Community › Community › No dig gardening › Preparing the ground › The future of this forum
This topic contains 22 replies, has 21 voices, and was last updated by Jacqui 5 years, 4 months ago.
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19th June 2019 at 5:33 pm #70449
Hello all, and you may have noticed our recent problems with spammers.
Its proving difficult to keep this forum going.
Currently there are perhaps less than a hundred active users, and I don’t know how many just read the posts.
Shall we keep going?
Would you be happy to join the FB group “No dig gardening, Undug“?
I founded this with Steph, Jan Wilmot and Dan in 2013.
Currently it has 16000 or so users.
It is FB however.
Please advise and thanks for your help!
Charles20th June 2019 at 6:20 am #70451I would be so sad to see this forum go. As a new gardener I found it invaluable. I may not post much but I often search the forum and find the answer without bothering the experts. It makes me feel so connected to all the other compost nerds (who else would be up at stupid o clock to discuss sickly beetroot?)!
I would really encourage you to persevere Charles you don’t realise all the good you do. I had a friend over the other day an he couldn’t believe the garden and went straight home to look you up! Another convert to no dig!
Oh and I’m really not a fan of Facebook, sorry!20th June 2019 at 7:39 am #70452I look at the forum at least once a day and have noticed much less activity in the last few months, especially from Charles. Your wisdom, experience, and advice is really appreciated.
I have found many answers through searching on the forum.
I’m not much of a social media user so I don’t know the etiquette but I often wonder why time is spent thanking each instagram follower when they compliment the garden.20th June 2019 at 8:57 am #70454I find this forum very helpful and being on the gentle side it is full of good quality information.
I view this most days without signing in and echo Christine’s comments especially on compost.
Face book is not and never will be option so please keep this going.
Colin
20th June 2019 at 11:17 am #70455I totally agree with Christine. This forum has been wonderful over the years. Especially getting an answer from Charles and others when we may be straying a bit or perplexed. It spreads happiness. The search facility is invaluable for finding answers without reposting. Like the others I’m not on any social media and find it so,so sad that this once great forum has declined. The old stalwarts seem to have disappeared and new queries are sometimes unanswered. Heartbreaking. Please can everyone try to bring it back.
I first came across Charles four years ago when a customer (I had a shop) ordered Country Smallholding from me and said I could read it. I found Charles’ articles amazing and looked up his website. Since then it has gone through many transformations, each glossier than the last but the forum was always there, like unwrapping a vast jewel of knowledge. And finding kindred spirits. Without the forum I would only have just heard about aminopyralid instead of being aware for a couple of years, and would probably have never been on a Homeacres course. Come on guys, please don’t lose it.
Jan20th June 2019 at 1:53 pm #70456I much prefer this forum to FB. I don’t always log in, but I do read the posts and comments and I know of some people who don’t sign in but have many of your books and follow your updates and the forum avidly. The search facility is also much better than FB and makes it very easy to access the treasure trove of info. I wish there was a better alternative.
On a technical note, I did wonder if some users haven’t realised with Google reCAPTCHA they need to click on “I agree to these terms” and go through the additional measures to log in? Would using Sucuri help to stop the spammers? They’re different to many security solutions as they redirect your all website traffic through their firewall and filter out anything malicious before it gets to you. I’m not a Sucuri employee or affiliate, just a relieved user who had to get a hacked website protected a couple of years ago.
20th June 2019 at 9:45 pm #70457Refuse to have facebook, such a pointless time waster.
I think the time of this forum declining coincides with what I perceive as the redevelopment of the site, and as a consequence the removal of the new post headers from the main site, and the start of the more intense Instagram activity. Just an observation, your call, I realise the Instagram activity probably benefits your commercial activity.
Also, as people’s knowledge increases their personal need for the forum declines, I know mine has as I have started to understand more. So really, I think, as others have stated above, it is those of less experience who will suffer if it is decided to take it down.
21st June 2019 at 7:14 am #70458I agree with all the comments posted so far. I read the forum daily; I rarely log in. I loathe Facebook; love this forum.
Best wishes
Beverley21st June 2019 at 7:51 am #70459I would like to see the forum continue. I am familiar with WordPress and would be happy to help out with Forum moderation.
21st June 2019 at 11:40 am #70460As Derek, I too preferred the previous website, but as he says, your call
21st June 2019 at 2:23 pm #70461The forum was invaluable to me when I first started no-dig. I still look every day and read the posts, generally without logging in. The website has a wealth of information and the forum is the icing on the cake – Me – “Why haven’t my celeriac seeds germinated?” Charles – “You need to sow them on the surface without covering the seeds”. I doubt that you would get that practical advice based on personal experience elsewhere.
I do venture onto the Facebook site occasionally but with 16,000 users there are inevitably some who give incorrect opinion or are just plain unpleasant. It is more of a social site than Charles’ Forum – it is not a criticism, just that the two platforms fulfil different needs. I wouldn’t use the Facebook page as an alternative to the forum.
Best wishes
John22nd June 2019 at 6:53 am #70467Many thanks for your comments.
Especially from those who read and don’t post, because I did not know you are there!I want to continue with the forum, and it’s not an issue of moderation but of technical site support and hacking etc. Then the cost of security measures and maintenance.
Yes it’s a shame that the forum is not now part of the main site, again for technical reasons, too much data to transfer.
Keep up with your fine contributions!
22nd June 2019 at 7:01 am #70468I’m also a lurker (looking on the site without logging in, most days). I’d also be really sorry if the site went to facebook as I wouldn’t then access it.
I agree with a previous writer who said the login is rather more complicated than many sites and for a while I was getting an error message every time I tried. I seem to have managed it now though….Hope this carries on and more people actually post.
23rd June 2019 at 7:50 am #70480I’m new to this forum and have benefited greatly from reading lots of posts and comments which have provided answers to many of my questions. I’d be so sorry to see the forum close down. I do use FB but have found the forum to be refreshing change to FB,
25th June 2019 at 4:48 pm #70484Most of my fellow allotment holders are not so young and like to regularly pop onto the forum
to read what is on peoples minds and would not ever think of posting a question or opinion.
I think that there must be many gardeners who are the same and enjoy the no nonsense approach. -
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