The History of THE SARRACENIA FORUM
Mar 11, 2015 16:07:26 GMT -5
Iwest, goodkoalie, and 22 more like this
Post by meizzwang on Mar 11, 2015 16:07:26 GMT -5
I just wrote this long story in an email to a friend (it has been edited), so I thought this will become an important timeless thread as the forum evolves. Perhaps this will be an ongoing thread and others can add to it as time passes by. Many of you may wonder how did this whole Sarracenia forum thing get started? Well, here's the story through the eyes of Mike Wang:
Back in 2010, I tried to submit a Darlingtonia article to the ICPS and I didn't hear back from them even after a few follow up emails. They NEVER replied! Fortunately, my friend investigated for me and found out what was going on. He informed me the article wasn't appropriate because they wanted to see more hard science with graphs and charts (data) that you can enjoy reading "over a hard cup of coffee." I had merely written a field trip report (like what you see on this forum). Also, they had too many amateur field trip reports about other CP's in the past, so they wanted something new and credible. To their credit, they have an international reputation to stand by, but perhaps they were a bit hyper-vigilant. I suppose my observations, photos and stories weren't deemed worthy at the time unless there was hard data to back it up. I gave up on them and this rejection is what motivated me to become more active online.
The Italians caught wind of the trip reports after I started becoming more active on other forums (ie. CPUK), and Maurizio of the AIPC asked me to write something for them, so it was a slam dunk. They did an outstanding job on the article and took my amateur work and made it look professional.
CP Politics are strange: when nobody knows your name, your information isn't valid or valued. When everyone has heard of you, people come to you out of nowhere non-stop and treat you like a celebrity. All of the sudden, the same stuff you wrote about years ago that nobody wanted or believed is now valid and in high demand.
After the Darlingtonia article was published, people started to recognize me, and I was showered with emails from all over the world (it wasn't that great of an article, but the Italians made me look like a pro with their amazing editing skills). With all the momentum picking up, I decided it was the right time to centralize a place online to educate the world on Sarracenias (this is all I know in life, LOL).
I stumbled upon the Sarracenia Forum, and it had been there for maybe 8 months with 4 or 5 members. It was totally dead and didn't seem to have a future. There were about 6-7 other new CP forums, but all of them were pretty much dead. I think 1 of those have survived.
I told Jonathan Mejia (creator of the Sarracenia Forums) that I will help turn his empty home into a live, active site that will be the world's foremost resource for Sarracenia. Of course, Jonathan seemed skeptical yet enthusiastic. He was the right person for that job: he's such an easy going dude, and followed through with every last request that is agreed upon. He listens to your suggestions but will also give you other solutions if he doesn't believe you have the best idea. His work ethic is unstoppable!
After getting a good feeling that Jonathan was the man to work with, I devoted countless hours on the forum. I worked on it for years, uploading pictures, writing descriptions, clone by clone, and built the Sarracenia photo library from scratch (today, we have multiple authors, thanks to our members!).
Others caught on and made it stronger. Jonathan continued to improve the site and solicited feedback from the members on how to make it better. As we gained members, we recruited others to advertise on other forums, got friends to advertise on facebook, twitter, tumblr, instagram, blogs, etc. and 4 years later, I think Jonathan is now starting to believe that the vision is coming to fruition. Today, people organically find the Forum via google searches and social media.
As it stands, our members who visit every day and contribute their love and passion for Sarracenia are the ones who are holding the fort(you know who you are) and they are the reason we are so strong today. I am grateful for you all! It's not just me, my close Sarracenia friends, and Jonathan anymore.
This is where we are today, March 11, 2015.
To be continued......
-Mike
Back in 2010, I tried to submit a Darlingtonia article to the ICPS and I didn't hear back from them even after a few follow up emails. They NEVER replied! Fortunately, my friend investigated for me and found out what was going on. He informed me the article wasn't appropriate because they wanted to see more hard science with graphs and charts (data) that you can enjoy reading "over a hard cup of coffee." I had merely written a field trip report (like what you see on this forum). Also, they had too many amateur field trip reports about other CP's in the past, so they wanted something new and credible. To their credit, they have an international reputation to stand by, but perhaps they were a bit hyper-vigilant. I suppose my observations, photos and stories weren't deemed worthy at the time unless there was hard data to back it up. I gave up on them and this rejection is what motivated me to become more active online.
The Italians caught wind of the trip reports after I started becoming more active on other forums (ie. CPUK), and Maurizio of the AIPC asked me to write something for them, so it was a slam dunk. They did an outstanding job on the article and took my amateur work and made it look professional.
CP Politics are strange: when nobody knows your name, your information isn't valid or valued. When everyone has heard of you, people come to you out of nowhere non-stop and treat you like a celebrity. All of the sudden, the same stuff you wrote about years ago that nobody wanted or believed is now valid and in high demand.
After the Darlingtonia article was published, people started to recognize me, and I was showered with emails from all over the world (it wasn't that great of an article, but the Italians made me look like a pro with their amazing editing skills). With all the momentum picking up, I decided it was the right time to centralize a place online to educate the world on Sarracenias (this is all I know in life, LOL).
I stumbled upon the Sarracenia Forum, and it had been there for maybe 8 months with 4 or 5 members. It was totally dead and didn't seem to have a future. There were about 6-7 other new CP forums, but all of them were pretty much dead. I think 1 of those have survived.
I told Jonathan Mejia (creator of the Sarracenia Forums) that I will help turn his empty home into a live, active site that will be the world's foremost resource for Sarracenia. Of course, Jonathan seemed skeptical yet enthusiastic. He was the right person for that job: he's such an easy going dude, and followed through with every last request that is agreed upon. He listens to your suggestions but will also give you other solutions if he doesn't believe you have the best idea. His work ethic is unstoppable!
After getting a good feeling that Jonathan was the man to work with, I devoted countless hours on the forum. I worked on it for years, uploading pictures, writing descriptions, clone by clone, and built the Sarracenia photo library from scratch (today, we have multiple authors, thanks to our members!).
Others caught on and made it stronger. Jonathan continued to improve the site and solicited feedback from the members on how to make it better. As we gained members, we recruited others to advertise on other forums, got friends to advertise on facebook, twitter, tumblr, instagram, blogs, etc. and 4 years later, I think Jonathan is now starting to believe that the vision is coming to fruition. Today, people organically find the Forum via google searches and social media.
As it stands, our members who visit every day and contribute their love and passion for Sarracenia are the ones who are holding the fort(you know who you are) and they are the reason we are so strong today. I am grateful for you all! It's not just me, my close Sarracenia friends, and Jonathan anymore.
This is where we are today, March 11, 2015.
To be continued......
-Mike
). 
Here are images of plant progress on 03/16/2023