Annebert, I truly hope not. I did not really join GP until about 90 days before the buyout. I have seen some changes since then but do believe it will all settle out before long. I enjoy everything but the fussing. Hang in there it will all come out OK Steve in Baltimore

Anne, I just tried to post a message to tell you why I despise this place anymore but an ad for crystal lite iced tea popped up and when it went away, my message was GONE.

I'll try again tomorrow when my blood pressure goes back down.

Btw, this is aka_peggy and me thinks that iGarbage SUCKS rocks.

Ok, I'm gonna try this again, but prepare...it's long winded.

For several weeks after the "train wreck" I was unable to log-in. I kept getting a message saying my password was incorrect. NOT! However I was able to re-register under a new name. When I tried to re-register under my old username, I got a message that the name was already taken. Ya think! I tried to email iV but heard nothing back. No doubt they were plenty busy trying to clean up the mess.

My biggest beef about all this is that they didn't let folks know what they were doing beforehand, or that there MIGHT be a problem. I'm now able to log-in under my old username but I have chosen not to because I was using my regular email account. I tried to change my address to a hotmail account but when I submit the info and go back and look, my old email address is still there. After the new terms of agreement went into affect I didn't want to use my old email because "iV reserves the right to share my email addy with it's many affliates." OK not an exact quote but something to that effect. I don't want them to share my email address with anyone.

Another beef I have is that my member page was wiped clean. Gone! Others with far more elaborate member pages than I have complained of the same.

While I realize that iV has the right to change "what was once> gardenweb to their liking, I just don't like the way they went about it.

So, now for the 1st time ever I'm seeing the obnoxious ads. I sometimes see full page animated ads that fill my entire screen. Some of them run for 2-3 minutes and I'm unable to escape. You can't go "back."

I've seen ads with sexy men in skimpy underwear. A woman's nearly bare butt in my face. A golden retriever running back and forth across the screen. Then that foolish Crystal Lite ad with women dancing across the screen. When the ad finally ends it still doesn't go away but just sits there. Then they have the audacity to ask if I want to replay the ad. Oh sure, go ahead, bore me some more.

I don't know what you're doing right but if you figure it out let me know, please. I've been visiting other gardening sites tho it's just not the same. I miss my old garden buds here. Lots of folks that are on dial up say the site is just too slow anymore. Fortunately I don't have that problem. Do you know that Dave's Garden had an increase in membership of 0.59%, or 1,165 people in just 7 days following the changes? New gardening forums have been created for the refugee's leaving GW.

Last night when I tried to post this message and that full page ad appeared I, upon the advice of another GWer, tried to close it out. That's when I lost my message.

So there you have it. I'm very sad as well and I miss the good ole days.

I use Firefox for browsing (with the popup blocker on), and if I'm doing it from home I also have images turned off. I wasn't even aware of popup or other overly inruding ads until I saw the post about it. Didn't even know about the ivillage buyout, either. I'd suggest people try using Firefox or another browser that can disable the popups and see how that goes.

Larry

Larry, I use IE with a popup blocker, and still get the annoying ads. Others have posted about getting around the ads, and it involved multiple steps, including disabling features I'd really rather not. Perhaps I should be thankful for this, but sometimes I go for a week or so with no ads, and just when I decide that they've decided to not annoy the he$$ out of me, out pops a new one. And, there doesn't appear to be a way to make it go away permanently (IOW, it doesn't just play once, and if it appears on say, the MAG forum page, every time you go back to it after visiting a thread, it starts up again). I have used Firefox and not noticed any difference. Perhaps the popup disabling works differently there, and I will see if I can change my settings as a work around.

Anne, I have heard others with paid memberships say that they've not encountered this problem, and still others say that they have. Either way, I think that they're eliminating that option to pay and not have to face the annoyances, and if there were any privileges associated with it, I guess that's going to go away as well.

This has been a really nice place. If the signal to noise ratio gets bad enough, I won't stick around. Until then, I'll dip my toes into a few different avenues, and see what suits me.

Suja

My guess is that a lot of the troubles are caused by incompetence, which I hope they can surmount. Some of the privacy and intellectual ownership issues seem like deal killers to a lot of people, though.

Peggy, I'll try to bring you something extra good to the swap.

Thank you Anne---you just made my day:)

Forgot to mention...this morning my DH was finally able to change my email address so I can use my name again. I don't know why I was unable to change it.