I think the best thing to do is just as Sandy and others have said, click on 'Forums' on the left of your home page and scroll through all the forums that are listed. From there you can visit any of them and find answers to a lot of your questions.

I am sure it seems overwhelming right now, but it won't take you long to learn to depend on the sidebar on your left. And if you still have questions, don't be afraid to ask.

Sharon said: And if you still have questions, don't be afraid to ask.

Absolutely! I don't think we can repeat this enough... ask questions anywhere, when it occurs to you to ask; someone will know or find the answer for you!

Weedwhacker said:"How does one find it other than clicking a link like above?"

I agree that is a problem...

In the case of the "Welcome" forum, If you click on forums in the left-hand sidebar, to order things by forum type and name instead of most recent activity, and then scroll way down to near the end, you will find the welcome forum. .

And it is buried at the BOTTOM of the list of forums. I just found it. I likely was misled as to what it was earlier. It some how should be the first thing one sees after signing up. It should be at the TOP not bottom. And a FAQ would help.

I recall early on asking about a FAQ, but was not told one did not exist.

I am glad that I have finally (nearly 2 years later?) found the Welcome page.

Yes, many thanks for the link back to the welcome forum. I have set it as watched so that I won't miss anything new. I guess when you don't have any forums set as watched the list of forums on the homepage is sorted by most recent activity? That is what I was seeing before I saw you can watch whole forums. It probably would be a lot more obvious if there was at least a link to the welcome forum at the bottom of the main navigation bar that said FAQ & Help or something like that.

One thing that was throwing me a bit yesterday was the way the search box on the left nav bar changes based on what area of the site you are currently in. I regularly have many tabs open and am jumping back and forth a lot. I was trying to quickly look up a plant and kept getting results only from articles or the green pages not realizing that the search box had changed. Doh! I have done the same thing on Amazon more than I care to admit. Going too fast and thinking I am just searching the product reviews, when I'm actually in the wrong box and using the "ask a question" feature instead. Sorry this veered off-topic. It is supposed to be about the cool new swaps!

molanic said:
One thing I think this site could use is a FAQ section someplace really obvious and not just posts in forums. It would help new and existing users use the site to its full potential. "

I was checking this thread for information about the swaps and found the conversation has shifted to FAQ...but how will anyone find this exchange of information? The title of the thread is: New Seed Swaps Coming to ATP

Maybe this conversation about FAQ could be a new thread in Site Talk? It's all good information but may be missed by anyone other than potential swappers.