Sign me up! You know I'm interested! :-)

Have you looked into The Garden Party Forum? That's where a lot of general talking goes on. Check it out.

I vote for one here.

That would be cool Cindeea...I'm in! How would that function? Like a chatroom or something?

You have my vote! =) Wait, when did iVillage take over GardenWeb?! I still remember when Spike used to run this thing and he used to ban people and then people would go to DavesGarden all upset and rant about his communist ruling. I've been off and on here since 1997 and I'm pretty sure Gardenweb didn't belong to iVillage then.

The conversation page works exactly like this one. People post stuff they like to talk about and show family photos, talk about other things they grow, what their crafts are, how to fix something or what great Furniture their hubby is building, how their pasta turned out and what to do with their bunions! lol It's about non amaryllis talk. Just conversations between friends.

pax, Spike sold out the original site to iVillage. I miss Spike. Having some IT knowledge, we used to talk about the spammers and idiots that would try to overtake posts. Sigh, I hope he/she made tons of bucks for this friendly forum he/she started! It was a wonderful creation of a very talented person to get it up an running and find so many people interested in talking about gardening. Then dividing it into specific topics! I first found Garden Web when we were building our home and searching for the right plants and trees for SW Florida. I fell into the most generous and Friendly lap of the Florida forum. I learned so much and am still learning. Many of those folks have become my friends. We have swaps all year long all over Florida and it is amazing to have this knowledge bank at my access! I remember about 2 years ago when there was no specific Amaryllis forum. We all went to the bulb forum and sought out Hans for Amaryllis help. Then finally they gave us our own Amaryllis forum. God Bless Spike for getting it all started!

Well I'm all for an conversation page! =) I was wondering why I wasn't banned yet?! I've personally, never had any run-ins or run-outs with Spike, but I've heard of him banning people for getting off-topic in forums so I was a bit iffy about getting off-topic in this forum at first but saw that a lot of people were doing it so I do it occasionally, though I do try to stay away from doing so! =)

Cindee, I wonder if iVillage will give us an exchange (not that there is a lot of "exchanging", but just for the option of having one) and even an gallery. I know a lot of people (including myself) save and have saved tons of pictures and it would be nice to have a place where we can just post all the pictures we want and plus it would clean up a lot of the threads that have "pictures", plus the gallery could be a outlet for new comers to come and search for pictures of varieties that they are trying to familiarize themselves with. =)

Yes, an exchange would be great too. Many people might not have extra bulbs, but if enough grew seeds, we could exchange some.

I think it's an excellent idea... I would love a place where we can just talk... and an exchange and a gallery would be good, too!

I don't know how you all feel about it, but I really like to hear about everyones' gardens and families, and the crafts and stuff their working on... I think we have a great group of people here in our little Hippi forum, and I'd love to get to know you all as friends, to learn more about each of you than just what bulbs you have in bloom!

I, for one, tend to go off-topic quite a bit, and it would be nice to have a spot to do that without feeling guilty that I'm taking up space talking about my dogs, or my other plants, for instance. Yes, I think we need a conversation page, and an exchange and gallery wouldn't hurt, either!

There are places already where you can just talk. Here, and on the Garden Party page; and in personal emails which a lot of you seem to do. It goes on all the time.

I guess I am just wondering why this topic is relevant? I can see the Exchange page and Gallery, though.

Cindee,

They regulate me on the Hungarian forum all the time if I don't mention amaryllis in my reply to any posts... I go there every day too, because they are asking a lot of things from me and they help me to get bulbs for my friend for Christmas too, but the impersonality of that forum ticks me off. Threads tend to go off slightly or drastically from time to time, but I never mind it. If the conversation page would be attached to this one, I would not mind having one, or anything that is attached to his forum page... I would most likely not visit any sites or chats, or list, or galleries though that are not part of this forum and easily accessible from this site.
I must admit, this site is always open for me, to see if someone has something new to say, and I only close it when I exhausted all the threads. :o)
Then I go and answer your e-mails if I can steal away longer time... So it would be nice if all these things you imagine would be like approachable by pushing buttons in this main page or something.

Many of the specialized forums have a conversation side, besides the Garden Party forum. At the Garden Party you have people filtering in and out all the time. One attached to this forum, would be mostly members who read the amaryllis forum. That's the main difference, I think, is it would be a closer group of people.
Pam

Well, my opinion is just that there are certain off-topic things we share here, like family and pets. A gallery to me is a waste simply because I love to see pictures included in peoples posts about their current plants and flowers. OK well I will request a Conversation page, which also can be used for exchanging. However, again, I think exchanges are on topic too and most folks won't bother going to the exchange page if they have something to share. I'll let ya all know how it turns out!