I find it confusing also. I liked how the unanswered posts used to sit up at the top for a week before sliding down. That way people's posts weren't lost in the shuffle.

I find it absolutely clear. It's in the first line of information below every post title. I automatically check it before I open a thread.

I do wish any unanswered posts would stay at the top for a given amount of time, and a week seems reasonable. I'm here often enough that I usually know same day if I'm going to respond to a new post, but I think it would be helpful to others who can't visit as frequently.

Good issues with which to contact admin.

Al

That should just say Saturday, instead of "last Saturday," IMVHO, in that format, but I would prefer just the date and time because without using just the date, the date entries are in a mixed format, which is jarring. There are both dates and "yesterday," "last Saturday"'s:

However, with still no indication of which forums have new posts since ones' last visit, it's a pretty low-concern priority for me. I've put a few bookmarks on the forums I care to click on *just to see* if there's new posts, since already-visited forums are no longer a different color on the forums list page. House plant forum is still my browser home page.

What I find confusing is when trying to figure out how "last thursday" or "2 weeks ago" compares to another date that might be listed elsewhere in a thread.

For example: "Here is a picture of blah from January 30th, when I first repotted, and here is another from today" - and the post was on "last thursday". I made that date up, but in order to understand if the picture is 1 week or 1 day old requires quite a bit of thinking, at least for me, and if all dates were presented as absolute rather than relative-to-now values ("month, day, year") this would not be necessary, and would never be confusing.

Unread posts and new posts are indicated by green letters read ones by gray. That is simple. When I come here, I click on every green link I see even if I'm not interested in the posting so I know which ones have been replied to or posted on since my last visit. If htere are no green posts on my next visit I know to move to the next forum.

That is true on a forum page, but not on the page that lists all of the forums. All of the other garden forum sites give an indication of whether or not each forum has new entries since ones' last visit.

Ah ok, I've never used that page because it confuses me to no end.

Me too, since I can't at-a-glance see which forums to click. How do you navigate between forums without going to the forum list page?

I usually use the back button or the 'related forums' at the top of the HP forum page, C&S, Orchids, Hoya, Aroids, Sansevieria. I don't grow too many kinds of plants that I'd need to go to more than a few forums. If I need another forum I will go to the whole list of forums but that's rare. You can also go to your profile and it has a listing of any posts you've commented on.

I went back to read the original question since this is starting to stray and realized it doesn't say "last Sunday" at the top, making things even more confusing by referring to the most recent day as both "last Sunday" and just "Sunday."

As the page appears now, 2 posts were made "1 hour ago." With no indication of exactly what time. Facebook does this too and I don't like it there either. If a post develops rapidly, it's impossible to refer to a particular entry by a time stamp since they all say "1 hour ago."

The only "related" forum here I visit is the Sans one. I do have tons of succulents, a couple Hoyas, tons (but not enough) Begonias, but prefer to discuss them as house plants. Although I love what we call
house plants as much as anyone, I'd have very few plants in a pot inside
if I lived where all of my plants were happy outside. (If I did, it would probably be a go-with-the-flow Philodendron.) I take almost all of them outside every summer.

My bookmarks are on NTP,
annuals, perennials, natives, bulbs, clinic, weeds, foliage,
propagation, Alabama, southern, and tropicals!

I've used this drop-down before to sort search results to "latest activity" but I guess my eyes refused to register any more choices past "featured" and "popular" because I just noticed the last choice, "unanswered." That should help in the search for posts w/o any replies, for those who are interested in that, since now they just slide down the page, as mentioned above.