Our "ideas" section has grown and grown, and that's a nice thing. However, it can be hard to find a specific item. I think it would be helpful to have something of a sub-directory, maybe dividing into more general categories:
podcasts
articles
quick tips, etc

Things are being added to that section quickly now, which is good. But that unfortunately buries other topics quickly.

Karen

I've been thinking about that too, Karen!

Dave did split out the podcasts, and you can find the link to them over on the right hand side, so that's a start.

Categorizing all of them at this point makes me want to cry <----laugh or cry, right?!?!? There are a LOT of ideas!


Meanwhile, while in the Ideas area, the search box only searches Ideas. For example, if you search roses, only the rose ideas will show up.

Yes, there's that, but searching for something assumes that the user already knows that the item exists, if that makes sense.

e.g. On a recent thread, someone mentioned a podcast. A member (who obviously spends less time on the site than I do ) asked "what's a podcast?" He might inadvertently stumble upon them eventually, but something as simple as categories, bullet listings, would maybe make that more likely?

The current system just seems to bury things quickly.

Karen

I just looked for a way to "Thumbs Up" an idea someone else posted. B ut I didn't see the green thumb.

Is that a fluke, intended, or an oversight?

it's here...

I should have said a " Random Idea" from the Random Idea window on the right side of the main page.

B ut I went looking, an d "normal Ideas" on tghe "Idea" page do already have their thumbs on that page.
http://garden.org/ideas/

And maybe I just missed a thumb in the "Random" idea, because now I see one tucked away in the right-hand panel for other ideas.

I withdraw the question!

Does anyone know a way to "get back" to a random idea?

I noticed an interesting one AS I clicked on a thread. By the time I got back to the home page, that Random Idea had already been replaced by a different RI.

Something like a history of recent RIs, or a "Random Back" button?

The system keeps no record of what it shows you and there's no queue. It just loads up a random one each time you load the page.

That's a motivator for me to keep my eyes open and never defer curiosity!

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on:

I use my back arrow, and the same RI is still there.

I'm going to try that! I just had another corner-of-the-eye glance at something about "other tools ... "
but I had already clicked on a thread.

It does add an element of video-game excitement!

And you can click on 'Ideas' and scroll away, probably get distracted by all the other ideas, forgetting which one you were hunting for in the first place!

valleylynn said:I use my back arrow, and the same RI is still there.

Same here.

>> And you can click on 'Ideas' and scroll away, probably get distracted by all the other ideas, forgetting which one you were hunting for in the first place!

Oh no! Sue, what have you DONE to me? Now I'll NEVER go offline!

(wink)

Where's the emoticon for "I've been awake for three days continuously, paging through Ideas and the Plant database ..."?

Maybe:

Or: