Stuart, I agree with what you wrote above. I'm affected, too - the same name issue. I realize that someone else carry the same name as me, Blossom. Other blotanists told me this. I like the name and would like to hold on to it because at Blotanical, they know me as Blossom. At the same time, I'm very uncomfortable with the confusion Blossom is causing. It's good if new blogs are warned about the name duplication, so that they can change it before they get used to the name. I'm happy Blotanical is improving as I like it a lot here. Thanks, Stuart.

Stuart .. I'm not extremely cerebral first thing in the morning, so if I have gotten this point wrong please cut me a little slack .. I know I should wait until the coffee kicks in but I am on the go today. I am worried about being policed because during the hard core winter months I have very few posts that pertain to actual plants and gardening .. I do a lot of sky shots .. weather commentaries .. daily grind humour .. but this is truly a down season for us in the north. What will happen to me, and others like me, because we are so contained to a few months of ACTUAL gardening ?
Remember .. not operating on full brain capacity but having a little panic fit after reading this : )

@Joy - I get it! Maybe I should enlarge the definition to more than just plants and make it anything to do with NATURE. Sharing your pics of the garden covered in snow, or trees that house local birdlife is still part of the gardening picture. The sky, weather and natural elements all play a part in our gardens and the way the world works so I have no problems with these counting towards 30%. I also don't have a problem with cooking and recipes providing the key ingredients are natural products.

I would struggle to include knitting and handcrafts - yes, I know wool comes from sheep and sheep are natural animals - but, there is a fairly defined genre for crafty blogs. If posts were primarily of this nature then I would suggest it be better for the blog to be listed where others of similar persuasion are linked. But, the odd post on knitting, or handcrafts or the local church fete or anything that goes on in your life should not be discouraged. We're not JUST gardeners.

I hope this helps alleviate any panic that the coffee hasn't dealt with yet :-)

@Joy - I get it! Maybe I should enlarge the definition to more than just plants and make it anything to do with NATURE.

I had the same moment of panic that Joy did -- while I *could* find things to write about that would be plant-related every day, I, too, write about birds, weather, waterways, etc. during the months of non-gardening here in the "north" -- I agree that Nature-related posts would be a better definition and representation. Thanks.

Hi Stuart,
I think your ideas are a nice compromise between all the various ideas which were suggested. Well done as ever.
Sue

Thank you Stuart .. phew ! I am a lot calmer now .. remember it has been Friday the 13th for us in the hemisphere today ? LOL

Works for me. If I get off track please do let me know:)

Stuart,
Excellent!
I'm relieved that plants and 'nature' posts should be okay. Yay!
Thanks!
~Aerie-el

Phew! I am glad that Joy and Nancy said that as I don't have many flower posts in the winter months either. Nature is much more do-able. The rest of the revisions sound great.

I agree also with the points you have brought up. I like that Nature will be included. I know a lot of what I plant in my garden is so that birds, butterflies, etc will show up in my garden. Thanks!

Stuart--I like the direction you've gone in incorporating the comments. Not an easy job. The "Content must be original and owned by the blogger" requirement (oops, I'm quoting that...) could prove a little tricky. Many bloggers link to remote images and texts, and may include extensive quotations in their works. (I do on occasion.) If it's duly credited and undertaken with a sense of "fair use," which is legally protected for instances of criticism, it really shouldn't be a problem. And many commercial sites would be all too pleased to have peopled linking to their images, particularly when the blogger credits them and provides a live link. Asking permission, of course, is nice where it's practical. Also, if a blogger uses images under terms of the Creative Commons share alike licenses, then things shouldn't be an issue. Maybe the requirement is that the blogger will remix outside information or content in a meaningful way, and supply original content?

@James - great points you've made. The phrase you quoted is in reference to sites that reblog material holus-bolus (or even in part) but have no original content whatsoever.

For blogs that link to other sites, reference quotes, and share images as per their relevant licencing they will always be accepted - even encouraged to do so. This is the whole methodology Google works under, using links to give weight to sites that others cite.

Reblogs have their place in the world wide web - but they won't be accepted on Blotanical.

Great summary Stuart :)

Thanks for considering everyone's input so carefully. I do wonder about the "minimum points per month" thing, since again if someone's ill or gone on vacation they might not make this and be de-listed. Guess points from previous months coudln't carry over, huh? Hm. Well, I can see why you need to hash this stuff out, it's just too bad that a few abusers are causing you to have to do all this work!

Stuart, great job! I'm really glad that anything on nature counts. It appears that you have set some very reasonable guidelines that will take and keep Blotanical in direction you want it to go.

My blog is now a combination of my garden blog and my craft blog. So I'm not totally sure how you view that as meeting the requirements you will have in place. I've tried having 2 separate blogs but they always seem intertwined and I hated having a split personalit. It is because I can't garden all the time that I share my love of crafting. Yes, my blog is probably 30% gardening, but it is also 30% crafting which includes knitting and crochet, with a whole lot of other stuff thrown in. And depending on the season you get more of one than the other.

I totally understand where you are coming from as there are now so many blogs at Blotanical, covering all sorts of topics.

We all appreciate all that you do to keep Blotanical the amazing place to visit.

Stuart, you surely have put a lot of thought into this matter, and we appreciate that. I hope that Cinj's children, Alan's children, and Deb's monkeys, as well as, all the goats, donkies, chickens, sheep, ponies, even the camel all count as nature's wild things, because I love reading about them. :)

I do agree with everything that you came up with Stuart. It sounds very fair, and liberal.

My question is regarding those blogs that have been accepted into Blotanical but have nothing to do with the social interaction or commenting. Just reaping the benefits of being a member of Blotanical. Would natural selection just not take place, if there is no interaction do people just not ignore these sites? Are there many of them? I have to go and look.

Jen

Oh and BTW, I totally agree with Barbee.

I would miss my friends if they were excluded.

Jen

Stuart, great site you have created here, but I was gobsmacked when I started up here last November and realised I couldn't contribute to the forums from day one until I had racked up a certain number of points. I just decided early on not to bother trying. I have so very many other interests outside gardening, I just don't have time for accumulating points here. And forgive me if I misunderstand your latest update, but is it right that now our listing will lapse if we don't participate in the points thing? Sorry, but while I like Blotanical and have found some really great new blogs here, I just don't have time for these attempts to control how I spend my time. If I lose my listing, so be it. Great website, though.

Jamie, you've made two interesting points here:

1) the forums are restricted from a security standpoint. Most forums, including those of the gardening genre, are racked with spam and this takes up a huge amount of maintenance time trying to keep them free of this. Racking up a minimum points level means that members have something to lose and are possibly less likely to risk that. It also puts spammers off because it can't be done on day one.

2). Just about every activity on Blotanical gains points, or has the potential to do so, so it stands to reason that if you're not active on the site then you won't earn points while those that are, will. This site does not try to control anybody's time but if you want to receive the traffic that this site generates then it means that you have to put in something for it. There's no monetary cost associated with it, it's just our currency of community.

I'm thinking that the minimum monthly points accumulation may be in the order of 100 points every 30 days. This equates to a little over 3 points per day. To get that, all it takes is to login (1pt) and one Pick (3 points) averaged every day and you've done it. It's hardly a tough call! Especially when we'll be making provisions for those who are ill or on vacations.

And, not meeting the 100 points doesn't mean your site will be removed, it will just drop out of the spotlight so the traffic will most likely reduce until such time as the points average is increased.

Thanks for your comments, Stuart. But 100 points in 30 days - wow! Re the logins, most times I visit here I am already logged in. And somehow in my profile I have zero picks yet I have visited oodles of other great blogs via your Blotanical listings. So Picks isn't the only way people use Blotanical.
Early on in my experience here I found Picks to be buggy and inaccessible (I still get 404 errors in some parts of Picks) so I decided not to use it. There are so many other ways to find blogs here.

So, I'd like to politely dispute your point that "just about every activity on Blotanical gains points". I visit blogs via the new blogs listings, and that doesn't gain points. And I visit blogs via the "popular" listings and that doesn't gain points. And I continue to visit blogs I first found at Blotanical, and that doesn't gain points. And I leave comments at bloggers' own sites, and that doesn't gain points. Blotanical remains the source of all that activity – which is what makes it such a great site – and yet I accumulate zero points.

I am far too busy with a dozen other interests outside gardening, as well as work, which takes up an enormous amount of my time, much more than 40 hours a week. The idea of visiting Blotanical daily just isn't feasible for me, however much I like the place. I'd have to give up work!

I'd suggest something like 10 points a month might be closer to fair and reasonable, given that many bloggers are like me and lead complex, busy lives but also run a quiet little gardening blog for relaxation on weekends, mostly.

I'm a karma kinda person, Stuart, and figure the universe is pretty good at balancing out a lot of things. Your policy is extremely well thought out and generously inclusive. I think those who love to reap the benefits without any input are quickly figured out by the majority of bloggers and are summarily ignored except for those who pick every post as they work to boost their points up.
What I love is how some members here give so much time to posting comments, welcoming new members, picking posts and generally being encouraging. It's what makes the community as great as it is.
I'm glad that nature is considered vital to gardening. Certainly I think most of those who have their blogs here wander off on tangents from time to time--I did last night in honour of a late teacher. People can skip those posts with no problem at all. I'm not interested in kids, or monkeys, or the latest trends in interior design, so I simply skip those posts/blogs in favour of others that are to my taste. Likewise I'm sure my blatherings about winter in Nova Scotia and our garden challenges aren't of interest to many. That's the beauty of this site--there's truly something for everyone...

...except those who rip off entire blog posts holus bolus in their scraper sites. Karma will get them, too! :-)

@Jamie, what you're describing is a fair use of Blotanical. I'm happy with the 10 points per month idea instead of the 100 but for this to work, and still achieve what we're trying to do, we would have to deduct the Messages Rec'd points and the Visits by Others points because they don't show your activity.

It may even be time to rethink some other point gathering mechanisms such as visiting others blogs from Blotanical.

I will continue to consider...

Stuart, I think you've done a wonderful job of sorting this out in a way that is fair to everyone involved. I'm happy with the "nature" content instead of "plants", and the minimum points and 30% requirements seem more than generous.

One further suggestion--and maybe this is already a feature of Blotanical that I just haven't discovered yet--but could there be a way of labeling our blogs so that readers could easily sort us out according to our emphases? That is, if someone is mostly interested in farming, they could search for blogs that have that tag. Or if they want something on vegetable gardening versus ornamental, they could search for that. I know there's a search feature that helps you find specific posts dealing with particular topics, but it might be nice to be able to sort blogs according to their primary subjects. (And I'm sure some bloggers would like to be able to choose more than one label for themselves.) You've given us a lot of ways to sort the blogs already, I know--and I love them all. Just one more possibility...or please educate me if this is already here!

You did an awesome job Stuart. I have no problem with any of the new guidelines. I can see how you would arrive at them. 99% of my traffic comes from blotanical. I appreciate it very much.

Like everyone else, I'm thrilled that you've decided to include nature as well as gardening to qulaify as content. I hope that includes chickens!!! And Silence dogood wants me to add how much she appreciates your including recipes that use garden-fresh veggies, herbs, and fruits---there's not much point in growing them if you don't know some great ways to prepare them! Thanks again for making Blotanical such a wonderful place to be and to visit.

All great points as usual. I think 30% of posts being related to plants, weather, birds, nature etc is very fair, even for those that live in colder climates.

I also agree though with Jamie. With the utmost respect to you Stuart and your wonderful site, I also don't visit every day by any means, but I love it here and would like to stay. I think 10 points a month is a much fairer opton though I realize that I might not have as much say because I don't visit here as often as many do.

Thanks for everything as always!

Mo.

Hi Stuart,
Your updates sound great - though the 100 minimum points/month is a bit intimidating. I'd vote for a lower amount. I'd love to have a way to pick out the blogs that are primarily concerned with ornamentals, as veggies aren't as exciting to me. Trying to label everyone would be kind of messy, though. Thanks for all your work to make this great site! - VW