I'm not very happy about it. It would have taken a much longer time to start my seed collection had it not been for generous gardeners who offered to share their seeds with me for a SASBE. Many people (like me!) do not have the means to begin trading without some help. Personally, I have only been able to offer a few SASBE seeds, but giving back even a small bit made me feel good as well as a contributing member of the garden community.

Aimee

Hi I don't like the implicatons of the new rule. Wonder if we should start a group and let everyone know so if they want to join. Just my thoughts. Dale

is this new? i guess i didn't read the terms thoroughly when i joined. i'd join another group if you're looking for noses to count. i was hoping to repay the wonderful people who did sasbe by doing it for others next year when i have more seeds to trade. thanks for bringing this to our attention. sandy

I may not be remembering correctly but I thought the old rules were that you couldn't ask for free seeds or seeds for postage. But offering seeds for free or for postage wasn't mentioned. I don't know how it will all work out, maybe my black mood is making me into a pessimist. Tomorrow things will be better.

Well, I guess I'll find out what happens to people who offer sasbe's, because that's what I do with most of the seed I collect.
Jim

It's always been against the rules to ask for a sase in here. You could post up an offer but not post a wanted. If you enjoy doing sase's you may want to post in the Suggestions/Comment forum. There is a thread started asking for a new forum for these kinds of offers/requests. If there is enough interest from our members we might be granted the forum!

A new forum just for sasbe's is a bit pointless. Would there be as much traffic on such a forum as on the exchange lists? One of the best things about GW is the generosity of its members. We have all given and gotten, and been that much the better for it. Rules be darned, sasbes should stay as they are, we can always say no, we are adults, and responsible for ourselves.
"We might be granted the forum" We already have the forum, we should stand up for it.

We've never been able to post requests for seeds except over the past few months since Spike left. So, no we don't already have a forum for this. It would give a lot of nice, new gardeners a chance to post up, introduce themselves and state their needs to help them get started. How about all the folks who suffered from Katrina and the other disasters over the years. They've got to rebuild entire gardens. What a wonderful opportunity it would be for them to let us know they are sitting out there with nothing. There's probably quite a few old timers that respect the rules here and don't chime in to let us know their situation. If one of the best things about GW is the generosity of it's members then why would you think the forum would have no traffic??? There are hundreds of us that give sase's. It would give us a place to go to either respond to a need or advertise what we've got - all in one place. There's no difference between a sase forum and say the seed exchange, plant exchange, etc. Everything's grouped together with like minded people.

We can't just blatantly disregard the rules on this website. How fair is that to the people that agreed to the rules when they signed up for a membership and are abiding by them? How about the ones that AGREE with the rules and are bothered by a stranger coming in to ask for free stuff? Adults or not, people specifically state in their posts they only want to trade and STILL people run in and ask. I don't see why sase's and exchanges need to be intermingled and subject members to that if it doesn't need to be so.

I think a separate forum or even add to here, we have gallery, conversations, & exchanges so add SASBE. It would be someplace we'd all know to go to ask. Acouple of months ago I asked for seeds for my friend in San Antonio for her kinder class, I knew it wasn't the right thing to do but I didn't know how else to get the word out. The response has been wonderful & giving my extra seeds to her has been a blessing. With a grant of $500.00 to start a garden from scratch is working with a tight budget. There may be other teachers out there that could use the help too. Hopefully it will all work out - - see my black mood is lightening up a bit- - the longer I can stay online with all of you

I can't find in the new rules where it says we can't OFFER seeds. I just found the the section that was exactly like the old one, it says you can't ask for seeds or ask for sase's. Could it be that the rules will remain the same? Where did you see that?

That's another great example of someone that would benefit from the forum, teachers! I really see it as a good thing.

On the Suggestions thread, I posted a thought to keep the pages limited on the forum and to ask people to only put up one post. I think that would alleviate people using it as a venue to take advantage of the givers. I might be going out on a limb here, but I venture to say that I think each and everyone that put a post up (that was reasonable) would get a reply. Probably not for plants but certainly for seeds.

You probably would have had too many responses if you were allowed to post! I hope that project was successful; that was a nice thing you did for your friend!

She has had outstanding results so far. I think the request is still here on our exchange forum so it hasn't been pulled. If they don't change Spike's rules we can still offer seeds for free or SASBE. I just went to read it again & that is how I'm understanding it

I am new here and would not be able to get my homeschool butterfly garden moving without such wonderful generous folks. I have seeds ordered but not enough for trades yet. Maybe if the rules get to sticky you can offer seeds in trade for ANYTHING available( empty seed packets, childs coloring page, popsicle stick, bulbs, picture of grandma HA HA) just to stay within the guidelines. It all seems silly if the person who wants to share the seeds is happy to offer sase then it should not bother anyone else. Just the opinion of a newbie. Vicci