrow the search down, but a basic book does tend to do that for you.

I still buy books in spite of all the resources the Internet has, having well over 1500 cactus books and Journals now. The advantage I have over a beginner searching the web is I have been through all the changes in classification and names, therefore can often Google for a plant under a different genus it was previously placed under. Everybody is here to help you and willing to do so, provided you have tried to do a little of the "spade work" yourself and are not just expecting others to save you the trouble of doing so.

I don't know why your BCSS account never got activated Spikylover. Do you mean the Society or the BCSS Forum? The British Cactus & Succulent Society is a subscription based society (just like the Cactus & Succulent Society of America) with a quarterly Journal and local branches. Whereas the BCSS Internet Forum, like this one, is free for anybody to join having no subscription. If you are having trouble joining the Forum get in touch with Bill:-

http://forum.bcss.org.uk/memberlist.php?mode=group&g=5

If it is joining the Society email Tony Morris:-

http://www.bcss.org.uk/contacts/membership.htm

Things do occasionally go wrong, but they should be able to sort it.

Dave Whiteley, President Nottingham Branch BCSS.
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ElieEstephane
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Re: Old members

Post by ElieEstephane »

Regarding the new members... i'm a member of the french forum cactuspro.com and they have a handy little feature. If you're just looking for an ID, you can post without joining the forum. You just need an email. And for more involvement, you can join. The option is available somewhere on the administration control panel here so maybe i'll suggest it to daiv.
Their forum is very active with so many members online and participating. Why isn't cactiguide as active? I'm guessing if your country or region has a dedicated C&S forum with straight advice with corrolation to your climate, why would you join an Internationnal forum? Same can be said for the BCSS (where my account is not avtivated yet too Rachel)
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
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