Use cases

These use cases are from a mailing list discussion in August 2012, outlining the main activities people would use Growstuff for.

Tracking
If you're a tracker, you want to track your garden, your crops, and everything to do with them. Dates, locations, and other records are important to you. You want to remember what you did, and plan for what you want to do next. Data entry doesn't scare you away, as long as it will be there for you afterwards. You might want to be able to import/export your data to other apps or in standard forms. When you're wearing your tracking hat, you don't much care about other people seeing your data -- you may or may not mind, but your primary goal is for it to be there for *you*, not for them.

Sharing/connecting
Sharers want other people to see what they're growing. If you're a sharer, you want to connect with existing friends (online and offline), make new friends, and show them your garden and what you're doing in it. You post notes and photos with an external audience in mind. You send your updates out via other social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest) as well as sharing on Growstuff itself. You are interested in connecting with people who have similar interests to yours, or who live and garden in your area, and you enjoy seeing what they're doing, too.

Learning
You may be an experienced food grower, or you might not even have a single plant yet, but you're interested in learning about food gardening and how best to do it. You browse Growstuff for things you might want to grow, tips, and other useful information, and want to bookmark the best stuff for future reference. You might like to ask questions, too, either publicly or of some limited group (friends, people near you) and get specific advice, or participate in discussions on various topics. You may not enter stuff in the "your garden" area of the site, but you learn a lot from others who do.

Trading
You have some stuff you want to sell, trade, or give away... or you want to acquire some stuff the same way. It might be seeds or seedlings, produce, tools and equipment, books or magazines about food gardening and related topics, even live animals like chickens or goats. Or perhaps you have an upcoming event like a workshop or permaculture blitz that you want to tell people about, or you're looking for events in your area to attend. You want to use Growstuff as a marketplace, to let people know what you have available or find what you're looking for. Sometimes you want to trade locally or among your friends, and other times your market is the whole Growstuff membership. Either way, you want Growstuff to make it easy to swap, trade, buy, and/or sell.