Hi Daniel, I was just wondering, how would you feel about a section dedicated to off-topic subjects in a thread, ie, general discussion about world events or anything not related to plants? I have seen this on some very successful, busy sites. It seems to allow members to get to know one another better if they should so choose. Basic rules of courtesy, no profanity still apply. Thoughts? Deb
It is something that every growing forum should do eventually, I agree - I'm not sure if this forum is large enough yet. How does the size of this forum compare to others you participate on? And yes, C+C is available, though I would suggest the emphasis is still generally on plants.
GardenWeb is a commercial site, Hot Topics and its gang of opinionated and prolific regulars, some of whom seem not to seen so much on the other, gardening related forums on the same site serves to help keep the site busy. Is such activity needed or even appropriate on the web site of a public garden?
A good question. It depends somewhat on how one considers this site to be owned - to some extent, it is owned by the garden, but it would be a pretty lonely place without the investment and ownership by non-UBC contributors. To a big extent, the non-UBC contributors get to decide what direction it takes, as long as I've sufficient time to implement what's needed (and monitor accordingly). Personally, I would participate in a very few non-plant discussions. I also have concerns about personality conflicts spilling over elsewhere, especially since the more-diplomatic-than-I-am Eric isn't available very often to smooth things over. However, if there's a sudden explosion of non-plant-topic posts in C+C, I would likely make a separate forum for it - since it would have grown organically from the community of contributors.
Ok..Thanks for your thoughts everyone. Was just a suggestion. Will post other non-plant related questions/comments in C&C!
Being a moderator at another forum (a Subaru enthusiast's website) I can say that if you are going to have an off-topic section, it needs to be fairly heavily watched, and perhaps, if conditions warrant, moderated heavily also. The forum I moderate at has a head admin whose life is wrapped up in the site so he has made it pretty clear what stuff gets posted and what not. He has done it in a nice way, but the law has still been laid down. (About politics and religion, for example).