Just a little clarification on the history. I started the
list (then IRIS-L) in February 1996. I set it up and moderated
it for the first few years. I've noticed that in recent years
people have talked about Mike Lowe being the founder or
cofounder, and there's not really any basis for singling him
out amongst the half dozen or so of us who were interested in
starting it. He gave some money (there was a $200 bill to
create it), but I believe Bill Smoot gave more and others
contributed as well. Perhaps Mike publicized it to AIS or
something.
As Linda has stated, it was not intended to be an AIS
project, and I don't think it ever had any such status,
although AIS did let members know it was one of several venues
for iris activity on the internet.
Bob, I share your caution about recommending the AIS create
a forum. If it does, I would encourage them to make it open to
all, not just AIS members. A critical mass of participants is
an absolute necessity, and the number of nonmembers (around
the world) who want to talk about irises is orders of
magnitude larger than the AIS membership. This model has
worked for SRGC, and their forum has brought in new members.
Unfortunately, I don't really see another iris forum being
able to draw people away from Facebook or even away from the
SRGC forum and other broader plant forums. Most people only
have time for one or two venues, and they will tend to go
where they get the most interaction for time spent. One of the
reasons that social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter,
G+, etc., are popular is that you can keep in touch not only
with people who share one hobby, but friends and family
everywhere. And an all-plants forum like SRGC is rewarding if
your gardening interests extend beyond irises.
For a venue to start from nothing and take off (like this
list did, in the beginning) it basically has to be THE place
to go, not just another place to go. Who has time for yet
another place, especially if its reach is narrower than the
sites one is already using?
Tom
From: "Linda Mann"
1*@rewrite.hort.net
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2016 5:36 AM
To: i*@hort.net
Subject: [iris] Re: COMP: hort.net
Last time I checked with Chris, who does the computer stuff at
Mallorn
that takes care of hort.net, he said iris talk archives were
still
getting more than 10,000 search hits/month. Hardly a dead
group. And
that was in comparison/contrast to some of the other hort.net
groups.
Of course, some of that traffic is from those of us who've
been sharing
information there for over a decade and are using the archives
as a
memory aid for info we want to share on Facebook ;-)
I vividly remember how I learned about the hort.net forum
(originally
iris-list) - it was 1996, & I had finally gotten internet
phone service,
went online, thought "now what am I going to do, now that I'm
finally
here". Did a search for irises, found a brand new forum
started by Mike
Lowe and Tom T Little (now Tom Waters) and joined. I think
that was the
second month they were in operation.
On 1/8/2016 11:39 AM, Char Holte wrote:
> Do any of you remember how you originally
> got on the original web site? I think it was offered when
we joined AIS.
In spite of what some participants have thought, although the
list at
hort.net was started by two AIS members, it was not originally
intended
to be an official AIS forum.
Is it now an official AIS forum?
> Why would you want an AIS forum if you have the hort.net
forum? I thought the Hort.net served the AIS community.
Linda Mann
east TN zone 7b
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