Photos/Posts

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Daisy

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Photos/Posts
« on: April 19, 2015, 03:52:03 AM »
Just a thought. Would it be possible for whoever posts the photos on our Facebook page to post them here as well? I noticed particularly during the AGM that there were hardly any new posts here, but there was a daily photo on the Facebook page. It would be good to see them here too.
I very rarely look at our Facebook page because I find it extremely annnoying.
Facebook squashes the photos flat and I cannot find any way to enlarge them.
I know that I am the last person who should complain how a photo is presented, but I would love to see them properly. Also, it would give us all, more interest on this forum.
Daisy :)
Amateur gardener, who has gardened in Surrey and Cornwall, England, but now has a tiny garden facing north west, near the coast in north east Crete. It is 300 meters above sea level. On a steep learning curve!!! Member of both MGS and RHS

David Dickinson

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2015, 09:48:53 AM »
I agree Daisy. I never use Facebook. Too frightened of being bombarded with automatic messages from those who wish to become "friends".
I have a small garden in Rome, Italy. Some open soil, some concrete, some paved. Temperatures in winter occasionally down to 0°C. Summer temperatures up to 40°C in the shade. There are never watering restrictions but, of course, there is little natural water for much of June, July and August.

Joanna Savage

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2015, 11:10:42 AM »
I agree Daisy. The MGS Forum seems to be ailing, not much activity now. I have no interest in using Facebook.

Umbrian

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2015, 11:38:07 AM »
Me too, I hate Facebook - in particular the puerile " 6 people LIKE this" I have to agree the Forum does not seem as lively these days - perhaps everybody is out weeding, planting, pruning etc! It would be a shame if the craze for Facebook means fewer people posting on Forums such as ours. Do you think it is an "age" thing?
MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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John J

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2015, 04:52:32 PM »
I was persuaded to join Facebook a few years ago by my daughter and can fully sympathize with the comments made in the above posts. I contribute little to it and when I do it's hit and miss as to whether I do it correctly or not. However, I have been pleasantly surprised on at least 2 occasions; once when I was contacted by someone whose family lived next door to my family as I was growing up and I had not heard from in over 50 years; and again when I found a page dedicated to RAF Gatow, Berlin, where I served for 3 years in the late 1970s. Posts on it bring back happy memories and even a few familiar faces.
So, even though in general I dislike Facebook it does, from time to time, provide the odd bright moment. Therefore, I feel I must defend the decision to create a MGS page. The AC are constantly being urged to move with the times and attempt to interact with the younger generation in order to attract new members. Whether or not this will be achieved via Facebook remains to be seen but, please, at least give us credit for trying.
Cyprus Branch Head. Gardens in a field 40 m above sea level with reasonably fertile clay soil.
"Aphrodite emerged from the sea and came ashore and at her feet all manner of plants sprang forth" John Deacon (13thC AD)

David Dickinson

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2015, 05:49:09 PM »
Hi John,

Sorry if my message read as "let's not have an MGS Facebook page". Not what I intended at all. On the contrary, it is great that we have as many ways of contacting people as is possible. I agree with Daisy, though, when she asks that those who post on Facebook post on this forum in addition to Facebook and not instead of Facebook :)
I have a small garden in Rome, Italy. Some open soil, some concrete, some paved. Temperatures in winter occasionally down to 0°C. Summer temperatures up to 40°C in the shade. There are never watering restrictions but, of course, there is little natural water for much of June, July and August.

Umbrian

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2015, 06:08:39 PM »
I do give credit to the AC for trying all ways  of attracting new members, especially those of the younger generations who are vital to the future of the Society. Hence my remark " is it an age thing?"  Your examples of making contact again with people from the past is interesting John but as David points out,  to be bombarded with requests to become a "friend" is rather irritating when true friends are people you make over a period of time. My one venture into the realms of Facebook, when I did not realise what I was getting involved in and quickly decided to go no further, has had a rather disturbing result. At regular intervals I get an e.mail saying "do you know these people?" - one named person complete with photograph is my daughter and another Daisy from this Forum who I have exchanged personal e.mails with. The ease with which information can be spread about is quite alarming I feel and annoyingly the only way to stop these e.mails is to write to an address in the USA - something I swear to do every time I receive one but so far have not had time to do. I wonder if it would have any effect anyway - I suppose the thought is that hardly anyone will bother to take up pen and paper in these days of computers-/mobile 'phones etc

MGS member living and gardening in Umbria, Italy for past 19 years. Recently moved from my original house and now planning and planting a new small garden.

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John J

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2015, 07:05:24 PM »
David and Carole, if my post implied any criticism then I must apologise for not being totally clear. As I said I fully sympathise with the comments made as, on a personal level, I also hate the constant barrage of 'friend' requests, mostly from people I've never heard of. My Deleted Items folder is emptied regularly or it would be overrun with discarded messages of that sort. I console myself with the thought that occasionally there is the odd bit of wheat amongst the chaff. If it is an age thing then I am definitely old school, my 4 year old granddaughter can run rings around me when it comes to technology!
Cyprus Branch Head. Gardens in a field 40 m above sea level with reasonably fertile clay soil.
"Aphrodite emerged from the sea and came ashore and at her feet all manner of plants sprang forth" John Deacon (13thC AD)

Hilary

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2015, 01:17:27 PM »
Well I have to have my say about Facebook.

I love it. A quick look at four of five in the morning over my coffee sets me up for the day
I am not friends with anyone  and i can't say that i have noticed anyone wanting to be my friend.
The photos I see on the MGS Facebook might be long and narrow but I don't find them distorted.
The 'like' business seems to encourage the person putting photos on Facebook although I did see one person this morning ask for comments rather than just a quick 'like'.

We have three grown up children.
One is not on Facebook
One was said to have remarked 'oof my mother on Facebook!'
The third has asked me in the past to send him a photo to put on Facebook

'There's nowt a queer as folk'

I must say i have no intention of ecer posting anything on Facebook I just enjoy other people's work and photos
MGS member
Living in Korinthos, Greece.
No garden but two balconies, one facing south and the other north.
Most of my plants are succulents which need little care

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Alisdair

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Re: Photos/Posts
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2015, 05:49:55 PM »
As it's me that puts the photos on the Facebook page, it's high time I answered!

I sympathise strongly with all of you who don't like using Facebook. Nor do I, and I have no personal use for it. But a great many people do use Facebook as their main point of internet access, especially I think outside western Europe - apart particularly from Trevor, the great majority of the people who use our Forum regularly are based there, whereas at least half the people who look at the Facebook page (now often over 1,000 a week) come from elsewhere, particularly Australia, USA, Israel, Lebanon, but masses of other places too. This gives them a glimpse of the MGS, and has plenty of links to put them in touch with it and perhaps join, so I'm convinced that it's worthwhile. (It's interesting that the weekly photos of the MGS garden at Sparoza are particularly popular.)

Though I do have a few kind offers of photos from other people (especially John Joynes - and I'm always hoping for more offers - hint hint!), almost all the photos are my own. Getting ones that I can cut to the right shape, and then doing the cutting, and putting them on each day, does take time, so unless I was convinced that doing it was really helping the Society I could hardly justify spending the time on it, however much I enjoy it. Especially as since I've been made president of the Society doing that job too is a huge call on my time anyway.

Reprocessing the day's Facebook cover for the Forum would it's true let me show the full picture and not just the wide low strip (it is a true undistorted cut-out, incidentally, and not "squashed flat"). But that picture is really meant just for our Facebook page, for all the people who look at that. I think it would be wonderful if someone else could take on the job of putting a daily picture on the Forum. For me though, even the few extra minutes each day that would be involved in reprocessing the Facebook picture for the Forum would I'm afraid simply be too much.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 05:56:07 PM by Alisdair »
Alisdair Aird
Gardens in SE England (Sussex); also coastal Southern Greece, and (in a very small way) South West France; MGS member (and former president); vice chairman RHS Lily Group, past chairman Cyclamen Society