The Orchid Source - Orchid Forum

Hands down, the worst orchid forum ever.

1. rv-orchidworks is obnoxious and excessive with their advertising. They display at least 3 google ads on every page... which is pretty close to the maximum quantity google will allow per page.

2. rv-orchidworks does not allow hyperlinking to or even mentioning any site that is for profit... which means you can't mention a vendor that sold you a bum orchid... a vendor who is having a going out of business sale...or mention a bookseller that offers great out of print orchid books... or mention useful orchid resources such as Mr. Baker's website.

3. rv-orchidworks does not allow for any constructive criticism regarding site policies and is quick to lock threads.

4. rv-orchidworks does not permit mentioning or reference to any other gardening sites or orchid forums.

To be clear, I'm slightly biased as I've already had one thread locked there and now all my threads are reviewed by the owner before they are posted. Also, when I criticize the forum I'm criticizing their setup and not the members... several of whom seem to be decent sorts.

For those reasons I consider rv-orchidworks to be the worst orchid forum ever.

*snicker*

There's a reason I only belong to this forum.

Ditto Jon

I know Bruce the owner of that forum. He is really nice guy. I am not sure why he has all those rules, possibly because he wants to keep it a fair playing field.

Is he a bliss ninny Ron?

They had a problem a few years back with a young person we know (ahem) making false accusations against another member and things went down hill shortly afterwards, I believe.

I tried to register the other day to post about our orchid show in New Hampshire but I see that's not allowed either, at least not by me.

I think they are both nice guys, but you cant have it both ways imo. If you want to have a forum it needs to be open. If you want to have people that are loyal to your forum then you need to allow them to talk about whatever (within reason). If that means other vendors, then so be it. Let them talk. If you think that having people talk about other vendors is going to hurt your business, then honestly, that is really sad. They should work on their competitive advantage. It is not their forum. And if it is, they better work on getting a diferent one, cause that one is not going to make them profitable orchid sellers. Again, nice guys, but their forum needs help.

I was a member there but unregistred because I got treated in the exact same way as you Carlos.
In my world that is dictatorship and can't be accepted.

I fully agree

No argument from me either. I used to go there not long after it was created. I quit visiting not for any of the reasons posted, though they're all great reasons...but because it was booooooring. I did meet one of the owners at a show and he seemed nice enough, but his tables were full of floofy hybrid crap that I'd sooner run over with my car than grow or buy.

He mentioned something about google.I think Google is sponsoring the forum but he gets google ads and no one can say a vendor names. (I might have something wrong there but it is close)

I don't have a problem with those rules, even though they are tighter than most. The topics seem to stay lively and focussed, and I like that there are different forums online that have different styles. It's good to hop around.

I've seen so-called "public" forums that don't have rules turn into terrible spam-pits. The spam-pits all look alike, no matter what the unifying purpose of the forum was originally supposed to be. And when they go from spamming to flaming, there can be some real risks for the proprietors, too.

It's not easy to keep a fourm active and focussed. You guys seem to be doing a very good job here, with a rowdier style that is fun, and my hat's off to you as well as to Bruce et al.

weird...now Louis has decided to moderate my posts as well, although I've been a long-time contributor...it seems that he's turned into a replicant of Spike from the old gardenweb forums.

I can't even send a message to any admins there asking why my posts are being moderated.

---Prem

They are very strict, I am all for not spamming a forum with irrelevant junk links, but if a member has a relevant website or knows of articles then this can only be good to share.
Suffice to say I got blocked by them!

Same here... Actually once a member replied to a message in a very aggressive not nice tone, telling me that people like me would turn that forum into [Not allowed].

Too many rules and too little information. Most posts are just people praising each other and telling each other how "stunning" their blooms are, how a yellow a yellow flower is.

Not really much advice about culture or exprience with the orchids in question.

But it is strange when I google a certain species that forum always ends up on top of every other forum in the search results and it is the forum with the least cultural information about the species I was looking up.

stefano