Mar 02
2008
On Board with Blotanical (Finally)
I have to admit that when I first heard about Blotanical, my first thought was “Oh, great. Something else to keep up with.”
With more than 75 blogs in my Google Reader, I already have a difficult time keeping up with the reading. I mean, if I read everything I wanted to read, I wouldn’t have time to write. Or have a job. Or bathe. Or eat.
After a few emails about it, I finally wandered over, logged on and created my “plot,” the profile of yourself, your gardening experience and link to your blog. I poked around for a bit and that was that.
When I started getting the “You’ve been faved” and “Someone likes you! They really really do!” emails, I thought, what’s going on over there anyway?
So I finally started poking around in the past couple of weeks. At first, I was a little confused about what went where because the menu bars changed depending on where you were. I also kept getting a white screen when I went to the “Picks” page, which confused me further until I stumbled across a message that explained it was also confusing to the developer, Stuart Robinson, an apparently very energetic fellow from Australia.
It took me days and days before I figured out how I could add to the “Picks.” (If you are also confused, there is a submenu under “Picks” where you go to “Current List.” Here you can click on a post and “Pick” if it you like it. Pick mine.)
Users get points and rise to levels, which apparently gives them some sort of privileges–Blotanist, Patron Blotanist, Fellow Blotanist, Master Blotanist and Guru Blotanist. I figured this out when I tried to add to my favorites and hit my limit. “Sorry!” Apparently I have to earn more points to have more favorites.
After scratching my head over this for a while, I have to say I like it. I’m now conflicted between keeping up (a laughable concept, really) with my Google Reader or Blotanical. My Google Reader has more than gardening blogs, which is the conundrum. But if I keep up by reading in Blotanical, I can earn more points and add to my favorites. Plus, I can see a lot more of what is posted in the gardening world than I would see in my reader. I mean, here it is at 5:30 p.m. on a Sunday and already there are more than 75 posts. You can really get carried away with the whole blogging thing, can’t you?
One of the features I like is the map, which allows you to zero in on a geographic area and find other garden bloggers. It takes a bit of manipulation with the zoom keys, but you can see who else on Blotanical is near you. Sadly, there appear to be no other garden bloggers near me in Southern Maryland, although there are several in the greater Washington, D.C. area.
Well, so I suppose I’ll see you on Blotanical. Send me a message and I’ll send you a message so you can send me a message. We’ll be racking up our points.
I wonder if we can trade our points in for prizes? I need a new fountain for my garden. I wonder how many points I could trade for that?
Oh. If someone knows how to get the picture of your blog updated in Blotanical, can you let me know? My new design isn’t showing up. I don’t want to bother busy Stuart if I don’t have to. He must be exhausted.
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Glad you made it to blotanical. I love it. It can get overwhelming there is so much there and adding up by the minute.
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
My blog photo is of an old design too. I’ll be interested in seeing if you get an answer to that question.
Welcome!
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I know the answer to that one! Stuart uses some sort of program/service that updates the blog images every couple of weeks. It seems to me that it’s about due to update again, so probably sometime this week.
I read blogs via Sage, a feed reader for Firefox, but also use Blotanical because it keeps me really current really well. However, this weekend with my internet having hissy fits, I got wayyyyy behind on everything but the work that pays the bills…:-)
March 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 am
Awesome post Robin. I found myself having a little chuckle over some of your points but it was a great explanation of how the site works.
Jodi is right about the images though I’m not sure about the timing. I’m still working on getting some answers from the developers so we can begin with a tailor made feature for us. Hopefully very, very soon.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:36 am
Welcome to Blotanical, you will soon be addicted. I like the map feature too, and Stuart is always adding new ones. There is one today that I haven’t had time to explore yet.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Welcome to the club! What I do usually is check in with the current posts on Blotanical & then just check every couple of days with the blogs I like that aren’t on Blotanical. This works for me now because the weather is still so lousy. Come spring mulching & planting time, I probably will fall far behind.
March 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I’m with ya. My current banner is the old one too. I emailed him to see if he’d change it. Said it wasn’t on the important list. So who knows when they’ll get changed. But, cool site. I’m glad you told me how some of it works. I was getting pretty confused over there!
Brenda
March 4th, 2008 at 12:55 am
after reading this i am not sure i will be able to figure blotanical out! sounds interesting so i will give it a try, but it sounds so confusing! thanks for the pointers/tips.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:56 am
Hello, glad you posted this…I had been very confused about Blotanical and finally started creating a profile….but have been unable to upload a photo….hmm. So much too learn, so many garden distractions.
Gail
clayandlimestone
March 4th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I had a good chuckle over this post as it speaks to my dilemma also which is so many blogs, so little time. Blotanical is a great resource but I haven’t really had the time to figure it all out and probably will do it a bit at a time. Stuart certainly is a computer whiz and has created a great resource for bringing the gardening community together!
March 5th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I’m so glad you too get confused in Blotanical. I can’t figure it out either. So many blogs, so little time…
March 5th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Hi Robin,
I tagged you for the six-word memoir. If you’d like to participate, please stop over to my blog for more information.
March 6th, 2008 at 10:18 am
not having that problem yet. i have just started on my blog a couple of weeks ago. you might want to check it
http://idleinmakati.blogspot.com
March 8th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Robin, welcome to Blotanical! It’s fun, no doubt. Great place, obviously, to meet like-minded folks. It does take a bit of sorting through but Stuart is so great about answering questions. He must have the patience of Job! Enjoy!
March 9th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Robin, two days ago I decided to take a little break from blogging for the same reasons you stated… All day at the office on the computer, three more hours (at least, if I post), on the computer can be tiring. I can’t keep up! I need to employ Google Reader or SOMETHING because I’m tired of the whole blogging thing right now.
Enjoy Blotanical! Thanks for this post.