A warm welcome to everyone who joined up during our latest round of open registration at the Papaver Somni-Forum. The open registration period is now coming to a close. The poppies.org forum will re-open to new user accounts some time within the next quarter.

If you haven't signed up for a somni-forum account yet, it's not too late. You still have until the end of April 8th to join in. Registration is free, and allows you to participate in the discussions and maybe make a few friends while you're at it too. :)

Registration at the Papaver Somni-Forum will be closing on April 8th at 11:59pm EST.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 08:55 AM | Permalink

I've cleared out all of the names from the News Updates email list. If you're unsubscribing and you get an error about not being on the list, it's because you've already been removed.So if you want to continue receiving the email updates to the main-page news, you'll have to re-add your address using the form on the left sidebar.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:57 PM | Permalink

I'm sure many of you have noticed some "stability" issues with the site over the last little while. To improve the situation (read: solve it), I've been working over the past couple of weeks on patching, tuning, and upgrading most of the core backend software for the site. Check the announcement in the forums for all the gory details.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 09:14 AM | Permalink

The gear section is back! Once again you can get your official poppies.org Somni-Wear, Poppy Tea Mugs, and other cool shit to help support the site. We've also added some great new "somniphile" designs to join the old molecule shirts, and a few neat-o new products (like the super-sexy somniphile thong) too. So make sure to check it out!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:57 PM | Permalink

I've added a links section to the site, and have finished setting up the FAQ. We've also merged a couple of the forums, and re-organized things a bit to make things simpler. Click on over to the full story for all the details...

Continue reading "New Features and Minor Forum Changes" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 09:28 PM | Permalink

The (un)Official Poppies.org theme song can be found here. It's by a great local band called White Star Line. It's one of their older tracks, but still kinda cool. If you dig it, you can pick up their album here.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 07:01 PM | Permalink

It is a very difficult time for us here at poppies.org. Our resident medical expert, valued contributor, and good friend Doctor Steve passed away suddenly late last month. Nothing I can say here can convey just how much the doc will be terribly missed by everyone in our community.

The full details can be found in this forum thread.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 02:26 PM | Permalink

The Papaver Somni-Forum has re-launched with a new system and a new look! The new forums should be faster, more feature-rich, and better integrated with the rest of the site. New user registration has been re-opened, so make sure to pop on by and say hello! For the full details, please click on the "Read the Full Story" link...

Continue reading "New Somni-Forum Launches" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:26 AM | Permalink

For various reasons, new user registration was disabled in the forums some time ago. A lot of visitors have been asking if we will be re-opening the forums to new users at some point, and the answer is yes. The Papaver Somni-Forum will be re-opening to new user registrations on December 1, 2002. We will also be migrating to new forum software, so existing users will have to re-register. See you on December 1st!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 11:41 PM | Permalink

The poppies.org photo gallery is back. To check it out, click here. We've switched to PHP Gallery, which should be a lot faster, more stable, and more feature-rich. If you'd like to contribute, let us know.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 09:04 PM | Permalink

Well, the move is finished and we're now on the new server. Things have gone fairly smooth for the most part, but expect to see some bugs here and there while we're still in transition.

Cheers,

Ayatollah Jones

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 03:50 AM | Permalink

Poppies.org will be moving to our own dedicated machine in a few days. This means the site will be down for at least a couple of days, possibly as long as a week. Email will stop working on Oct 27, so messages may go unanswered for a while. My apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.

The site itself will probably be going down on Nov 1st (give or take a day or two), and should hopefully be back up in action a few days later. It's my hope that the site won't be down for more than five days. We should be able to retain the bulk of the forum posts, but it is possible that some posts will be lost. If that happens -- sorry! Either way, we'll try to have things back up and running as soon as possible.

We've just grown too big for our current set up, and I've got no other choice but to move to something more stable. And so, the site and forums are now moving to a *dedicated* server in the new ultra-hi-tech Poppies.org datacenter (aka my living room).

Granted, there won't be any 24/7 monitoring, and if the power goes off, so does the site -- but we'll be doing our best to make sure site availablilty is as high as possible. If anything, things should improve now that the site and hardware will be under my direct control.

Once again, my apologies for any inconvenience the downtime will cause, but not to worry -- we'll be back and better than ever in two shakes!

Cheers,
The Rev. Ayatollah Jones
Poppies.org Founder

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 07:14 PM | Permalink

Robin Eveleigh, who writes for the British counter-culture magazine Bizarre, is writing an article on Poppies and is looking for some folks to talk to in the UK.

Rob says: "I'm trying to work up a piece for a magazine about suburban poppy growers and am looking for some leads. What I would really like to do is speak to some UK growers, or seed dealers."

He's not looking to do some torrid expose or anything, so no worries for you paranoid folks. In fact, if his article is anything like what I've seen in past issues, then I'm sure it'll be a very sympathetic (and highly entertaining) piece.

So, if you're into poppies and live in the UK, you can contact Rob at robin@hooknews.freeserve.co.uk to get your voice heard.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:55 AM | Permalink

A new gallery has been added for forum member Molly Maguire in the User Galleries. Molly has some great pics of her giganthemums, india raj, and some great tazmanians! Check it out in the gallery

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 06:17 PM | Permalink

In order to better server the power-growers out there, all Opium Poppy seed varities in the Somni-Store are now available in three, five, and ten gram quantites. The Nigrum and Persian White varities are also available in 100 gram batches, at a discount. To check it out, visit the Somni-Store.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 03:13 PM | Permalink

After six weeks offline, our friends over at The Lycaeum are once again back on the net. Hurrah!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 01:03 PM | Permalink

A few more user galleries have been added to the gallery section of the site. The latest gallery additions are from forum members Orthros and UK_Grower. Check them out here.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:27 PM | Permalink

A new "Papaver Botany" section has been added to the Opium Poppy Library, covering advanced topics relating to Papaver Somniferum cultivation and harvest. Several new articles have been added to the new Botany category, as well as several patents in the "Chemistry" area. Click here to enter the Library.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 08:46 AM | Permalink

A new section has been added to the gallery with photographs of various Poppy varieties. Learn to identify "true" Opium Poppies from the rest of the crowd. Check out the Tutorials section of the gallery for the full deal.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 05:55 AM | Permalink

The resources and directory sections of the site have been combined into a single area, as it was redundant to have two separate areas for off-site links. The two sections are now collectively known as just the "links" section.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 03:52 PM | Permalink

Added a new section for burrabit in the gallery. Thinking about growing indoors? Check out his gallery and see how it's done right.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 02:28 AM | Permalink

A Photographic essay documenting the life cycle of the fast-growing "Persian White" Opium Poppy has been added to the gallery. A great reference guide to help identify the various growth stages of the Poppy.

Check it out here.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:56 PM | Permalink

I've modified the gallery to make it easier to add new images on the fly. It's also a lot better organized now too. If you want your own gallery in the users area, let me know and I can set it up so you can maintain it yourself. User submitted artwork is also now being accepted, as there have been some requests for this.

I also added a couple more pictures to some of the already established sections, and three(!) new user galleries are now online. Forum members Fudd, and Lizard King have some amazing pics, and there's also a third new gallery in the anonymous area. Have a look here.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 03:48 AM | Permalink

I'm sure many of you have been wondering where the site has been for the past week. Well, I've moved the whole site (8000+ files) over to a new server. The new server should be faster, more reliable, and experience less downtime. I'm fairly sure I've managed to get everything sorted (I've been working on it for around 2 days straight with little/no sleep), but if you encounter any errors with the site, please let me know. The move should also fix the recent problems with the e-mail features of the forums. As a result, new message notification and subscriptions have been turned back ON. I'm really sorry about the long delay getting back up. Thank's for your patience!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:00 AM | Permalink

Interested in growing Opium Poppies, but don't have any seeds? Well, you can now get your very own "Poppy Grower's Seed Starter-Kit" from Poppies.org! Perfect for the beginner and easy to grow, our authentic Papaver Somniferum Poppies produce whimsical "peony-like" flowers that mature to medium-sized pods. You'll also get the Rev's four-page colour growing guide to help you get growing right away.

All proceeds from the seed sales will go towards supporting the site. Just click on the "seeds" link on the navigation menu to find out more, or click here.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:00 AM | Permalink

Sorry folks, the server got buggered up the other day when a friend of mine messed up an entry for a domain in our httpd.conf file. As a result, the web server failed to start. Since I was away for the long weekend, I only noticed the problem just now. Either way, all is fixed and the site is now back up. Sorry about that!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:43 PM | Permalink

That's right folks, today is poppies.org's 1st anniversary. Wow, it's been a long ride, but we're still here! I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the poppies.org forum regulars for making this place as cool as it is -- this site would be nothing without you folks! So, raise your tea-cups to a year of subversive counterculture madness, and hopefully many more to come! :-)

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 02:22 AM | Permalink

The "Poppies in the News" and "Latest at LEDA" sidebars are temporarily unavailable. I'm looking into the problem, but it doesn't look like they'll be back until we do our server upgrade. Hopefully that will be fairly soon, I'll try and get them back up as soon as possible. Sorry!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 01:22 AM | Permalink

I finally got around to adding all of the other photographs I had laying around to the gallery. Two more pages were added to the main gallery, another page was added to Patcolli's gallery, and two new User Galleries were also added. Special thanks go out to the Izmir Oil and Spice Company, Poppies.org Staff Member roadrunr, and an anonymous photographer known only as Gardener X for contributing the new photos!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 06:34 PM | Permalink

Due to the recent influx of visitors looking for alternative information on Chronic Pain, and intractable pain management, I have added a new section to the resources area of the site. The new Chronic Pain section features links to some of the best related sites I've been able to compile from around the net. Make sure to check out QCIS -- a non-profit organization providing doctor and pharmacy lists to Chronic Pain patients on CD-ROM. QCIS is a volunteer group, and unlike many of those "buyers clubs" which prey upon the unfortunate by making them pay obscene prices for medication info, QCIS provides "The List" on a dontation basis. Best of Luck!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 11:22 AM | Permalink

I made a few cosmetic changes to the site news and library because I was bored, and thought it would look cool. Huzzah.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 02:35 AM | Permalink

The "Opium Directory Project" has arrived. The name is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the "Open Directory Project's" name, and is esentially just a re-name of the old "links" section, with some new features added. Most notably, it's now fully indexed and searchable! Hurrah! Anyone can add a site to the ODP, just make sure it's appropriate for the focus of the directoy. Lame crap and spam will be deleted on sight. Enjoy it here, and make sure to post your relevant links!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 10:04 PM | Permalink

I'm re-iterating the need for volunteers to work on the FAQ Project. I don't have the time to compile the entire FAQ on my own, so I need YOUR help to make the FAQ a success. Anyone interested in contributing to the Opium Poppy FAQ should email faq@poppies.org for a contribution account. It's easy, fun, and a great way to get your name up in lights!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:00 AM | Permalink

I've added a weekly poll to the site, where you can vote on topics that are of current interest to the site. The right sidebar was looking a little lopsided, so I thought I'd balance things out a bit with the neat little polls. Enjoy!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 09:14 AM | Permalink

Over the last week, poppies.org has undergone a major revamp. Everything from streamlining the HTML and adjusting the formatting to make better use of the space, to the addition of the Somni-Store (get your very own poppies.org T-Shirt or Poppy Tea Mug!) and making the FAQ project public. Poppies.org is also now a member of the bla-bla network of sites.

Continue reading "Major Site Upgrade" »

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 02:04 AM | Permalink

Poppies.org is now a member of the bla-bla network of sites. No time to say much now (too busy working on the site), but expect some downtime while I incorporate the necessary code into the pages, and optimize the site. The transition should be complete by tomorrow, at which point I'll give the full scoop.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 06:43 PM | Permalink

Well, after two days without sleep, the transition has been completed, and Somni-Mail is now back online. All previous somni-mail accounts have been lost. All users who registered for a somni-mail account previously, will have to re-create a new account. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The problems with the e-mail features of the forums have been remedied as well, and e-mail notification is back on.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 08:56 AM | Permalink

Due to problems with the reliability of service and quality over at bigmailbox.com, I have decided to move the poppies.org email system over to a different provider. As a result, all current somni-mail accounts will be lost and you will have to re-apply. Although the login boxes are still on the site, and are functional, you will not receive any mail in your poppies.org inbox. I hope to have the transition finished by tomorrow, when you can start signing up again for accounts. I apologize for the interruption in service, but I felt it was better to tackle this problem now instead of later when more users would be affected. Thanks.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:31 PM | Permalink

I was talking to Occupant over at The Lycaeum the other day about setting up an RSS file so other sites can grab the latest LEDA additions and incorporate them into their pages. Well, no sooner had I asked than Occupant Provided! We're testing out the Rich Site Summary for LEDA, which you can peruse on the right column. Cool! Remember, anyone who wishes to grab the poppies.org rss files can do so at http://www.poppies.org/forum.rss (Somni-Forum Channel), and http://www.poppies.org/news/poppies.rss (Library and News Content).

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 06:59 AM | Permalink

The Papaver Somni-Forum is now available as an active channel for "My Netscape" users, so you can have all of the latest forum topics delivered right to your desktop via Netscape's Netcenter. To add the forums to your "My Netscape" homepage, just click on the button on the right of the page. Give it a try! Users familiar with XML can add the Somni-Forum RSS file to their website or portal by pointing their grabber etc. to http://www.poppies.org/forum.rss

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:16 PM | Permalink

Well, the forums are back up and better than ever. I've just performed a complete overhaul and upgraded to the newest version (released about two hours ago), which has scads of new features, not to mention that the "Who's Online" listing actually works now! Make sure to read the full announcement in the forum lobby. Have Fun!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:00 AM | Permalink

In order to serve our loyal readership better, we are now offering *free* web-based email to all of our users. Now you too can have your very own you@poppies.org email address! Click here to sign up... There was a miscommunication when I signed up for the service, and as a result the banner-ads in the webmail system are mostly for adult sites. I apologize if you find these offensive, and I am working on getting the situation resolved as soon as possible!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 09:45 AM | Permalink

I've had to take the forums offline to prepare the system for an upgrade to the newer version of the forum software. The downtime shouldn't last more than a day, two tops. I need to catalogue all of my coding customizations before the upgrade, so I know which bits of code need to go where once the transition takes place. I'll try to have things up and running again ASAP!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:30 AM | Permalink

That's right folks, the long-awaited poppies.org gallery is now up and running. Many thanks to both the Izmir Oil and Spice Company and forum member Patcolli for providing many of the photographs that you will find there. If anyone has a garden they want to showcase, feel free to drop me a line and you can have your poppy photographs placed in the user portion of the gallery. Hope you enjoy the photographs; I'm sure there's lots in there already to make most of your jaws drop.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:24 AM | Permalink

Hey neat, it looks like we've won ourselves an award! Poppies.org is the Hedonistic Imperative Golden House-Sparrow Award winner for October 16th. We're the Site of the Day, in fact. Cool. I raise my tea-cup to the fine folks over at HedWeb for recognizing our site!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 02:57 PM | Permalink

As you may have already heard, the "library" section of the site made its debut a couple of weeks ago. The goal of this section is to serve as a depository for original articles and information on anything and everything poppy related. We are now actively seeking your participation to make the library a success. So, if you want to help out, and get to see your name up in lights, send me an email with your ideas. Any original (and of course quality) content is more than welcome, as long as it relates to the theme of the site.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 06:48 AM | Permalink

The Somni-Forum has been opened totally to the public -- so now you don't have to register or login in order to view the forums. You still need to log in to post or use the anonymous remailer and notification functions. You must agree to the forum rules and disclaimer before accessing the forums.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 05:13 PM | Permalink

Well, I finally snapped again and decided to give the old banner advertising thing another go. Considering the amount of work I've put into the site, I just figured it would be fair to try and reap a few rewards. At least this time it's not porn, and it's fairly unobtrusive down at the bottom. I'll give it a month or so to see how it goes I guess.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 12:00 AM | Permalink

The Papaver Bookstore is now online here at poppies.org, where you can find all of the latest titles dealing with all aspects of the Opium Poppy and its related uses. This ain't no Oprah's book club, and what you'll find in these pages is not necessarily good for mind, body, and spirit. From Gardening Books to the Diary of a Dope Fiend, we've got everything thats fit to be in a true somniphile's library. To Visit the Book Store, click here. Book reviews and suggestions are welcome -- feel free to contact the Rev. if you want to submit a review for inclusion in the poppies.org library.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 11:19 AM | Permalink

As a supplement to the forums, I've decided to open up a "library" section of the site to serve as a depository for original articles and information on anything and everything poppy related. If you look at the news item below, you'll see my first contribution to this project. What I need now are some writers. So, if you want to help out, and get to see your name up in lights on the best damn gardening (ahem) site on the net, then send me an email with your ideas. Any original (and of course quality) content is welcome, as long as it relates to the theme of the site. Growing tips, Harvesting Info, phamacology, chemistry, trip reports, dependency help, commercial source reviews, and of course recipies are all possible ideas for contributions. So let's get this thing started!

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:45 AM | Permalink

Well, in my ongoing efforts to slowly get the Opium Poppy FAQ project going again, I've added a new category to the forums dedicated to it. So if you have an FAQ (and answer), don't forget to post it in the new "Just the FAQs" forum. All question/answer combos posted will be considered for inclusion in the FAQ. For more information on the FAQ project, click here.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 07:45 PM | Permalink

As many of you have already noticed, we've gone through a major site revamp over the last few days. This is an ongoing process, and I'm planning on expanding the site even more to include original articles on anything somniferum related. This is just in the idea stage, and it'll take a while to implement the system. But if you want to write for poppies.org, bang me off an email and I'll see how the response is...

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 04:37 PM | Permalink

Well, I finally got bored of the old design and decided to change the layout for the site. I also added a couple of cool new features, such as the "poppies in the news" section. Look forward to the poppies.org Poppy Gallery, which will be making its debut in the coming months.

Posted by Ayatollah Jones at 10:19 PM | Permalink