CactiGuide.com

I see only 10 people responded and topics being highjacked is not a good thing. I was interested in where members from the Middle East, South America and Africa have disappeared too. I miss seeing collections from those part of the world.

mikethecactusguy wrote: ↑Sat May 07, 2022 6:57 pm I see only 10 people responded and topics being highjacked is not a good thing. I was interested in where members from the Middle East, South America and Africa have disappeared too. I miss seeing collections from those part of the world.

I miss the previous activity level too. But we can't do too much about it. I sent a PM to Hegar, hoping to get him back posting, but if his preferences for email notifications of messages aren't set to receive them, he won't see it. We don't have many other options I guess.

The main problem I think was the change of the board and being offline for so long? After the first few weeks some have probably not even tried to see if we are online again and moved elsewhere. People are creatures of habit and once they get used to doing something else with that time often do not return.

It is the same with Covid in the UK, due to halls being shut and meetings being cancelled during the lockdown. People get out of the habit of attending monthly meetings and start to do other things in the meantime, therefore not all do come back when normality returns. Some even packing up the hobby altogether meantime.

Also "chatty" Social Media now tends to attract the youngsters and the more casual collectors rather than forums for the more dedicated. Free ZOOM Meetings and online journals are now also prising members away from subscription based societies. However I suppose initially free Forums like this did that originally to subscription based societies?

The British Cactus & Succulent Society is a subscription based society with a printed journal, yet also runs a free Forum like this subsidised by the society but open to non members of the society. Needless to say the free Forum has many times the membership of the pay to join society itself. It seems to be the new rule nobody pays for anything on the Web, including newspapers that you have to pay for in printed form!

I wonder how many on this forum are now a member of a subscription based Cactus & Succulent society (by subscription I mean one where you pay a membership fee to join and receive a printed Journal)?

It seems to be the new rule nobody pays for anything on the Web"

Usually ads appear once something ( content ) gets popular . No ads here so ?

Hi DaveW.
I think its a generation thing. Those weaned with the internet feel everything should be free. No clue as to how the free stuff is being supported and don't care. Us old folks have no issues supporting our sources. I joined the Society and paid for my subscription.
Mike M

I'm 37 and a paying member of my local cactus club. The club runs on volunteers who set up the meetings, arrange the fair, write articles, etc... From a new young member, who fairly quickly joined the board, I heard the job is pretty unrewarding. I make a contribution now and then, but I could do more. When the club asks for help for the yearly fair almost nobody of the members volunteer and to be honest 95% of the members are 'old folks'. If the administrator of the forum should ask me for a contribution to support the servers or something like that, I would have no issues with it. It is true social media such as Instagram reduce everything to a pretty picture. For some enthusiasts it is an extension of what they do and not the essence. Perhaps the decline of active members on the forum is a phase. I sometimes cycle through he oldest topics on the forum and always find new things to learn. Aren't there enough interesting people to talk to on the forum?

I let my membership in the Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society lapse. I could never make a meeting, could only attend the annual show.

Personally just find life so busy that I have to fight for the time to care for and advance my collection, let alone make regular posts. I also have issues with the rather finicky and time consuming process of resizing pictures, selection and presentation. I should comment more but I procrastinate and if I don't reply to 90% of my texts from actual friends and family then it's about as likely to happen on a forum. I'm 30, not young but not old. I developed into an adult using social media heavily, but threw it all out at 25. Since then, any socialisation online has become difficult for me to commit to. I live in the present, mostly offline. I do wish I had friends to talk about plants with but somehow can't actually get myself to sit down long enough to actually do so on the Internet.

Hi all,
I have been a member of cactiguide since 2008. It's been a while since I posted (or looked at the forum) because for a time there was very little action and a number of my posts went unanswered. I still used the site often for reference. Anyway, things seem to have picked back up, so I am glad and hope to be more active.
Good to see you all,
Shmuel
Jerusalem Israel
Zone 9

I joined the forum in 2016. Since then, I've posted 1,221 posts, but most of that activity was until 2019...then I scaled back a bit. I would love to continue posting mainly on my "blog" (thread) "My greenhouse and plants", which is where I show my progress as a collector. It is totally out of date. However, it is very annoying and laborious to have to reduce the size of the photos, then add them one by one... and after a week, see that it had 384 views but no one commented anything, no questions were asked...nothing... ... this is discouraging (I admit that I end up doing the same, but I try to encourage other members when I visit the forum, commenting on posts).
If there was a faster way to post photos, I would certainly be much more active on the forum (currently I limit myself to making contributions that don't need photos, for example helping with identifications). I'm not saying it needed to be like an Instagram...but it could be easier, both to post photos and to comment...it could have a more dynamic rhythm, without being superficial...I think the main reason for me to have reduced my activity was to have lost the patience to post pictures. But reading this gave me motivation to come back again.

Just to give an example of what I'm saying . I have just answered for an ID request. A member asked if the plant is M. grahamii. I answered describing my plant. It would be useful if I could post a picture of my M. grahamii so he and everyone else could compare and discuss. In fact, I can upload a picture..but it is really time consuming...so I gave up...

mmcavall wrote: ↑Wed May 11, 2022 5:30 pm Just to give an example of what I'm saying . I have just answered for an ID request. A member asked if the plant is M. grahamii. I answered describing my plant. It would be useful if I could post a picture of my M. grahamii so he and everyone else could compare and discuss. In fact, I can upload a picture..but it is really time consuming...so I gave up...

I agree that the requirement of mandating the post contributor to resize the image is passe. When discussion boards like this started many years ago the burden for the user to resize could be justified for both bandwidth and moderator limitations. but times have changed.

The images uploaded should be resized automatically to keep the messages displayed uniform in order to keep the discussion board environment enjoyable for all. This automatic resizing has been in use for years, and should not be difficult to implement here.

This site is run by Daiv, and as far as I know with his money alone. He did just do an upgrade which allows photos to load much more quickly. It would be great if there was someone providing other funds to allow whatever changes need to be made.

As far as the restriction to file size and all, that is beyond my technical knowledge. And yes I agree it does take some extra work to upload a photo. But I put up with it because I like this site and want to see it continue.

I agree with Jerry. I have uploaded quite a few photos from my photo library. It takes less than a minute to reduce the size before adding it to my post. Not sure why you find it such an onerous task. My photo editor is Zoom Browser EX which came with my Canon digital camera 15 years ago. There must be other newer free photo editors.

Indeed, resizing the photos is not that laborious. But the entire process is. First I have to choose the pictures, decide which one I will add to my post (this is something different from simply go to the picture's library while I am writing, at any time of the process). Them resize the previously selected pictures. Them go to the attachment area. Them search and find the resized picture. Them "place in line". Them see if it worked. If I want to put several pictures it is tedious. Maybe there is some way to put many pictures at once and I am not aware. Anyway, this is much more annoying than simply go to the picture's library and add what I want, when I want. The procedure is sufficiently tedious for me, making me give up most of the times...just saying I would be much more active if things were easier, and possibly a lot of new members don't stay for too long when they understand that posting pictures require several steps.