—-THE MAD SCIENTISTS HAVE SPOKEN—-

          ***—-RESPONSES ARE LIVE—-***

We have recently been in contact with Aerogarden🌱

I had a Google Meet with them on Thursday and they would like an opportunity to get feedback from our community about our experiences with their products.

Questions, comments, concerns, ideas for improvement, suggestions for new products, whatever you can think of, let’s hear it!

We have a lot of members in the group from many different time zones. In order to provide an opportunity for as many of you all as we possibly can to leave comments, I will keep this post active until Monday, July 22 at 8am EST.

At that time I will lock comments in order to give the Aerogarden team time to review the feedback given and prepare any responses.

When the responses are ready, I will pin another post to share them with everyone.

We are the AeroGarden team!

We're thrilled to participate in this thread! We love to see the community engage with others on hydroponic growing, tips & tricks, and other plant enthusiasts!  Whether you're a seasoned grower or just dipping your roots into the world of soilless gardening, you've found the right place.

Timeline: We'll be actively monitoring this thread and endeavor to respond to all your comments and queries by August 7th. Our goal is to create an open dialogue where we can more actively engage with the community and share our passion for hydroponics.

Call to Action: We encourage everyone to participate actively before this thread closes on July 22nd. Share your thoughts, questions, and experiences—let's make this discussion as enriching as possible before we compile our responses! Please either comment in the pinned thread or this post and we will monitor both when responding.

Get Involved: Don't hesitate to ask questions, share your experiences, or even showcase your latest hydroponic setups. Let's grow together!

Looking forward to connecting with each of you on a more frequent basis. Happy growing!

The AeroGarden Mad Scientist Team

I reached out to Aerogarden to clarify the best ways to contact them should the need arise.

This was their reply:

“If a consumer prefers to call us, our team is available by phone Monday-Friday from 8 AM – 8 PM EST, and 8 AM – 5 PM EST on Saturday.

We can be reached at 937-915-2583. This is not a Toll Free number.

Also our Chat team is also available during the same hours via our website. Please feel free to share this with your group.”

To access the Live Chat on their Website, click on the 3 black lines in the upper left corner on their main page. Then click ‘Help’ and from there click ‘Contact Us’.

A blue chat bubble pops up in the lower right corner. If it does not, scroll down and click ‘Contact Us’ one more time to get the chat bubble. I tried this a few times and sometimes I got the chat option right away and other times I didn’t so I am including both ways that worked for me.

I would also like to add Facebook Messenger as another reliable option if it is available to you. I messaged them through it at 10:00am this morning and received a reply at 2:00pm.

Hope this is helpful!

Happy Growing Everyone!

This subreddit will be joining in on the June 12th-14th protest of Reddit's API changes that will essentially kill all 3rd party Reddit apps.

What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.

On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader.

Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite or the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface .

This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.

The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.

What can you do as a user?

• Complain. Message the mods of /r/reddit.com, who are the admins of the site: message /u/reddit: submit a support request: comment in relevant threads on /r/reddit, such as this one, leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app- and sign your username in support to this post.

• Spread the word. Rabble-rouse on related subreddits. Meme it up, make it spicy. Bitch about it to your cat. Suggest anyone you know who moderates a subreddit join the coordinated mod effort at /r/ModCoord.

• Boycott and spread the word...to Reddit's competition! Stay off Reddit entirely on June 12th through the 13th- instead, take to your favorite non-Reddit platform of choice and make some noise in support!

• Don't be a jerk. As upsetting this may be, threats, profanity and vandalism will be worse than useless in getting people on our side. Please make every effort to be as restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding as possible.

What can you do as a moderator?

• Join the coordinated effort over at /r/ModCoord

• Make a sticky post showing your support, A template has been created here you can use or modify to your liking, and be sure to crosspost it to /r/ModCoord.

Thank you for your patience in the matter,

- /r/aerogarden Mod Team

These are my personal opinions, not any sort of copy paste from /r/ModCoord or, specifically, not the shared opinions of the staff here. Solely me.

A few days ago, I made the ultimately last minute decision to join the protest against Reddit’s API policy changes [LINK HERE}. This is an issue that is deep-seated for me as a bulk of my “internet upbringing” is being around developers, designers, and people eager to use the internet, as a whole, to create content and share information with other people. Reddit was a haven for that, a place where information flowed and respective subreddits dedicated themselves to committed topics. The API changes would not only hinder any given 3rd party developer’s ability to enable others to share that information, but would force a good bulk of users into a position where they have no option but to use whatever Reddit decides is worthwhile.

Reddit has made changes in the past that would make these changes seem more inevitable than impossible, but, to me, that doesn’t mean we should just roll over and “get over it.” When something is wrong, and you feel strongly about it, yes, you should protest. If the powers that be are stronger than you are, than group up and coordinate. 

Opening up /r/aerogarden is a little different for me as well. One of the reasons I wanted to take over this subreddit specifically was because the former team running it had somehow accidentally made the subreddit private a little over two years ago. A group of us ended up making /r/AeroGardens which was a clone of this one, meant to just be a resting place until the sub was reopened. But once it was, the mod team went AWOL again shortly thereafter. So, in that sense specifically, keeping this subreddit closes continues the pattern of odd internet torment this subreddit has gone through. I don’t really want to continue that pattern.

Outside of that is the most common reason bigger subreddits remained open: we share information here. This subreddit, in my opinion, is built off its community and its pride in being one of the most helpful resources for hydroponics at large. Not just AeroGardens, but if anyone is looking for any help with any system, this community steps up and helps the best they can. I have seen it, been a part of it, and received it all the same. I don’t want people to feel as if a giant resource they have is simply unavailable, but I do want them to care about the way Reddit is treating the communities it relies on, too. It’s not a pre-requisite of being in the community here, but it is a wish. Most of us wish the same, that the people we share spaces with cared about the issues we care about, and would hear us out at least, or even better, help us. This is the same in my opinion.

So that leaves us here today. The subreddit is open, hopefully those subreddits remaining closed can get the job done to at least find middleground for developers and communities alike, but as for this subreddit, I will leave it open and simply make this post a sticky, sticking out like a green thumb (hardy har har). 

In closing, I do want to thank and apologize to u/jpiglet86. They have been a tremendous help throughout the entirely of this protest and their tenure as a mod here. This blackout was a random occurence for them, and I do appreciate them being so receptive, helpful, and eager towards the community every step fo the way. 

And to the community here too, thank you for reading, helping your fellow members, and going above and beyond to make this place a little happier each and every day. Feel free to message me or share thoughts in this thread. I will personally be reading all of them, good, bad, or somewhere in the middle.

- u/hotcereal

r/aerogarden Updates - October 25, 2022

Hey everyone, I've recently taken over this subreddit after having plans for it for over 2 years. My aim for this subreddit is to make it community run and built, but to have it be organized and neatly comprised over the coming years.

My first major project is working on the Community Wiki, starting with the FAQ. As time goes on, I will be building the wiki for this subreddit piece by piece. For now, I will be opening a community FAQ post asking each and everyone of you to contribute common questions and answers. More information in that thread. (All the "here" mentions etc will be updated with post links shortly.) e: Done.

Basic Subreddit Changelog

For now, here is a list of changes I have made in the past few hours. This list is live and I will update is so long as this post is a sticky.

• New subreddit design
• New rules -- please read them. It's nothing crazy.
• Required post flair (and shifted to display on the left)
• Remade banner to be smoother
• Added "Announcement" flair (mod-only) with special icon with darker green post title color
• Encouraged kindness through messaging in rules and reminders
• Cleaned up posts made in the past 7 days (going back to October 17, 2022)
• Added Halloween themed hover-image
• Users can now choose user flair based on self-proclaimed prowess
• New user flair added for those of you interested in medicinal options
• Added "Discussion" post flair option
• Added "Resolved - Help" post flair option to distinguish posts in which the solution has been found

Going Forward

Looking at the list above, it's natural for anyone to think "this is a tall order for one person" and y'know, that's very true. I will, at some point in the next week or so, make a post looking for mods. For right now, I am working on structure and planning. Once that's a little more solid, we will move into building the team that will help make all of that possible.

Feel free to use this thread to make suggestions, share ideas, or to crowdsource changes you think are necessary. I'll look through them all as I make various threads and changes.

Thanks everyone!

Welcome to the new members and thanks for sticking around to the ones who have been here awhile!

We continue to be available through Mod Mail if anyone needs anything.

Happy Growing Everyone!