As far as suspicious, new users collecting large amounts of money - for shipping or anything else - is suspicious because you’re new. It’s that simple. You could disappear tomorrow, taking all the money people have sent you, and there would be no consequences. There’s no argument you can make against that other than sticking around, and it’s something many new users deal with if they start trying to trade right off the bat.
As far as it being his issue if he doesn’t like how you operate, you’ve already said yourself that you’re a breeder with years of experience, told us about your old genetics company, and said that you’re trying to prove the value of your work by giving stuff out for free. Another word for this behavior would be marketing. That’s against the rules of the forum; only sponsors can use the forum for marketing, and they pay for the privilege. I’m not a moderator, and I’m not particularly trying to stop you from doing this, but it might help you understand why you aren’t being greeted entirely with open arms and cheers as you seem to think you should be.
Dunno, I’m prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt; if they’ve been working as a breeder for a stable company for years and now have to market on social media, there’s probably a fair bit of culture shock. That said, I’m also not trying to trade with them, and I can see why you’d be annoyed if they insist on a $10 tracked package even when you’ve offered other solutions… I certainly wouldn’t be sending them money until a few people report back that they’ve gotten their packages, if they’re not budging.
I’m new to this side of things and sincerely apologize for my naivety. I’m a breeder and a grower and that has been all I’ve done for a long time, I should’ve looked more into the rules and understood more what I was doing so as not to ruffle any feathers. Sincerely just love this plant and what I do and got ahead of myself.
great – will do – I want to start running “regs” feel you ca get a true-er grow - with female seeds sure you get a good seed of that strain but it has been “worked” so tosay. regs are straight up either male/female from the original genetics thoughts ??? list is forth coming @Crafty_Flame Thanks
Much like yourself , I am a grower, “breeder” and a lover of this fine plant we are blessed with. When I joined OG I lurked for a long time after registering. Was only the tail end of last summer that I spent more time logged in and participating. I was careful not to mention the business side of my life here until I actually decided I was going to make a home here.
I found that the best way to get your seeds into the hands of growers here was to participate in the free seeds and clones thread and just give them away i the random giveaways in that thread. I was not concerned about tracking , I just sent the seeds out with stamps. I got the odd offer from people to send me stamps but they were all in the U.S. so they could not get Canadian stamps unless they bought them from resellers like on ebay.
I would politely suggest you switch gears and give seeds away thru that thread.
Continuing with my own story, I messaged the site owner and asked about becoming a sponsor, which would enable me to freely grow and discuss my projects and seeds. We worked out an ammicable arrangement that included an auction of my seeds to support OG, with 100% of the proceeds going to the site. Was a win/win for both myself and the site owner so you might ask to do the same?
Would like to see more of your work and you do sound like good people by way of reading your posts. This place is a little fickle but you will always get a line up if you shout free seeds LOL Personally I want to see the seeds I send out actually get grown out and not just added to a collection so as a sponsor I can advertise/request testers which I can then be selective as to who actually grows and who just collects hehehe
Anyhow, it’s good to see you here, I really dig the genetics you are working so it would be nice to see you stick around.
Personally I did not see any branding or marketing involved here. You are promoting your work as a newcomer which is true, but you haven’t mentioned a website, insta account, company name, brand label or anything.
Marketing on overgrow can be a touchy subject but from my perspective you haven’t done anything wrong. My only advice would be to ignore people who seem to have petty complaints.
ya , this too. hehehe
I too have had several “flagged” posts when i started hanging out here LOL
gotta have thick skin I guess.
as long as zephyr and lemonade joe aren’t the ones flagging the posts yer all good!
Thank you sincerely for the positive vibes, I’m a sensitive guy anyway (I think I smoke too much weed lol) but I was really feeling like I did something wrong.
The auction advice was stellar too, I already messaged Lemonade and offered just that
I think what you need to keep in mind @Crafty_Flame is nobody here knows you at all. Your first post was to offer up seeds if people sent you shipping money. Instantly that set’s off red flags for some. This is why my first response to you was to suggest you show some grow journals of your work. I am part of a Discord called the Canadian Seed Testing Alliance and what we do is get breeders to join and pass out their wares to testers who want to grow and show them. We vet all breeders as well as all testers. We look at their work and social media posts as deeply as we can. We do this so testers can be confident regarding the genetics they are going to be using up their grow space and time for. Also so breeders know what they are getting in a tester. You on the other hand walked into a room full of strangers offering seeds with no real back story, no proof of your work and attached a bill to it. You have to realize how that might look to some.
Now that being said, we love breeders and growers of all kinds here on Overgrow. If all that you said is true then you will fit in very well around here. It just takes a bit of time to build relationships and trust with some folks. You may want to try posting in a thread other than this one to show some interest in the community. That too goes a long way towards meeting all the great folk around here and getting to know them a bit.
I am just trying to be helpful and let you know why you faced some resistance. If you just want to give away seeds and have folks grow them then great, we love seeds. Just understand that most would likely want them more if they knew anything about you or the seeds in question. Become a part of the community so you are @Crafty_Flame from Overgrow and not random stranger on Overgrow. I think you will find that it will make your ventures go much smoother. I am not saying you have done anything wrong but sometimes a different approach can lead to a much better result. Just something to think about. Take or leave my advise as you see fit. Happy Growing
I think Crafty may have unintentionally buried the lede here: I think he was only intending to ask for money for padded + tracked envelopes, but I’ll wait for him to correct me if I’m wrong.
VERY interested in some of this stuff