Well...seven years is new in some ways I guess but enough to not feel 'new'. And if if am viewed as 'new' after that much time, maybe the community is not as warm as one might hope for. FB annoys the hell out of me in so many ways. But I have enjoyed getting to know people in those plant groups where we all go by our real names and so many of those contacts have turned into friendships that are actual, not virtual, which I guess is of more importance to me. And I have never, ever, been subjected to the nastiness on the FB plant forums that I have here. I have taken many lonnnnnggggg vacations from these forums after being blasted for all kinds of things, including, of all oddities, income tax evasion. That's the sort of stuff that the admins on the FB groups won't allow. There isn't a SBTYM aspect to the plant groups that I am part of. I post nothing personal on FB.

I wasn't blaming Photobucket per se; my complaint was that it was incredibly antiquated technology.

I will now really step out as we are at odds and I blame no one for his or her opinion. As a website editor for a plant society with its share of older members, I spend many hours every week with similar complaints! (Not to mention dad...)

De gustibus non disputandum!

"I have taken many lonnnnnggggg vacations from these forums after being
blasted for all kinds of things, including, of all oddities, income tax
evasion"

How utterly bizarre!

"That's the sort of stuff that the admins on the FB groups won't allow."

But that's got almost nothing to do with the technology, it's got to do with the philosophy of the people running the site. (Not that you don't understand that, but I'm pointing out most of us here are annoyed with Houzz's apparently attempts to thrust 'new technology' on us...which is really more about making them more money than being convenient to us, or following recognized internet forum discussion standards and practices) I've left some internet forums because they were over-moderated and left others because they were under-moderated. In fact in the really olden times, people thought GW was over-moderated, by some guy named Spike. Then NBCi seemed to have an almost completely hands-off approach for years.

In fact...hhhhmmmm...now that I think about it, maybe I had my own run-in with Spike? Because I definitely participated in the late 1990s. I know because I still have emails I exchanged with a woman in Fredericksburg, VA, who was trying to grow a lot of unusual plants back then that I was too, like Genista aetnensis and Arbutus unedo. (she later moved to Florida...her name escapes me now but I guess I could go find the emails) I know I met her on GW. But then, something made me mostly drop out until about 2006, only occasionally visiting. I can't even remember the user ID I used in the late 1990s.

A free App @ the google chrome store, gives the ability to right click a link and choose "open in the same tab". You have to 'right click' but still better than all those open tabs at the end of a session. Maybe they'll add that to the option settings like it was in IE....someday...

Where is Logan when you need him to jump in?

Sara, I hope you did not interpret my comments as being critical of you or your opinions - that was not at all my intent!! I was just curious about why you thought this was such an improvement over the previous layout/format when the consensus appears to be overwhelmingly negative in its reception. Houzz, in all its after-the-fact wisdom, has asked for feedback here: [ New Look for GardenWeb.[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/new-look-for-gardenweb-topics-dsvw-vd~5342444) Virtually every single comment has issues with finding forums, navigating easily between them, unnecessary tabbing and the need to tag to multiple forums unnecessarily. I don't think there is a single positive comment. If this is new or better technology than what we had before Friday, then why doesn't it work??????? It certainly isn't any more user-friendly.........in fact, quite a bit less.

And yeah, 7 years does make you something of a newcomer :-) And by that I mean that a great many GW members have been here and active almost from the start in the late 90's. And have developed some deep and longstanding friendships with other members, both online and in person. And that long history has helped to establish a sense of community that has been slowly diluted with this acquisition and is now threatened to vanish completely. That was what the homepage of the old GW used to state: a community of like-minded individuals wanting to share their gardening questions and advice. There is something of a grieving process going on now, when something you valued and loved is faced with what appears to be a terminal illness. In a singe stroke, Houzz has wiped out that sense of community and camaraderie.

And I doubt that can be replaced with any FB plant group!!

I detest Facecrap.

I'll just say as one that worked with computers and programming them since just after they discovered the "chip that can operate at room temperatures" back in the mid to late 70's. BTW: I don't like FB either.

No matter how much you test a program that you have written, until you go live with it, you never know all the little bugs and glitches that need to be addressed. Not to mention the dealing with opinions of different people and how they react to changes that are made.

This software is different, I'm not arguing that point. And there are both pluses and minuses to upgrading software. Some of it you just have to get used to and some of it needs addressing by the code writers and some you just have to learn something new and/or change some settings on your computer.

The people the made this program are certainly reading very intently what has been posted here and are making notes as we speak. We'll see some changes and improvements as time goes on. It's nothing new as the old adage says: "The only thing that doesn't change is everything changes".

Believe me, going to a new set up is a major headache and I know the programmers have done all they know how to make that headache as mild as possible but they are programmers, many of them have know idea how various member use this forum.

Things will get better. Just hang in there! :-)

Much of the new stuff is inconvenient but to not have the master list of garden forums in alphabetical order is idiotic. Spellcheck tells us IT folks/programmers can't spell but do any of them at least know the alphabet? Is the order based on paid advertisers on those forums?

tj

I'm more of a rake and a shovel guy. No computers or typing experience. I think I joined Gw around 02 or 03.....When the maple forum was fast moving and real enjoyable with a lot of participation.This site has become a beast that's taking on a life of its own and making my eyeballs spin !

"Much of the new stuff is inconvenient but to not have the master list of garden forums in alphabetical order is idiotic. "

tj, they are in order.

The first section is titled "Featured Topics" but the second part of the list is titled "All Topics" and they are sorted Alphabetically. Just page down past Featured topics.

Bill_minn, it depends on what device you are using, the browser you are using, etc.

Yeah, on my phone it's still messed up. Even when I use "Explore Topics".

Oh well, nobodies perfect. :o))

I think they are changing some things on the fly. A search is available that wasn't on the master list on Friday. Folks are giving them an earful.

I've posted this in a couple of forums:

There is a forum called "Using Houzz" (who knew?) that has [THIS Thread[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/new-look-for-gardenweb-topics-dsvw-vd~5342444?n=965) about the new look.

tj

Ya, it would have been nice if they would've made a public announcement about all this and told us where to gripe.

Thanks tj!

For all of you who don't like the fact that a new window opens when you click on a topic and you'd rather go back to just using the 'back' arrow - just use the 'back' arrow - it will close the window and take you right back to the page that you were on before. Same as always.

On my PC the back arrow is greyed out. I use the actual site that is already open but it is extra step 1. Much prefer the back arrow and no pop up Windows. That way I know what thread I just opened as it grays it out when it refreshes the window which for me now on my PC is extra step 2. and I have no extra windows to close which is now extra step 3 and more depending on how many posts I visited. Don't like the many extra steps.

On my cell I can back out of the web page I am on. Much simpler!

Hm. Backspace button pushed. Still has the window open and not on the page I was on before? What other back button is there?

Sara must be seeing something different than I........on my screen right now, there is no 'back button' option available. It is greyed out. To get out of this thread, I have to close the tab. There is no other way to return to the other discussions.

Up until yesterday or the day before I was having to close opened windows. I noticed earlier today that I can now go back.

I've tried three different browsers, and even turned off ad blocking for a moment. Nothing changed it to enable the back button? I tried!

is there a another place to go?

Works fine on Safari.

I accessed the KT last night on DH's phone, safari browser, and had the same problems (deleted words, etc) trying to start a new discussion.

Not on my Ipad or desktop running Google Chrome. All the same complaints above. The only thing that has changed for me is that the back arrow is working at the moment. It didn't work last night. I do not use ad blocker. Ads don't bother me. They are off to the side or bottom and I keep sound muted anyway.

ETA: Haven't tried to post.

Main problems for me.

1. I can't surf "All Discussions" unless I log out. Then I can. This is the main way I use the site.

2. Forums are a MESS. Can't find anything.

ETA#2: Put back being able to click on the LAST post! I know I can press "end", by why should I have to.

When I end up with tabs across the top of the screen I right click on the currently open tab, then click on Close Other Tabs.

I noticed several Internet sessions with advertising that pop up in the background and I don't see them until I close the session I'm using. Using my laptop.

Oddly, this doesn't seem to work very well with Google Chrome (very widely used) and works very well with Apple Safari (not so much). I haven't tried Firefox and I can't use IE but since no developers use IE that is usually the worst browser. Anyone using IE try using another browser and see if you have better results.

On my laptop, google chrome is working well. A few glitches like when you drag the scroll bar to the end, the display sits there and flickers until you scroll up a bit.

I hate that every time I click on a post another window opens. :\

Today I hit 'explore topics' on my phone and when I hit "Trees" I got "Bath Designs" forum. Tried it 3 times and got the same thing. Finally I got to "Trees".

And what's with these blue, double underlined links that take the place of words we type in our replies? I think one was disease but there's many others.

When I was making a post, it suggested posting on "The Kitchen Table" and "Furniture." I thought that was pretty funny. :)

ravencajun: I agree with what you posted. This was a very unprofessional change. My suspicious nature proposes there might have been an ulterior motive: The Host doesn't care about "kitchen table" and other forums under this umbrella. Recall a few years back, this site was being abandoned and Houzz agreed to host it. Maybe Houzz no longer wants the burden of supporting these forums. What better way to shut it down than to mess it up so badly that its users leave it and then Houzz can say that its not being used much, lets get rid of it, It was using a lot of storage and required considerable amount of our computing resources.

The other scenario is this site was placed on the back burner and they permitted neophytes to run (play with) the site.

I'm using Chrome. Zero issues. I love the tabs. But I always like to be in control of the content I view. The more options the better. Like having a "favorites" list. Like the speed of scrolling versus clicking on pages.

Back button : Static method. Go back start over.
Tabs: Close, leave open and click on the forum tab to go to it's "home". Nice.

I am a senior. Lifelong learning is a good thing. Been here for years. Spike's forum seemed luddite like even when I was new to computers. I mean really, redirecting to disney. How childish. Big wow.

The forums list under explore topics is now alphabetized. Now if they would just alphabetize the your topics list.

IMO: When you click on a thread title and you get redirected to a full page advertisement tab, that's just plain rude!!!! Speaking lap top here.

Everything tracks us. If any of you that dislike facebook have a smart phone...bad news for you.

Look I hate facebook, I hate monsanto, and I fear the day where my coffee maker listens to my conversations in my house and everything in my kitchen is connected to wifi. I'd NEVER own an Alexa. I think anyone who voluntarily puts one of those in their house is absolutely nuts.

Facebook though, lets me keep in touch with people i'd otherwise never be able to talk to over the years...and as far as interest/hobby groups...they are on another level.

The "japanese maple and conifer group", as well as "planet conifer" groups on facebook make this forum, or any forum about plants for that matter look like a joke....whether we are talking about current day forum, or a long time ago. This is coming from someone who probably belongs to about 25 internet forums btw, I have a lot of hobbies...but...you simly can not compete with facebook - where 2.5 billion worldwide users have access and can easily find these interest groups. There is a whole other world out there.

It appears to automatically sign me up for notifications whenever someone responds to a thread that I also responded to and then I have to turn off notifications on each of these individual threads. I cant figure out where to tell it not to send me any notifications in the first place. Please correct me if Im wrong. And now you can “like” and say “thank you” to someones post?

pete: I've only seen each thread to turn off notifications. I'd love for automatically notifying you to turn off too. Or at least, add a spot to do it WHEN you're posting, not after. I have to reload the thread to get it to show up.

Pete, I think you can turn those off in your privacy settings. I don't get notifications about threads I post in, and I don't turn them off manually. I think it's the box in red in this picture. I do get notifications for replies to my own threads, which I like.

The "Like" and thank you have been around for a while!

Your Houzz - Edit Profile and Settings - Advanced Settings (Left hand menu)

I guess I never noticed the “thank you”. But seriously, a need for “like” and “thank you”? Re: above post - Ive got “never” selected for everything so Ive concluded it automatically notifies me (and everyone) whenever someone replies to a thread they responded to. Then you must go into every different thread and turn off notifications for that and only that thread.

That's strange. I don't get replies to threads I've posted to and I definitely don't turn them all off individually. I don't even see an option for that unless it's my own thread.

The "thank you" is only an option when you create a thread so if you don't create a lot, I could see why you never noticed it. I do like the "like" feature!

Emily and Houzz "team" - PLEASE return the back button. It's absolutely ridiculous you haven't done it yet. 6 days of countless requests....

I have never marked on comments and I still have to turn it off every time. Maybe it's a browser thing?

I use Chrome and I don't have that issue. Let me try with Firefox...

On Firebox, I now see the option to turn notifications off, but I am not receiving them in email. Though I'll know for sure once someone else replies to this thread.

Maybe try Chrome if you don't already?

Edited: Now after my experiment, Chrome shows the option to turn the notifications off. So strange.

I'm not convinced Houzz is even really trying to get lots of traffic to sell banner ads exactly. I think they want to make money by recommending/promoting people's businesses in the wildly overpriced kitchen renovation space. If they can make kitchen contractors and realtors and such to think it is useful or necessary to get involved in Houzz, they can find ways to make money off this.

They bought Garden Web to bring in warm bodies in the hopes some would be interested in kitchen renovations. They really have no interest in the forums or gardening...and make decisions without regards to their utility to gardeners. They actually *WANT* gardeners to get lost...they may find their way to more profitable forums.

As far as the website design geeks...EVERY time you change the format of a site you lose people. People have to relearn the site...and some won't have the time right now to bother. That's not on the user, that's on the designer. You always have to way the value of the features you add against the vale of the user's time.

Mattie I have the back arrow now. I use Google Chrome and Safari.

I see they put the "topics" back into alphabetical order. :^)

Odd, I see no difference but I'm not a houzz power user as I only check in on a couple forums.

gezz if this stuff pisses people off how do you get through the day! Lol

They are listening. Not only is the Master List alphabetized and a new tab no longer opens up but they also dropped the infinite scroll in favor of the listing of threads by pages like they used to.

tj