Seed Company Review Grid... let's do this thing!

Some of you may already know we have a book review grid.  You can see it here.

Every time someone writes a book review in the book forum, and makes the first line say "I give this book # out of 10 acorns", it automatically goes on the list.  Pretty darn cool, eh?

Paul said something in passing yesterday.  He said that we could do the same thing for seed companies.  

If we had a few threads that went like this
first post an overview of the seed company
then other posts in the thread that start with "I give this seed source 9 out of 10 acorns" and a review.
Then when we had enough threads like this, we can make a grid happen.

So I started a thread as an example.
Here it is, West Coast Seeds

And I wrote a review.


And that's about as far as I have got.  
Is anyone interested in this kind of idea?
If we had 10 people write 2 reviews, then we would have enough reviews to start up the grid.

Questions, comments, ideas?

I love it! I think this can be a real resource for a lot of folks.

I'm wondering if we add nurseries as well.

Thanks R,

I look forward to researching the companies that show up.   I just listed a mini-review for Baker Creek.

Regards, Scott

I'm really excited about this.  So glad you're on bord.  I think this is going to be a great help for learning about seed sources.  I know the book review grid has been an excellent way for me to find new reading.

Scott Foster wrote:  I just listed a mini-review for Baker Creek.

Regards, Scott

I found it.  

Awesome, thanks for doing this.  

A few things... and keep in mind, I'm very new to this review grid idea.  This is how I think it works.

The system somehow searches a specific forum (I'm thinking seed saving and exchanges https://permies.com/f/234/seed might be a good one for this) and it notices replies (not the first post of the thread, but second or later) that start with a very specific phrase ("I give this seed source # out of 10 acorns".  Apparently, it has to be the first sentence in the post for it to understand we want it in the grid.  Then the system somehow understands that this phrase means that we want this information to be in a grid.  Not only that, it somehow understands which information to put in the grid.

How it does all this is beyond me.  I'm still learning.

I'm wondering about the wording.

I started with "I give this seed company 9 out of 10 acorns" but then I thought, some of us sell and trade seeds.  Do we want to include that in the grid?  I think probably.  So maybe it could be "I give this seed source 9 out of 10 acorns"?  What do you think?

R

I think seed source is good!  I did an edit on my post to read  "seed source," and moved the sentence to the top of the page.  Let me know if there is anything you need me to do.

Regards, Scott

Todd,

I think doing a separate listings for nurseries is an excellent idea.   I have spent so much time looking for various things.  Rootstock, scion wood, unusual seeds, fruit trees for my zone and etc.   I have even ordered quite a bit off of Etsy.  There are some good resources for tiny seedlings and seeds.  

Regards, Scott

I second Todd's idea of a nursery grid as well.  I put out two or three reviews of nurseries I had experience with a few months ago.  I can edit them to add whatever acorn text is needed.

Granted, let's get the seed one off the ground first.  But I like where this is going...

I don't feed terribly qualified to review seed quality, as any failures I attribute to my own ineptitude. But, I posted a review of Territorial Seed Company here: https://permies.com/t/76168/Territorial-Seed-Company-Review

I totally don't understand what I did or how, but I did a thing and the internet is still here.

check it out
https://permies.com/t/76171/official-permies-Seed-Source-Review#629604

Now all we need is a snazzy picture for the thread thumbnail.

I noticed the seed company reviews are wiki's but in the seed saving forum. Are they being started in the wiki forum or are they originating in the seed saving forum? I don't see an option to create a wiki within the seed saving forum. I'm a little confused.

James Freyr wrote:I noticed the seed company reviews are wiki's but in the seed saving forum. Are they being started in the wiki forum or are they originating in the seed saving forum? I don't see an option to create a wiki within the seed saving forum. I'm a little confused.

James, when you start a thread in any forum you can select wiki at the bottom of the reply box.  It is listed in the bar along with 'options', 'attachment' and 'paid content'.  It only appears when you are the originator of the thread.  

I've done some book reviews using it and have wondered if it's possible to change a regular thread to a 'wiki' and also to change from a 'wiki' back to a regular thread....haven't tried though.  

Judith Browning wrote:
James, when you start a thread in any forum you can select wiki at the bottom of the reply box.  It is listed in the bar along with 'options', 'attachment' and 'paid content'.  It only appears when you are the originator of the thread.  

Thanks Judith! I learned something new!

Wow guys, you are doing great.  We have some excellent reviews rolling in already.

One tiny glitch.  I can't get the grid to 'see' the review if the first line isn't "I give this seed source # out of 10 acorns"

I thought maybe it could be just the first words, but now I'm thinking it might have to be the first line all by its'ef. Off to test this.  

I wonder if we can make this grid include nursery and other plant buying places too.

Would someone like to write a review starting with "I give this tree nursery # out of 10 acorns" (replacing number sign with the number of your choice) then post the link to it here?  

I just edited an review for a nursery, once the mods clear the edit, hopefully it will work for your test.

Here's a Link

Mike Jay wrote:I just edited an review for a nursery, once the mods clear the edit, hopefully it will work for your test.

Here's a Link

I think it worked.

Does it show up for you?

Yes, I think so.  It shows up on the grid perfectly.  

When I click on that link (or on the link on the main forum page), it goes to a wiki that starts with "This thread is all about Chief River Nusery".  Then it shows the website and a blurb from their site.  Then below that it shows your note about merging threads and below that my updated/edited text.  

The only issue I see is the typo on their name in the Wiki (underlined above)

So I think it works, thanks!!!

I just edited another one on Badgersett Research Farm and started the edited version with the magic words.  Hopefully it works too.  Thanks!

Mike Jay wrote:Yes, I think so.  It shows up on the grid perfectly.  

When I click on that link (or on the link on the main forum page), it goes to a wiki that starts with "This thread is all about Chief River Nusery".  Then it shows the website and a blurb from their site.  Then below that it shows your note about merging threads and below that my updated/edited text.  

The only issue I see is the typo on their name in the Wiki (underlined above)

So I think it works, thanks!!!

I appointed you as an approved editor of that specific wiki post.  Feel free to polish it up and make it beautiful (or just correct my poor spelling).

The system seems to like it if the first post of the thread is a summary of the topic/book/company/whatever.  Then the replies are the reviews.  I don't know how to say this clearly because I don't fully understand it yet.  Anyway, that's why I made the first post then merged your review to that.  

Ok, it's pretty now :)  

So to do a new review, we should do one post that introduces the vendor and then do a reply to that with the magic words about X out of 10 acorns and all our experiences?  And does the first thread have to have wiki selected?  

I'm still learning here (aren't we all).

Thanks R!

I'm still learning too.  Let's learn together.  

Although to be completely honest, I'm just pressing random buttons to find out what works.  If the internet explodes later today, you'll know who did it.

I had a look at the old book review how to thread and it said.

SO, the way we want to do this is with our nifty acorns rating system! It's really easy, you just go to the book summary thread of the book you have read, and write the review with the very first line being "I give this book 7 out of 10 acorns." Or how ever many out of 10 you want to give it. And then write your full review. Boom. Done!  

A couple of notes:

The books that have the most reviews will be moved to the top of the grid.

The people that have done the most reviewing will be moved to the left of the grid.

Once the grid is a bit more fleshed out, we will feature it extremely prominently within permies. Plus, I think that publishers will then be keen to have their books reviewed by permies.

Once we have books doing well, then we can do DVDs, then tools and other products.

The key is that this book review grid is a jumping off point for a dozen evil plots. We just got to fill out that grid!

and then there are three more pages of thread that talk about how it works which I'm still reading.

So to do a new review, we should do one post that introduces the vendor and then do a reply to that with the magic words about X out of 10 acorns and all our experiences?  And does the first thread have to have wiki selected?  

I think having the first post as an introduction makes sense.  It might even be required for the system to be able to find the review, I'm not sure.  I don't think it has to be a wiki, but it's nice if it can be that way people can add information and links to it later.

I think the "I give this (thingy) X out of 10 acorns" phrase has to be the very first thing of the review post for the system to pick it up.  It also seems to need to be said in a specific way.  For example, it won't pick it up if it is "I give this thingy 2 of 10 acorns"  Or "10 out of 10 acorns for this book".  I don't know exactly what pattern it is looking for yet.

Ok, I just did one from scratch for HoneyberryUSA.  Hopefully the link to the grid work.

For the title of the thread I wasn't sure if I should just call it "HoneyberryUSA" or if I needed more detail for it to stand on its own as a post.  So I titled it "HoneyberryUSA- Nursery review".  Hopefully that doesn't mess up the name in the grid.

Thanks Mike.

Looks great!
I added it to the grid.  

Woo Hoo!  So is there a way to make it automatically go to the grid?  Or does that only happen for the acorn scores once the supplier has been put on the grid?  

I was looking at this list and thinking how wonderful it would be if we had a review for every one of these seed providers.
http://smallfarmcanada.ca/2017/2018-seed-buying-guide/

I bet there are more lists like this in other parts of the world

Wow this is really looking good all!

Here's a link to Stark Bro's review

permies/ stark bro's

I did one last night for Nature and Nurture Seeds but it hasn't shown up on the grid.  Is putting it on a grid something that has to be done behind the scenes manually or did I do something wrong?

I also added an acorn score to Seed Savers Exchange and it didn't show on the grid either yet.

I see other people adding comments to these review threads but they aren't using the magic words at the beginning.  Assuming it's working correctly and I'm just doing it wrong, how can we get the word out to people to put acorn notes at the beginning of their comments?

Thanks this is looking pretty sweet

You did it perfectly.  I have to manually press a magic button to ask the grid to hunt for the magic words.

Can you see them now?


A big thank you to everyone who's written a review with the magic words.  This grid is looking great, all thanks to you guys!

Yes, they're in there now.  Awesome!  Thanks R!!!

neat that you're doing this.  Thanks.

Now I know where to buy seeds from

I created a review for St. Lawrence Nurseries which is a zone 3 tree/shrub nursery. Hopefully I did this right.

https://permies.com/wiki/76277/St-Lawrence-Nurseries

I will check it out in the morning Bernard . I am on my phone at the moment and don't have full functionality as a mod :-) I blame those nice folks at apple computors frankly

David

I've been experimenting, and it looks like the review grid will accept anything in place of "seed source." You could say, "I give this tree nursery # out of 10 acorns" or "I give this seed company # out of 10 acorns" or even "I give this booger picker # out of 10 acorns." Of course, no one's going to say the latter, because these are professional reviews--not reviews about a 4 year old kid.... But, the point is, the program appears to pick up any thing that fits this formula "I give this _____ # out of 10 acorn." You can fill in the ___ with whatever term best describes your seed or plant source

I made a tutorial here (https://permies.com/wiki/76308/Review-Review-Grid-seed-source) on how to make a review that shows up on the review grid!

Nicole,

I am wondering if you should add to your how to (and everyone creating an initial review page should add) a couple lines at the end of the review stating:


To add a review please start your post with "I give this tree nursery X out of 10 acorns"

To see a listing of all the reviews like this one please see here https://permies.com/wiki/76171/seed/official-permies-Seed-Plant-Source

------

That way everyone can know how to do the review and how to find the whole list of reviews.

Also can you add your how to to the review grid? The way people will see how to add entries to the grid?

Adding the company's to the grid is a moderator thing  and top secret as it comes with other stuff . If I told you how to do it I would have to kill you afterwards etc etc :-) :-)

David

Thanks Nicole for making that guide!

I like Bernard's idea of some text we can all drop in at the end of our reviews as a hint to those who follow.

Might I humbly submit another possible block of text:

If you'd like to add your own review, please have the first sentence be "I give this _______ X out of 10 acorns."
Here's a Tutorial.  Your review will then end up on the Official Seed and Plant Source Review Grid

That's a good idea, Bernard and Mike! I took Mike's text and added it both to the tutorial, as well as to the first reply to the tutorial, that way, it will hopefully be easier for people to copy and paste.

Hmmm, I'm wondering, instead of having that bit of text at the bottom of each review, maybe it would be better to have it at the bottom of each wiki, instead. If there's a ton of reviews to something like Baker Creek, having each review stating that, would take up a lot of space and maybe be a bit redundant?

Edit: So, if we don't want it in each review, but rather in the wiki, perhaps it shouldn't be in the tutorial? As all the first posts are in wki format, it shouldn't be to hard for us to go and edit them and add in a phrase like that to the bottom of each wiki....