On 27/11/2013 18:17, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

Enjoyment of Twitter depends entirely on what you wish to get out of it.

Many a time I have learnt that something major is happening in the
World,

In this context, the discussion is whether tweets have any relevance
to gardening discussion here on urg.

Not, twitter as a platform for world news, business advertisers, or
personal promotion by horticultural professionals and businesses.

Janet.



Hi Janet,

With your thoughts in mind, I searched Twitter for tweets with
#gardeninghelp.

Agreed, not much (yet) but this 30 second search did find people seeking
helpful information about gardening. I've put the latest six below and
apologies for any profanities below. A 50:50 split between seekers of
information and advertisers.


Roberto Cea �@studiocea 2 Nov
Hi @GardeningAus - is this young Aust Frangipani looking too 'sparse' or
is it normal growth habit? #GardeningHelp pic.twitter.com/j5VfaUcr7t

Jennifer Silvestri �@Jenn_Silvestri 5 Sep
These *******s are eating my rose tree. Any tips on what to do?
#gardeninghelp #eatingmyroses http://instagram.com/p/d4sEIvIPzd/

Garden Escape �@gardenescape 5 Aug
Unsure what to do in your garden this week? http://ow.ly/nD4aH
#gardeninghelp

CarusoLandscaping �@Caruso_Lawn 30 Jul
@kevin_lawton here's the help that you need to grow a luminous rose
bush! http://bit.ly/1586UrH #GardeningHelp

Garden Escape �@gardenescape 30 Jul
Need some #summer #gardeninghelp ? Your question might already be
answered! http://ow.ly/npvyt

Bob - Stoats �@StoatsBob 27 Jul
Mushrooms are growing on my lawn! Anyone know why or how to stop them
growing again? #gardeninghelp pic.twitter.com/kJXuK6qWo5


All the best,


--
Wendy Tinley
SE Sheffield
4 miles west of junction 30 M1

In article ,
says...

On 27/11/2013 18:17, Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...

Enjoyment of Twitter depends entirely on what you wish to get out of it.

Many a time I have learnt that something major is happening in the
World,

In this context, the discussion is whether tweets have any relevance
to gardening discussion here on urg.

Not, twitter as a platform for world news, business advertisers, or
personal promotion by horticultural professionals and businesses.

Janet.



Hi Janet,

With your thoughts in mind, I searched Twitter for tweets with
#gardeninghelp.

Agreed, not much (yet) but this 30 second search did find people seeking
helpful information about gardening. I've put the latest six below and
apologies for any profanities below. A 50:50 split between seekers of
information and advertisers.


Roberto Cea ?@studiocea 2 Nov
Hi @GardeningAus - is this young Aust Frangipani looking too 'sparse' or
is it normal growth habit? #GardeningHelp pic.twitter.com/j5VfaUcr7t

Jennifer Silvestri ?@Jenn_Silvestri 5 Sep
These *******s are eating my rose tree. Any tips on what to do?
#gardeninghelp #eatingmyroses http://instagram.com/p/d4sEIvIPzd/

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 5 Aug
Unsure what to do in your garden this week? http://ow.ly/nD4aH
#gardeninghelp

CarusoLandscaping ?@Caruso_Lawn 30 Jul
@kevin_lawton here's the help that you need to grow a luminous rose
bush! http://bit.ly/1586UrH #GardeningHelp

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 30 Jul
Need some #summer #gardeninghelp ? Your question might already be
answered! http://ow.ly/npvyt

and how many of those gardening queries, can be discussed explained
or solved in a 140- character soundbite?

Which is, no doubt, the reason Monty Don tweeted that he would not be
answering any gardening question on Twitter.

Janet

In message , Martin
writes
On Thu, 28 Nov 2013 07:28:56 +0000, Sacha wrote:

On 2013-11-27 18:42:11 +0000, Bill Grey said:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-11-27 10:38:20 +0000, Dave Liquorice said:

On Tue, 26 Nov 2013 23:06:45 -0000, Bob Hobden wrote:

Considering the numbers that use them it must be me, what am I missing
with this Social Media?

IMHO an awful lot of mindless chatter. There might be the odd grain
of gold but the vast majority is just rubbish.

Is it really important that the rector has finished the Sunday
morning service? I guess it might be if he tweets quickly and the pub
is a few minutes walk from the church, you can get a drink in before
the rush. B-) But then the service will always end about the same
time so you don't need the tweet to know when the rush is going to
happen, you do need a mind though...

I thought the idea was to look at blogs. Some/most bloggers Tweet or
are on Facebook because social media is a very important part of
advertising and pr these days. But Twitter and Facebook aren't the sum
of what these garden enthusiasts or experts write about. For example,
the highly respected designer, Tom Hoblyn is on both but also has a
very good blog:
http://thomashoblyn.com/about/blog

You don't have to be on social media sites to read blogs.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

A Club I belong to has a "closed group" on Facebook. This, at first
seemed to be a good idea, but then one member has decided to flood the
group with irrelevant nonsence and spoiled the group.

Bill

The 'admin' could put a stop to that. It happens on newsgroups, too and
then the only resort is a kill file. However, my purpose was to
suggest people found gardening blogs, possibly via Twitter or indeed
simply via typing' uk garden blogs' into Google. I am not recommending
that urglers join or devote themselves to either Twitter or Facebook
but for some reason those now seem to have become the focus of
discussion, rather than blogs which might bring something of interest
to this group.

Nor are you recommending that everybody here reads blogs.

It's too late to find out what made Monty Don give up Twitter?
He's not alone according to the DT. Even Stephen Fry who was an ardent
supporter initially has left.
--
bert

bert wrote:

It's too late to find out what made Monty Don give up Twitter?

He's not alone according to the DT. Even Stephen Fry who was an
ardent supporter initially has left.

What - the same Stephen Fry that's tweeted a dozen or so pictures from
NY in the past hour?

--
Chris

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-11-27 18:42:11 +0000, Bill Grey said:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-11-27 10:38:20 +0000, Dave Liquorice said:

On Tue, 26 Nov 2013 23:06:45 -0000, Bob Hobden wrote:

Considering the numbers that use them it must be me, what am I missing
with this Social Media?

IMHO an awful lot of mindless chatter. There might be the odd grain
of gold but the vast majority is just rubbish.

Is it really important that the rector has finished the Sunday
morning service? I guess it might be if he tweets quickly and the pub
is a few minutes walk from the church, you can get a drink in before
the rush. B-) But then the service will always end about the same
time so you don't need the tweet to know when the rush is going to
happen, you do need a mind though...

I thought the idea was to look at blogs. Some/most bloggers Tweet or are
on Facebook because social media is a very important part of advertising
and pr these days. But Twitter and Facebook aren't the sum of what
these garden enthusiasts or experts write about. For example, the highly
respected designer, Tom Hoblyn is on both but also has a very good blog:
http://thomashoblyn.com/about/blog

You don't have to be on social media sites to read blogs.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

A Club I belong to has a "closed group" on Facebook. This, at first
seemed to be a good idea, but then one member has decided to flood the
group with irrelevant nonsence and spoiled the group.

Bill

The 'admin' could put a stop to that. --

There have been several hints dropped but it's like water off a duck's back.
No one would want to offend the chap so it's easier not to use the page.

Bill

"Janet" wrote


wendy says...

Janet wrote:

wendy says...

Enjoyment of Twitter depends entirely on what you wish to get out of
it.

Many a time I have learnt that something major is happening in the
World,

In this context, the discussion is whether tweets have any relevance
to gardening discussion here on urg.

Not, twitter as a platform for world news, business advertisers, or
personal promotion by horticultural professionals and businesses.


With your thoughts in mind, I searched Twitter for tweets with
#gardeninghelp.

Agreed, not much (yet) but this 30 second search did find people seeking
helpful information about gardening. I've put the latest six below and
apologies for any profanities below. A 50:50 split between seekers of
information and advertisers.


Roberto Cea ?@studiocea 2 Nov
Hi @GardeningAus - is this young Aust Frangipani looking too 'sparse' or
is it normal growth habit? #GardeningHelp pic.twitter.com/j5VfaUcr7t

Jennifer Silvestri ?@Jenn_Silvestri 5 Sep
These *******s are eating my rose tree. Any tips on what to do?
#gardeninghelp #eatingmyroses http://instagram.com/p/d4sEIvIPzd/

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 5 Aug
Unsure what to do in your garden this week? http://ow.ly/nD4aH
#gardeninghelp

CarusoLandscaping ?@Caruso_Lawn 30 Jul
@kevin_lawton here's the help that you need to grow a luminous rose
bush! http://bit.ly/1586UrH #GardeningHelp

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 30 Jul
Need some #summer #gardeninghelp ? Your question might already be
answered! http://ow.ly/npvyt

and how many of those gardening queries, can be discussed explained
or solved in a 140- character soundbite?

Which is, no doubt, the reason Monty Don tweeted that he would not be
answering any gardening question on Twitter.


That is exactly my point, the small space allowed means there cannot be any
meaningful discussion on Twitter on any topic.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Jake" wrote
"Bob Hobden" wrote:



That is exactly my point, the small space allowed means there cannot be
any
meaningful discussion on Twitter on any topic.

Hmm!

My experience on Twitter this week:

1. A cat found injured was reunited with its owners within a couple of
hours (separately a photo of a missing cat was circulated to "tweeps"
in its home area; don't know of any result as yet). Twitter is
regularly used successfully to report missing/found pets.

2. I was searching for an out-of-print gardening book. The cheapest
I'd been able to find was £40. Thanks to Twitter, I've located a
nearly new copy for £2.81 delivered. Not the first time I've been able
to find out-of-print books cheaply.

3. Someone doing a sponsored walk type charity event needed high vis
clothing but had been quoted stupid figures. A few of us asked around
and initially secured the necessary stuff dirt cheap, then sorted
sponsorship for the purchase and finally printing with the charity's
details.

4. I was able to point someone who'd been quoted £45 for some pet
medicine to an online vet where the same stuff cost £24 delivered.

Is none of this meaningful?

Sounds good to me but how can that happen when only your followers or those
you follow see your Tweets? I cannot see how any of that can happen on
Twitter at the moment unless you have thousands of followers etc. I'm
obviously missing something important but I still can't see it despite
trying to. Perhaps it's because I don't Follow very many as some I've
Followed produce so much compost each day I've un-Followed them. A bit like
a Newsgroup with hundreds of post a day, just too much compost to wade
through.


If you opened your mind a bit, you'd be surprised how much you can
achieve with just 140 characters. It's a wonderful discipline for a
long-winded person like me.Granted there are lots of ways to get round
that 140 character limit.

OK, I'm still almost 6 months away from 60 but, for those years
remaining to me I'd much prefer to spend time where there's some
energy.

Turning the tables a bit, a while back someone asked a question on
Twitter which was the subject of a current thread here. I tweeted an
answer with info on how to get here via Garden Banter. The person did
get here and responded that the thread was a load of boring twaddle
about everything other than the subject it was supposed to be about.
She had a point!

There may have been good reasons to make this a non-binary group in
the past but I wonder how many regulars access this group via slow/pay
per unit links these days. Yet we stick to the non-binary thing. Then
someone posts a pic of a plant needing an ID (that posting needs a
roundabout course of action) and you can almost guarantee that the
ensuing discussion will be as much about technical issues as about the
plant. On Twitter, tweet a pic easily. Answer volume quicker and far
greater than this group.

Whilst you can't always answer a question in 140 characters, chances
are someone will know of a location where it's answered, be it website
or blog. Replying with a link to that is easily accommodated.

And the average question has an answership (is that a new word?) far
greater than here.

And a lot more professionals to chip in than here!

But, at the end of the day, my forehead is currently a nice curved
shape and I have no desire to hammer it flat. So that's my one and
only contribution to this thread.

And my final contribution to the group.

Goodbye.

Goodbye Jake, glad you like Twitter and hope I too get to understand how it
works and what it does that will be of interest to me. I will persevere for
a few weeks longer.

--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On 2013-11-28 19:56:40 +0000, Bob Hobden said:

"Janet" wrote


wendy says...

Janet wrote:

wendy says...

Enjoyment of Twitter depends entirely on what you wish to get out of it.

Many a time I have learnt that something major is happening in the
World,

In this context, the discussion is whether tweets have any relevance
to gardening discussion here on urg.

Not, twitter as a platform for world news, business advertisers, or
personal promotion by horticultural professionals and businesses.


With your thoughts in mind, I searched Twitter for tweets with
#gardeninghelp.

Agreed, not much (yet) but this 30 second search did find people seeking
helpful information about gardening. I've put the latest six below and
apologies for any profanities below. A 50:50 split between seekers of
information and advertisers.


Roberto Cea ?@studiocea 2 Nov
Hi @GardeningAus - is this young Aust Frangipani looking too 'sparse' or
is it normal growth habit? #GardeningHelp pic.twitter.com/j5VfaUcr7t

Jennifer Silvestri ?@Jenn_Silvestri 5 Sep
These *******s are eating my rose tree. Any tips on what to do?
#gardeninghelp #eatingmyroses http://instagram.com/p/d4sEIvIPzd/

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 5 Aug
Unsure what to do in your garden this week? http://ow.ly/nD4aH
#gardeninghelp

CarusoLandscaping ?@Caruso_Lawn 30 Jul
@kevin_lawton here's the help that you need to grow a luminous rose
bush! http://bit.ly/1586UrH #GardeningHelp

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 30 Jul
Need some #summer #gardeninghelp ? Your question might already be
answered! http://ow.ly/npvyt

and how many of those gardening queries, can be discussed explained
or solved in a 140- character soundbite?

Which is, no doubt, the reason Monty Don tweeted that he would not be
answering any gardening question on Twitter.


That is exactly my point, the small space allowed means there cannot be
any meaningful discussion on Twitter on any topic.

I think it FAR more probable that he knew he'd been inundated with
queries so nipped the idea in the bud!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

On 2013-11-28 16:56:49 +0000, Bill Grey said:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-11-27 18:42:11 +0000, Bill Grey said:

"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2013-11-27 10:38:20 +0000, Dave Liquorice said:

On Tue, 26 Nov 2013 23:06:45 -0000, Bob Hobden wrote:

Considering the numbers that use them it must be me, what am I missing
with this Social Media?

IMHO an awful lot of mindless chatter. There might be the odd grain
of gold but the vast majority is just rubbish.

Is it really important that the rector has finished the Sunday
morning service? I guess it might be if he tweets quickly and the pub
is a few minutes walk from the church, you can get a drink in before
the rush. B-) But then the service will always end about the same
time so you don't need the tweet to know when the rush is going to
happen, you do need a mind though...

I thought the idea was to look at blogs. Some/most bloggers Tweet or
are on Facebook because social media is a very important part of
advertising and pr these days. But Twitter and Facebook aren't the sum
of what these garden enthusiasts or experts write about. For example,
the highly respected designer, Tom Hoblyn is on both but also has a
very good blog:
http://thomashoblyn.com/about/blog

You don't have to be on social media sites to read blogs.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

A Club I belong to has a "closed group" on Facebook. This, at first
seemed to be a good idea, but then one member has decided to flood the
group with irrelevant nonsence and spoiled the group.

Bill

The 'admin' could put a stop to that. --

There have been several hints dropped but it's like water off a duck's
back. No one would want to offend the chap so it's easier not to use
the page.

Bill

You can 'block' people on Facebook, just as you can on here. What you
can't do is block people who are 'admin' from seeing your posts. You
don't have to acknowledge them, of course. How people choose to run or
contribute Fb groups is up to them and isn't a fault of Facebook, as
you'll understand, of course.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

In article ,
lid says...

On Thu, 28 Nov 2013 19:56:40 -0000, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:



That is exactly my point, the small space allowed means there cannot be any
meaningful discussion on Twitter on any topic.

Hmm!

My experience on Twitter this week:

1. A cat found injured was reunited with its owners within a couple of
hours (separately a photo of a missing cat was circulated to "tweeps"
in its home area; don't know of any result as yet). Twitter is
regularly used successfully to report missing/found pets.

2. I was searching for an out-of-print gardening book. The cheapest
I'd been able to find was £40. Thanks to Twitter, I've located a
nearly new copy for £2.81 delivered. Not the first time I've been able
to find out-of-print books cheaply.

3. Someone doing a sponsored walk type charity event needed high vis
clothing but had been quoted stupid figures. A few of us asked around
and initially secured the necessary stuff dirt cheap, then sorted
sponsorship for the purchase and finally printing with the charity's
details.

4. I was able to point someone who'd been quoted £45 for some pet
medicine to an online vet where the same stuff cost £24 delivered.

Is none of this meaningful?

Yes, in the same way that a shopping list is meaningful. But perhaps
not interesting enough to sustain a public conversation.

If you opened your mind a bit, you'd be surprised how much you can
achieve with just 140 characters. It's a wonderful discipline for a
long-winded person like me.Granted there are lots of ways to get round
that 140 character limit.

OK, I'm still almost 6 months away from 60 but, for those years
remaining to me I'd much prefer to spend time where there's some
energy.

Gardening, for example.

Turning the tables a bit, a while back someone asked a question on
Twitter which was the subject of a current thread here. I tweeted an
answer with info on how to get here via Garden Banter.

I'm surprised your concise and energetic mind was unable to provide
the answer on Twitter, by reducing the urg thread to a 140-character
precis.

Janet

On Thu, 28 Nov 2013 Bob Hobden wrote:

Sounds good to me but how can that happen when only your followers or
those you follow see your Tweets? I cannot see how any of that can
happen on Twitter at the moment unless you have thousands of followers
etc. I'm obviously missing something important but I still can't see it
despite trying to. Perhaps it's because I don't Follow very many as
some I've Followed produce so much compost each day I've un-Followed them.

Would that it did produce compost! At least compost is useful!!

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK

"David Rance" wrote

Bob Hobden wrote:

Sounds good to me but how can that happen when only your followers or
those you follow see your Tweets? I cannot see how any of that can happen
on Twitter at the moment unless you have thousands of followers etc. I'm
obviously missing something important but I still can't see it despite
trying to. Perhaps it's because I don't Follow very many as some I've
Followed produce so much compost each day I've un-Followed them.

Would that it did produce compost! At least compost is useful!!



I was being polite David, my friends would not believe it of me. :-)
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

On Thu, 28 Nov 2013 23:13:15 +0000, Bob Hobden wrote:
(Jake said this):
Is none of this meaningful?

Sounds good to me but how can that happen when only your followers or
those you follow see your Tweets? I cannot see how any of that can
happen on Twitter at the moment unless you have thousands of followers
etc. I'm obviously missing something important but I still can't see it
despite trying to.

I've kept clear here, but it seems worth pointing out that twitter is
widely used by business and in b2b situations. Full disclosu I don't
use twitter or facebook personally, not because I discount their worth --
which seems foolish given the success of social media -- but because I
don't need another time sink in my life. I do get, though, considerable
social pressure to do facebook, and it's clearly a good way to keep up
with widely spread family and friends; so I may get around to it some day.

As an example of the use of facebook in a gardening situation, here is a
link to the Maple Society facebook page, which I do look at when I find
myself needing eye candy.

https://www.facebook.com/MapleSociety

As for twitter, my wife is editor for a semiconductor materials
newsletter, and part of her job is tweeting industry news. Her followers
are CTO's and CEO's of major international tech corporations. These guys
definitely have no time to waste, so if they follow twitter it's because
they get something out of it. It is certainly possible to include enough
information in the 140 characters to determine whether the link is worth
clicking or not. Here are a couple of examples:

"At 14nm FDSOI is much cheaper, 30-40% cheaper, than Intel’s technology�-
Asenov @ST_World @GF_TechBeat @soiconsortium http://bit.ly/1bUXcH7

Toshiba Says New #RFSOI Antenna Switch for Smartphones Is Smallest http://
http://www.advancedsubstratenews.com...f-soi-antenna-
switch-for-smartphones-is-smallest/ … via @FollowASN

I hope that will help you understand some of the utility of twitter.

-E

P.S. Jake, it would be too bad if you gave up on urg, I've enjoyed your
contributions in the past.




--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

The default option is "public" - anyone can see your tweets. You can protect your tweets, but that means you also have to authorise every single person who wants to view them, and they can't re-tweet your tweets.

There's also a search function. For example, I'm not on Twitter, but I was able, with a two-word query, find out what was happening when the park opposite us sprouted two police helicopters with searchlights. And again when local roads were closed by a big factory fire, I was able to follow people's tweets and see which roads were jammed with displaced traffic.

On 2013-11-28 19:56:40 +0000, Bob Hobden said:

"Janet" wrote


wendy says...

Janet wrote:

wendy says...

Enjoyment of Twitter depends entirely on what you wish to get out of it.

Many a time I have learnt that something major is happening in the
World,

In this context, the discussion is whether tweets have any relevance
to gardening discussion here on urg.

Not, twitter as a platform for world news, business advertisers, or
personal promotion by horticultural professionals and businesses.


With your thoughts in mind, I searched Twitter for tweets with
#gardeninghelp.

Agreed, not much (yet) but this 30 second search did find people seeking
helpful information about gardening. I've put the latest six below and
apologies for any profanities below. A 50:50 split between seekers of
information and advertisers.


Roberto Cea ?@studiocea 2 Nov
Hi @GardeningAus - is this young Aust Frangipani looking too 'sparse' or
is it normal growth habit? #GardeningHelp pic.twitter.com/j5VfaUcr7t

Jennifer Silvestri ?@Jenn_Silvestri 5 Sep
These *******s are eating my rose tree. Any tips on what to do?
#gardeninghelp #eatingmyroses http://instagram.com/p/d4sEIvIPzd/

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 5 Aug
Unsure what to do in your garden this week? http://ow.ly/nD4aH
#gardeninghelp

CarusoLandscaping ?@Caruso_Lawn 30 Jul
@kevin_lawton here's the help that you need to grow a luminous rose
bush! http://bit.ly/1586UrH #GardeningHelp

Garden Escape ?@gardenescape 30 Jul
Need some #summer #gardeninghelp ? Your question might already be
answered! http://ow.ly/npvyt

and how many of those gardening queries, can be discussed explained
or solved in a 140- character soundbite?

Which is, no doubt, the reason Monty Don tweeted that he would not be
answering any gardening question on Twitter.


That is exactly my point, the small space allowed means there cannot be
any meaningful discussion on Twitter on any topic.

Twitter can - in urg's terms - merely be a point of contact, a
signpost, Nobody is compelled to post to Twitter, you can just read it
and follow links that interest you. And indeed, nobody is suggesting
it's a substitute for informed debate/discussion. All of us that use it
know that is not the case! In urg use terms, I'd probably describe it
as an 'alert' to what is available. As always, your choice. More to
the point and back to the ORIGINAL point, you can look at
gardening//horticultural/design/landscaping blogs, without going near
Twitter or Facebook. So - why do we do so little of that, I wonder?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon