How soon can I expect a response to my post?

[Daniel Mosquin]

The speed of response to any post depends on several factors.

Generally, the Friends of UBC Botanical Garden who participate on the forums as "HortLine" answer questions Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons PST. However, they do occasionally post at other times. Often, some research is required to answer a question and that may cause a greater delay.

UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research staff and researchers post as time allows. Please realize that the bulletin boards are an innovation - I know of no other botanical garden that uses similar software to foster communications between its staff and the gardening and botanical communities.

However, with any technology, there are downsides. In this case, the short term effect is that there is "extra work" involved - and finding the time to squeeze in a researched response during a busy day can be difficult.

The long term view is that we are building a shared and common resource. Unlike the telephone-based HortLine, a question asked frequently or infrequently need only be researched and answered once.

Lastly, the speed of response can also vary depending on the participation of non-UBC bulletin board users. The more that people participate in both asking and answering, the more we can look forward to speedier responses and engaging and enlightening discussions.

Thanks for your understanding and participation!

[mr.shep]

Hi Daniel:

It is not up to the friends and members of the UBC Botanical Garden to
respond to the majority of inquiries. You have enough on your "plate"
to start with.

I think a little regreesion may be in order for some of the members of the
various UBC Forums. It used to be to us oldtimers online that "netiquette"
dictated that people would respond rather quickly to an E-Mail, a post in an
online forum or a post to a bulletin board as it was perceived by others that
the person that wanted the information did not want the information as badly
as it may have seemed when they take several days to respond to someone
else's post or E-Mail. I was not the person to gripe about it as I figured
that the vast majority of the time that people would not respond to my
posts anyway and they are still that way to my posts. What did bother others
and to some it was the internet cardinal sin was to ask a question, then
get an answer and not respond at all. I never let that bother me but others
surely did. What has always bothered me and even though I do not like it
I am used to it, is when I write someone, usually a professional, in regards
to an area of their expertise and they go and hide, generally never to respond
back to me. Even ones that later asked me for help, with my knowing full well
they did not bother to respond to my E-Mail and I would remind them that we
have some unfinished business that they need to address before I will entertain
the notion of helping them with their so-called urgent request.

It used to be that the majority of people online had little or no patience
for people that took their sweet time in responding back to others.
I remember when our web site was up for an award many years ago
and I was told to take down the animated .gif I had on the first page
all because it took a long time to load in. I felt and still feel it was
the best animated .gif I ever made so I succumbed to an outside pressure
and took it down off the site. I am sure you remember but I am not so
sure that many people know it now that there used to be a netiguette
factor in how long or quick a web site would load in. For about 3
years the graphics intense web sites were looked down upon all
because the pages loaded in slow and that was when the average
modem access rate was less than a 28.8 kbps. I remember VRML
sites that I used to frequent every day in which the first page might
be 2 megabytes in total size that I could load in with little trouble
with a 14.4 kbps modem. Now, the internet is so commercialized
that many online news based web sites almost require a DSL or
broadband cable modem to load in a page that is only 200k in
size. The point being is that people must have evolved in being
more tolerant of others being super slow to respond to their
inquiries or their posts.

It is not up to you or Douglas to answer all of the posts that you both
dutifully will respond to. It is up to the members themselves to be
a little more diligent and there are several that are. What people
do not fully realize is that when they ask for help on a given
thread and there may be some responses and perhaps a logical
explanation or better yet and answer to their query, that it is
common courtesy online to respond with only two words,
thank you. Those two words are good enough for most all
of us. It is when the thank you does not happen that some
of us that may know the answer or have a pretty good idea what
the answer may be, may not respond to someone that acts
as though they do not care that others took it upon themselves
to help and got a nothing for a response. It is up to the members
of these Forums to meet the challenge of whether they want
real participation or not, not solely you "guys" with the UBC.

Jim

Daniel: go ahead and delete this as I cannot do it from
this end. I was being silly thinking that anyone would
have any interest in this post.

[graftedmaplecollector]

friend of UBC?I guess so, I just answer questions if I know them or feel I know them.
THATS a disclaimer ha ha ha!
Watching trees or plants I own die really aggravates me so I help
those out which(apparently) know less than I(small group lol).
That seems like unspoken law on a site like this.

P.S. oh by the way im only 29!:)

[jimmyq]

Hi Daniel, I enjoyed reading Mr Sheps post and I figured I would throw my 2 cents in. I enjoy reading the questions and I enjoy reading the answers, I use this message board as a learning tool and as a relaxation center. I enjoy reading a question or seeing an ID picture and being the first to take a stab at the answer, more so when I am right! I think you and the UBC staff do a wonderful job of responding to the visitors to this site and I hope more of the friends of the garden get involved. I spend a few hours each night going through all the new posts and checking books or online tools to try to answer user posts, Mr Shep nailed it, a "Thanks" is all that it takes to make it worthwhile, I can survive without but its so much more of a happy, fuzzy feeling when you know someone appreciates the fact that we share our years of experience with them for no cost! Just for the record I run a landscape and arborist company and when I go to a site for consultation purposes, I charge by the hour, and I don't work cheap - my most valuable commodity is my knowledge and experience, when I give the answers and knowledge away here for free, I am donating a valuable thing ( I think so anyways :o). I appreciate when I can look at posts and see the answers of the experts, Mr Shep included (his posts are so detailed and thorough I can't figure out where he gets the time) and learn from them, it helps me make my living and I am grateful. The best way for me to pay back these experts is to try and help out here by advising those that I can and hope that they take what I can offer and try to pass it along. Keep up the great work Daniel Mosquin, David Tarrant, Douglas Justice, Quentin Cronk, Ingrid Hoff and the rest of the UBC staff and hortboard posters.

[mr.shep]

Hi Paul:

I have some frustrations of the past to get over, lay them to rest and
move forward. I deal with plants in some way every day. My strength
is in the growing aspect of many plants, whether they are for Agricultural
or for Horticultural purposes. I’ve had four world renown plant men to
learn from when I decided that I wanted to learn more of the Horticulture
industry when my interest in Agriculture had been wavering for a number
of years. Honestly, it was the learning something new for me which
helped me overcome some of my reservations in Agriculture. Those
gripes were mostly due to the people involved in politics that were
making decisions for Agriculture which affected everyone involved in
production type Agriculture.

My enjoyment comes from asking myself a question about a plant that
I see come up for identification or from a thread from this HortBoard.
Many times I find myself looking up the plant in question online because
most all of my better plant books are at my cabin to see if what I remember
is still accurate or not. Just like in the thread dealing with Catalpa, the
answer I got about that tree being invasive is what made that whole thread
more than worthwhile for me. I learned the tree as being invasive and sure
enough a leading University confirmed it. From that point further I do not
care what the outcome is in that thread as I got what I wanted and for that
I am grateful.

We are going to have some derision in plants on occasion and to be honest
that same type altruism has been going on for years. I will say it is indeed
a pleasure for me to learn what plants are grown in areas other than ours
that we have not tried to grow from a nurseryman's view point or in some
cases know nothing about. It is not easy at all to learn from various web
sites what plants you' in British Columbia grow as the web sites are quite
limited in the number of plants listed as being grown where you are. I
do know that Mr. Don Kleim felt that the Fraser Valley was the best area
any where for him to grow his extensive collection of Japanese Maples,
Conifers, Camellias and Deciduous Magnolias. It is a shame that he was
not ever able to grow the plants he loved so much in what he felt was his
ideal location to grow his plants.

The UBC forums are still unsurpassed online for the ability to bring
people together from many countries to discuss plants, ask questions
about plants and to learn more about plants. These forums will continue
to expand as I know of some of the people I know that have found these
UBC forums recently and just wait until they start posting.

Any more the only online entities that I spend some time on other
than work related are the BBC for current news and these UBC
forums. Even when I am a little discouraged with both I cannot
stay away for a day, even when I am out of town and at times out
of state.

I completely agree that the staff and especially Daniel deserve more
than a great deal of credit. They have devised a means to bring people
together from a wide range of interests in plants and what may have
seemed like a slow beginning will indeed become in time a major,
quite possibly the leading, online resource for plant knowledge.
What they all have succeeded in doing will become an immeasurable
benefit to a large and expansive number of people world wide.

As for you jimmyq, the highest compliment I can give is that there
is no doubt in my mind you would be successful in what you do no
matter where you are located. There are not a lot of people I can say
that about, even people I've known for many years. It has to be a
passion, not money or the feeling that it is just a job that drives us.
There has to be much more than that and from what I've seen you
would be a real asset anywhere. The post you and Chris wrote about
the moving of the large Rhododendron is something that people
down here, even the experts, do not fully comprehend. Where
they would lose plants and have you guys already have the hardest
part to learn all figured out and I am just in awe of you guys!

Thank you for your nice comments but it should be me thanking
you for being such an integral part of these marvelous forums.

All the best,

Jim

Snickles Art Glass
Paigie(ms.shep) & Jim(mr.shep)
http://users.cwnet.com/snickles

[simon]

i'm grateful for any help i can get. so it takes a bit of time, i don't care. i don't know much about things botanical (apart from spider plants, they're really easy) but if there is something i can help someone with, i will. spread the knowledge. glad i got that off my chest. thanks.

[casecord]

Wow, gentlemen. That was quite a discussion for a beginner. May I just say that I look forward to a long and intellectually rewarding association with everyone at UBC. I just happened upon this site today, and counted my blessings. I find this web site to be a wishful and amatuer gardener's delight, in that at home I am surrounded by friends and family who have little or no interest in gardening and/or the environment. Myself, I find any excuse I can to be out working in my gardens, and enjoying nature. The more I learn the happier I am. So, I guess I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for "caring". Have a wonderful day!

Regards to all
Carol Ann

[Janice Inglis]

Very Interesting. I'm like Carol Ann.

[mkk]

It looks like everyone is an expert on something,which I am not. I just like to fool around with plants organically grown and will help if I can.

[juddde]

I'm so happy I found this site! It's a gem. Thanks for doing this.
<3