Member titles are NOT equivalent to experience.
 

Ok, full disclosure before I start, I’ve only been growing since early 2019. cool? Ok, let's get to the point. (NOTE: I have re-written this to make it more understandable, let me know how I've done.)

The special titles and flowers under a member’s name are NOT some kind of seal of authority or community endorsement. These special titles and flowers are given on the basis of post count alone (Moderators being the exception). Why am I pointing this out? Because I'm worried that the titles are misleading. Other forms of social media have different formats for these things, and I just wanted to point out that the code for this is old and doesn't include a feedback system for the community to validate them.

So consider this a notice only for my fellow newbs, just in case they didn't know. Before you make culture choices based on someone else’s advice, do your best to do your own research. use all the information available to you, including someone's join date, to help you decide how credible someone’s advice is before you act on it.

No matter how much or little knowledge we have, we all have something to add because everyone's conditions and plants are unique. Welcome to the forum and have fun!

I don't agree.
Not even sure where this is coming from. There has been a great atmosphere in the forum lately but some people like to criticize for no reason.
If you have some criticism then go and say it instead of making this vague post about you having an issue with something yet not saying what it is, saying "Let’s keep this forum a welcoming and friendly place" yet making this post pointing out some of your fellow orchid growers are idiots.
I have been "helping" people quite a bit since I joined so is this referring to me? I mean I only have only little flower under my name so I certainly am not one of these people to have "the good reputation that their titles appear to convey" as I only have one flower?

But so if it's not about me, then who else Estacion? Southpark?
Ray? Roberta? Can't be Roberta cause she is a mod, the only sacred title according to you but getting a mod title doesn't make said person automatically a trustworthy source either.

I have a problem with this post as I don't like to see any of these members criticized. All of us might not know everything, we might like to believe we do but the important thing is we collectively know a lot? Who else knows more about orchids then?

WE all make mistakes at times but we should all remember to "keep this forum a welcoming and friendly place where we can share our plants and our knowledge" surely.

I think if someone has something to say and it is important then nobody should feel that superior to deny them their freedom of speech.

If someone talks rubbish then everyone will ignore them. Why make this post saying some people ie moderators can say whatever they want yet other members can't?

There are some members I disagree with on a regular basis - we don't all grow the same way but it would be a bit boring if we did and nobody was willing to try to see if it couldn't be done differently.

So what exactly is the issue. I want to understand it properly instead of saying some members are trolls.

Based on what? That they haven't been posting for years or that they have been posting for years? It's all a bit vague and just comes across as criticizing us all on the forum.

I myself feel like I should take a bit of a break from the forum. Just like taking a break from social media is good once in a while so I think I'll be doing that for a bit.

I prefer when there is a good atmosphere and it feels like trouble is brewing in the forum.

All these accusations of people giving out advice to purposefully make other people's plants die. I mean yeah I did read about some weirdo the other day trying to inject food in the supermarket with poison but I have been accused of trying to kill someone else's plants when all I was doing was helping. If I had been giving out terrible advice ok but nobody could even accuse me of that, I was just accused of being a new member and helping out.
So there is far too much attitude in some people imo where every new member is seen as a potential troll instead of a fellow grower to learn something from.

I dunno, I'll be taking a break and I'll let the mods deal with this unhappyness.

I think the better approach would be to encourage the individual to take everything they read with a grain of salt, and to understand that each individual's particular combination of growing parameters plays a far bigger role in their success than does "the plant".

I find that to be a constant battle, for example, in the world of semi-hydroponics, where you often see "will {this plant} do well in S/H?", so I repeatedly advise folks that one person's success or failure has absolutely no bearing on theirs.

Thanks Ray, you said that better than I did. my intent was just to alert new members about the forum mechanic, because I feel like the titles could be misleading, from there they could use their own best judgment. alas, I'm not very talented with text communication.

There is a good bit of truth here.


I am a “senior” member but I am very much a child and an amateur plant grower at best.

---------- Post added at 08:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:47 PM ----------

Also, at least 400 of my posts are just spam. The meat product

I bet you could make iguana Spam.

This fella is close to the right color (spam)!

Mouthwatering.

OP, what is really bothering you?
-Keith

OrchishOrchids, if something has happened in another thread that triggered this thread, please don't hesitate to send a private message to one of the moderators. We do our best to monitor all posts, but it's difficult to have eyes everywhere at all times.

Post counts only indicate how active someone is on the forum, nothing else. If the forum owner had wanted to include a 'quality' metric, he would have used reputation mechanics sometimes implemented in other forums.

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:

OP, consider, perhaps, letting us know what it is you saw/heard/read that motivated starting the topic. :)

-Keith

These days, a lot of people with PhDs are educated beyond their level of intelligence and wisdom, but we don't have anyone like that here, that I know of.

-Keith

Totally agree... and entitled to their STUPID responses.

I try to let everyone know when I am going to say something dumb.

I like it better when you surprise me. :biggrin:

@OrcishOrchids Your rewriting is top, and I think it will be very helpful to new members.
I am not sorry you bring the subject up, it is a good point.

BTW, what's the purple flower mean? :roll:

If stupid opinions and responses weren't allowed, French people wouldn't have much to say.
Oh, wait.

One thing I learned about orchid forums and taking advice is to learn the conditions under which the one giving advice grows their orchids. I did very well with orchids for many years and then I discovered orchid forums and began to read...eventually joining...eventually posting. In the early years, so many of the professionals had greenhouses or grew in warmer climates and I didn't realize this and began to think, even though my orchids were doing fine, that I could do even better. I followed their advice and directions for growing. None of them were from the same climate and growing in a window. Opps. Not the best strategy. I try to be clear about being from Ohio, now, so that people who are in different climates can look for someone else to give them advice. Ohio has its own set of special challenges.

Just to be clear...I am not a pro. The advice I give is based on my mistakes and what I learned from them...based on living here in Ohio. I don't want others to make the same mistakes I have made.

:rofl:

---------- Post added at 05:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ----------

Ok, since no one has directly addressed the question, what DO the flowers under username signify? WW? Camille?

If you’ll notice, ww and I both have disclaimers in our signature lines to make that clear

If you have donated money and become a forum supporter.

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:)

The number of flowers is linked to post count, and I had to go check the numbers in the admin panel:

1 = 100 posts
2 = 500 posts
3 = 1000 posts
4 = 2500 posts
5= 5000 posts

Default flower color is gold. Super moderators/admins are extra special and get silver flowers. I apparently made a mistake in the control panel when I made WW and Roberta moderators, because they get ALL the flowers!!! I guess that means that they are Super duper moderators with magical powers? :biggrin: And they're going to hate me now, because I just removed their gold stars!! :rofl:

Forum supporters (donate money to the forum) get an extra animated purple flower

I'm special - as I currently have 9 silver flowers, plus four yellow flowers - as can be seen.

That would be the purple flower.

---------- Post added at 06:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:52 AM ----------

:hmmI have gone through this entire thread again. Not for the content on the subject, but to see how many of the major users are supporting the forum. I counted three. That's it!
Just sayin'. :hmm:

jajaja Dusty the Collector! Fully auditing Accounts

---------- Post added at 02:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:14 PM ----------

DC, I've been inspired by your comment to change my signature, and I went all the waaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In addition to the number of flowers, here is a separate explanation of the titles under members' names. I remember coming across the explanation for those, as well as the flowers, back when I first joined, so I never found myself wondering about it.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...faq_user_title

Wow, I've never noticed a flower arrangement like that! They're usually all in one long straight line, regardless of the number or color. :biggrin:

I've been growing orchids for almost 50 years, but I still learn stuff. There's a lot of difference between "experience" and "expertise". I feel like I have a lot more of the former than the latter...

LM - your logic is exactly why I try to look at the "why" behind the "what", as that gives us more opportunity to think about and experiment with the potentially multitude of ways to do the "how".

I thought the lavender flower means "Flowering Size."