Another couple of things that would be useful, is holding your cursor over the name of a thread to see the first sentence or two of a thread. Helps to determine if you want to click on it or not, or if you've already read it without having to click on it. The titles change color after you click on it but don't stay that way for long. I also forget sometimes that I've read a thread and those first couple of sentences or so help me remember what it was about.

Another thing is a button to click on that will take you to the first most recent comment in a thread, instead of having to scroll through a very long one to get to the bottom to see the latest posts. That one is more valuable than the first I mentioned. I can live without the first, but would really like to see the second be on here.

Karen

Emoticons

As far I can see GW is the most active garden forum on the web, with so many wonderful knowledgeable gardeners. And so I stay despite the many obvious shortcomings of these forums.

Ditto to what rouge21 said, and to add to that it's FREE !!!!!

Maybe I am missing some detail but I can upload multiple pics in my postings. I think I have done 5 or more at a time. I just use the script
and it works. Hope that helps and apologies if you are referring to some other issue.

Amna

That was supposed to be img src="location details of pic". Put after "

Amna

"Has there been anything more than being able to upload at most *one* picture? "
We can now edit our posts which is something that a lot of members screamed for and wanted for a long time.

And ditto to what rouge21 said, except I really don't see the many obvious shortcomings or else am just not bothered by them. I guess I just don't need emoticons. I don't find it hard to follow threads on forums here that I frequent. If I did find it hard, I could just make a folder in Firefox Bookmarks and store the threads there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Here ya go...Suggestion Forum

Amna, I had thought that one is able to easily able to upload *one* picture directly from one's hard drive using Choose File on GW but additional pictures must be first put on a picture hosting site e.g. photobucket and then linked from there.

It would be more convenient to be able to upload more pictures using the currently existing Choose File option.

Please, no emoticons.

It is easy to post multiple pics. Use something like Flickr and edit your stuff on a word document. Then copy and paste.
I do not expect GW to do more.....sooner, while it is free.

And I'll second the above post, no emoticons!

This post was edited by arthurm on Fri, Jul 25, 14 at 14:27

When I do a search and get 20 (or200) hits, how do I sift through all that information to find what info I originally wanted?

Could the search term be highlighted in each post?

How do others manage this or refine their searches to limit the number of hits.

Didnt intend to hijack this....should I start a new thread....or are we just making a wish list for improvments?
idabean

Whats with the tiny advert. Boxes that suddenly appear right in front of the postings. Os is there something wrong with my ipad? Whatever it is it is bothersome.

It is easy to post multiple pics. Use something like Flickr

It is easier to be able to upload pictures directly from one's hard drive. This cuts out the step of first having to upload to a service such as flickr or photobucket.

Having GW store such photos ensures that they will always appear in the post. It is not unusual to see posts on GW with pictures missing as the link to the photo hosting site is no longer valid eg the photo has been deleted.

(I am on several other free forums which allow for multiple uploads directly from one's HD).

we just making a wish list for improvments?

ADMIN announced last year (or was it the year earlier) that improvements were coming. There were a couple initially and then nothing for a long time.

For those of you on other free forums (garden or otherwise) I am betting GW has the least # of what are considered more often than not standard features.

Update GW!

This is what really bugs me the most, trying to find posts. Why can't we at the very least search posts that were created by ourselves? I can post something then I can literally never find that thread again even doing a google search. That is totally annoying. Then the search feature is beyond useless. I can do a search here and find almost nothing but then do a google search for gardenweb and the words I'm searching for and come up with a huge list of stuff.

Personally, I really enjoy reading posts from experienced gardeners on GW, especially hearing about their ongoing challenges.

I do, however, feel GW is not very picture-friendly.

I routinely post pictures from our garden on All Things Plants.

At ATP, they make it a very simple matter to post multiple pictures and, something I particularly like, pictures are never rejected (as containing too much information?).

I don't want to dance through hoops to post pictures. I'd rather spend the time gardening.

I see, rogue21! I guess I've always just gone the Flickr route but you are right about the hard drive upload. I mostly take pics with my phone and they automatically get sent to Flickr so I never bother downloading to my HD.

Amna

I second being able to go to the first unread post rather than having to scroll through all of the posts to get to the post you haven't read.

I can do that on all the other forums I frequent (not garden), and I really miss being able to do that here.

How do the rest of you handle reading the first unread post? Is the only option scrolling? Or do some of you have a shortcut you'd like to share?

What's wrong with emoticons?

Going straight to the last unread post would be very helpful. That;s a feature I would love.

As far as pictures, I have space on my husbands website, so I normally post from the web anyway. Still, it would be nice to post directly from my hard drive in case I haven't had time to upload.

'What's wrong with emoticons?'

I personally dislike them because they are telling me what I should think and absolve the writer from the responsibility of explaining themselves clearly. But then I don't even like exclamation marks very much!;-)
Occasionally, emoticons are handy if you suspect your comment may be misunderstood but in general I find them lazy, childish and manipulative. I especially loath dancing, animated smilies. lol.

Many great ideas here but I concur, no emoticons.

I am surprised that anyone feels emoticons represent something negative. I use them all the time. Not the wide range of graphic emoticons that you sometimes find on sites, which can be annoying, but smiley faces and âÂÂgâ grins.

Constantly having conversations with people you donâÂÂt know, in written form, leaves out facial expressions and body language. I think your facial expressions and body language add a whole lot to what you are trying to express and can set a tone, which is missing on the internet. When I use emoticons, it represents what I normally would be using in face to face conversations, expressing friendliness, humor, etc. If I normally would be smiling at someone in face to face conversation, I often add that to my posts. I donâÂÂt see how it can be interpreted as manipulative to try to present yourself as fully in writing as you can in person?

edit: BTW, I am not looking for a wide range of graphic emoticons to be added to GW.

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Sat, Jul 26, 14 at 8:26

To get to the end of a post with out scrolling, Just hit the "end" button on your keyboard, then scroll up as much as you wish. I too dislike emoticons, But I mostly just ignore them and the people who use them./

Farmerdill, I can't help but wonder if you ignore people you meet in real life, if they smile at you. :-)

I like it as is. Though I have forgotten how to post pictures, I am sure there is someone who will help me if I need to post and I do recall posting in multiples.

I do not especially want emoticons.

The only feature I would like (and it can be done but with some degree of searching which never seems to work very effectively), is clicking onto a poster's name in a current post and seeing all their posts over a period of time, maybe a year.

There are many posters whose opinions, for one reason or other, I value and trust and would like to go back and read their posts. There are posters with whom I am not familiar and would like to see their posts to see what is their main interest, i.e., antique roses, California gardening, home decorating, kitchen remodeling, holiday, etc.

It also gives me a chance to return to something that poster may have said about insecticides, miticides, etc (things I am interested in at this time but not so at the time it was posted, by those whose educated opinions I respect, e.g., michaelg, dr. manners, funcolors).

So if someone clicks onto malcolm manners' name he/she can search for an old post (as they wish, about Fortuniana rootstock, for information they cannot recall know they once saw).

Just my humble desires and opinions, which are worth less than the time it took to type this.

You already can search for all of a member's posts. Just type their screen name into the search box and they all come up. The only issue most people have, is that they are not in chronological order. You can already find out what their main interest is, by clicking on their 'My Page' where it lists their favorite forums.

Hmmm, I can be lazy after I've been drained by a long day at work; DH has described me as acting like a little girl (in a good way - as in upbeat, happy, positive, energetic); and if I set my sights on something I'll figure out a way to get it, so I suppose that can be interpreted as manipulative (I see it as being a go-getter, though). No wonder I like emoticons!

HAHA! (Now, see, if we had emoticons, I could just insert a tongue-in-cheek one here)

Prariemoon expressed my sentiments above quite nicely. The use of emoticons might have diffused some very contentious threads here on GW which resulted in folks getting banned. Then again, maybe not. (see, now I need a shrug emoticon)

Thanks for the tips on how to search members' posts, didn't realize that could be done.

I'm fine with GW the way it is. It is free after all. If I were paying for membership I would certainly expect all the bells and whistles for ease of use.

I do what PM2 suggested for when I wish to search for a topic or member (note: you can check the circle below it to search that particular forum or all of GW). I do agree Googling a particular subject often gets better results than searching here.

It is more work having to upload to a hosting site before posting pics. But I look at it as back-up in case my computer crashes/loose my pics stored there ;-)
CMK

Mxk3, I didn't realize they have an emoticon for 'tongue in cheek'. That would be pretty useful. :-)

CMK, I've never liked having to upload my photos to an online hosting site. I tried it a couple of times but it just didn't work for me. I don't have a problem with multiple posts, one for each photo I want to post. It solves the issue and is fast and easy. I keep all my photos on the memory cards they were recorded to, as back up.

This post was edited by prairiemoon2 on Sat, Jul 26, 14 at 13:13

It's so easy to get to the bottom of a thread without scrolling .

End gets you to the bottom of any web page, and Home brings you to the top again.

I always click on Post a new message, and then read up for new comments.

Also the spacebar allows you to scroll quickly.

Farmerdill, thanks for that tip about scrolling, it's a big help. I have an Apple and there is no End or Home key on the keyboard, so I had to look up what is the equivalent and on an Apple keyboard, it is 'Command' key held down at the same time as the up or down arrows. Works great!

If I were paying for membership I would certainly expect all the bells and whistles for ease of use.

CMK, the quite simple features we are wanting can be found on most any non subscription ie free forums that I take part in. We really aren't asking for cutting edge 'stuff'.

I assume GW doesn't want to provide *EXPENSIVE* photo storage for multiple pix. It doesn't take a lot of big, high-res photos to fill up my flash drives, providing storage for this many people would be crazy.

I would like "hover preview" and the ability to easily check out another member's posts.

Oh, and thanks to those who posted about scrolling--I had no idea!

Better search features is what I'd like most...the ability to search by date, userid, exclude conversations, etc.

â¢Posted by floral_
Please, no emoticons

LOL Personally, I like emoticons and motion gifs -- though I try not to go overboard with either type. I also like using colored fonts. (This latter, amongst other things, makes it easy for me to skim through a thread in which I have previously posted ... kind of like a bookmark.)

Farmerdill, feel free to ignore any and all my posts. LOL

With regards to the speed of change implementation or lack there of ... Any savvy computer geeks out there? GW is the only forum site I know of that still uses the outmoded HTML system. Does that place any significant limitations on what kinds of changes which can be introduced? (Being a non-programmer type person, I have zero clue but am curious as to the answer.)

I've been on GW a long time and spent many happy hours in different forums.
So it is bothering me a little bit to see posts like 'GW MUST'

There are so many posts on the site about etiquette, feelings, and so on. If you want a person or a site or a company to do something for you, appeal to them gracefully.
If they are taking longer than you think is warranted, ask them if there is something you can do to help.

There's a way to deal with people. Or sites, who are after all run by people.

I don't mind emoticons in regular typeface or PM2's style of denoting a grin, and I find her explanations clear. I hate with a passion moving and colored emoticons and while I don't mind colored text, I'd much prefer a less in-your-face color than the bright blue.

My only real wish for GW is useable searches that will allow multiple search terms as AND or OR and will put things in chronological order.

Google can do quite elaborate searches. I haven't needed to learn much about it (yet), but the only thing anybody has mentioned yet that I don't have some idea how to do is a chronological search.

Having been here since before the flood, I should point out that there is a strong correlation between Gardenweb having a lot of traffic, and Gardenweb being behind the internet times. This isn't a computer site, and some of the most knowledgeable plant people here run computers and internet connections that would probably make many of you scream. Gardenweb can be tweaked to text-only that loads lightening fast on a dialup connection. That's worth something.

I agree with everyone who wants all of those features! I love posting multiple photos at All Things Plants. I love their emoticons and badges, database, etc. I like that the owner responds to user feedback himself and implements features regularly. I like that people there are so friendly and not so rude. I think that's why I don't post here so much anymore. Everything here is so out of date. I still comment occasionally and do read some posts, but I have to agree. It's time to step it up at Garden Web!

You can post multiples IF you actually store your photos online. I use tinyurl.com. Works like a charm for me. I post tons of photos in one post.

There will always be complainers. I am not one! I love GardenWeb just the way it is.

Susan Highland

IâÂÂd like to be able to do copy-paste from the Word document without GW altering the text replacing certain characters ��" see what I mean?... ïÂÂ

For those of us who post regularly to other "free" forums (garden or otherwise) GW is noticeably lacking in its features. I think it would be a much better forum, in keeping with the vibrancy (is that a word?) of the many wonderful members of GW if it updated itself. That's all.

I agree with nhbabs.

If they (people in power) are paying any attention to this thread, perhaps they'll collate the ideas and offer them for vote?
I'm sure I could use more functionality, but I really don't care to have spammy emoticons on the Garden Forums, perhaps it would be more applicable for the @Home forums and such...but still..that's my opinion.

I like the simplicity of the GW basic black-and-white format (and hate the recent incursion of ads/ color around the edges). I find the formats of other garden forums I've looked at to be too 'busy', distracting from what I want from a garden site. - i.e. to talk gardens and plants with other gardeners. I like and use the text emotion conventions, such as :-) , but don't like the colourful icon ones. Being able to upload multiple pictures from your computer would be useful, although I don't find it particularly inconvenient to use a photo hosting site since it keep some of my garden photos on one anyway.

Woody, I agree with you. I just popped over to allthingsplants and it's way too busy for my taste.

Lol, same here on ATP. I was out of there within 30 seconds.

Another vote for better search function if Admin is following.

if Admin is following

FWIW I have emailed ADMIN the link to this thread. (But I did that for last year's similar thread and none of the similar or the same suggestions were implemented).

This post was edited by rouge21 on Sun, Jul 27, 14 at 17:04

Another forum I use has a "thanks" button--you can mark a particular post with a thanks indicating you found it helpful without having to respond further. In addition, the poster's name has a small bit of text indicating how many "thanks" they have gotten. It seems to work well.