I get the emails instantly. One great advantage of doing so is that each email has identification, so you know all about that email without opening it.
Let me describe how your email was identified:
From: Janet Berg
Subject: Advertisements Appearing in Orchid [Site Feedback and Questions][Ganoksin Orchid]
Date: 12/5/2016 5:17am
Notice the Subject line, which first shows the name of the thread, then it shows the Category [Site Feedback and Questions]. This is how you selectively open only the emails in the category you want to read, and save the other categories such as [Jewelry Gallery] to read later.
I learned years ago that the Digest version did not work for me.
Whenever I check my email, I can read the few Orchid emails that have arrived. Thus I’m never confronted with a depressingly large amount of Orchid emails at any one time. Furthermore, my reply is more timely. Back when I received the digest, my reply would not appear in the digest for two days, and by that time, the group had already moved on to other topics.
Hi Mary - They are posting lots of pictures without attendant discussions because that’s the intention of the “Jewelry Gallery” category where they are posting. @meevis is posting his instructional-oriented stuff in the “Jewelry Discussion” category, because his stuff is tutorial-related. You can “mute” jewelry gallery category in your settings if you like, then updates in that category won’t be shown. You can email us at “support@ganoksin.com” for assistance if you need help.
I believe you can mute the categories you don’t wish to receive in your digest settings. The new version of the forum software has some more augmented features for controlling content, we will likely get that live when it is a stable release (90-120 days).
And yes, almost 2,000 Orchidians have opted to receive every post as a new email. Believe me, I would love it (and they would love it) if they turned that mailing list mode feature off… the best way to use this forum is to login, play with settings, and stay logged in (either on your phone or on your desktop computer).
FYI all - these ads have been changed to leaderboard style instead of square and will now appear every 4-5 posts. Looks and works much better. Thanks for the feedback.
And yes, almost 2,000 Orchidians have opted to receive every post as a
new email. Believe me, I would love it (and they would love it) if
they turned that mailing list mode feature off… the best way to use
this forum is to login, play with settings, and stay logged in (either
on your phone or on your desktop computer).
Tastes differ. As to “play with settings”, I /really/ dislike Easter
egg hunts, like having to click on an avatar or other things to find out
if there are controls hidden off that. It seems every website that does
such things has their own way of doing it, and it doesn’t take too many
websites for that to be absurd. Once in a while I still find something
like that in Windows, which I’ve been using for over 20 years. That’s
not what I would consider a good interface design. As I said, tastes
differ, and many will disagree with me and are happy with the Ganoksin
website, which /is/ very attractive. I’m not interested in having to
go on hunts to find ways to do things, many of which I wouldn’t even
know existed because they are hidden, and if that was the only way to
use Orchid I would drop out.
On the other hand, I can understand the extra burden imposed by sending
individual emails rather than a single digest or having users stay on
the website. I’m happy to pay more for the overhead I’m causing, for
having things the way I like them. I haven’t seen a way to send
donations. I have looked, a bit, maybe didn’t see what was right before
my eyes. Is there a way? How?
Hi Neil - thanks for your comments. Indeed, the only reason I’ve left mailing list mode as an option is because I wanted to maintain members who I felt would otherwise contribute less (or not at all) if I didn’t enable it. My hope is that we have enough members and enough advertisers to support the functionality, but in the meantime, I am subsidizing it with my own money as I feel the contributions of these members are too important to risk losing.
Thanks also for your generous offer to support us. The best way to do so is to become a paying Gold or Platinum member… you can do so here. Membership - Ganoksin Jewelry Making Community
If you have any problems doing so, you can always email us and we are happy to help. We are at support@ganoksin.com
ohhh! the leaderboard style is very appealing! It seems like there is more real estate for images as well. (I hope their effectiveness as advertising is improved as well!)
Hunting for something on a website is just like hunting for anything in real life. I never thought of it as a search for something hidden, unless that thing was hidden on purpose (like my list of passwords, which in my effort to hide from others, ended up permanently hidden from myself).
But you are referring to things that are not purposely hidden, it’s more like they are in storage. It’s like organizational storage.
My workspace doesn’t have enough storage space, and tools clutter every horizontal surface. Having more drawers to store that stuff would be very helpful.
It’s not necessary to remember which drawer to look in. I don’t mind looking in every drawer, because what I’m looking for is in one of these drawers.
This mental image of drawers is the way I think of webpage organization, it’s like a room with more than one chest of drawers. I can find what I’m looking for if I look in every drawer, and over time I will learn exactly which chest of drawers contains what I need.
Sure, it can consume a bit of extra time, but in terms of human learning, it’s easy.
Having been the caregiver of a parent with Alzheimer’s, I’ve seen life when learning is no longer possible, and I’m grateful for nearly every learning challenge that confronts me, especially if it’s something easy to learn.
This mental image of drawers is the way I think of webpage organization, it’s like a room with more than one chest of drawers. I can find what I’m looking for if I look in every drawer, and over time I will learn exactly which chest of drawers contains what I need.
There is a mansion on the river at the outskirts of town (full-fledged,
not a McMansion) and I was told the owner has at least 4 others
throughout the country. I was told they are all identical down to the
furnishings in each room, the clothing in the closets, etc. etc. This
is so the owners always feel at home and know where everything is no
matter which mansion they are in at the time.
Websites are not like that. Every one is different, each one is its own
puzzle to figure out. I’m simply not interested in having to look in
every closet, open every drawer, look behind picture frames or try to
move bookcases to see if there is a hidden door behind them, until I
have all the websites I visited completely mapped in my mind. They go
and change them anyway. Phooey.
As a former programmer and web developer I have very strong feelings
about simplicity of design. Maybe I am old school (O.K. I am) but I
think a button to click on should look like a button and an icon should
be just a picture. That way it is clear which images actually do
something and which serve only as labels. That clarity has gone by the
boards.
I have no criticism for Ganoksin, nor for the job Seth has done as a
designer. There is so much functionality built into the website that
the simplicity and clarity I want would be incredibly hard to design,
and probably impossible. Be that as it may, I’m not into turning over
every rock to see what might be under it. I will use the website only
as a last resort, and treasure getting Orchid as individual emails instead.
Seth pointed out that he is paying out of his own pocket to facilitate
that. That shouldn’t be. I asked for a way to donate to pay my way and
he suggested being a gold or platinum member instead. There is no way
on earth I could afford platinum on Rio Grande, but I can afford
platinum on Ganoksin. How cool is that?
To the majority who prefer the website, mazel tov! For less flexible
folk like me, thank you Seth for keeping the email option.
Many thanks for these kind words. For clarity’s sake, we actually operate TWO websites. One is Orchid, located here at orchid.ganoksin.com. Orchid is the forum, which many users of Ganoksin.com also participate in. The second is Ganoksin.com of course, which is a large educational resource containing thousands of articles and videos. Ganoksin itself is a free resource. The money we spend to upgrade it comes from Orchid/Ganoksin “members” and advertisers whose ads appear amongst, beside, and on top of the “free” resource content. Those advertisers pay us because our content is highly relevant to that which they sell to you guys, the folks who consume the content and (presumably) their products. We take that money and re-invest it in improving the content and Orchid.
A website is never done… it’s just one long list of priorities, upgrades and to-do lists. We keep going and hopefully the community and traffic keeps growing.
Again, you are too kind. I do think membership is a very good deal, and unlike the old “donations” system, it provides a predictable and recurring revenue stream to finance our operations. As for paying out of my own pocket, such is the way of things… the business will take some time to grow to a place where it can sustain itself, likely a couple of years. As we keep adding new members, and hopefully old members continue paying, things will get easier and easier and I will surely recoup my investment. Plus I get a nice tax deduction in the meantime I am fortunate in that I do not rely on any income from Ganoksin/Orchid to keep me in the “lifestyle to which I have grown accustomed” So I am able to re-invest all of the membership fees and advertising dollars into more content, more website improvements, and marketing to make the site grow larger and larger. I do this stuff because I like building things and preserving/restoring things, and I love people who create things. I think it’s cool, that’s why I do it. A long way of saying, take no pity on me! But if you find what we do here to be valuable to you OR to others, being a paying member is a big help to us and we appreciate it.
I am fortunate in that I do not rely on any income from Ganoksin/Orchid to keep me in the “lifestyle to which I have grown accustomed” 
So I am able to re-invest all of the membership fees and advertising dollars into more content, more website improvements, and marketing to make the site grow larger and larger. I do this stuff because I like building things and preserving/restoring things, and I love people who create things. I think it’s cool, that’s why I do it. A long way of saying, take no pity on me! But if you find what we do here to be valuable to you OR to others, being a paying member is a big help to us and we appreciate it.