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Time for a change?


Andreas Wistuba

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Hello fellow ant plant enthusiasts,

 
this forum is now online for almost 2 years and I feel it's time for a resume. 
 
While this place holds one of the biggest if not the biggest collection of ant plant photographs available on the internet, I consider the membership base fairly small and the number of really active members is a bit of a disappointment for me. I had expected a much more active community after this time.
 
Honestly, I do not know how to change the community in a way that more members are attracted and more input is coming from a broader base.  
 
Therefore, since quite a while I feel it's probaby time to hand the forum into new hands.
 
Don't worry it's not my intention at all to let the forum die. I have put far too much effort into this. 
 
My only intention is to put this into better hands than mine before it's too late. Actually, I'd be too happy if this place would succeed but I feel that new ideas are needed to make this happen.
My time gets more and more limited and apart from my travels (once per year for +/- 4 weeks) I am working very hard. So I think it would be much better if I could post some images or information here than wasting the little time I have in deleting spambots and struggling with configuration...
BTW, I feel I am not a good administrator not having any PHP or HTML programming skills. I appreciate Derricks input concerning the look and feel of this forum but I am simply not able to do any changes that requires programming. 
 
Concerning Derricks book I had a few very nasty accusations concerning mix of money when selling it through my shop. While I know that I donated 100% of revenue and much more to the forum it is hard to prove this to people. My tax adviser also is not really happy about the way the book sale is handled. To make this legally correct I have to pay income tax and VAT on the money I later donate which I find quite bizarre.
 
However, I feel this could be solved easily since only few copies were sold so far. No automatic web shop is needed to handle such a low volume. Any volunteer could easily handle that manually.
 
Does anybody of you feel tempted to handle the forum for the next 1 or 2 years or at least act as a really active co-admin? Would anybody be interested in handling the book sale?
How do you feel about the forum progress and directions for future development?
 
Just to summarize: It's not my intention at all to close this place but after almost 2 years I feel it's probably time to hand it to somebody more capable to run it in a proper way.
 
 
All the best
 
Andreas
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I will not make an offer because I am too old to ensure much continuity and anyway I am surely better able to support this forum in other ways.  Anyone that chooses to take over the administration does not have to be ant-plant experienced, there are already members here with that experience.  I will watch future events with much interest.  However, if there is insufficient support to keep this site working I will withdraw from forums. 

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Bonjour

 

I am passionate about these kinds since 2005, but unfortunately in the world, the community that interests them have not very evolved in number, hence the little participation in this forum, I naturally deplore that.
This one is a good way to know them,  also learn more and especially to be able to, on all documents that we have,put a photo taken in situ 'on each species (as far as possible and according to our knowledges)
Another problem ,the little number amateur who conducts exchanges (Seeds- plants etc) due to lack of new species in cultures,and also  customs barriers , increasingly strict.

 I wish long life nevertheless to this forum :wub:

 

jeff

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As a newbie to the forum, I would hate to see it disappear.  It is indeed a fantastic resource and an honor to interact with those who are far more experienced with ant plants than myself.  It is also nice to discover other collectors.  However, my reasons for liking this forum are purely selfish.  I have little to contribute personally, since my collection is small and my field work is in another field (Bahamian ethnobiology).  Nor do I think I have the skills or time to manage a forum.

 

I belong to another rather active forum (Dendroboard); so I see the potential of what this could become.  I would love to see that happen, but I understand that managing this site isn't free and it is rather time-consuming.  I hope you find the right volunteer to help.

 

Logan

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First things first, Andreas: 

 

I (and I hope by I, I mean we) want to express our appreciation to you for the leadership you have shown in establishing and leading this forum.   You and we should be proud of what we have accomplished here in less than two years.  We have had a fairly steady increase in membership to 300 members.  And it seems to me we have been attracting young enthusiastic members, especially in the last few months. 

 

We have world class photos out the kazoo on our site and new species and information shows up here on a regular basis.  Just today, for example, we have the news, only on our website, that Hydnophytum kajewskii is heterostylous/dioecious.   No one ever knew that, and that is going back to the original description of the species in 1939.   And it was a posting on this forum that has gotten H. kajewskii, guppyanum, and longistylum into cultivation on at least 3 continents in just the last year.

People are comparing us with the carnivorous plant and dendro boards, but how many years have they been around?  What did they look like at 21 months old?

These plants are just too interesting and bizarre for this “craze” to fade out.  So we will get to see where this is going as we move forward.  If you, Andreas, want to rotate out of your position I trust someone will give it a go.  I do not have the health to do it, but I would hope to stay on the job with the new administrator as a moderator and I will continue my annual financial commitment to the forum’s expenses as well. 

 

Regards,
Frank

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Hello all,

as I wrote before, I will not let this forum die, even though I'd feel much better to hand it over to a person being more skilled in IT, being able to change the look and feel if there are requests and who has the time and dedication to really turn this into a success story.

However, as a compromise, how about 1 or 2 co-admins or co-moderators? Frank? Aurelien?  ;)

One thing, however I simply cannot continue is the sale of Derricks book through my web shop.

I had hostilities concerning that from people who were alerted by this money-mix and tax wise it simply is a strange constellation. The only way to do this legally correct was to fully pay income tax and VAT on these sales and I do not wish to continue effectively burning money that way. 

I guess Aurelien is willing to continue shipping the DVD out but with immediate effect somebody else has to sell the book, collect the money and relay it to Invision, the company responsible for hosting this forum. Saying that, I will remove the book from my web shop later today. I hope, this is ok with Derrick and Aurelien?

Of cause I can link to the new sale option from my web-page, so that there is an easy transition.

All the best

Andreas

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While this place holds one of the biggest if not the biggest collection of ant plant photographs available on the internet, I consider the membership base fairly small and the number of really active members is a bit of a disappointment for me. I had expected a much more active community after this time. Honestly, I do not know how to change the community in a way that more members are attracted and more input is coming from a broader base. Therefore, since quite a while I feel it's probaby time to hand the forum into new hands.

A few points can be made here.

 

Although our membership is small, our outreach is enormously wider, because of course, most of our posts are available to search engines.  Indeed, anyone that searches on line for myrmecophyte informations will soon see how this forum often dominates our chosen subject. (incidentally, this is an advantage we have over Facebook.)

 

However, perhaps being so freely available on the www may reduce the need for interested persons to join us.  Do we need to reduce our subjects available to the entire online world?  A period of trial and error might answer this question. 

 

Others herein may find such openness to the entire world a little daunting but perhaps not, most members are hidden behind acronyms.

 

That few persons post regularly is not a bad thing, it is tending to keep inputs accurate and informative but having written this, I do wonder how you will cope when I depart to ant-plant heaven.  Do we want to go the Facebook way, which too often involves the blind leading the blind and lazy, thoughtless, uniformed posts.

 

However, having written this, it would be nice for us to attract more well-informed individuals but to do this we surely need to KEEP our standards high and TO KEEP MARKETING THIS GROUP wherever possible. 

 

I am not one to fill forums up with space filling thank you type replies (the format of this forum is certainly counter productive in this regard) As recipients will know, I try to make my appreciation known in more constructive ways, often behind the scenes. 

 

Indeed, why is it so important to have a large membership. Those that need a marketing source to the masses can use Facebook, which is also a platform for promoting this group but membership support for such has been dismal to say the least.  Why, when YOU see posts from obviously myrmecophyte informed Facebook members do YOU not invite them here?  Without a doubt. we need more mutualists with initiative.

 

It seems probable that free forums will remain far more popular than ones such as this that need financial support, except perhaps to those persons truly interested

 

Finally, enjoy the scrolling.

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Bonjour

 

why not a free  forum ? :rolleyes:

 

jeff

 

The forum never was free.

Only space loaded with advertisement is available for "free" on the internet. I hate these so called "free" popup and spam-bombs and would never consider moving to such a place.

There are people who pay for our forum. 1st it was me alone, then donations from Frank came in and then we got the opportunity to sell Derricks book. We sold a few DVDs that gave us some months. However without donations, it's not possible to run the forum. 

Currently our Invision, the company hosting this place asks US$ 30 from us per month.

All the best

Andreas

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Andreas,

 

First of all thanks for bringing up this forum; since I am a newbie to the field of ant-plants, I didn't contribute but instead learned about these fascinating plants by reading the posts of others. Hence, I view this forum as a very important source, one that exists nowhere else (or at least none that I'm aware of).

 

I fully understand your concern regarding both time and cost associated with running this forum; regarding the cost, I only ran a quick search, but aren't there much cheaper alternatives for hosting? I noticed proboards (where the PitcherPlants forum is hosted) has an ad-free option for $7.

 

Shimi

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bonjour

 

I do not agree, a forum of this type must be visible to all ,members and non members. This is the only way to broaden the knowledge of these genus , also to have, why not ,others contributors and  stir up curiosity

 

there are free forums why not use it ?

 

jeff

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I do not agree, a forum of this type must be visible to all ,members and non members. This is the only way to broaden the knowledge of these genrus and also to have, why not ,others contributors . there are free forums why not use it ?

   Yes, why do you not join Facebook, its FREE and it currently has world first photos of Anthorrhiza.  After returning from some remote New Guinea islands, I was fascinated to learn how many villagers had Facebook accounts.  

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I think it won't be a bad idea (as I said before) to have a forum with general information open to allI to promote the plants and a closed Members only content.

However I don't think money should be the key. In these time not everybody can contribute as much as they want, charities loose sponsors every day because people just have to cut their spending or at least choose where the money goes.

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  • 6 months later...

Hallo all,

I'm having a terribly busy season and simply have no time left to run this forum.

After I had asked for somebody to take over responsibility and nobody was interested, I decided to step back and just see what's happening.

My impression - not much... :(

Saying that, I consider the whole attempt failed. If somebody is still interested to run this forum, I'm more than happy to transfer the domain.

However, I'll not make more money transfers to Invision. So sooner or later, this place will be gone.

It seems sad reality, that the interest for this fascinating group of plants is far too small to have enough dedicated participants to runn such a place successfully.

I will still grow these plants and might open a few galleries with my pictures on my website after this forum is gone.

All the best

Andreas 

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Andreas, I am not very good on the computer and can just manage to upload a few posts with photos, but I do not want to see the end of this great forum! If no one else is prepared to step up to the task I will give it a try if you can send me as much information as you can on how to keep it running. I can only do my best and hope that  is good enough.

 

Regards,

Robert

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Andreas:

 

I am very sorry to read this, but fully expected for some time for you to pull the plug on this very admirable effort given NO participation by the membership over the past months. I guess people prefer the instant gratification of generating "likes" on FB, but from a practical standpoint there is zero archival value over there and participation involves surrounding any pretense of safeguarding personal privacy for ever after.

 

I believe that you are correct in stating that there are still too few hydnophytine growers to drive steady traffic to an online  forum. One might have thought that the broader field of epiphytic myrmecophytes of all the families would have brought in more folks, but apparently not. I have to admit that - as cynical as I am about much of the internet plant community -  I was surprised about how few regular participants this site attracted.

 

Thanks again for having spent the time and money to have created this site. Once again we see proof that, "It's pioneers who take all the arrows".

 

Best wishes for all of your other ventures!

 

Jay

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