Whenever I have a sticky problem, I back out and ask myself the question:
What is the question?
Generally, this to me means, "what brought this idea or thing or enterprise into existence?"
In this case, ATP has two things going on:
1) A community of gardeners and people who enjoy reading about / seeing gardening things.
2) A real, live, actual DATAbase about plants
So...one of the neat things about plants is their relationship to their ecosystem. For example, one of the neat things (read DATA) about the milkweed is that it's necessary for Monarchs. One of the not-so-neat things about roses is that aphids love them. BUT...that's part of your life if you're a rose, so...it's DATA about roses (the notion that aphids live on 'em, I mean).
So, in my opinion, if you want to have a robust database about PLANTS (this is AllThingsPlants, right?) their associated buggycritterythingies are DATApoints. And, after an infinite number of pictures posted with the buggycritterypollenator-ey things are posted with/for each plant, you have a fantastic dataset - that's broader and more informative than the one we have now.
With the caveat that I don't care about the thumbnails (apart from saying that sometimes buggies or birdies or whatever are appropriate if they don't detract), here's what I suggest:
Come up with a (better titled) field in the database for associated critters (including pollinators, pests, symbiotic friends, consumers, etc.) and add that to the database. If, in time, it turns out that you'd like to have finer resolution, those categories could be split out fairly easily later.
I'm not a fan of having a separate bug database. That's not our core business here. Others do it better and have pretty mature sites on that front. But I am a fan of critters with particular plants. And I think that having one more field in the database would meet those needs without taking the focus (hah!) away from the given plant...nor the core business (read purpose - numbers one and two above) of the site.
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@catmint (sorry, tagged crittergarden at first - dang c-names confused my addled brain) please knock it off with the doubts!! your posts are informative and fantastic and you're danged bright and insightful. And even if you're wrong on occasion (not saying you were in that case - this is a conceptual comment), you're allowed to be. I kinda like being wrong because it gives me a chance to change my mind and get it right next time. I like your posts and ideas. Keep 'em coming
