I need help - Herbal Opinions

"Daniel James" <[email hidden]> wrote in part:

Quoted message said:

Hey there folks

I'm a programmer and I've been writing code for websites for years.
Girlfriend I recently moved in with (nearly 2 years now) has been a
HUGE supporter of natural medicine and remedies, and I've taken nearly
2 years to be convinced of their powers and abilities.

For a while though, I've noticed that there's no great place to find
real world opinions on what works or what doesn't. I mean REAL people
who tried something and it worked for X very well.

Impossible. N = 1. Anecdote. Look it up.

Quoted message said:

Anyway, I'm designing a site that does just that. It's in Beta 4 right
now and I'd like to be ready for a public launch (letting real people
use it) on the easter weekend.

If there's anyone who wants to help, offer advice, or their opinions
(good or bad) toward the idea, the overall layout or concept, post here
or e-mail me personally, I could really use this. And if my idea is as
good as I think it is, then many others could really use this too.

The beautiful thing is that the FDA and many places out there don't
generally like or support herbal remedies and cures. BUT... If we had a
"database" similar to e-opinions.com of reviews or opinions on various
herbs, vitamins, supplements and how well they performed and for what
illnesses and problems, it would be very useful to decide which really
did work and which didn't work so well.

Am I off base?

Yes.

Quoted message said:

Drop me a line. **ANY** comments are truly appreciated.
if you e-mail me, I'll send you a link to the test site so I can get
feedback.

Daniel J D.
[email hidden]

--
Jim Chinnis Warrenton, Virginia, USA [email hidden]

It has already been done a thousand times before.

Unless you intend to make it a full time job, there is no way you are
going to be able to offer anything of value to anyone.

Daniel James said:

Hey there folks

I'm a programmer and I've been writing code for websites for years.
Girlfriend I recently moved in with (nearly 2 years now) has been a
HUGE supporter of natural medicine and remedies, and I've taken nearly
2 years to be convinced of their powers and abilities.

For a while though, I've noticed that there's no great place to find
real world opinions on what works or what doesn't. I mean REAL people
who tried something and it worked for X very well.

Anyway, I'm designing a site that does just that. It's in Beta 4 right
now and I'd like to be ready for a public launch (letting real people
use it) on the easter weekend.

If there's anyone who wants to help, offer advice, or their opinions
(good or bad) toward the idea, the overall layout or concept, post here
or e-mail me personally, I could really use this. And if my idea is as
good as I think it is, then many others could really use this too.

The beautiful thing is that the FDA and many places out there don't
generally like or support herbal remedies and cures. BUT... If we had a
"database" similar to e-opinions.com of reviews or opinions on various
herbs, vitamins, supplements and how well they performed and for what
illnesses and problems, it would be very useful to decide which really
did work and which didn't work so well.

Am I off base? Drop me a line. **ANY** comments are truly appreciated.
if you e-mail me, I'll send you a link to the test site so I can get
feedback.

Daniel J D.
[email hidden]

Responses from industry-sponsored media grunts like Mr. Natural and
others are typical in the newsgroups. It's their purpose to destroy
any and all natural healing information resources, so it's safe to
ignore them.

PeterB

Quoted message said:

Daniel James said:

Hey there folks

I'm a programmer and I've been writing code for websites for years.
Girlfriend I recently moved in with (nearly 2 years now) has been a
HUGE supporter of natural medicine and remedies, and I've taken nearly
2 years to be convinced of their powers and abilities.

For a while though, I've noticed that there's no great place to find
real world opinions on what works or what doesn't. I mean REAL people
who tried something and it worked for X very well.

Anyway, I'm designing a site that does just that. It's in Beta 4 right
now and I'd like to be ready for a public launch (letting real people
use it) on the easter weekend.

If there's anyone who wants to help, offer advice, or their opinions
(good or bad) toward the idea, the overall layout or concept, post here
or e-mail me personally, I could really use this. And if my idea is as
good as I think it is, then many others could really use this too.

The beautiful thing is that the FDA and many places out there don't
generally like or support herbal remedies and cures. BUT... If we had a
"database" similar to e-opinions.com of reviews or opinions on various
herbs, vitamins, supplements and how well they performed and for what
illnesses and problems, it would be very useful to decide which really
did work and which didn't work so well.

Am I off base? Drop me a line. **ANY** comments are truly appreciated.
if you e-mail me, I'll send you a link to the test site so I can get
feedback.

Daniel J D.
[email hidden]

Responses from industry-sponsored media grunts like Mr. Natural and
others are typical in the newsgroups. It's their purpose to destroy
any and all natural healing information resources, so it's safe to
ignore them.

PeterB

No! I simply have great confidence in all the Kooks making the
database totally useless unless the operator of the web site were to
invest a great deal of time trying to clean the mess up.

Mr. Natural-Health

I have a small group of people who will be working hard to keep things
clean.
However it's an open source site no different than the Wikipedia or any
other
online community.

The members I have hired to help keep things in line are also
naturopaths
who are going to write articles to help people.

I'm just trying to get some feedback on the site itself, however I'm a
bit worried
about publishing the address of the site until it's completely
polished.

Dano

Daniel James said:

Mr. Natural-Health

I have a small group of people who will be working hard to keep things
clean.
However it's an open source site no different than the Wikipedia or any
other
online community.

The members I have hired to help keep things in line are also
naturopaths
who are going to write articles to help people.

I'm just trying to get some feedback on the site itself, however I'm a
bit worried
about publishing the address of the site until it's completely
polished.

Speaking of Wikipedia, there are at least three Wikipedia clone sites
on alternative medicine that were advertised on these ngs within the
last year.

I myself created a Wikiproject on Alternative Medicine on Wikipedia
itself.

All the Wiki clones are dead in the water. It is a full time job to
promote any new web site. And, if you think people will come to your
site in droves overnight, you are dreaming. It requires a great deal
of promotion. And, it requires a web site with a lot more than a dozen
articles.

And, from my point of view none of the wiki clones are worth spending
time on. Nobody will see your work. Wikipedia is visible in the
search engines. The clones are anything, but.

How will anyone know that you are serious? And, that your site will be
around longer than 6 months?

Mr. Natural-Health

I appreciate the indepth detail you've gone into here and effort
you've put into your post.

I understand the work involved, I've been marketing websites on
the internet for 7 years, so I'm not phased by what's ahead of me.

I'm also not expecting an overnight success. I may clarify that I'm not
curious or concerned about the business model itself, but more
along the lines of getting a few people to contact me and
have a look with some constructive comments or suggestions.

Best Wishes,
Daniel

Daniel James said:

I understand the work involved, I've been marketing websites on
the internet for 7 years, so I'm not phased by what's ahead of me.

Then I gather that you plan to make money on the web site? Great!
But, this ng is not geared for for-profit operations.

Further, I question your assumption that only the Kooks on the web
would know what works and what does not. Just read any thread on this
ng. I challenge you to find more than 2 people agreeing on anything.

And, like I said there are a few databases out there. But, almost all
of them are for profit operations. The web site pays a fee for putting
a 3rd party health database on their web site. So, a lot of
information is already out there. Whether or not any of that stuff
actually works is another question.

In my book, herbal medicine is still medicine. And, all medicine
should ideally be used only on a temporary basis. Personally, I
wouldn't consider taking a herbal supplement unless I was sick.

And, as far as looks go. Commercial web sites, just like stores, are
changing how they look all the time. I recall Weil's original web site
changing its looks and URL's 3 times in just one year. That is when I
STOP trying to link to Weil. It was simply too much work, trying to
keep up with the lates URL.

Hey, if you are programmer who knows what he is doing. Changing the
looks of a website over night is fairly easy to do.