Could be, but I'd think tips or ideas, including articles, could relate more closely to the topic of the page where they appear.
The Garden Tour takes us to Florida where the plant (plumeria) grows well? How's that for connections, Connie?
It's after midnight here, I shouldn't be even trying to think at this hour.
A very good idea , but perhaps some tweaking is needed?
The Plumeria parent plant entry lists "related" threads that include the Purslane and Brugmansia forums - but neither of the particular threads mentions plumeria at all.
For me, a link to something that's unrelated to my main quest is worse than a broken link. Scanning through a thread vainly searching for "related" information that isn't there can be very off-putting.
I started experimenting with this yesterday afternoon.
It's doing two things:
1) Finding the most relevant "Gardening Ideas" item that would match this plant. Ideally, the plant is mentioned in the article.
2) Find threads that mention this plant.
Now as for item #2, it works fairly solidly for most plants and I tweaked it a bit this morning.
If it is a plant type that has a specific forum (Daylilies, Roses, Tomatoes, etc) then it will only search for the cultivar name inside that forum. Otherwise, it will search for the entire name (genus, species and cultivar) in all the forums. But if there is no cultivar or species then it will not search at all.
I'm just playing around with this, but like Connie said, this is to hopefully encourage people to look around more on the site. We get a lot of visitors into the database and many of them don't know that there is more to the site than what they are seeing. I want to help them find the helpful threads and ideas.
It is an excellent concept and there is a new garden tour coming up that will fit perfectly on the page I referenced.
Maybe it will be the test once it appears.
Name: Evan Pioneer Valley south, MA, USA (Zone 6a)
Sharon said:It is an excellent concept and there is a new garden tour coming up that will fit perfectly on the page I referenced.
Maybe it will be the test once it appears.
I agree. I don't know if you can write an algorithm(?) to find the most relevant thread or whatever, but allowing members to propose a relevant link might work. Tried to do this in a comment a while ago but that's not supported.
I just tested; I searched for Chicory and there was the Chicory article. Same thing with Dandelions. So it's working well. I haven't found any forums/threads yet, but could be because I haven't searched enough.
Genius at work, Dave, amazing concepts and implementations.
I LIKE this feature for the database! Great idea! I have a question, tho. Just randomly, I looked up Schlumbergera and noticed that the article doesn't show up for all the Schlumbergera entries, only some. Does the system only key to post the article if the entire name is mentioned?
Confidence is that feeling you have right before you do something really stupid.
I just noticed this yesterday when working in the Sempervivum entries for the database. All I can say is 'WOW'. Love this new feature Dave.
It boggles my mind to see how this site is growing in features like this.
Name: josephine Arlington, Texas (Zone 8a) Hi Everybody!! Let us talk native.
When I went to the plant Frostweed in the database I found my garden tour article right on the page, of course my name and the name of the plant are mentioned there in the article.
I thought it was a great idea to match them that way an I loved it, but I forgot to mention it and say thank you Dave!
So consider yourself thanked for all the good things you do!!
Wildflowers are the Smiles of Nature.
Gardening with Texas Native Plants and Wildflowers.