#gardenchat
Mondays, 9 p.m. (ET) – 10:00 p.m.
What do you get when you add one garden topic, one guest host who specializes in that topic, an avid and friendly group of gardeners and Twitter? The answer is #gardenchat, a forum for sharing all things growing as well as a host of other topics that relate to the gardening community. It’s fun, inspiring, informational and fast paced. VERY fast paced…the ideas, answers and questions all flying at Twitter warp-speed which can lead to a bit of confusion and unanswered questions. We can’t have that!
Welcome to the new format for #gardenchat. The format is similar to other chats on Twitter, with questions submitted beforehand and discussed in order that they are answered. Here’s how it will work:
- Starting Monday and continuing throughout the week, the new #gardenchat topic and guest host will be announced. There will also be a link to a form where you can submit a question you have about the upcoming topic (you can also click the gardenchat icon on the right sidebar of my blog). Your questions can be entered at any time during the week up until Thursday at 11 p.m. (ET) to allow the guest host time to prepare their answers.
- Your questions will be given to the guest host who will choose which to answer based on the time allotted. The new format will also allow for a brief live question/answer period as well (see below).
- #Gardenchat will now be broken up into three sections:
- 9 p.m. (ET)- 9:10 will be reserved for greetings and introductions.
- 9:10 – 9:45 is reserved for the answers to submitted questions. Each question will have a brief discussion immediately following the answer. (Discussion times will vary according to the number of questions being answered by the guest host.)
- 9:45 – 10:00 is reserved for live questions, answers and open discussion.
My hope is that the new format will make it easier to follow the conversation as well as insure as many questions as possible are answered. The last 15 minutes may still be fast-paced… but hey, after all that is part of the fun! Thank you for joining in every week and I look forward to our next #gardenchat!
*A special thank-you to a certain garden friend with a Brown Thumb for all of your help, I truly appreciate it.*
This is great! idea Lisa. I wish I could participate more but I live in the Pacific time zone, 9-10 PM EST time slot is usually filled with working late or preparing dinner.
This is great…. I love being organized while in the garden. Thank you so much for heading up such a wonderful network about gardening!
Let me know if there is anything I can help you with dear Lisa – not that you need it because you totally have it going on in the garden shares department.
I like this idea a lot. It’ll eliminate a lot of retweets and allow for more Q&A, yet still allow some time for the necessary craziness
@SolakNC
I’m sorry you can’t participate often Melanie, please do remember to check the transcript each week to catch up on what we are discussing. It’s full of great information (and laughs)!
Bren you are a sweetheart! Thank you! It’s always more fun when we all work together.
Thanks, I agree. Hopefully we’ll be able to share more information and more questions will get answered. I think the new format will make the transcript a lot easier to read as well.
This format sounds like it will make for a greatly enhanced chat – I’m offering two tips from other chats (I’m co-host of Wed note’s #SmallBizChat and participate in several others- I also run @ChatHelp on Twitter – If U DM topic & Guest – I’ll RT it weekly. I’m also pals with @greensoil too)
Tips: Number the questions & include the Question # in both the Question & the answer for example(Qu1 when & how often should I fertilize my tomatoes? A1 every xyz days/weeks depending on the weather. It helps people follow along – and others in chat may pick it up too.
Also a GREAT tip I learned from @JylMomIF of #GNO (Girls Night Out) – is to make the questions all capital letters – it really helps them stand out in whatever format you are using o fun your chat.
I’m excited about the new format. #gardenchat is already a great source for information, now it will be even better.
[...] @GetintheGarden is both garden-blogging guru and co-hostess for a weekly online get-together: #gardenchat. (Held every Monday night on Twitter, 9P [...]
Thank you, Cathy, for helping to make our chat a fun and organized way to share information!
I agree, this new format will make sure the information doesn’t get lost in the fun we’re having!
Looks great, Lisa! Should bring more order to the chat, make it easier for folks to follow along, get Qs answered, and easier for the Host/hostess, as well
Who is our host/hostess this Monday? I love gardenchat!
Oh thank you, I can’t claim the credit for the idea but I am VERY thankful for the suggestion. I agree, chatting is always fun but I wanted to be sure people were getting answers to their questions as well. Hopefully the new format will do both! New guest hosts and the topics are always posted on my blog now, just click on the gardenchat icon in the right sidebar…and don’t forget you can suggest a topic too!