I'm hoping to be done by the weekend too

Is there a list of people who have signed up? and when can we see their lists? Even though I am not an active participant in the swap itself it is exciting to be in on the action watching this take shape. I'll be doing a "virtual swap" as the real swap gets going.

My seed list has been created just for practice. Still no way to edit the name of the plants where I made errors so I deleted then re-added everything. It should all be correct now.

One thing I experience in other swaps. Seeds offered should be ready/packed/available when the swap opens. In one swap someone posted on the last day of the swap: "Where do you guys buy those tiny plastic bags?" Since there will be many swaps here on ATP it would be good if those who sign up are prepared to swap. Things that can hold up a swap:
- Waiting for order of commercial seeds to arrive by UPS or USPS; seed order is not complete/back ordered/out of stock when it arrives.
- Don't have their seed packs and labels already made.
- Waiting for seeds to mature on the plant will need time to dry/clean/pack/label those; improperly dried seeds can become a disaster.

Since not everyone has good handwriting maybe Dave could suggest some free label making programs? In one swap I received help from ATP member @rattlebox and was very grateful for his assistance. My labels were plain - no photos, but were very legible.

Lalambchop1 said:All my seeds are from daylilies. Do I need to list each cross separately?

You could do whichever you want. If you want to offer specific crosses to specific members, then yes, offer them separately and then each trader can pick out which crosses they get from you.

Or, you could offer one entry called "Daylily Crosses" or something, and put however many packets you have in the quantity. The recipient would then get whichever one at random you send.

The first idea is better, of course. It lets traders see exactly what you have, and lets them choose which ones look the best to them.

duane456 said:Will my list be on file somewhere once I get my seeds entered? I'd like to use it again in case I do another seed swap and just have to edit it for the next time.

Yes, absolutely. Your swap list persists from swap to swap and you won't have to re-enter it. You'll just need to check the quantities of each one and make sure they remain accurate.

Danita said:I think that a lot of people (myself included) like to snoop around to see what is being offered in a swap before joining. People have varied interests so it helps to know ahead of time if there are people with like interests involved.

This is a good point, and for sure, we'll open it soon so you can see:

1) Who all is participating

and

2) What they are offering so far.

During this time period that may last 2 or 3 weeks, you can see the lists as they take shape and maybe (maybe!) you will be able to start indicating interest in the various offerings.

I did a lot of work architecting the next phase of this project and I'm excited to move forward with that part very soon (surely this week.)

I've been trying to resist, but my willpower seems to be failing me... and I think there is still some room, so count me in, please, Dave!

I can have my list complete by the end of this weekend; do we have any sort of time frame for the requesting process, and then the sending out process? (and, I do already have my little baggies -- LOL)

Watching with great interest... I'm not much for seed starting or saving, but may indeed change my ways.

poisondartfrog said: ...
I have added a few more but for a relatively small swap with a maximum of 20 participants a giant have list might be counterproductive . I'm making myself stop after I add a few I put out on the desk to list when I get home.

Alana, at first I agreed 100% with that. Then I started to worry about the "not enough oinks" problem.

Say I ask for 15-30 pkts from various people, but they only ask for 5-10 pkts form me.

I might mail as few as 5-10 pkts back and forth for $10-12. Awww! (I guess that would be OK for this test-swap, but my seed obsession motivates me to try fo5r more. I HAVE learned not to offer anything that isn't already in my hands and divided into labelled pkts.)

If I list dozens of seed types, my chances of giving away enough seeds to get back lots is increased.

I wonder if there could be any way to set "priorities" on requested seeds, so that if we request 100 but only 10 are requested from us, we have a better chance of getting the ones we most wished for. (In a future version! Please ignore this for now!)

Yes Rick, that's totally in my plans. When you request a seed, you will give it a scale of 1 to 5 of how badly you want it. The ones you absolutely have to have will be the first you get matched with.

That's a great feature, Dave!

If there is still room I would like to participate. I only have two things in my list so far. I will see what else I have to add to the list.

dave said:Yes Rick, that's totally in my plans. When you request a seed, you will give it a scale of 1 to 5 of how badly you want it. The ones you absolutely have to have will be the first you get matched with.

Notice how fast THAT got 5 thumbs-up!

Just in case no one has said so in the last few minutes, I'm getting even more excited as I use the list-add-feature. It is very easy, and I usually begrudge every single mouse click.

I'm still chortling over the fact that the swap feature makes me want to add more plants to the database, and having plants in the database makes me want to add them to my swap list.

I guess next I'll start feeling urges to add more photos ...

Infinite loop, or merely addictive?

May I join this swap?

I noticed some of my other piggy friends are guinea pigs. ... or is it beta fish.

When you are done doing swap software, care to take on a spell check with plant names in Latin? Perhaps the option is already out thee and I haven't found it yet. My spell checker doesn't know much about plants at all.!

GardenQuilts said:

I noticed some of my other piggy friends are guinea pigs. ... or is it beta fish.

LOL, Andi!

This thread is closed. To continue the conversation, please go here:

The thread "Seed Swap Beta, Thread #4" in The ATP Beta "First Swap" Swap