I agree in a sense with you Greene also, however is a member who's been here almost 4yrs a considered 'new'?

Being 'here' can be different for each of us. Some may have joined, then forgotten about it, others may be lurkers, still others are much more involved. I don't really give a rip about anyone thanking me for a fake nut, but sometimes it opens up a private discussion about whatever the gesture relates to - a pretty photo, a thoughtful post, etc. I'm a bit confused by this thread but since I contributed to it, I keep getting notifications. I think I'll just unwatch it. Nuts to all!

One thing to mention that may be interesting and new information for some people:

Many of the members who have a signup date long in the past (like a member with a signup date of 4 years ago) actually were original NGA members before we acquired the NGA. So the "ATP way" of doing things was completely foreign to them. They were at Garden.org before we became Garden.org and they aren't used to how we do things. I'm always glad to see original Garden.org members engage with "the new NGA".

This is a potential explanation for how a member of 4 years doesn't know about acorns.

Tanks for that info, Dave - I had not considered that option, and it surely increases the spectrum.

Although I felt tempted to ask you to somehow identify former ATP members and pre-unification NGA members, this would be sort of discrimination and what I love most about ATP/NGA is that we are all gardeners!

@JulieB, Julie ... Thank you for the acorn ...

Dave you cleared that end of it up for sure.. When I give "a fake nut" @bonehead own words I don't expect anything in return. I do look at my system messages to see what's what. If I get a fake nut, now know as an acorn I usually send the seller a thank you treemail and at times post it in the forum. Remember the old saying " to each his/her own. The only exception is the plant of the day input where you get an acorn or when I submit or someone else submit a picture of mine for consideration to the database. Those two come with the ACORN as a reward for participating up front. In closing, " let's not sweat the little stuff". Let's get back to gardening, positive uplifting comments, great pictures , sharing and ideas. MHO

I agree.

@dave, coul you please close this thread?

Thank you all very much for your opinion,

ursula