I actually don't see a comment in that thread. I know we have a few people in various forums whose posts are notoriously slow in showing up ... they'll eventually appear slotted in at the time they were posted but more slowly. I'm not sure the reason for it, but I'd say that the reason that it is still saying be the first the comment is the same as the reason that your post isn't yet visible, whatever that reason is.

Hmm. I still see two of my comments there. Looks like anything I post there doesn't get registered for the community to see. Again, it sure isn't obvious how to communicate with a Gardenweb Houzz moderator, though in my experience they have been very responsive when a problem arises.

I also commented in that post last nite. But I Do NOT see any other comments in that post. I have no idea what is going on.

It seems to be confined to that thread. I commented on other threads and went up immediately. Commented on Squash one and nothing.

I did see some other threads which said "Be the First..."

I do not see any comments either.

Ouch. Since you can't flag your own comment, and If no one can see anyone elses comments, nothing can get flagged. I put in a request to Houzz customer support this morning, and got an automated reply saying that one can expect a response in 1-2 business days, and their business days are M-F. Oh well. Don't hold your breath.

I do not see any comments there 1725hrs PST.

At Squash plants dropping fruit I still only see OP at1759hrs PST 07/09/18

It has happened to me a number of times as well, Dan. I have commented on threads and could see my own comment but I would notice that the comment count would remain the same. When I would log out I could not see my comment, I could only see it while logged in. It is very annoying and one of the reasons I rarely check these forums anymore.

Rodney

Can a Moderator take a look at this thread?

As I said, I asked Houzz to do that. May happen in 1-2 business days. If you know a better way to contact a moderator, do so. I can't imagine Houzz has moderators who regularly peruse the zillions of forums they run.

If someone doesn't show up soon, I have a workaround.

... and now the workaround

--------------

Dear Houzz/Gardenweb Moderator-Administrator:

I have asked someone to flag this post to bring it to your attention.

The gardening community thanks you for all the work you do in providing and managing this forum. That being said, we have a problem. I put in a Houzz support request (01731140) about it this last weekend. Occasionally, a Gardenweb thread that is started ends up being non-functional, in that even though we can see the starting post and respond to it, our responses are visible only to the responder, and not to the community or, presumably, to the original poster. That is what has happened to this thread in the Vegetable Gardening forum -- [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/squash-plants-dropping-fruitnot-a-pollination-issue-dsvw-vd~5383855[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/squash-plants-dropping-fruitnot-a-pollination-issue-dsvw-vd~5383855), though we've seen it happen before on other threads. The message that goes with that thread in the Vegetable Gardening forum list remains "Be the first to comment" even though many people have tried to comment. Please fix this thread. This separate thread was created discussing this problem - [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/when-a-comment-isnt-a-comment-dsvw-vd~5384058[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/when-a-comment-isnt-a-comment-dsvw-vd~5384058). This post is in that thread. When you fix it, can you post a note in this latter thread to give us some closure? Is there something we're doing wrong that makes a thread unresponsive like this? Also, what is the best way to communicate with you?

Thank you.

---------------

To Gardenweb subscribers:

I want to sent this message to the moderator. The way to do it is if
one or more of you hit that little flag icon in the top right corner of this
post, and then let us know that you did it. That flags the message for
moderator attention. But I can't flag my own post! You need to do it. The
moderator will probably assume that a flagged post points to one that is inflammatory and will hopefully look at it promptly.

Done.

Did you post your question in a FAQ forum?

Hi there, Thanks for the flag to get our attention. It looks like the issue was that the OP was tagged with an FAQ topic, so it was held up in moderation. In future, it is better to leave off the FAQ topics and use the others instead. If you ever have an issue with posts and have questions, please reach out to our team through help.houzz.com. We are always happy to talk. Thanks!

Ah, many thanks Emily! I will remember help.houzz.com. But excuse me. What do you mean by "tagged with a FAQ topic"? I've never seen that, and this post is now showing just two forums where it was posted. Maybe someone else can illuminate? No doubt this is what has been happening with other non-functional threads I've seen.

OK, it happened again, with https://www.houzz.com/discussions/how-to-get-rid-of-septoria-leaf-spot-for-good-dsvw-vd~5399683 I have put in a request to Emily about it. And yes, it looks like the OP cross-posted to the "Growing Tomatoes FAQ". What in the world is that forum, and why does it screw up threads? That forum isn't listed on the "Houzz Topics" list. How do people come up with that forum?

Nit: There is a "Growing Tomatoes FAQ" in "Houzz Topics list. Far down.

Thank you, albert_135. I didn't see that in the list -- https://www.houzz.com/discussions/explore-topics#All-Topics. Where are you seeing it?

Try: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/explore-topics

I don't get it with the #All-Topics either.

Wow. Weird.

FWIW, the Growing Tomatoes FAQ page is a really good resource and has been around for many years. Odd to see that people can somehow post to it now.

I just want to say though, that in my previous comment above the "comments that weren't" were on this vegetable forum and on threads that others had been able to comment on both before and after me. In my case my particular comment apparently never went through publicly and only I could see it while I was logged in. It was not on one of these weird threads that had crossed into an obscure forum. I wish I had screenshots to show what I am talking about but I can't find any instance of this happening under the "activity" header on my profile...

Rodney

Well, this particular OP thought she was cross-posting to the Growing Tomatoes FAQ, but her post doesn't seem to be there. In fact, the dates on those posts are almost all January 1, 2013, which I suspect was when they were all ported over. So it isn't a forum that appears to be maintained. The fact that is accessible only through gardenweb.com, and not houzz.com suggests that Houzz threads might get confused when trying to link to it. Again, it is NOT in the list of Houzz topics.

I hope the Houzz support people can figure this out.

OK, they fixed it. Presumably by removing the FAQ cross-post. Word to the wise -- don't cross post to a FAQ.

The FAQ pages never were meant to be forums. Makes no sense why Houzz would allow people to post threads there. Also makes me a little upset that the FAQ's are so hard to find now. There are quite a lot of forums that have their own FAQ's that are filled with useful info, including this forum.

Here's a couple screenshots of Gardenweb from 2014 (using Archive.org). The FAQ's used to be easily accessible as you can see above.

And there's all the different FAQ pages that used to be available.

Sorry for going a little off topic.

Rodney

Interesting thread reporting earlier problems.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/houzz-support-attention-gardenweb-is-broken-dsvw-vd~5354967?n=112[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/houzz-support-attention-gardenweb-is-broken-dsvw-vd~5354967?n=112)

Interesting problem, but it wasn't our problem.

This post should be showing in this forum but is not.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/oldies-but-goodies-gardenweb-days-dsvw-vd~5407740[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/oldies-but-goodies-gardenweb-days-dsvw-vd~5407740)

Take it up with Emily.

Both comments were intended for other readers here.

Thank you for your continued support Dan.