Hi Fruitbat.

Welcome on board, and thankyou indeed for your thoughts - you've made a valuable contribution from your first post!

If you have as many lithops as you said then you probably have a lot to offer the readers here - after all, there's a succulent forum here, and I know that many folk have difficulties with the stony ones!

The "Around the Fire" forum is usually where new members would post an introduction, but perhaps we should have a sticky thread for just that purpose. Being at the bottom of the list of fora it's possibly a bit out of the way too, so maybe a bit of furniture rearranging might help?

In hindsight I realise that I could have contributed, even as a new kid on the block, by asking good questions. I had many, and I used the search engine and google to answer most of them off my own bat, rather than risk clogging the board with what might have been a waste of space, but looking back now I realise that other newbies might have benefited from answers to my questions.

And even if a new member is fresh to the cactus/succulent scene, they might have other interests that the rest of us might like to hear about, so there's at least one reason to post.

Hmmm, I might saunter over to the Fire and check to see if there's a dedicated Introduction thread...

Hi fruitbat a valuable post for your fist i hope for many more.
I have been thinking a bit about all this and agree that a new member thread is ideal for people to break the ice.
It is great to read what everyone thinks i know a few people that read things and are not members i have tried to encourage them to join and maybe they will i also had the forum mention in the SA cactus and society news letter for members and at the meeting so hope for some new members that way. I always have people coming around to look at and buy plants and mention the site to them also.
I think people are maybe a little nervous to post for the first time but we can help by encouraging people when they do post for the first time.

Thanks for the Welcome WoodDragon and Cactuscook, appreciated.

Yes, I used to have a nice collection of older Lithops but when I moved interstate WA to SA) I had to give them up so I started again in 2008. Now I only have around 40 that are 'adults' of 5 years or so and the rest are still 1 to 2 years old. I have plans to sell Lithops via the web (Australia only) and have made good progress there.

As it is such a lovely day outside, I have been reading the forum to keep myself occupied and perhaps pick up a few hints on starting some cacti seeds that another member kindly sent me....thanks Cactuscook! When the weather is a little kinder, I will get some pics and build instructions of the heat mats I have made onto the forum as I see there have been a few questions relating to that subject.

It's nice to hear that post's don't have to be 'in depth' or highly technical, just simple questions. I have to agree with TasV in that the stupidest question is the one you don't ask so perhaps I should start asking some 'not so stupid' questions!

Cheers!