We are not children

[noviceveggrower]

Hi,
I'm sorry but after what I have read over the past day or so I feel I have to say this.
This forum has been set up to offer advice, support and help with those with gardening questions and it doesn't matter wether its an allotment or a garden at home. It doesn't matter if its a wildlife question, herb question or a cooking question you can ask it.
What has upset me is that people are leaving this forum because they feel that they can not take the personal comments anymore.
I don't know what was said wether a few days ago or in the past but it needs to stop people!
People who have joined this site, and I am one of them, because we are a friendly bunch who offer good support and advice.
NOT we bitch and are rude to people. You might not realise what you are saying is a rude but please read back what you type. You might be saying it with a cheeky smile but if you don't use an icon it could be read the wrong way. Just think please.
We have a reputation of been one of the best gardening sites and we will loose it and its experienced growers. We will be like allotments if we don't encourage new people then we will die out and be a thing of the past. That would be a bad thing in my opinion.
I was in two minds to put this in but hey here we go as the saying goes "if you can't say anything nice then don't say it"
We are not F.book or Twit we are not a b##ch fest telling people they are wrong or things along that line.
WE are the Grapevine and WE are better than that.
Thanks people

[Sanjo]

Hi,
I'm sorry but after what I have read over the past day or so I feel I have to say this.
This forum has been set up to offer advice, support and help with those with gardening questions and it doesn't matter wether its an allotment or a garden at home. It doesn't matter if its a wildlife question, herb question or a cooking question you can ask it.
What has upset me is that people are leaving this forum because they feel that they can not take the personal comments anymore.
I don't know what was said wether a few days ago or in the past but it needs to stop people!
People who have joined this site, and I am one of them, because we are a friendly bunch who offer good support and advice.
NOT we bitch and are rude to people. You might not realise what you are saying is a rude but please read back what you type. You might be saying it with a cheeky smile but if you don't use an icon it could be read the wrong way. Just think please.
We have a reputation of been one of the best gardening sites and we will loose it and its experienced growers. We will be like allotments if we don't encourage new people then we will die out and be a thing of the past. That would be a bad thing in my opinion.
I was in two minds to put this in but hey here we go as the saying goes "if you can't say anything nice then don't say it"
We are not F.book or Twit we are not a b##ch fest telling people they are wrong or things along that line.
WE are the Grapevine and WE are better than that.
Thanks people

Agreed. Wot Novicegrower said. BUT since I joined this site, primarily for the helpful advice it gives, there have been a number of these incidents. They appear, they blow over. But for a period of time they leave an unsettling feeling for the rest and my, how it all escalates.
I'm trying to stick to just the gardening bit and don't often visit chat because of that.
Happy gardening all

[Mr Gardener]

I can't say I've spotten anything of note but then I frequent other forums where it's seemingly in the rules to be bitchy so maybe it's just not appearing on my radar. I decided to join and post because it felt like a friendly and helpful forum so lets hope it stays that way.

[Mr Gardener]

...and now I've spotten the other thread...

[Florence Fennel]

Step away from the threads you don't like and stick to the growing. It's really unusual for spats to occur on here and I'm sure they'll soon blow over. Keep smiling and stick with it!

[veggiechicken]

I'm confident that the helpful gardening advice will always be here on the Grapevine. Its in our nature, as gardeners, to help each other and share our knowledge and experiences.
Some Grapes ignore the general chitchat threads as they are not relevant to gardening. On the other hand, there are some Grapes who never seem to venture away from the Chat threads!!
My advice, for what its worth, don't waste good gardening time reading irrelevant posts

[Alison]

I'm confident that the helpful gardening advice will always be here on the Grapevine. Its in our nature, as gardeners, to help each other and share our knowledge and experiences.
Some Grapes ignore the general chitchat threads as they are not relevant to gardening. On the other hand, there are some Grapes who never seem to venture away from the Chat threads!!
My advice, for what its worth, don't waste good gardening time reading irrelevant posts

Good advice but not always possible as posts do veer wildly off topic at times, starting out as a simple query about growing a particular plant and becoming a discussion that only half a dozen people have the faintest idea what it's about. It's always been a bit like this and sometimes people get rude and rather personal with it too (or appear to do in text format ). Don't know if the chat thread sometimes veers into useful gardening advice as never really visit but would assume it's more one way.

Interestingly enough, all the years ago when I first joined I found one of the mods particularly objectionable and inappropriate but they moved on and things evolved, some things for the better and some for the worse. Can't get too stressed about it all, there is enough bad stuff in real life to get too worked about a virtual world.


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[arpoet]

I too seemed to have missed what has happened and have no intention of trawling though to find out. Life is too short as it is.
However, I do know that with gardening we all have our own ideas and methods, and what works for me in my garden may not work for others in different areas. Ask 10 gardeners a question and you will probably get 10 different answers. One only has to listen to GQT to hear the "experts" shooting each other down.

[Mr Gardener]

Ask 10 gardeners a question and you will probably get 10 different answers.

Very true, there are certain people in 'real life' who I have learned to ignore as generally I think their views are a load of rubbish and they come across as gardening Nazis!

[Snadger]

Very true, there are certain people in 'real life' who I have learned to ignore as generally I think their views are a load of rubbish and they come across as gardening Nazis!

There we go, Godwins Law rearing its head again.

[Kirk]

No idea what has gone on, hope I am not part of it, but at times when a thread goes off it would be good if someone stepped in and either pointed it back or locked it.

With regards gardening specific questions usually if the OP has not posted withing the last full page then it is off playing with the fairies and not on the original question or point. As we are asked to remain on topic I think that a bit more monitoring could be useful.

Not here, but I have seen forums where some of the mods are/were responsible for dragging threads off topic.

Usually the line "I know this is off topic but....." is a slight give away.
The other is "Sorry to hijack the OP's post/thread ....."
Why not start a thread asking specifically about the different thing?

[Ja9]

Also some replies can come across as sarcastic when I presume that they are meant to be helpful. This put me off the vine for sometime .

[ancee]

Yes, the sarcastic ones make me wince. So do the 'oh, you're only a beginner, I'm an expert' ones !! Be excellent to each other everyone. AND, if you won't say it to their face - don't say it one here, actually don't say it to their face either - BE NICE!!!

[BertieFox]

Can't say I've found any examples of this on here (apart from people sticking firmly to their own opinions on how to garden... but that's true of most gardeners!) It does amuse me how almost all forums DO suffer from this kind of thing, and the worst one I am a member of is a computer programming forum. I've lost count of the number of people on that who have ended up abusing each other and leaving in a huff! Perhaps computer geeks are a special breed, but most gardeners are lovely people so it's worrying to hear it also happens here now and again.

[Bigmallly]

For what it's worth, all the aggro should be left on Faceache & let the vine do what it does best.