Unforgiven

[MrHappyRotter]

Originally Posted by fishmom

I started coming to the Orchidboard regularly early in 2016 when my previous orchid home, Orchidgeeks, seemed moribund.

Orchidgeeks used to be a pretty happening forum until they started having similar technical issues a few/couple years ago. The forum ultimately died back considerably, and while I can't say 100% sure it was due to outages and performance, the timing was very coincidental.

I gave up on Orchidgeeks when the site was completely down for a week straight. There was no advanced warning. There were no social media posts or other methods of communicating the progress or expected outage time. For me, that was unforgivable. A simple tweet along the lines of "We're going to be down until at least Monday." would have been infinitely better than absolutely nothing.

Unfortunately, I'm inclined to agree with others about this site. I'm still here for the time being, but I've cut my contribution way back due to the level of frustration of participating here and the seeming lack of communication from anybody that might be able to explain or fix the issues.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by FairyInTheFlowers

This right there is pretty much the only major benefit forums offer nowadays. Because of their intrinsic function, they become great libraries of information.

Besides added privacy and a more personable environment, that's where they begin to fall short. Facebook Groups is easy because pretty much everyone (especially younger people) has Facebook. Also, on the risk of beating a dead horse, Facebook lets you directly upload pictures to the website from your phone. Since many young growers have phones with cameras that are beginning to rival actual cameras, that extra step of uploading somewhere else then uploading to a forum is gone. Additionally, I really can't see people who upload phone pictures to Facebook actively caring about who has what rights to their picture.

At this point, the only real benefit I see to uploading photos to a forum is that they become easier for everyone to find via Google Images. It's much more difficult to search for specific things on Facebook or Instagram, which I mainly use nowadays.

Long story short, the Internet and how the coming generations use it is rapidly changing, and there are some formats that are going to be killed whether we like it or not.

I agree. Forums work as great repositories, but FB has a much more active orchid group membership, more pics, more advice, high profile growers and is easier to navigate. I'd say I post on OB (my only orchid forum) a fraction of what I used because I do most of that on FB now.

[charlesf6]

The song remains the same.

[PaphMadMan]

It is clear the technical issues are solvable. It would truly be a shame for OB to wither away and die prematurely. All credit to Marty for creating and nurturing OB, but many others have also given their time and money to support it and rightfully feel some ownership. If Marty doesn't have the time, interest or resources to maintain it, and won't pass it on to others or even communicate about it, it is teetering on the edge. It won't make it to 2018.

[dbarron]

How truly odd that it continues to be paid for (it's still here), but no one can manage communication with the (suppossed) payer.

[fishmom]

Yes, that's bizarre, isn't it? I'm guessing there was an auto-pay set up some time and it just keeps going on.

Interestingly, OrchidGeeks has functioned quite well lately, though with minimal traffic. I agree with whoever said that site was thoughtless about their members, but I still check in there periodically, and I'm glad to see that there seems to be a bit of posting action recently. I keep it in mind as a backup if needed.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by charlesf6

The song remains the same.

Yep. I guess I didn't address your OP. I whole heartedly agree that the wait times and page crashes are getting very frustrating. I'll likely stop posting here after 10 years of doing so if things don't change.

[jkofferdahl]

I hope others don't give up! I almost did but the knowledge-base and friendliness of the membership here are wonderful. To me, despite the annoyances the positives outweigh the negatives.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by jkofferdahl

I hope others don't give up! I almost did but the knowledge-base and friendliness of the membership here are wonderful. To me, despite the annoyances the positives outweigh the negatives.

I agree and haven't left yet! However, it did take an unfortunate amount of time for the page to load so I could read your comment.

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by isurus79

I agree and haven't left yet! However, it did take an unfortunate amount of time for the page to load so I could read your comment.

Steve, I feel your pain. Because I regularly experience it.

The issues here, well documented, are frustrating as hell. Often, after I type a post I copy it in case the pageload times out and I don't want to lose what I wrote; that should never be the case. And most of the time I keep at least one extra window active so that I can look at, say, the news while I wait for OB to load. More often than not, though, if there is a lag in response time, that lag still takes less time than it takes me to fix up a cup of coffee.

I suppose at my age I've learned to patiently wait too long.