I am going to give my 2cets on this matter. And I understood OrcishOrchids excuse himself for the tone and directness, but what is said is said.

I think this kind of comment put the forum in a wrong position and question the ability of all of us to "integrate" properly new members. It does pushes away the freedom of new members to comments; whatever they want to say freely and without been judged.

I have seen many new members with plenty of experiences joining us just recently. People that I know from other platforms and are just not that into Forums. I think the forum "status" does not give any real good or bad reference is a low-key indicator of knowledge within a system that doesn't measure any real statistic in this regard.

The orchid world is growing like crazy, they are some really interesting growers out there that don't know this forum or are not able to participate due to a lack of time or have a language barrier. Example: I have a Spain Whatsapp group with very good growers and they all come and read (translate automatically with google) but they are not able to participate because they don't feel comfortable writing in English. So if any of them make a comment or suggest anything..will be a rookie, newbie in the orchid world?

Take and Give is what this is all about, and as Ray said, everyone here needs to have a common send and understand what they take and how.

But please, give huge respect to the dedicated senior active members (that by now I consider my friend and all) but also give a little respect for new members and everyone's opinion; let promote that all members are active instead of shot them down.

What lead you to conclude that what Ray described isn't the status quo. It is as far as I can tell.


The title "Sr. Member is anyone with 100 posts. I even qualify for that moniker, and I'm pretty darn new to this forum. :waving

-Keith

clarification attempt
 

ok, I seem to have incorrectly toned my original post. I am NOT advocating that anyone be censored, I love the forum and the way that everyone can share freely. I am super excited that the hobby is growing so fast, and I wish I had more experience to help other newbies like me. I consider myself to be an extremely new forum member, and my original concern was caused by my experience. when I first joined the forum, I assumed (yes I know a bad idea) that the titles were community approved in some way, and that is the impression that I was worried about. I am not pointing fingers or throwing shade at anyone, I am blaming the coding in the website for the titles, not a member or anything that anyone has said. some of the new members are indeed coming from other platforms where some verification methods are used (not always).
I just wanted to alert the very very new members that the website hands those out, not the community.
I will edit my OP to hopefully better reflect this, thank you for letting me know that I miscommunicated my point.

:rofl: thanks WatcherWitchin, I needed that. I originally made Moderator the exception because you actually do wield some authority. I went ahead re-wrote the OP, I wasn't trying to be inflammatory, but I guess I need to read my posts out loud before I hit submit.

(I did save a copy of the original one if you need to see it)

Well, modifying your original post is your prerogative. Unfortunately for those who posted after, it kinda now makes other look like they're coming down hard on you. It's kind of like Sade said... "what is said is said."

Kinda makes me want to eat some Iguana Spam though.

Just be reasonable, and do things my way.

We love you WW! Don’t change a thing!:waving

---------- Post added at 11:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 AM ----------

Sarcasm. That's what we need, more sarcasm!:rofl:

Good job on your rewrite!
I like your title: "Member titles are Not equivalent to experience".
A lot of truth in those words.

Does the number of flowers under your username, your join date, your avatar, the organizations you belong to, or the number of a member's posts, really matter and/or have anything to do with experience? Kind of like having a trio of initials (PhD) following your name. Doesn't mean they have more, or less experience than the trio of AAS initials (Associate of Applied Science) following someone elses name.

Sometimes I do pay attention to "the flower thing"... only when I see a purple flower. I know these members truly care about OB because they took the time and effort with helping to support this forum (no purple flowers under my name now, but there use to be). But hey, that's just "my" debatable opinion.

When there is no "set in stone" right or wrong regarding orchids, there's always 'better'. A lot of replies/opinions on this Board are just that, a better approach. Many of those better approaches come from experience. It's up to a member to 'read into it" and "digest it' for themselves, then make their own calls/decisions. I'm happy to have a place like OB, especially to expend some downtime (escape, entertainment, information along with the sharing of experiences, good or bad - even with the occasional contention and drama) for a common interest of all ~ orchids & other interesting topics.

Hear hear! Excellent response! I agree 100%. :twocents: