I must salute Garg ji and few other members doing the great job updating our website and correcting identifications, if any ones are wrong. I must also point out that interactions have greatly reduced in recent months. If I find any interesting plant I upload in this group as well as some Facebook Groups. Whereas on Facebook groups I get more than 100 likes and several comments within first hour, identification within minutes for my unknown plants, on this group the only person responding is Garg ji, of course with his expert comments, I find most other members hardly interacting. Could we think of finding ways to increase interactions of old veterans?.    


When you find that you are sharing some literature or interesting image in the group but not getting reply even from a single member, it is certainly discouraging!


Very true! Membership increasing without result.


Yes Gurcharan ji … somewhere along the journey, the tinkle and charm of interacting has got lost … I do not know when I myself came out of  that mode, and I cannot find any good reason for such development in me. Active posters do not get any reactions, as such they are getting tamed and used – to posting selflessly.
But I am strongly wishful that feedback icons – just as in other social media – get applied in Google Groups. That will certainly boost spontaneous participation of members in appreciating and reacting to active posts and posters.


I agree with your views, that the interactions on this forum have drastically declined, and it is Garg Ji who keep on interacting, despite all the limitations..
He is making best efforts to manage the huge data gathered in due course of time, and certainly it is boosted by small number of new posts… but this is nothing to feel pleased of..!!
Saroj Ji keep postings on, you have also restarted after a long gap, Dinesh Ji too keep on posting every now and then.. many members, including myself, have gone silent due to one or the other reasons…!! 
I always wished for restoration of interactions, as you have desired, but I remember that even in the most interactive phase, only few members kept on interacting on regular basis..compared to the total number of members..!! 
As said by Tapas Ji, if any of the post remains unresponsive/unattended, the poster certainly feels bad..and it must be avoided, if possible..!!
Having discussed the problem, I now wish that we come out with some suggestions or decision about sharing of responsibilities…and for the time being, we should accept this platform as it is, because it is not openly interactive like facebook groups..who knows the technical advancement offers some newer versions/options to make the deliberations instantly publicised/appreciated..
Being open has its disadvantages too..
I personally see my inbox as frequently as I see facebook posts..though I may not be able to respond as frequently as clicking the like button of FB..
All I know is, interacting on eFI is far better than any of the facebook activities..Let us hope to resume the action….!! 


Sir, I was busy with my other assignments. 

I’ll surely start interacting again after 2-3 months. 
We always enjoy your posts whenever get time.


Thanks, Singh ji and others for your valuable inputs.
I think need of the hour is to change ourselves. I think following changes in approach is required:
1. To be satisfied by posting (without expecting many thank you mails) with the promise that it will appear in our database and will be looked into by hundreds of people all over the world over a period of time (although again without thank you mails) and mistakes, if any, will be noticed and rectified over a period of time (if not immediately). Today, if any resource is more seen all over the world, it is efloraofindia (as far as Indian resources are concerned). Thank you mails are a two way sword. Although it may encourage the posting member, it may distract others by making them see the same material again and again, every time thank you mail is posted.
2. Post high resolution/ original images, for seeing minute details like those (or better) seen in large resolution specimens. This way these valuable images will never be lost. Future publications all over the world may like to rely more on efloraofindia, if such details are available (may be without giving any credit directly to it, being a secondary source). We have no issue as far as size is concerned except that it has to be less than 8 Mb to be posted on the group. Saroj ji has already done a great job in this regard.  
3. To get more and more serious members (those who post complete details) to post on the group. One way is to help with quick ids and another is to make all out efforts so that difficult ids are finally nailed even in a larger time frame. For this, any of the experts on the group may help as and when he can spare time. I have the feeling that actual constructive output has never gone down, but in fact increased over a period of time. This may be attributed to the fact that we now have a large database with textual and photographic keys along with other details. Thanks to the earlier contributions by hundreds of our valuable members. If all the ids get settled in say seven days time, I may get more time to sort out more and more genera every month in our site and make comparative images with keys along with rectifying the wrong identifications (This job can also be taken up by any of the experts/ members, but so far no one has come forward except some efforts made by Chadwell ji in the past. What any of the experts can do is look at all the species in a genus in our site and point out mistakes, if any wrong identifications. This job has now become easier as most of the images on our site are already displayed above every thread).
In this group, all the selfless contributions are duly recognised and kept on record for posterity, for members to be more satisfied and they can boast of such work in any forum.


Rightly said Mr. Garg,
Bhagbat Gita says :  कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन । मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भुर्मा ते संगोऽस्त्वकर्मणि !
Still human nature expects some acknowledgements and interactions


I truly understand Gurcharan sirs point and so agree that interactions have went down. However I will never compare our group with a Facebook group. I can’t say all but I estimate that almost 60% of people there have no idea and they don’t understand what’s going on. Some are even addicted to Facebook. If I make one response I get ten friendship request on Facebook. So much so that they even send. Add request to my fiancé and she asks me if I know them. 

Many of them copy paste. People like Gurcharan sir many other members of this group are not looking for praises, they have crossed that period of their life and only looking to help others selflessly. So I would say don’t get disheartened.
As for activity on our group I had been at the same speed long time back and I used to comment on others but then I made some mistakes and realised that I should not be trying to guess plant names which I have less idea about. I work on Orchidaceae and I have a bit of knowledge of Thismiaceae so I focus on these (never got anything from second family).
I also have no words for Garg sir who takes so much time meticulously sending id requests to particular members and organising each family one by one. I don’t think I have such patience and capabilities. As for my side I can assure that I will try to be more active. Although I never liked thank you replies so I never sent or replied. 
Kudos to all members who have kept on the speed and we are not just a team but a family, and we will always be.
I really wish to mention here the DANADAN contribution of Saroj sir. He is such a restless guy posting pictures almost every day. I seriously can’t do that!! We should name him DANADAN POSTER ON EFLORAOFINDIA!!


Yes, a single dedicated individual like Saroj ji can make so much of a difference with the support of our team.


Thank you for your realistic comments and feedback Pankaj. I am all smiles for your title bestowed upon me.😁!


Yes Pankaj you are right on many things

My quota of 5,000 on Facebook is over, so I can’t take any more. My wife keeps on getting requests from my friends as she has my first name in the middle of her name, keeps on asking me who this one is?. Don’t think Garg ji that I am disappointed with not getting likes or praises, as Pankaj pointed out we have passed that age. I was only warning the moderators of the situation that activity in the group may not totally die out, which I am visualizing in near future. I admire your great dedication in compiling database, and wish others may join you to complete this great job, but my aim is on future. We may not reach a stage when we say ……there was an email group known as efloraofindia……The groups run with actively participating members. It was my duty to issue a warning, it is up to members to take it seriously or not.
     When I open my gmail in the morning (in fact it remains open whole day, as I open multiple tabs), 98 % of mails are about garg ji updating a page or knowing/confirming id of a disputed plant, to which also I don’t find expected response, and hardly any new uploads other than odd ones by Saroj ji or Aarti ji.
     Wish members take it more seriously than they do presently.  


Thanks, Singh ji.
Yes, I agree with you. But we can only request members to actively participate, but can not force anyone.
Now the question comes, how to make them come forward and make them devote their precious time for efloraofindia?


Yes Garg ji

I keep on doing that regularly. I receive numerous requests with images on my WhatsApp, Facebook messenger for identification, I ask them to send images to efloraofindia or my Facebook groups, some of which, frankly speaking are very efficient, several expert taxonomists always online. We have to face that reality.


So crystal clear thoughts without any vanity from everyone in this post above.


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