In the 1990's, I was a member of the Midwest Bonsai Society outside of Chicago. I had the privilege of being mentored by some great people there, and could literally walk to the Chicago Botanical Gardens from my home. When I moved to the West Coast, it was like bonsai x10. More of everything - more nurseries, more clubs, more events. However due to career and family, I no longer had the free time to participate socially as I had in the past. I started the site in 2006 as a way to interact with bonsai friends - but online instead of via physical presence.
Though I have never worked as a programmer or developer, I am a self-taught programmer and web site developer. I can create a site like bonsainut.com over a weekend. The challenge is not in creating it - but maintaining it. Technology changes constantly - and whether it is our server host, or the numerous software packages we use, or the numerous different browsers used to access the site, or even Google ads or international EU privacy requirements - there is always something going on. Each morning I wake up and clear out a dozen or so spammers, check the security logs to see who was trying to do what, and otherwise spend tons of time behind the scenes in order to provide a happy playground for people to discuss bonsai. If you wonder why I am not always quick at responding to a private message... that is it.
Initially, I was not focused on a bigger picture "value to the community" objective as I was just providing somewhere to hang out with friends. Over time, I started to realize that there was real value in providing a neutral place for the bonsai world to come together and support each other - buyers and sellers and online bloggers and retailers and nurseries... I have been fortunate in life and had a great professional career and don't need to make money on the site. The first decade I sunk about $20K into site maintenance, but since then the site breaks even or even makes some money depending on things like donations and money from our relationship with Wazakura. But the great thing about not needing to break even is that I can promise people on the site that I'm not about to go away
Bonsai is an art form that works particularly well in a forum format - where some threads might literally run decades. I have seen many bonsai sites created - only to see them disappear after a few years. The longer this site stays around, the more valuable to the community it will become. I just need to come up with a better seach engine
). The trunkline has a great graceful movement into the primary branches, and check out the bark! (It's a lot worse than its bite. ) And did you ever imagine the ramification of building this place!?
