I think we should all be careful not to become 'acorn-hoarders' - they are so much fun to give away!!

I really tried to give useful information. I didn't post things that were not in my opinion helpful something like "this is my favorite color or my favorite daylily" If the comments I posted were not good enough then I am at a total loss as to what is wanted here. Most of the comments were on plants that had not had a prior comment. Out of 48 comments surely SOME of them were useful?

Here are two examples of comments I posted about tulips. The first is a longer comment and the second a shorter.

Darwin Hybrid Tulip (Tulipa 'Beauty of Apeldoorn') | Posted on September 29, 2011 ]
Many of these tulips are yellow with splashes of red but they are very variable. Some are mostly red with splashes of yellow. I was dissapointed in how quickly bloom was over with this variety but they were very pretty while the blooms lasted.

[ Darwin Hybrid Tulip (Tulipa 'Gudoshnik') | Posted on September 29, 2011 ]
If you like a mix of colors but want one variety so that they have the same bloom time you should try Gudoshnik.

What is the amount of words (length) necessarty to get the comments acorn?

I've been laughing about this ... Acorns becoming complicated? I don't even pay attention to what amount of an acorn we get for what entry, my brain just can never remember, and I'm too lazy to go back and look so I will enjoy whatever acorns fall on my head for whatever reason.

I enjoy sharing photo's and information about plants in the database and have been updating my comments to add, delete or re-word things but I sure don't expect any more acorn caps for it. This Acorn thing is supposed to be fun and I won't horde mine, I love sharing them and it will be fun to use them to purchase T-shirts and mugs too ... maybe at some point even barter for plants or seeds.

And Hetty just gave me an acorn! What a wonderful surprrrrriiiiiise! Thank you!

Rita-

Dave will have to answer the length question, but I did want to reach out to you.

I really do hope you understand that this isn't personal for you at all. We think you've done a great job, and really contributed some nice comments. Dave and I are also on a bit of a learning curve to figure out the best way to reward people without other people taking advantage of the system, and at the same time not work ourselves silly!

For example, it might be very tempting for someone to post "WOW" comments for 50 plants to earn those acorns. The comments aren't moderated by anyone, so without some sort of system in place, it just isn't fair for the random "wow, that's a nice plant" comment to earn the same as a good comment that actually applies to a specific plant. As super human that we are (said completely tongue in cheek of course!!), there's no way we can also moderate comments, so we must rely on programming the system to do some checking for us. Now the trick is just finding that good medium that is fair for everyone.

Thanks, I am thinking I get a half acorn per thumbs up and didn't grasp that it is a .05. Sorry to be so dense I am just trying to figgure it out but now I understand were all those fractions come from as my acorn totals change.

As far as the comments acorns I understand it to be 5 bonus acorns for each comment so they were on top of the regualar acorns received. I must be the only person on here who is so confused with the regular acorns one gets for comments. I already have my bonus acorns. It is the comments acorns that we get day after day that are mixing me up. Confused again.

I really love it here at ATP. The fact that we can earn the acorns really has me adding pictures, thumbs up and comments to earn more. I just hate to be confused

So far I am keeping all my acorns as I know you will have more things we can use them for in the future. Honestly the acorns are a fabulous idea. It got me to really start to contribute. Pictures, comments, whatever. I always did thumbs up. I always posted and post lots on my favorite forums but the acorns for adding pictures to the database are a real extra encentive to me.

I wouldn't want to see useless comments like WOW either. That is what the thumbs up is for. Trish, I know that it is not that the computer has it out for me But I seem to be the only really confused person here

I haven't thought about it enough to get confused I'm kind of like with Lin, just happy for whatever acorns fall on my patch of ground.... and they are great to share!!

Rita, your pictures are great, your comments are great, don't let fractions get you down. Just keep on doing what you are doing.

The thing is, I read something you wrote yesterday about a plant near your street where people could see it, and that some would stop and look and ask what it was. I could just see that happening. Your descriptions are just fine and your words give us pictures of your plants.

Thanks for all your comments, they make me feel like I'm right there!

Rita has some of the most fabulous collection of photos I have ever seen & she has LOTS of them & knows the names of each & every variety and boy & howdy does she ever know what this daylily does or does not do in her zone. I've seen she's been posting her photos prior to yesterday & was hoping she would do more commenting which she certainly did yesterday. Thanks Rita for ALL your contributions & they are valuable to all of us as well as newcomers to the site.

Rita, the way I understood it --- yesterday --- we would get a grand total of 5 acorns for each comment not 5 bonus acorns added to the regular acorn. It may have been in the wording of it where the confusion comes from. i can't find the post now to check it but the way I understood it we would only get a grand total of 5 acorns per for any comments we made yesterday with a limit of 100 acorns; thus 20 comments would max. out our limit for the day. Does that straighten it out any?

I didn't notice this generous offer until just now.

Question: Oftentimes, when I'm entering an image I'd like to start a comment thread right then and there, while the thoughts about that plant are fresh in my mind. Is there a way that we could do this, or does in need to be a separate entry? Or, if the new thread does need to be separate, could there be a box for the person who is entering the image to leave as detailed a comment as they'd like prior to someone else commenting on it?

Rita- you did get an acorn at the time you submitted some of the comments. The others weren't long enough to be recognized by the system as "good enough" to be awarded an acorn. That's why your total did go up, but not by the number that you submitted.

Same with images- if you submit 4 bloom images for one plant, you only get 1 acorn. Whereas if you submit a bloom, a root, and a whole plant photos, you receive all 3 acorns.

Trish, I do know that on the bloom photos I only get pieces of an acorn but I am adding photos as I have them. No big deal as to how many.

Thanks for the explination on the comments. I now know I need to say more to get acorn credits for comments. Just how many words do we need? Inquireing minds want to know I did make a comment a short time ago and I noticed it bumped up my acorns right away.

Another thing is that I did not think to add a "signature" type line with my location and zone until I saw it in the example posted in this thread. That is a great idea and would always convey useful addition information to what one said in their comment. For instance if I say it died over the winter it would be helpful to know were I was located and my zone.

Sharon and Lee Ann, thank you for your comment about my posts. I am glad that my information is useful and I really try to write it in a way that gets my information accross in the best way.

Ann, Lots of praise from you. Thank you! I do takes lots and lots of pictures of my garden and love to share them. No fun if no one sees them

I'm in Lin's camp : "Acorns becoming complicated? I don't even pay attention to what amount of an acorn we get for what entry, my brain just can never remember, and I'm too lazy to go back and look so I will enjoy whatever acorns fall on my head for whatever reason"

I think this has the potential to be a great database, but not until we make it that way. Dave and the moderators gave us a nice skeleton to build on and a nice easy format to do it with. And at the rate it's growing, it shouldn't take long to get there.

I can be pretty wordy too, when talking about my plants. Ask me about cooking, cleaning, or doing my job, and I don't have much to say at all.

I don't do facebook either, so I too appreciate database updates here on our own social network.

Karen

Well, I know it can get complicated but I was just trying to understand. I have gotten it figgured out in the comments sections and have received an acorn for each of the comments postings I made today. The reason I was watching it so closely was to get an idea of how much that needed to be said. Too short and no acorn, no matter how useful. The computer can only do so much.