Personally, I cannot tell much difference in their terms or service agreements. Both say they reserve the right to your stuff...and both say they are not going to devulge any of your personal info to anyone. (so what are they doing with it?) Most sites now have that same agreement and some are much worse. I don't like the form there at Dave's. It makes me feel like I am boxed in to each forum, and I cannot move about the site as freely as I can on here. It seems too clickish. Not my bag! I tried to post comments on other forums at Dave's and got a message each time that only paying members could post. So it says it is Free to join, but not to participate. Pish posh! I'll stick with GW. GW has so many wonderful forums and most of the people are good folks. A few are rather snooty and seem to be more hung up on proper terminology than the free-love of enjoying growing things, but you will find them out in the world too. It's not my bag, but hey, whatever turns your crank! Of course it is important with so many different species (varieties) of flowers & plants out there, and more being bred or discovered every day, that we learn their botanical names, so that when we buy or trade seeds for something, like 'Black Ball Bachelor's Buttons', we can feel confident that we shall get the correct variety of Centaurea cyanus.Happy Gardening! Annie ~SweetAnnie4u

Just for fun I'll post in this ancient thread LOL Joyfulguy Your thoughts on Costcos etc. is how I feel about bottled water. Why buy it when it comes free from the tap and has flouride in it to boot. :) My state is ranked very high on cleanest water anyhow. Anyhow as far as the Costco sitch I side with Costco. Of course it is annoying for the purchaser when they don't know the rules. Who's fault that is I won't touch because I myself don't always pay attention to the rules and get caught out there too. Hey it happens. As to why pay someone for the priveledge to shop in their store. For me I'd rather give them $40 bucks a year and save hundreds over that year than give the local markets all my money for less food. Plus I shop less often and don't have to make trips to the local markets to try and find which one has the sales. Just the amount I save in meats alone is worth it. I was sick last month and didn't feel like driving to BJ's and went to the market. I came home with very little and spent so much money. I wished I had just bundled up and took the drive. BJ's around the Holidays is great! I spend $40 to save literally hundreds. There are other things I won't pay for a membership figure why should I pay you just to join but in the case of BJ's etc. I can see the worth and $40 not bad at all. I'm single but I imagine it would be even better for those with children. So will this thread continue to live or will it die again! Its kinda like Jason Vorhees, it just won't die!

There has been a huge amount of work gone into this site and its very different to the others in as much as you can input your plants - there will be the virtual garden coming soon as well. The subscription will be very small and worth every penny - Nicola has to make money out of this and I completely agree with her however she took the view that adverts would ruin the whole feel of it. If you have any questions about it - email Nicola and ask because she is very helpful and never afraid of criticsm - talk to her about the subscription issues you have and ask her how the site will be developed in the future. I have a feeling about this site I think its very different and here to stay - If you're interested ask if you can be involved with the beta testing of the new developments. I intend to get on the train and get settled before it gets properly under way!

My views as an SSE member are my own, and do not represent those of SSE management. That being said, my 2 c's on the value of membership... "why go to elsewhere to some overpriced seed club.. $4-5 for some seeds, get real." To a serious collector, $4.00-$5.00 is not unreasonable when you really want something, and there are no other sources. People who want everything for free probably would not choose to join SSE, and they are free to make that choice... quite honestly, the cost of membership probably keeps some gardeners from joining who would otherwise support SSE's mission. Most who do join do so for more than monetary considerations... because they support SSE's mission of preservation, because they are exploring genetic diversity, because they want to share their family heirlooms with others who will preserve them, because they just enjoy heirlooms, etc. "are you one of those doomsday people who've been fearing the end of the world for the past century? then maybe you might find the seed saver useful." I fail to see the connection between seed saving and "doomsday people"... that sounds more like a personal attack, and such derogatory slurs are uncalled for in a civil discussion. "...my local garden shop has about 40 different tomato varieties to choose from alone." To put things in perspective, SSE & its members currently offer 10,581 different tomatoes. To be "real", there are quite a few alternatives to SSE available, especially for tomatoes and peppers. Personally, I'm really happy to see that, because that means that preservation has gone mainstream... those crops now have multiple custodians, and are safer than when all their eggs were in SSE's basket alone. Keep in mind, though, that some of the more prominent heirloom seed sellers originally obtained much of their seed from SSE (and many are still members). Essentially, SSE is promoting its own competition in that regard... which would seem to be a bad business model, if profit were their only consideration. Not all crops have found such loyal supporters as tomatoes & peppers, and for those crops, SSE remains as the largest publicly-accessible source. My special interest is beans, and SSE offers over 2400 varieties of common beans alone. Other than the USDA (which offers seed on only a limited basis) and foreign seed banks, there is no comparable source of beans out there, as much as I may wish it to be otherwise. ".. seed saver seems more about profits than about good folks just trading with other good folks.." There may be some truth to that, regarding the parent organization. I freely admit that SSE has issues to address, both with its members, and with its public outreach. As anyone knows who has followed my comments over the years, I disagree with some of SSE's policies, and have expressed my opinions to the organization. Some things may change (some already have) and some may not; at some point, one either has to "agree to disagree" and move on, or decide to part ways. For my part, I choose to focus on the positives, and push for change where I feel it is warranted. Any perceived problems with how SSE is run (such as membership dues, or the sample rates for seeds), are management issues, and should not reflect negatively on the many members who offer seed through the organization. There are a lot of "good folks just trading with other good folks", who offer their seed both through SSE, and through garden forums, seed libraries, and community gardens. Quite a few SSE members trade seed freely here on Gardenweb... although, as Podpiper mentioned, this has become more difficult since the site changed hands.