I don't know what was said, either. But here's what I have to say. Paul, I love all your fabulous pictures. You contribute so much to this site. I was wondering just the other day how you manage to take so many photos of different plants. I can see that some of them look like they are in garden centers which is a great idea, but I was beginning to think you lived in a botanical garden!
Since we're talking about the microbadge...I know we want everyone to participate, but I think giving the badge to people who give the most "thumbs up" is less of a way of earning it than what Paul is suggesting. I'll admit, when I saw the badge and knew I wanted it (you made it a Tiger Swallowtail!), I waited until the next celebration week and gave thumbs up to as many photos as I could. Granted, I did have a lot of fun "voting" for my faves and I saw so many varieties and learned a lot, but it is super easy to get the badge that way. You can just thumbs up every photo in the category and have a good shot at earning it. Oh, and maybe once you've earned the badge that way once, you become ineligible. I felt kind of bad because I won it during Peony week and then again during Clematis week. I actually tried not to thumbs up too much during Clematis week because I wanted someone else to be able to get the badge, but I guess I got carried away. So maybe if it's someone who already has the badge it goes to the next person on the list?
On the other hand, submitting the most photos for the category is a lot harder to do. However, that method has its own problems. Some of us (like me and most Floridians) can't really grow any of the bulbs well. Also, I notice a lot of users posting pictures, with permission, from other websites or crediting other user names. I don't know if they're getting these off Google Images or what. I try to only give thumbs up - and definitely acorns - to pictures that seem to be taken by the actual user. That's just how I feel about it. Other pictures, like from commercial growers' websites, can be informative if we don't have one in the database, but I prefer pictures from users who are growing the plant or sought out the plant at a nursery, botanical garden, neighbor's house, etc. I would just be afraid people might inundate the database with the same stuff we can see on Google Images and that would make the site less unique.
I didn't realize people who wrote articles got the microbadge, but that's a great idea. Even those of us who can't grow the plants due to our zone could always find an angle and do some research to come up with an article idea. I'm just trying to see how we can include as many users as possible even if they don't grow the plants (and most of them on the list are not in my garden and never will be).
I'm not saying I have the solution, but those may be some things to think about for next year. I remember how much talk there was simply over which plants should be chosen and which week they should get! And to add my two cents, I think we should be celebrating National Pollinator Week which is this week! We wouldn't have these fabulous plants without pollinators. Maybe an addition for next year?
