"How American Ponders Was Born”


By Jerry Esten

To those who don’t know American Ponders is my web site. It is administered by  Sean Stevens of Vancouver BC and myself.

I built my pond about 5 years ago. I did some research but not nearly enough. I am not good at reading directions either, hell I don’t even ask directions! Typical male huh?



I did find a site called American Water Gardens or simply “AWGS.” I “met” many fine folks there and got excellent tips. This site was badly neglected and was about to fold.

I did make numerous attempts to acquire the site. My inquiries were never answered.

I tried e mail, snail mail and faxes!

There was a bright young man on the site who had the knowledge to start a site. Zac knew about hosts, domain names etc. I had no clue.

With Zac’s help “AP” was born! I chose the name while on the phone, never even thought about it! I just said what popped into my mind !  Zac was very young, some think perhaps 16 at the time.  He had yet to master the art of dealing with people and managed to be very rude.  I am being kind!  He was paid to leave, yes you heard me.  It was Worth it.  Now what do we do with no computer Guru!   Some times things just fall into place and there was Sean ready, willing and very able

Now 4 plus years later we have 1500 members and grow daily.

We have a myriad of “forums” all related to ponding, as well as a “Chit Chat” Forum where members can do just that. Many members have gotten to meet in person and we regularly exchange plants.. The site is http://www.americanponders.com/   Come visit!
We have some remarkably talented members.  Too many to list here.  You guys know who you are! Truthfully I'd be afraid of leaving someone out.

We really are international ! We have members from Iceland, Lithuania, The United kingdom, Turkey, Mexico and a sterling group from Canada!  I know I am leaving  some out, feel free to advise.
I would love to mention some many members by name. but I know i'd miss a few, so I don't dare.  You guys know who you are!

Register to view photos, it takes a minute and is Free!

"Max" by Gander.

I think this is one of the best pond photos ever.  I expect Becky Thatcher to show up any moment.

I made a post on our site,so members may contribute their knowledge of our origins.

Here they are below....

Esther writes:

We were on the (what started out as) AWGS forum. I remember that Jerry was new to ponding and couldn't get his water sparkling clear. He was having a party inside of a week and was desperate to get the water cleaned up, so I told him to hang something mesh under his waterfall with quilt batting in it. That is how I met him. We emailed a bit. I was very unhappy with that forum as it was not monitored at all, and had decided to leave. Jerry asked me if I knew anything about starting a forum. I didn't but gave him the name of a guy who already had a pond forum going and also told him Zac's name and that he was capable of doing the techy stuff. The next thing I knew, Zac had it up and running and bit by bit, we all came over from AWGS. And we lived happily ever after. LOL Thanks Jerry and Sean.


Rad Michelle:
Well I wasn't exactly in the boat from the beginning but i like to think i'm apart of the crew by now. i was a heavy heavy lurker stuck to this site and read every-single-posiible-thread on here before i decided to jump on board. pun intended. hehe. i think i lurked about here for 2 months before first post and found so much help and support, espeically through my personal life... man did i tell you guys i printed out the x amount of responses and still have them in a journal for times when i am sad and blue and everything everyone said is so true now that its 9 months later and i have moved on from that p.o.s. haha. and i stand by my word that my first named hybrid will be named "american ponder" for all the great people here .

Shawn:
Still lurk more than I post... but here is a copy of the original email welcoming me... (I was over at AWGS too..)
Sean has sent you this email from http://s14.invisionfree.com/Water_Gardening/index.php.

Hi folks,
I thought I would tell you about a new Pond Forum that may interest you. I am a co-administrator of this site with a friend in California. Some of you already know who he is.

We are not looking to compete with other forums, if anything we refer to them.

What we are looking for is members like you, for without members, a forum is nothing more than an information gap on the internet.



Most of you are friends of mine who I know either in person or through years of email correspondence so as you all know me, I hope you do not think of this as an intrusion.



The website is called American Ponders and can be located on the internet at this web address

http://www.americanponders.com



Currently we offer the forum itself and a Live chat room for members if they choose to spend some time corresponding in Real Time. I have started an information storage area for quick reference to general information about the board as well as member Tutorials and other helpful information.

The user interface is quite easy and sharing of photo's can be done both Remotely (your own web storage) or hosted by the forum (direct upload from your computer). We also have a Spell Checker built right into the forum software for those of us who need to double check before clicking "Post".
The forum topics consist of Pond Chat, a Photo Album for you to share your photo's, a Plant Exchange and Dealer Deals. We have already received some discounts for American Ponders membership from a reputable Dealer source so membership really does have it's privileges. We also feature an area for Terrestrial Gardening for those who like to garden in the soil and a General Chit Chat area for all other topics.

Our promise to you is, members come first and all issues will be accommodated in a timely manner. Backed up information will also be available to membership on the website archive and never lost.
Take a moment and check the forum out. We are a cheerful group and the membership is growign daily.



Cheers,

Sean Stevens and Gerald Esten "Jerry"

http://www.americanponders.com



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Please note that Water Gardening has no control over the

contents of this message.
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Julles:


A coment from "Julles",
 and she is one! (a jewel)


I'm a member of American Ponders, too. Met a guy at our local watergarden store and he referred me to the site.
It's so much more than a ponding site. Besides the "how to's" and the sharing of our experiences, so many of us have become friends. There have even been meet-ups of people who met one another on American Ponders
Very good job on the site, Jerry and Sean!

The Julles
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Wednesday Novemeber 2, 2005
I just discovered this from Blogger. Look at the date.  It was my first abortive attempt! We were still on AWGS ! It said...
I would like to creat a new and better site, but just not sure how.
I would love your input.









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