Linda,

I would use a "slapping MYSELF upside the head" emoticon, or perhaps a speech balloon labelled "DOHHH!"

I hope you weren't looking for a "slap someone ELSE upside the head" emoticon!

(ducking and hiding)

*looks for a "throwing acorns at Rick* emoticon but fails to find one.

Kyla, we once had a cyber acorn fight. It was grand fun!

@Valleylynn won that fight and was awarded a special badge as Acorn Fight Champion. You can see it among her badges on her profile page:

http://garden.org/users/profil...

I need a "slappin'" emoji!

zuzu said:@Valleylynn won that fight and was awarded a special badge as Acorn Fight Champion. You can see it among her badges on her profile page:

http://garden.org/users/profil...

And I think all of us had sore arms afterward. S'truth.

If you want to increase comments maybe someone with a lot of acorns could do a contest like the first one I did where the person who enters the most comments over the course of a month would win.

acorn fight, and Yes, Rick I did mean "slapping myself upside the head".

Thx for the acorns, Linda.

i thought i read a post with request to enter 'grower's reports' into database, not just pictures. am guilty of playing with pics, since i joined recently and happen to have lots of them! but i can't locate the post. is 'grower's report' the same as adding comments?

Here is the thread:

The thread "Announcing Plant Lists Events" in Site Talk forum

May I assume that the administrators determine if a 'one line' comment contains sufficient useful information to warrant an acorn? It would seem the key is 'useful' rather than number of words.

Too short never gets acrorns, I know from adding comments. It pays to be wordy when posting comments. I mean we all could add something like - I love this plant- to anything just to earn acorns if that was so. Nothing wrong with saying you love a certain plant but then tell us why it does well in your garden, what features are outstanding and so on.

But shouldn't a one sentence statement such as : "Although this cultivar was sold as xxx for years, it is actually yyy and, hence, is appropriate for both sun and shade, is salt tolerant, and drought tolerant unlike xxx" be more valuable than: "I love this plant. It grows everywhere in the neighborhood. I love it so much, I have given everyone I know cuttings. They love it, too. You cannot go wrong planting it in your garden." Under the acorn rule, does statement #2 get the acorn while statement #1 does not?

Writing a program to automatically determine what is useful or not is impossible, so all I can do is go on length. But short but useful comments can (and do) garner acorn tips from me and others.

OldGardener said:But shouldn't a one sentence statement such as : "Although this cultivar was sold as xxx for years, it is actually yyy and, hence, is appropriate for both sun and shade, is salt tolerant, and drought tolerant unlike xxx" be more valuable than: "I love this plant. It grows everywhere in the neighborhood. I love it so much, I have given everyone I know cuttings. They love it, too. You cannot go wrong planting it in your garden." Under the acorn rule, does statement #2 get the acorn while statement #1 does not?

If the first sentence was broken into three sentences wouldn't it get an acorn?

dave said:Writing a program to automatically determine what is useful or not is impossible, so all I can do is go on length. But short but useful comments can (and do) garner acorn tips from me and others.

I understand. Fortunately, I have not seen any of these long, run-on comments, either. Funny, but I have added a lot of comments and never even considered the acorn issue (I had no idea that acorns were rewarded). I personally add comments just to fill-in data that I would appreciate seeing when researching a particular plant.

Contributing the database might best be viewed as its own reward, with the acorns being a fun bonus. It's hard for me to imagine basing contributions to this site on how many acorns one might, or might not, get in return.

The database is a labor of love, for sure. For that matter, so is ATP in general!

That being said, the concept of acorns was created out of a desire for Dave and I to be able to reward contributors in some small way.
There are far far too many individuals who contribute a plethoria of information- it is literally impossible for us to individually thank each one. But we do appreciate each contribution, and this is our (albeit small) way of saying "Thanks".

In the same way as it being impossible for us to thank indivudually, it is equally impossible to personally award the acorns, or even a certain category of acorns. Thus, automation is a necessity. It isn't always perfect, but it is always available!

Well said, Trish! (Particularly the part about ATP in general being a labor of love. )

So true, and we do appreciate all your labors of love. My original (unnecessary) request that started this thread was meant to inspire more members to add comments to plant entries on the database, not to collect untold acorn riches.

I still think the idea of requesting more comments has merit, as a lot of our plant entries have names and pictures but not much more useful growing information. As @OldGardener said above, I add comments because it gives useful information on growing a certain plant that I would like to find when I look up a plant. If you're only trying to ID a plant, name and picture is enough but many people look plants up for more info than that.

How to do that? NJBob had a good idea for a contest, but that sounds like it might be a lot of work for Dave/Trish to keep score. Maybe just ask all the Moderators to remind their regular contributors that comments are beneficial to others growing their plants. (and that acorns are awarded for useful comments! Which I obviously didn't know until a couple of days ago.) In the database, a picture is not worth as much as a dozen (or so) words about culture.