People sometimes do post photos especially for NOID items like Iris. Also sometimes people email them when working out a trade.
Remy

But why not post them from the beginning for MOST things? I really find the absence of photos here to be pretty strange. People are not making use of the capabilities of this forum.

Hi Mark4321,

Perhaps this question is better posed on the "conversations" sub-forum. But then few would read it.
Perhaps...and GW might move it as they 'sometimes' do, but there are a few of us who check the Conversation side fairly frequently.

So are you wondering why folks don't have actual pics in their trade posts, or actual pics on their Member Trade Lists, or maybe both?
Fancy member trade pages with lots of pics have been discussed before and the lots of folks prefer there not be pics on the trade lists because of it slowing down the load time for the page. I can remember being on dial-up and know I just skipped over any members pages that took a long time to load.

Occasionally, as Remy said, folks will post pics if it is something like NO ID irises. On my trade page I posted links to pics of my NO ID irises so as to not slow the page load too much, and also so that anyone interested in them could see what they actually looked like...see my trade page for example.

In a recent trade post I made, I included clickable thumbnail pics to better entice folks into maybe wanting to trade. Some folks think all daffodils are yellow...lol

My trade thread...Wanted-to trade, blah, blah, blah

One more thought, a lot of folks just are not comfortable with posting pics, be it either full sized ones, or clickable thumbnails, or making a clickable link to a pic. I try to encourage them to stop by The Test Forum but few folks ever post there. There are 'regulars' on the forum that will assist anyone having trouble with the code or account settings at Photobucket if need be.

Sue...who has maybe had too much coffee already

Full size from p-bucket
{{gwi:48586}}

Clickable thumbnail
{{gwi:48588}}

and hopefully a clickable link. to the same pic

please lmk if the clickable link works.

Sue

Sue looking at your pics I now know who I got my purple iris from last year. LOL I thought it was you and was going to ask but now I don't have to.

Interesting question. My responding question is: If you don't know what that plant looks like, why not simply google it? I ask this specifically because "who should do the labor of information dispersal/obtaining" and "when it is the learner's/recipient's responsibility to do an aspect of the work, and what aspect of the work" is a part of my job.

Here's my take on it. Prepare yourself, it may get heady :)

The easy answer is that other forums are plant specific, and are more about conversations generally. Here is is somewhat "more business" and less conversation.

The more subtle answer is:

I am interested in eventually getting thumbnail images onto my trade list page. More for my own enjoyment than for other traders really.

It doesn't take that long for someone to google, and then they will be more apt to remember the information because they had to actually do something to obtain it. It takes a bunch of work to learn how to post basic images anywhere, and even more to learn how to post images onto the trade list.

If I have a plant to trade, and it's a 'really special' one, those who know what it is already are more apt to have another 'really special' plant to trade for it. It's a self-selecting market tactic, as well as a non-investment of extra labor.

Some other interesting questions in this: Who benefits more from the posting of images on a trading forum, the offerer or the responder? Whose responsibility is it that there are people who know what a thing is, and those who do not? Should it be a qualifying skill for trading that someone have access to a digital camera, know how to handle images, and how to program those onto the web? (Either way has aspects of exclusion, it's simply a matter of which group it effects, and what each of those groups can do to be included, and what ease is in that particular doing.)

--Tina

Well Karyn, I sure don't remember sending you a NO ID iris, especially since you are a veteran trader who is usually looking for named cultivars, but that particular NO ID is really a beauty, isn't it?

Good points Tina. A pic of a plant on the trade forum won't 'entice' me to trade, though it has been nice in the past to see what the actual size of the plant was that was being offered. I am thinking of those few members who have their plants potted up, waiting to be traded, something I don't do. That gives members an exact idea as to what to expect, as opposed to I can send you blah, blah, and blah in trade and then you are clueless as to the size of what they are sending so you can send something comparable.

Sue

Sorry All, I think I got a little distracted with responsibility theory there, and ran down a bunny trail. Sheesh mixing up my head. Now I'm gonna run with what Sue said and kinda go opposite to what I said before.

I see the what-size and even what-condition benefits to the photo way. Also -- there was a time I looked tons (really tons) of things up on google when I was first getting into gardening. If I didn't know what something was in a post, I googled it. Sometimes even looking up 50 things on somebody's trade list right in a row -- it was a great way to learn.

Now, I think if Sue had a SuperSpecialIris listed on her trade page, and I didn't know the variety name (there are still a million gazillion of those details that I don't know, that's for sure), I may end up just passing it over not realizing it is right up my alley, and would look perfect next to my Such-N-Such.

Ok. I see serious benefits to having photos, at least of that thumbnail variety that Sue posted. (Sue, you are pretty impressive in your photo-web skills, and I'm going to learn those!)

Serious benefits. Okay folks, are we gonna have a thread somewhere where we can "boot camp" on this photo stuff? Sue, wanna give a little workshop?

--Tina

(Sue, you are pretty impressive in your photo-web skills, and I'm going to learn those!)

Thank you

Sue, wanna give a little workshop?
Not enough spare time to give it much thought or attention to a thread until after next Wed, or maybe even after the Swap June 5th, or maybe even until I have dealt with the swap goodies I bring home.

In the meantime regulars at the Test Forum can and will help.

Here is a thread I posted a while back, but the details really need refined a bit...Posting pics dumbed down...(as lillyjane says) I don't think it covers posting thumbnails though or clickable links.

A lot of the problem in trying to post instructions, I found out, is that some members are not very computer savvy, and aren't even comfortable with copying and pasting, or having multiple tabs or windows open at the same time. Now if a member isn't comfortable with those basics, then that must be learned first.

I can remember trying to post pics when I was only using one tab...how awful confusing that was to open p-bucket and to use the arrow to go back and forth between my post and getting the code from p-bucket.....grrrr.....

Sue, I have iris exactly like that, with the blue beard and ruffles. Mine is called Davy Jones.

Sue I actually don't really care if something is a named cultivar or not with most plants. With some I want to know so that I don't get duplicates but for the most part if I like a plant I don't care if it's named or a NOID. Besides that I'm notorious for losing plant labels, especially my brugs. lol That iris was the most beautiful deep purple, nothing like my other purple irises.

Got so carried away with the iris I forgot the subject of the post. I don't bother with pics for the most part on the general plant exchange but when I'm on the brug, passie or a specific plant exchange I can see why pics might be wanted and I do occasionally provide them. I want to see the plant that a particular cutting or seeds have come from to make sure it's the correct plant. For example someone offered seeds of a very uncommon passiflora earlier in the week. So I asked if they were from his plant and another member asked for pics to make sure it was what the trader said it was. Of course the person never responded that I know of.