Quote:
Originally Posted by ddsack
Glad you enjoyed your time fiddling with the SSExchange.
I don't have a current print yearbook, so can't compare - but I'm pretty sure that each description is exactly like what that person has used in the print yearbook. If it's different, it would only be because someone has updated their info since it was last printed.
Yes, if you click on the blue link, you get taken to individual record for that person, and you can see how many and which years he has listed that variety and that's all.
But if you were logged in with a password, you would additionally be able to view here the person's name and seed price, and there would be another link for his profile information, and a link for their listings.
The listings are in a chart form, and include everything they have ever listed, in columns with additional information, such as whether currently available, sufficient quantity etc. Very impressive for some long time listers! As an example, Neil Lockhart's chart is 82 pages and 2,032 entries. Just really great historical records, all in one place.
Sure you don't want to get a password?  |
First, in my post above yours I noted that the Heritage magazine I just got said it was the first time that non SSE members could participate..
And in post 10 this was written
(Is that the annual yearbook rather than the exchange? It's not clear on the website that one has to request a variety from the yearbook rather than the exchange. Either way, it's listed on the seedsavers.org website. I wasn't aware that they were separate entities.)
I really missed the boat on this one. Yes,it's the original one that was first put up that I have discussed here as to how many times they tried to get it to work and when sending in my new info and asking for others to be deleted we had the option of listing in just the Yearbook OR the new online one.I did it once ,Joanne T did it for me and once was enough for me for the online one.
So there is no exchange as I know it, I'm offering this,what have you got that I might want. It was named the Exchange b'c that's the name of SSE as in Seed Savers Exchange.
http://seedsavers.org/join
I looked at the site and here's what I saw,this for SSE only,not the exchange
Various categories of membership, no definition,really,of what you get except for paperless
But when I saw the cost for a Lifetime membership,I really gulped,it was $1500. I paid 500 in the early 90's. What's the explanation for that? Expected inflation?
Nowhere could I find what it costs for those in other countries to receive the Yearbook and they do.Last I knew your member allowed you to get the Yearbook if you lived in Mexico or Caanada.
Then I saw that the seed exchange was a community swap,swap to me means I give you this and you give me that in exchange, viz, a trade.
Then I saw it was only for heirloom seeds. In the few pages I read I seem to recall not all were heirloom ones.Dee, for sure you've read many more pages than I did,probably several hundreds and did you see any that were not heirloom ones,as in ones bred by others,etc.
And why so many offering seeds for the same variety?Makes sense since it relates to how many listed a variety in the Yearbook.
In the current 2017 Yearbook there are 18 listing Cherokee Purple, but you won't see that many listings for it in the exchange since not all who list it would chose to participate in the Exchange
There were 9 in the Yearbook who listed Eva Purple Ball, again, I doubt you'll see that many listing in the exchange.
So why would so many list in the exchange,that is current members. If they see something they want to add to their seed stash they could get it,do seed production and list it in the Yearbook where they could and do charge money for those seeds.
Why are they now allowing non members to participate?That's also an easy one for me,but I have to explain first.
You won't find this chart in the 2017 Yearbook but it's in the 2016 one and all others prior to 2016.
There were 710 Listed members in 2015, but in 2014 there were only 598,that's a huge drop
I think they are hoping that the non members,some of them anyway,will decide to join and become,hopefully listed members. Just my opinion.
So what I see is that the only ones participating that will do just fine are those who are large listers of varieties in the Yeabook and those would include just to name a few
Neil Lockhart in IL
Al Andson in OH
Bill Minkey in WI
Dale Thurber in Utah
If it were a different year,perhaps Tania
Maybe even Andrey in Belarus who used to list a lot in the Yearbook as well.
Ilex, aka Paco in Spain always has lots of listings
I know I'm forgetting some, but whatever.
And when I look at the new Excutive Director who is replacing Torgimson,I see his background is primarily in advertising.
So what happend to the original mission of SSE and the Yearbooks,which was seed preservation, it's gone since IMO the yearbook has become just another seed catalog for many, especially the catalog they send out each Fall that anyone can buy seeds from.
I'm glad I got out when the getting was good,as a listed member,and that as I posted here somewhere when two of the men I talked to when I wanted all my listing to be deleted, asked if I would donate all my seeds to SSE and I said I'd think about it just to be polite.
And said nothing about Tville and the many countries I i source seeds from and what wonderful friends I've made in all of those countries.
Lastly, listings in the Yearbooks change every year,folks run out of seeds,sickness, just don't want to list again. etc. So nothing in the Yearbooks is static, it changes all the time.
And that will obviously be true of the old but now newer version of the exchange as well.
Carolyn
Carolyn