dave said:Lots of GREAT proposals here.
@zuzu I'm glad you're participating but I'd like to hear from a few other admins before moving forward. Some of these changes are pretty extensive and I want to make sure you're all okay with this before I proceed.
I don't have a very strong opinion on most of what's been discussed above, Dave. In general, though, I don't like the "kitchen sink" approach. In other words, fields should be added to the database because there is a perception of need, not just because they can be. FWIW
Specifically, the wildlife attractant/resistant stuff is problematic. What a wild animal eats or doesn't eat is actually a pretty complex question influenced by a large number of factors and it changes over time and space. Check boxes for deer and rabbit resistance are currently in the database, I assume, because many nurseries provide that information as a general guide. But, accuracy is going to become much more difficult to achieve if more detail is added to the database on this subject.
The specific medicinal use check boxes are also of concern. Most of the chemicals in plants that people have discovered medicinal uses for are, after all, toxic. As doctors like to say, the only difference between a poison and a medicine is the dose. It's one thing to say a plant has a medicinal use, but quite another to say specifically what that use might be. I'm not sure that's the sort of information someone should be seeking from the ATP database. It's better learned at the foot of someone who really knows what they are doing.
