I think instagram has taken over. I don't do instagram and have no idea how it works. I'm not interesting in following a bunch of people I don't know. Oh wait.........hahaha. You guys are different.

Unless you're only interested in the gardening aspect maybe post this on Kitchen Table as well. I'm surprised that I'm the first to comment.

Oh DG, I for one, do not have an encouraging answer for you.

I think that GardenWeb is not gaining members because it is nearly invisible. It used to be that a plant question asked of the internet might offer a GardenWeb answer - probably how I found GW in 2002. I assume this falls in houzz's lap.

GardenWeb is so wonderful (to me) because... here goes my diatribe...I don't have to sort through a stream of mostly knee-jerk "answers" written (or possibly spoken) by people who have not read the previously supplied "answers". I am a member of 2 Florida gardening online groups and find them full of duplicitous or just plain wrong answers (along with some thoughtful, very helpful answers). Also, people there ask questions that could quickly be answered by looking up the info online... perhaps they just need to say in a sense, "Here I am, look at me, I am a part of the gardening community". There does seem to be a lot of interest in chatting about gardening via those sites, and that I do find encouraging. I think many chatters would like to join GardenWeb or its equal (please tell me if there is an equal or near equal) if they knew about it.

It's true that most of these niche forums see very little activity - for some time now - which does make me a little sad. I spend more time on the Kitchen Table and Home Decorating Conversations forums, which are still pretty active, with new posts daily.

I think it's kind of amazing that G'web's hung on as long as it has - nothing lasts forever, after all.

Some forums are still very vibrant on GW while others are dwindling. 5 yrs ago, the FL garden forum was very busy. People posted alot and had get togethers, shared common plants they liked to grow and were very excited about sharing the info on these particular plants. I think many of those people were older and may have either passed away, moved away, or just quit gardening.

Houzz also put many older people off when it bought out GW just because the whole format was so different with trying to post or they got frustrated at losing theur user names etc.

Its true that there are many more social media places now where younger people are more comfortable just posting there.

Instagram is fun to post photos and oohh and ahh about everything. You also have short video options which make plants even more exciting to view.

There isn't a whole lot of exchanging of plant information on Instagram though. Most of the commenting on posts is just how much one loves the poster's photo etc. Sometimes people will post short informative "videos" but thats about it.

Facebook has many groups on certain plants or regional garden groups. I found some to be very cliquey and there's often someone who wants to tell everyone else what to do or make them follow some dumb rule. However, if you can find a good group it can be a great place to meet and exchange plants and info etc. locally.

You Tube is a great place to view and learn about specific plants. Same as instagram as far as comment sections being mostly about how much the person liked the poster's video etc. People often share what they are growing etc in the comments but its just kinda left as a statement. Not usually a lot of feedback from the video creator etc.

These Houzz/GW forums do allow a more even exchange of info vs the others. I think it would be helpful if Houzz allowed short video clips to be directly uploaded to the plant forums etc. They would attract more younger users which will ultimately be the future of these gardening forums.

I dont know if Houzz is all that interested in these forums or just kinda kept them as a kinda Sacred Cow when purchasing Garden Web. Their main interest is selling home related products. Do they even sell plants? If not, maybe they should, as that market sector has doing very well in the last few yrs. They could put more features into the gardening forums and use them to point gardeners to their plants/garden products.

All of the gardening forums that I used to frequent are now mostly dead, including California, Cactus & Succulents, Bromeliads, etc. I believe that people are going elsewhere for gardening conversations, but I'm not exactly sure - I know that some have gone to facebook, which I try to avoid.

Even the Cooking forum is a shadow of its former self, but the decorating forums are doing well. As a (retired) professional designer, I find them rather boring, if not irritating and lame.

Hey Deb

Everyone is right about the poor Florida Forum! When I think back about 15 years ago ... man, I was so addicted to it - I told every gardener I knew about it. I haven't slowed down in the gardens, and I would love to share what I'm doing out there but it's such a pain! I can't figure out how to use the forum on my phone so I can't share any photos I take. I've typed and lost so many posts that disappeared in the cybersphere that I just hate to get on here, read posts, get excited about replying and then all my typing time is a huge waste of time. That stuff never happened in the old days!

Anyways, I'm not sure how to answer your question, either. My first thought was - maybe if I just popped on more often and you and me and all the folks who responded to this post just chatted like we used to, might it begin to revive?

~Susie

irma has it right.

" I think that GardenWeb is not gaining members because it is nearly invisible. It used to be that a plant question asked of the internet might offer a GardenWeb answer - probably how I found GW in 2002. I assume this falls in houzz's lap. "

I found in 2004 via an internet search and it was my end all be all since I had never gardened (but wanted to). I don't do FB or instagram. I still come here everyday, but get bored pretty quickly as opposed to spending hours on the site years ago.

So sad.

I think this may be a case of ”be careful what you wish for”. i still check in here every day to see what is going on and search older posts as references. The other forums mentioned are all places I avoid. They are for marketing, data collection and manufactured drama. Here I find real conversations and exchange of ideas. If it became too much like the other format, I would stop visiting.

FWIW, I imagine nextdoor.com also has groups for discussing and sharing regionally specific gardening info. Can't prove it, tho, since I don't spend much time on ours any more because it's become filled with a lot of crabby folks and trolls.

Oh, and navigating since Houzz took over is subpar. Even finding this forum is hard to separate from the other forums.

Maybe you could entice people to share their Wordle results on the Florida Gardening Forum. Or maybe there is another game you could get people to play there.

The Garden Party was pretty dead until people from The Kitchen Table started sharing their game results here. We also have the FNM threads stored here, for reference.

MegW, I agree. Let craziness stay elsewhere on the internet, and being able to research on GW is wonderful.

I was on nextdoor on my old address near Jax, but I didnt seem to have much in common as those folks didn't seem to garden too much, or at least, they weren't growing the same things as I was. Mostly, it was about their lawns or whining about city stuff, restaurants they hated the service at, or complaining about or picking fights with certain neighbors. Definitely not for me lol.

It was useful to keep tabs/ read about certain criminal things going on.

Now I live so rural that the nextdoor here is fairly non-existant lol.

I joined Garden Web in 2002 when it was THE place to get Florida gardening information. I loved the question and answers from Florida people. I even liked the 'trolls' who made everyone post something good or bad as a reply. Some people even got 'sent to Disney World, the happiest place in the world'. ...in reality they were banned because they misbehaved. Florida Gardening was very active and only Florida people could post comments. Now there are comments from many out of state people giving Florida gardeners advice that may not be right. I would love to get back on Garden Web, Florida Gardening if it was interesting and full of comments. I remember so many fun in-person trades. I developed a true passion for ultra tropical plants and have a yard full of them, lots of pretty plants I got as a trade. I learned botanical names on Garden Web. Every time someone mentioned a plant by the botanical name I had to look it up and read all about it. Yes, I would come back again. Linda Leaf

@SusieQsie_Fla >"lost so many posts... that I just hate to get on here" ___ Susie, maybe we could help you through certain difficulties, so that your fine participation would increase.

>"can't figure out how to use the forum on my phone so I can't share any photos" ___ We want to see them. How about photos to computer then to forum.

No Games, Please! That is one thing I can't stand about Facebook is people always trying to get me to play games.

I have a problem with photos because I have such bad eyesight I can't use my phone for the internet. I have to take the pictures with my tablet, load them into the computer, then post them on here. It's just a PITA. But then, I remember when posting on here was HTML, so this is better than that.

I actually belong to a couple of gardening groups on FB; one just for Gainesville which is an AMAZING group, and one that broke off from the original Florida Gardening group called Central Florida Friendly Gardening Community. I mostly post on the Gainesville group. Believe it or not, a couple of us from here started the first Florida Gardening group on FB when the NY Times owned this site and it was a nightmare. It got out of hand very quickly, and turned into a free-for-all, so I abandoned it and came back here. There are a lot of nasty people on the FB general Florida Gardening groups, but the local groups are pretty good.

I also own a Florida Gardening forum on Reddit, but I never go there. I don't like the new platform, and posting pictures on the old platform is very difficult.

I think we could restart something here like what we used to have, maybe the What's Going On In The Garden (WGOITG) weekly posts? Maybe a "Plant of the Week." I seem to remember that Spike used to do posts like that back in the day. As far as our posts being seen on search, they won't be seen unless we post more. I think that's why Houzz keeps dragging up old posts onto the forums, so they won't disappear from sight completely.

OK, I'm going to try to come up with ideas. Spring is right around the corner, and I know a lot of us will be planting new things, or downsizing, or whatever.

Dirtygardener, post more! with valuable and timely information. I first came, not to gardening, but other forums, through googling questions about our first house and getting frequent “hits” to That Home Site, which led to GardenWeb, etc. and lots of forums. Maybe mention it in your local groups, with links to pertinent threads. Our church motto is, if you feed them, they will come. Likewise, provide the good information, and maybe searches will bring them here, they miht respond, and it could snowball back to life from there. Excuse the mixed metaphors.

Yes, information. Economically expressed. And well-thought questions. Economically expressed.

You have to post interesting photos occasionally --- can you get help to do it?

I agree, the only way to bring this forum and others on GW back to life is to post more. The good thing is, with all the people relocating and some being first time gardeners, or at least first time FL gardeners

(which we know is a whole new can of worms lol) There is a lot of potential for growth here. Winter is hard because its depressing and not much is growing. The stores don't have anything interesting (at least in N FL). Seed catalogs and day dreaming & planning about what we want to do in the spring garden is the thing that keeps us going. South FL is probably different but even they have got some hard hits/freezes this winter. Perhaps lost plants or had major setbacks.

FWIW, I feel like I don't have questions to post like I used to, since I've been gardening for so long now. Being here in FL has also become somewhat discouraging, what with all the environmental and political upheavals.

I lost all my citrus trees to citrus greening (HLB), and all I have now is a wonky Key lime I grew from seed - which isn't nothing, but I sure envy those who can still grow oranges, lemons and grapefruit.

Carol, That's heartbreaking about your citrus! If they don't get a handle on this disease there aren't going to be anymore citrus in America at all! It is really a shame. I have heard Brazil and other countries are now supplying the world's orange juice. Don't they have greening issues over there? I wonder what they are doing to ward it off..

I have an idea for a thread..does anyone have photos from a nursery near them or somewhere else they visited? Could be recent or from a few yrs ago etc. If some of us have photos we could make a, Share your Plant Nursery photos! thread. Plants in bloom help break up the winter blahs lol.

Garden Web is a shadow of it's former self. Once Houzz bought it, it began a rapid decline. I have no idea why Houzz wanted to buy Garden Web but I don't think it worked the way they wanted it to and they never allowed it to thrive here. They didn't invest the money and personnel it would take to keep it running right. They made many changes that made no sense and frustrated gardeners until they started to drop out. They didn't allow a link to GARDEN WEB and now you can't even sign into Garden Web, you have to sign into Houzz. I think they wanted gardeners to use the home forums and that was the reason they make you sign into Houzz thinking it would increase traffic to the Home forums.

It used to be a great resource for searching for information, but I can't even do a search on GW any more. You used to be able to navigate to a forum and do a search there, now you have to search the whole site under 'discussions' and the results are so broad as to be useless.

When it was Garden Web before Houzz took it over, they worked at getting their content to come up on a Google search. You could do a search of a member's name or a garden topic and get pages of hits on Google. I think that is what brought a lot of new members here. That doesn't happen any more. As far as I'm concerned, Houzz killed GW. What is leftover is very minimal. Some of us who have known each other for decades keep coming to check in and share our gardening experiences.

And are there young gardeners any more? I don't know the answer to that. A lot of homes that are built now and sold have a large footprint of the house on the property with very small yards. At least that is waht I am seeing in my area. There used to be zoning laws that you coudn't build closer than 25ft of the lot lines or the street among others and now I see that is not the case any more. In my neighborhood there are probably 3 gardeners within 10 blocks in any direction. Everyone else, just mows their lawn and that's the extent of yard work they are interested in doing. Or have time to do.

I do think though that there is a resurgence of homesteading and organic farming and inner city vegetable gardening, but I don't see people involved in gardening in that way posting on GW.

I guess I am a die hard GW user and as long as there are other GW gardener's here, I'll still be showing up. [g]

I've been a loyal Gardenwebber for decades. As I understand it, if Houzz hadn't taken over Gardenweb when they did, Gardenweb would have simply disappeared. So, I think it was the best we could hope for. I'm sure Houzz was only interested in roping Gardenweb visitors into purchasing from their home improvement sections. Theyy had no incentive to invest in maintaining the qualities of Gardenweb that we all valued. But, at least it didn't disappear--at least not overnight. Unfortunately, it has definitiely faded to a bare shadow of what it used to be.

I wonder if there are too many forums. Anyone new to the site would find it easy to get lost in the sheer numbers. Plus, old members can't manage to frequent all the forums to search for new post to answer questions from newbies.

I don't have a solution, though I would pay money to restore GW to what it used to be.

Martha

Four - Thanks for that information. I used to sign into gardenweb.com but there was some kind of a mix up that made it less useable for me. I just don't remember the details. I would end up signing out of garden web and signing into Houzz in order to access aspects of my account.

There is no dedicated section of Houzz for Gardenweb. No link to it on the front page. And as you’ve pointed out, even when you sign into garden web - everything on the page tells you, you are on Houzz.

Be that as it may - I just tried signing into GW and see that if I am signed into garden web - and I do a search while in the Vegetable forum for tomatoes, I do get results on tomatoes IN the vegetable forum. So thanks for that information.

The problem is, that I used to sign into gardenweb exclusively, until Houzz made it so difficult to do and made my interface so dysfunctional that I stopped signing into garden web. I’ve evidently stopped doing searches as well. I come to garden web and visit two forums to catch up with people I know and that’s it. My use of garden web has been reduced to a bare minimum. I definitely don't come here for garden information any more.

So maybe they straightened out the problems I was having signing into garden web. We’ll see, I’ll give it a try for awhile and see how it goes. At least now I know I can do a search in a forum. When I signed out and signed back into Houzz and tried to do a search it still doesn’t allow my search to be directed to a forum. It’s either discussions or photos. This one fact alone would disrupt my use of the site even if I was not a garden web user. If I were exclusively using the home forums and could only have a general, all site search, instead of a specific forum, I would do exactly what I’ve done, stopped searching. I would have to create a post, every time I need information to ask the forum members. It's frustrating to not have access to previous threads and information from the site.

Especially this time of year. As a vegetable gardener, every year you have to make up a list of plants you will grow and if you are still looking for the best tomato to grow or the most compact cabbage for your area, then you need to use the search function. The best source of information on varieties to grow are from other growers and many of these types of discussions were had over and over again every year. Valuable information for a gardener.

And don't get me started on the nonsensical changes they made to the messaging system. It was one thing that worked on Houzz {GW], and instead of making it better they made it much worse. Houzz to me, is the most frustrating website that I've ever had to deal with on the internet. If it weren't for the long standing relationships that people have on Gardenweb, Houzz/GW should really have no visitors to the site.

And by the way, I posted a thread asking about the problem I was having with searches and it disappeared. [g]

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

With regard to disappearances, it will be helpful to know that displayed content differs somewhat between your being logged in and not logged in.

So, I just discovered what the problem was that I stopped signing into Gardenweb, I just signed in and attempted to respond to this post and it kicked me back to the sign in window for Houzz. At this point, I've come to terms with using Houzz. It's a dysfunctional mess, and there is no way of fixing it, because they are not set up to help fix problems, I learned that the hard way over the years. Either they don't care or they area incapable of fixing problems. They're very good at making problems. So either you find a way to make it work, and accept it's limitations or you stop coming. That's about the size of it, sad but true.

>"I just signed in" ___ Before you signed in, the domain name in the URL displayed in browser's address bar was what? During sign-in, the domain name in the URL displayed in browser's address bar was what? After you signed in, the domain name in the URL displayed in browser's address bar was what?

Do you not stay signed in? I do - and I click 'Follow' for my preferred forums, so links to them are always in the sidebar.

I feel like some of the issues people say they have with this site is because they may not be aware of its features and how to use them. Don't be afraid to click around and explore.

Also, this site works better with some browsers than with others. I don't have the latest OS, so I'm using an older version of Firefox. Chrome is problematic for me here.

Four - I just received notification by email that you had responded to my last post. I clicked on the link in the email. This has become my least frustrating way to access Garden web, without having a problem signing in.

I was already signed in to Houzz.com because after reading your previous post in order to respond I had to sign out of gardenweb and sign in to Houzz.

Here is the address of the page I am now reading your post on….

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6336081/is-there-any-way-to-bring-gw-back-to-life#28276093

I am signed into Houzz.

Now I will sign out by going to the upper right corner of this page and going down to the bottom of the list and clicking on sign out.

It throws me back to a page asking me to join Houzz and describing itself as the best place to find professionals.

I’m ignoring it and going to type in the address window - www.gardenweb.com

It doesn't include the rest of the address indicating the discussion I am reading.

The address bar only includes, www.gardenweb.com

If I click on Your Houzz in the upper right corner again, after just having navigated to gardenweb, I see I must b signed into Houzz, because it gives me the option to ‘sign out’. I have one message notifying me of your comment. I click on that to navigate back to this thread. I read your comment, starting….

>”I just signed in”

In the meantime I am composing this response on my laptop - I type in Hello into the space provided to comment just to see what happens and hit submit and it knocks me back to the Houzz pop up saying sign up to post your comment…or I can go down the bottom and sign in.

But I don’t. I just cancel it and go back to the thread. And now the address in the window is

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6336081/is-there-any-way-to-bring-gw-back-to-life#28276093

It has knocked me out of gardenweb. And until I sign into Houzz, I can’t post my comment. Which I am now doing, then I am copy and pasting my response to this thread.

I just pasted my response and now the address window has....this in it....a Houzz address.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6336081/is-there-any-way-to-bring-gw-back-to-life#28276093

It’s a loop. I can’t get out of and stopped trying a long time ago.

Carol, I do stay signed in to Houzz and then I can read and comment on the forums, but I haven't been able to do a search of an individual forum until Four suggested I sign in to gardenweb. There is no link to 'sign in' to gardenweb, but if I type www.gardenweb.com into the address window I arrive at the forum and at the thread but I can't comment on it until I sign into houzz. Even though I was already signed in, it kicks me off. But I can only do the forum search if I navigate back to gardenweb. It's seriously messed up.

have a list of about 30 forums that I followed so I would have those in the side bar. Doesn't change the problems I have with signing in and commenting as I described above. I use an Apple Mac Book Pro with Safari for a browser. A computer and browser that has been around I would imagine as long as Windows has. One that doesn't have trouble with any other site I visit. If you are a public website and can't make your site function with Mac Book Pro, there's something wrong.

Apart from anything else incompatibility with viewing via smartphones will be a key problem. Because so many are viewing the world through a pocket buddy these days. And not a desktop.

I agree, prairiemoon, but if you want to make it work, I would try a different browser. I can't get a lot of sites to work on Safari.

And try staying signed in.

>"I have one message notifying me of your comment." ___ Message in your email client? Message sender probably is Houzz. If so, then of course your clicking link in message would open associated page in Houzz, where of course a login (needed to submit comment) would be into Houzz.

As you have seen, being logged into Houzz works fine for using the particular thread. And not for searching. So, operate the browser accordingly.

>"It has knocked me out of gardenweb." ___ No it hasn't. It is a page that you see, same as every other web page that becomes current as you navigate.

Yes, I agree, Houzz sends notification on threads I choose for notification and sometimes on any thread I post to. Not consistently but knowing it isn’t consistent, I do keep track of where I post.

And yes, of course, the link leads back to the corresponding thread. But I don’t sign out of Houzz. I signed in a long time ago and I stay signed in. So when I get to the page, I can read it and comment on it. And that is why I stopped signing in to Gardenweb.

And I thought it was not possible to search at all on the site, but as I saw today - I believe I can search an individual forum in the garden forums if I navigate to www.gardenweb.com But once I find what I am searching for, and I begin to read it and if I wanted to post a comment to it, I’d have to sign into Houzz again, because navigating to GW does knock me out of being signed into Houzz. At least that is what I have concluded today after walking thru the steps again.

And if that is the only extra step I have to do - it’s like I said before - you find a way to work with the dysfunction or stop coming.

Thank you for taking the time to help me sort this out today…and I am going to try that search for real, very soon

>"to post a comment to it, I’d have to sign into Houzz" ___ Untrue. Just comment, Submit.

OKay, I just tried it - and I didn't have to sign into houzz again. I found a 7 year old thread on tomatoes and posted a quick sentence, hit submit and it posted.

But on the other hand....I had to go to the Vegetable forum and type in tomato in the search window, choose 'in Vegetable forum' - but at that point I wanted to pinpoint what I was looking fore better, so I went back to the search window and added 'best tasting' to the search for tomato, but it reverted to searching in discussions and didn't give me the option of searching just the vegetable forum. I had to go back to the side bar, choose Vegetable forum and start the search over, at which point, it worked right - I chose the first thread on the results list, and navigated down to the comment box and posted.

So another adaptation - but at least there is a way to do what I want, but you have to admit there are a lot of bugs in this site and I've heard rumors that they just don't have the personnel to maintain the site. I can't even list how many frustrating issues I dealt with in the time since Houzz took over. All issues I never had when it was just Garden Web. Except for this recent search issue, I keep it simple and go to only two forums and navigate thru my email notifications and I don't search. I lowered my expectations significantly.

OKay, I simply tried it - and I did not have to signal into houzz again. I observed a 7 12 months historic thread on tomatoes and posted a speedy sentence, hit put up and it posted.

But on the different hand....I had to go to the Vegetable discussion board and kind in tomato in the search window, pick 'in Vegetable forum' - however at that factor I desired to pinpoint what I used to be searching fore better, so I went again to the search window and delivered 'best tasting' to the search for tomato, however it reverted to looking out in discussions and did not supply me the choice of looking out simply the vegetable forum. I had to go returned to the aspect bar, pick out Vegetable and free seeds discussion board and begin the search over, at which point, it labored proper - I selected the first thread on the outcomes list, and navigated down to the remark field and posted.

After playing around with the search function I finally decided to learn more about Houzz. I would like to thank Houzz for leaving a back door search function via gardenweb for all the historical archives. I realize that they don’t make any money hosting free chat forums or storing the data for our personal use. LOL It only makes sense, based on their core business, to help drive the discussions to broader groups. Their IT has to be optimized for their business and I appreciate the access to the old data. Thanks Houzz!

As far as bringing people back to foums like this goes, who knows. The younger generation appears to use instagram and snapchat and who knows what else. Apps like Nextdoor and facebook seem to have the broadest appeal right now across age groups as I noticed younger family members still use it a little. Who knows what the next exciting app will bring. I am just happy I can now find a recipe or plant data that I know is out there.