I was looking for posts by Herman2 and it says he has been deleted.  Does anyone know if he is okay?

Craig 

I noticed this the other day too. His account is deleted and all of his topics.

He still has his eBay account. Might be able to contact him thru that.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/hermansur

Off: Why are veteran members removing their posts and accounts? Newbies like me come for the knowledge and his posts were useful.

Hang in there! They will be back when the forum turns back into what it was( Figs4fun).There seems to be no moderator to filter out the drama but there are leaders that will step in and make it fun again,count on it! and remember don't sweat the small stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

Oh, no! Vasile was/is definitely a huge mentor for us in the northeast/mid-Atlantic area. His expertise is invaluable. I know I would always use his experience to guide me concerning different varieties available in the past. His descriptions and reports were always something I looked forward to every year. I hope Grant is right, and he comes back when spring rolls around.

Perhaps he got tired of the constant vendettas that I have been seeing lately.

Sad to know that Herman2 is not shown in membership list; sad to know his posts are also deleted, a treasure lost.
I hope he is doing well health-wise.

The forum is evolving and not all changes have helped to keep it as interesting as it was in the past. e.g :

- Too many Off-Topics

- Too long signatures, sometime ten times longer than the message before the signature.
   Sometimes a 6 inch deep signature follows a '3 words post' and repeated after each
   short post.

- Too few poster care to search the forum before asking a question. So the same questions
   have been asked again and again.

-  Too many posts that could have been better addressed using PM.

-  Too many reply posts that include 'quote' of others long posts including many pictures causing the same picture repeated many times in the
    same thread.

-  Good photos, more sales but relatively less technical/botanical info exchange. More selling than trades.

- And don't forget the aging factor of old members but that is not a reason to delete the
   posts

Anyway, it will be good to know what happened in case of such a valuable contributor and a good person leaving the F4F forum.

many of us left due to constant nastiness....

Herman-vasily leaving is a blow to the forum, Alan leaving is not good eithier.

I have been on different kinds of forums, but the situation here is more about a project delayed...and people on opposite sides of the issue. The worst of the lot are "concerned" interlopers.

Deleting old posts is an issue into itself...one has to be mighty upset to do that...and we can't be sure of Hermans motivations unless he told us himself. This could also be another hack, just a possibility the think of...

I'm glad someone is optimistic about the forum returning to its previous grandeur.

I ask returning to where since I am a newbie and reader?  Figs for fun is all that I have known.  
How was it before this?  
How could it have been better?
What Happened?
Should I look elswere for information?
I respected Herman opinions, where did his posts go?
I feel like we were violated by a hack.

;(

Stay here...still some of the best info, and many members actually do care.

Maybe having someone claiming to hunt through old posts to find what figs members are growing to report them to the USDA without grounds has something to do with it. No one wants to have the government called on them simply because someone thinks it's wrong to possess a foreign fig. Additionally there has been a lot of drama here I will admit, even though there is a great deal of great information.

Susieqz, you know that you have lots of friends over here.

@OttawanZ5 
Well stated, should be required reading when signing up.

I don't mind the OT's if they are plant/tree related.

In my few years I have seen 2 or 3 feuds really disrupt the decorum of the forum and have seen the loss of more than a few members over the disruption.

It seems like there is a lot of sales lately and I am not sure that it has been good for the forum, maybe we should have a "Classified" section and not have sales listed or offered in the general forum area.

I would like to see a forum/chat room for the more serious growers, those in the business and have made a significant investment or those doing serious research and development.  Maybe we would not see the most aggravating question, "What is your favorite fig" a hundred times or more or "why does my cuttings have leaves but no roots?"

The last/current major issue is the Greenfin offering with a lot of people supporting both sides.  I couldn't care less about whether he delivers or not but I respectfully add that if it is posted on the forum, all members have the right to comment on any thread/posting.  If people want exclusivity they should use email or PM.

One thing for sure, If there is a problem child, they will most likely be gone in a short while, newer shiny objects or something seem to limit how long a lot of people stay.

Sorry for the RANT.

Really sorry to see valued members driven away by foolishness.

Danny, your input is not a rant but makes good sense to me.

When posting I was also thinking of too many 'sales' post but skipped mentioning it thinking it could be just seasonal issue. Having a "Classified" section is a good idea.

 

Classified/trade section would be perfect.

Herman was a great resource for information on growing figs in the northeast, and losing the archive of his posts is a sad loss for the community as a whole. I hope all is well with him and that he does return to share his insights.

The classified would be nice so long as it didn't turn into a mini eBay with people posting cuttings very highly priced. I don't see a problem 5$ or less in general forum though.

@devisgro
There is a way of handling that....IF THE PRICE IS TOO HIGH, DON"T BUY!!  I call it market driven pricing.

I don't/didn't mean to hijack the thread, send email/PM to discuss this further.

Ugh, like others have stated there was no member whose posts were more useful to me in the mid-atlantic area than were Herman2's.  I haven't been here so often lately as I have had a lot of other distractions in my life recently so have no idea why this happened.  This forum has always had its good and bad periods. My approach has been to either ignore or not participate in the squabbles but to participate in the useful threads.  It does seem like the more the forum is about buying and selling, the more ugly threads we seem to have unfortunately.

Sorry to hear Herman2 leave the forum.
He shared his experience, knowledge and opinions on the forum to help others grow figs and help identify them. 
He grew many figs in ground in a cool climate so his shared experience and advice was very valuable to cool climate fig growers.

Hope he comes back to the forum.
If not it will be even more important for the rest of us to come forward with our experiences and advise for others and spread the love of ficus carica.

personal comment;
The postings on this forum have been over the top recently. 
Most people here are fig enthusiasts and for the longest time this was a community of people with common interests sharing and helping each other and a database on fig cultivar descriptions and images.
I think the majority of members want this back.  All that has to happen is for people to be reasonable and stop posting accusations, insults and false information. 
Get in the spirit of it and make 2017 better.

I couldn't agree more Joe! The word Fig always makes me grin and that's why we are here!

Hi Ottawan, 

Perhaps we could develop an easy code to be used with posts that way people can easily identify if they are interested in reading the thread. If everyone on this thread started to use it, I'm sure it would catch on. 

For Example;
OT- Off Topic
4Sale
OP-Opinion
LtF- Looking to Fight 

I'm open to suggestions and could compile such a list if you want to PM me.



 

If everyone treated each other with even the smallest amount of respect,
personal jabs not relating to topic would be over.

The smallest amount of respect to each other would be a good start
in sharing experience, jealousy has no place in a conversation.

I miss the old experienced members mgg blb, and others that have
the years behind them with something worthwhile to say.

Too may new members join then think they run the show.
Jon runs the show, or this wouldn't be available.

I have pissed off people with the fact that the growing zone WILL
affect your success with figs. It is just a fact, and those in colder zones have more hurdles
to get over to have the same results as those in warmer zones.
It seems there are more members from zones that struggle to grow figs
than people who live in zones where figs are simple to grow. Dont
know why.
I personally commit to try to help the fig community, the personal attacks get responded
to just as they are given. I do not enjoy it.
I have made this post about me, yes.
But I accept when I am wrong and man enough to apologize if need be.
Personal attacks have no place in this forum.
Its all about respect for each other that would change the feel
of this forum.
Just my opinion but I felt it worth sharing.

Doug