Home Gardening Tips

 A garden in real life is a little different from the garden on internet. On internet, it is kind of a virtual existence though the participants are real. In a sense, it is an altogether different experience. Garden on internet can be visualized in many forms. There may be websites, community forums, and bulletin boards.

K.Paul Mallasch explains this in his wonderful words,” Cultivating an online community is similar to growing a garden in real life. You have to prepare the ground (choose the software), plant the seeds (start discussions) and even get rid of the weeds (trolls).

Establishing an online community could be in several forms. You must have seen blogs and wikis. Forums and bulletin boards do contribute in same way. Sites and blogs also establish two way communication processes helping an online conversation grow.”Each plays a strong role in its community when needed to make sure the community is allowed to flourish”, says Chris Willis in Hypergene.

“Message boards mostly resemble a glorified e-mail thread where every voice has equal weighting and flame posts can take on life of their own”, says Chris Willis.

Online community sites are undergoing an evolution phase where you have an easy access to many tools like Slashdot. There are other sites and tools that also allow their community members to vote and to hide comments of their own.

Online forums have a tremendous potential to grow further. In case of a gardening forum an “out-of-the-box forum system” is an urgent requirement. We need specific software development programs that must target features like moderation of individual posts. It is like increasing plants and getting the weeds out.

Future gardening forums development programs would also be required to address an extremely important legal aspect that deals with moderation of posts. Section (230) of the ‘Communication Decency Act’ has a provision that defines the legal binding as “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.” Similarly, anonymity is another issue that needs more attention while it pertains to the privacy policy of a website, blog, or a community forum.

A gardener must know that for specific plants specific soil type is very important. It is the most important factor that can help you your garden grows. This equation is true in the case of establishing an online gardening community as well. In its own terms, a community website owner should know its contributors well. Gardeners and other interested people will normally contribute on such an online community forum for various reasons. Some of the most common reasons could be to gain status, build reputation, establishing their own connections and networks, understanding, information, entertainment, and to create something new. The reason is obviously an individual specific .But if you are establishing an online garden community then you must be careful of those who are trying to create something.  So, do not water the weeds! As Chris Willis put it, “Know who should not be in your community.”