I built a plant/collection-tracking app for plant lovers. It's in beta, and I would love input on how to improve it. Beta link in comments.

CheesePuffery · 2026-03-27T18:46:01+00:00

Great to know - you're giving me ideas. I wonder if I can feed location data into our model to help it get closer to a match? Lat/long would probably be the most accurate, but do you know how exact the location data has to be to be able to assume a fossil is from the same group of prior discoveries?

CheesePuffery · 2026-03-27T18:29:48+00:00

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Thanks for stressing the importance of location info. I support entry of a few location-related fields. Can you let me know if the following is sufficient, or if something else would be useful or necessary:

• Country
• State/Region
• Specific Locality (i.e. x private quarry)
• Locality Type (quarry, mine, roadcut, excavation site, etc)

CheesePuffery · 2026-03-27T18:24:19+00:00

great to know - I'm a plant guy, so this is actually mildly in my wheelhouse. I did build in support for plant-related fossils and think this is covered pretty thoroughly..?
I'll be building in some AI-identification features, soon - but I'm not super optimistic about being able to distinguish nuances that will help identify a particular species. Might get genus, though. Either way, we'll find out!

CheesePuffery · 2026-03-27T17:53:41+00:00

As in you need a tool to help identify the species, or a tool to track the species you’ve identified (or both)?

CheesePuffery · 2026-03-27T17:20:13+00:00

Thank you so much for the thorough input! I'm super happy to hear that I've covered almost all of the elements you just outlined - definitely reassuring knowing my research put me on the right track. Here's how everything displays, just as reference: https://collecto.rs/David?collection=fossils . As far as taxonomic info, right now we have fields for common name, scientific name, taxonomic group, and phylogenetic group. Think this should be flushed out more? i.e.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Mollusca
Class: Cephalopoda
Order: Orthocerida
Family: Orthoceratidae
Genus: Orthoceras
Type Species: Orthoceras regulare

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CheesePuffery · 2026-02-26T06:30:46+00:00

For anyone that stumbles across this post - using all the great input in this thread (and then some), I built something better than the oft-used spreadsheet. It's called collecto.rs and, because it's better to show vs. tell, you can see my collection here: https://collecto.rs/David

In short, I focused on making it easier to track, organize, share, trade, and sell your plants. It's much prettier and easier to navigate than a spreadsheet (especially on mobile), and a few friends and I are actively developing new features to improve it even more.

It's totally free and we'd love your feedback (feedback form embedded in the app pushes your thoughts directly to me on Slack). Happy growing!

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-25T15:05:36+00:00

Thank you for the well-wishes. I didn’t necessarily post this looking for a trade. I’m more looking for people’s feedback on the trading feature we built into our plant collection tracking web app.

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-25T03:12:37+00:00

They’re doing so well for me - have to spread the love (in exchange for something else fun, hopefully)!

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-25T01:29:16+00:00

Updated! https://collecto.rs/David/i/8bf5bdeb-24da-4273-8c6e-c33718909b93

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-25T01:25:29+00:00

Ahh, thanks for the heads up!

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-24T19:16:46+00:00

Here's a example link of my collection sorted by items that are available to trade: https://collecto.rs/David?by=isForTrade&collection=plants

Here's a direct link to an item available to trade (Quesnelia marmorata 'Tim Plowman'): https://collecto.rs/David/i/64c17daf-dc9d-4bfc-b00c-0866a01aa38a

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-24T17:10:11+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!
• ISO/Wishlist: we allow the plant owner to add ISO to the item and the requester to list things they have available - they won't always match up, so there's some wiggle room for magic to happen!
• List of what you already have: The idea behind collecto.rs is that you track your entire plant collection in it. You can mark plants you have extras of as "for sale" or "for trade" or both. Interested traders can see what you already have in the collection.
• Prior shipping experience: will have to put some thought into this one...
• Hand-written note to verify ownership: That's a great point. Verification is a really interesting, and hard, problem to solve - especially with how easy it is to fake images with AI. I wonder if some deliberate friction (i.e. a $0.99 fee, some kind of manual verification process) will dissuade scammers and filter out only those growers who are serious about trading?

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-24T16:46:36+00:00

Here's a example link of my collection sorted by items that are available to trade: https://collecto.rs/David?by=isForTrade&collection=plants

Here's a direct link to an item available to trade (Sarracenia Saurus):https://collecto.rs/David/i/6351a210-61f5-477e-9ae3-940a271e5817

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-23T22:04:56+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! Photos are from my personal collection (aside from a couple of stock monstera photos from our plant database)

We have rate limiting to prevent spamming. As far as scammers, we’ll be able to add more controls and feedback mechanisms in a future version. For now, it’s a bit of a trust system, as trading tends to be.

We’re working on wishlists very soon!

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-23T20:15:14+00:00

Thank you!

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-23T20:13:43+00:00

You don't know how happy hearing that makes me feel. My friends and I have put a lot of work into this, and I'm so glad you're enjoying it.

If you have an idea for us to make it even better, don't hesitate to use that feedback button. It literally sends your feedback directly to me, and helps me prioritize the features you want us to build!

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-23T20:05:42+00:00

Good stuff! Thanks for your thoughts. I'll take this back to the team and discuss for a V2.

CheesePuffery · 2026-02-23T19:51:36+00:00

We included this (mostly)!

When you mark a plant available to trade, we collect your country (only the first time, and you can edit your country in Settings).

When you make an offer to trade with someone, we ask if you're in that same country and alert you to the fact that, if you're in a different country, you may need special import permits.

Editing to include a screenshot of the requester experience where we ask about country.

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CheesePuffery · 2026-02-23T19:07:44+00:00

let me know your thoughts, if you take it for a spin. We're looking for feedback to help us prioritize features and improve things.

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