Wow, that's a great idea Mary.

That's a good idea. I'll have to look closer at this in the days ahead.

dave said:That's a good idea. I'll have to look closer at this in the days ahead.

When you do, here's another thought... when looking at my OWN plant list, let me just click a button and have the system find members who want plants on my list (mind you, I don't have my plants listed as available for trade, which means no one would think to come to me and say "can I have what you've got?")

I don't know how hard an auto-match like that would be, but from a user standpoint, it would be fantastically easy and keep me/us from having to scroll through the list of wants that someone else has. And when you consider some folks have hundreds of plants on their lists, auto-matching would be a wonderful thing.

Again, you might already have something like that in place and I just don't know it because I'm not using the "trade" feature of the list at this point. What brings it to mind is that yesterday I was collecting seed pods from my texas star hibiscus, and while I have no problem spreading this beauty around my own yard, it would be nice to share if there was an easy way to do that, without having to look up each plant in the database and then click on the "x members have this plant" link (which wouldn't tell me who *wants* it anyway, just who has it)

Hey, Mary, when you click on a plant entry in a list, it tells you at the top of the page how many members have or want the plant. You can find the members' names by clicking there. Not all want to trade, of course. But it's a start.

SongofJoy said:Hey, Mary, when you click on a plant entry in a list, it tells you at the top of the page how many members have or want the plant. You can find the members' names by clicking there. Not all want to trade, of course. But it's a start.

I know that, sweetie - the point I was making in my most recent post is that you have to individually go to each plant in the database to find that info. If you have 100+ plants on your plant list, is that REALLY how how you want to figure out whether someone on ATP would appreciate you sharing your bounty with them?

Happily, by the time I"m in a position to be able to share plants, Dave will have given us some automated tools to make it easier.

lol. Heavens no ... I wasn't talking about going anywhere in the database, just through my own list and clicking the plants/seed I might want to trade and seeing if anyone else wants them. Seems fairly easy for now.

Again... if someone has a plant list with over 100+ plants on it, that's an awful lot of clicking/browsing

Gosh, I'm so dense. Again, I must not be getting your point. I have a list with around 700 plants and haven't found it all that difficult to look for what I really want.

I'm not, of course, saying yours isn't a good idea. Just relating my own experience.

I'm sure time will take care of it all.

SongofJoy said:Gosh, I'm so dense. Again, I must not be getting your point. I have a list with around 700 plants and haven't found it all that difficult to look for what I really want.

I'm LAZY.

I want to open up my plant list, OR someone else's plant list, click a button, and have a list of matches where I have something, and someone else wants something, without having to click on any individual plant. Or where I want something, and someone else has it, again without having to click into any plant on my list. Additionally, the option to sort my list by any of the columns, or filter by a column would be nice.

Here's an example... I just opened up my tiny plant list (tiny!). On the first page, I found one plant I marked as "want" instead of "have."

Now... I have to:

1) click the plant name to open that page in the database
2) click the link that says 2 members have this plant in order to see that both have it listed as "owned" but NOT listed as available.

I'll grant you that 2 mouse clicks aren't a lot, but multiply that by 20 plants on a want list, and it adds up quickly.

I'm not usually actively seeking something, but if I opened up my plant list for some reason, and ATP popped up and said 'hey - you have wants that others have available" that would be nice. OR even though I have nothing listed as willing to trade/sell, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm not willing to share my plants. So it would be nice, if I had the option to click a button and find out that 5 people on ATP wish they had a plant that I have. I might decide to share it - who knows?

I want stuff automated, intuitive, and brainless whenever possible. that's just me (and again, I'm lazy)

Now that would be one fancy feature for sure! I'd vote for that!

SongofJoy said:Now that would be one fancy feature for sure! I'd vote for that!

So I finally explained it in a way that made sense?

While we're still a relatively small site, it's not a big deal...but as we grow, there will be greater numbers of members who have plants to trade, etc, and it will be really handy then

fiwit said:
So I finally explained it in a way that made sense?

:

I'm low-tech. My brother got all the computer smarts. He's big into something called Linux. I haven't got a clue.

SongofJoy said:

I'm low-tech. My brother got all the computer smarts. He's big into something called Linux. I haven't got a clue.

Linux is for geeks. Non-geeks need Macs (says the windows-user). Macs were made to be easy to use and easy to understand. Or so I'm told by my Mac-loving friends.

Gotcha.

SongofJoy said:Gotcha.

I'm a geek, and I've actually used (and taught) the operating system that LInux was modeled after/created from (it's called UNIX), but I'm not geek enough to have a Linux system of my own.

And here's the best explanation anyone's ever created (in my opinion) describing the different operating systems. It's a little old, but still valid.

If an Operating System Ran an Airline

UNIX Airways
Everyone brings one piece of the plane along when they come to the airport. They all go out on the runway and put the plane together piece by piece, arguing non-stop about WHAT kind of plane they are supposed to be building.

Air DOS
Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again. Then they push again, jump on again, and so on ...

Mac Airlines
All the stewards, captains, baggage handlers, and ticket agents look and act exactly the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are gently but firmly told that you don't need to know, don't want to know, and everything will be done for you without your ever having to know, so just shut up.

Windows Air
The terminal is pretty and colorful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off.

After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever.

Windows NT Air
Just like Windows Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes.

Linux Air
Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself.

When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"