Re: Re: COMP: hort.net
iris@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: Re: COMP: hort.net
  • From: S* D* <4*@rewrite.hort.net>
  • Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 16:32:51 -0500
Are we able to list the sections with forums off the top of our heads? And the ones with member only ones. 
HIPS - members only
SIGNA
who else?
I asked elsewhere but hope I didn't come off snotty. Can we give 'critical mass' a quantity of some sort? Or an approach to how it might be estimated? I hear it is necessary for success. Is it an important variable in helping if this might go on to a feasibility study? 

How do we define CM? Maybe we did already and I overlook.
Volume of visits by anyone - active participants and lurkers combined? Or just participants. 
Volume of posts?
Volume of searches on archives?
other?
We have AIS member sections (and perhaps outlying other groups) with existing forums. Some that have operated for years in a stable condition to the satisfaction of the sections. They exist in the market along side Facebook and other commercial sites. Logically it seems these forums have already proved themselves to have critical masses (cm) by some measure, no? So a concept forum aggregating these various masses cms is a critical mass of a larger size, no? (Providing we continue to meet the needs of those people who used the original forums but now have to use the concept forum.)
But the question is worth asking, on what time-frame does one measure success of a forum? Or a mail list. This rather large spike in posts to iris-talk occurred after a prolonged drought of what time? The OP to this spike was: 
OT-CHAT: [iris] Active?
Yes, iris-talk is active. Does it have critical mass?

Shaub Dunkley, Candler, NC
On 1/10/2016 3:50 PM, Robert Pries wrote:

I stand corrected. I guess I just remember rejoining at the same time. It is a very good forum and I wish I had time to keep up with it. Maybe if we had something similar in AIS people would join just because they felt like they should, like I did. But then again would such a forum compete with Forums from the sections if they were to have members only forums?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Linda Mann" <101l@rewrite.hort.net>
To: iris@hort.net
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2016 7:05:02 AM
Subject: Re: [iris] Re: COMP: hort.net

Plus, like hort.net archives, you can use the site, read, search without
joining.
Linda Mann
On 1/9/2016 6:15 PM, Tom Waters wrote:

Bob, you are incorrect about the SRGC forum. You do have to join the
*forum* (for free, it's really just picking a username and password), but
you do not have to be a member of SRGC. It's not even asked about when you
register with the forum.

     Tom Waters
Telperion Oasis ~ www.telp.com/irises
Cuyamungue, New Mexico, USA (zone 6)



----------------------------------------
   From: "Robert Pries" <101p@rewrite.hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2016 10:01 AM
To: iris@hort.net
Subject: Re: [iris] Re: COMP: hort.net

Tom: Thanks for the history and I agree with the challenges of setting up a
group. I have been a member of SRGC off and on for over 50 years, longer
then AIS but not as consistently. The last time I wanted to post on the
forum I had to renew my membership first. So I think their forum is only
visible to non-members but you must join to post. It has been over a year
since I posted there and have forgotten. I agree it is harder and harder to
keep up with many forums/facebooks. Years ago pre Facebook I used to be a
member of about 25 specialty plant societies. I finally let most of them
expire because I did not have the time to read all the journals. The same
seems to happen just with Iris.



Each Iris group to function well today really needs a forum but that is way
too many. Perhaps what is needed is one Large Iris forum that was
accessible to a member of any AIS member, or any Section member through a
portal on each of those websites. Because it would be the bulletin board
type people could check out their particular interest but still comment
when they wished in other sections that are being more active. Perhaps it
could follow the Scottish Rock Garden Club model of being visible to
everyone but bring in new members because of a wish to participate like the
SRGC does.



----------------------------------------

     From: "Tom Waters" <7a9370dc1@rewrite.hort.net>
To: iris@hort.net, iris@hort.net
Sent: Saturday, January 9, 2016 11:11:14 AM
Subject: re: [iris] Re: COMP: hort.net
    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

         Tom Waters
Telperion Oasis ~ www.telp.com/irises
Cuyamungue, New Mexico, USA (zone 6)



----------------------------------------
     From: "Linda Mann" <101l@rewrite.hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2016 5:36 AM
To: iris@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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-- Bob Pries
Zone 7a
Roxboro, NC
(336)597-8805




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