It would be nice if you could edit your own posts.

I think some of the forums that haven't had any activity in months could disappear. A lot of them are covered under more general topics, anyway. Like, Coleus - people write about it under Annuals.

Love the new photo uploading, perfect for the tech-illiterate like me, Thanks!

It would be nice to have an instant messaging function so that you could see which member is online and start a conversation with them.

It would be terrific to upload a photo directly from my iPhone.

a like button would be good

yes a like button. not a facebook like button but a gardenweb like button.

Frankly I see nothing to edit.
I like to be able to track the posts I like with the new Chck here option. I have not posted pictures for ages, but am pleased that it is easier. I am anxious to try it.
Sammy

These are a couple of things that many other forums have and are very nice features...

1) Have the ability to quote a previous post. That way it will be more clear which post someone is responding to.

2) Highlight the threads that you've posted to and have a link to go to your last post in that thread. If there was a quick way to filter to only show threads that you've posted to, that would be nice.

- I definitely second the ability to edit your own post, and IM with other signed on members

- Filtering. Minimally - ability to filter a thread. For example: filter by Posted By, or Zone. Idea is for really long threads you could read only one or two people's replies, or only look at zones that are relevant to you.

- How about a Dashboard concept. When a member signs in, they could manage their Favorite threads, have a list of the threads: they most recently read, they have most recently started, they have most recently commented on. We all love to go back and see replies to our replies, but who remembers which threads we've replied to?

- Ad free membership option - monthly or annual fee for those of us who get annoyed with the expand-a-header, and flashing ad on side of screen.

- The ability to get unrelated posts to be removed (not sure exactly how that would work, but there are occasional spam posts that end up in here).

But bottom line, love it as it is already.

When conducting a search of a forum (or the entire site), it would be extremely helpful if the term(s) being searched for could be highlighted in the search results.

At times, very l-o-n-g threads come up in a search. Finding a specific reference can then be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

ABSOLUTELY love this site, espiecally the roses and Dahlias, but the home site as well. If I were to change anything it would be to have a button to see the posts SINCE my last viewing. I don't have a clue how they do it, but it is nice to see what is going on in the rest of Gardenweb. Crochetville has it and I always go there first to see what is happening. Again, I love the variety Gardenweb forums. Don't change to much!! diane

I think this is a great site espiecally the roses. Thanks for doing a great job.

A more powerful search engine sounds good. I'd like to be able to limit the search by date or other criteria. Often I don't want to get results that go back further than 5 years. On the other hand, maybe I do want results that are all older than x number of years, or even results for a specific year. I'd also like to be able to search for a particular poster by date or subject. It would be nice with search results if they appeared in chronological order. Right now they don't.

I also like the idea of being able to edit my own posts. Sometimes a duplicate shows up, and I wouldn't mind having the option to delete it.

The ads often don't have much to do with roses--the one for the famous gymnast pushing paper towels was about enough to drive me crazy it appeared so frequently! Others blast across the screen and resist all attempts to avoid/go around them. If there are going to be ads I wish they were rose or gardening related. For instance if the Antique Rose Emporium were having a sale.;) Or feature a site that sells gardening tools, fertilizers, or even rose books. Maybe with a discount for Gardenwebbers! But an ad-free paid membership sounds appealing too, good idea harmonyp.

How about a calendar section for upcoming rose events?

Melissa

I love the Dashboard idea as well.

I would love to see the site automatically scroll to the bottom of a thread which you've already read, so that when you click on that thread again, the screen jumps to the new, unread posts. Currently it starts at the top each time you revisit a thread.

It would be really nice if there was an option to upload multiple pictures using the provided line. I have a Mac, using Firefox, and I CANNOT figure out how to go to Picasa or Google pictures and upload multiple pictures - it's really frustrating for me. Facebooks ease of multiple uploading is highly attractive!

Or, per Flauribunda's idea - how about listing them LIFO (last in, first out) - so the oldest are on the top!

My number one request, as a spelling, grammar and typing challenged person, is being able to edit my posts. Other than that I think the site works quite well!

I wish sometimes I could erase what I wrote. Kippy said it would be nice if you could edit your own posts. Duh! Of course she/he meant his own, and did not intend it to be a slam to GW Tamora.

Fast reading, fast thinking, not always a good thing.

Sorry, Kippy.

Sammy

Sammy, NOOOOO worries!!!

It took me a couple of re-reads to figure out what you were concerned about...lol

I often miss things in either what I type or read, and I need an edit button so I can fix what I wrote.

And it really helps if you can edit a Title of a thread, like updated day etc.

don't understand because I can edit my posts. In fact, you cannot post UNTIL you have previewed your intial post and then resubmit....unless I am misunderstanding what people mean.
Also, what I particularly like are NO avatars, no cheesy statements which underline your every post, no ridiculous additions such as mood symbols, no heaps of smileys. In fact, I love the plain, unadorned simplicity of GW just fine. I realise that these are superficial style things but regarding the techy stuff, I am not really very bothered. It all works just fine for me.

If a post has a response to it, then any editing of that post would require showing the original post and the edited post. Otherwise, subsequent posts would make no sense. One can simply post a correction, retraction, etc. if required, as many of us have done and do. If there were no subsequent post, then I see no reason why someone shouldn't be able to revise or delete a post - except of course, the software programming difficulties involved with that.

Have to agree with Campanula. I think it's just about perfect the way it is. Not a big fan of smilies myself. And I also think that in the rose catagory at least, the divisions that stands between the gallery section and the OGR section should stay. I remember when the sections weren't so well deliniated, and it wasn't as nice as it is now......Maryl

Thanks for the updates on picture uploading and following up your own answers to posts.

I'm on a community forum run by the Simple Machines forum app. There are a few features there that would be practical time savers here, NOT Facebook wannabe suggestions, some of which have been mentioned:

- Posted threads on GW subforum pages only show first poster/date and date of last post (local time??). Hard to see if the thread has had a new post since you last checked from the main page unless you memorized the number of posts last time you checked.
--Adding the name of the last poster would help
-- Having a frame somewhere on the main and/or sub pages with the last dozen or so posts would help folks keep up more efficiently
--It would be BRILLIANT if when you opened the subforum pages and clicked a thread link that it went to the last posting you visited, many of our threads can get quite long

-I was on the Roses forums for *several years* before I found out that the 'Rose Gallery' was not the same as the 'Gallery' on the Antique page after "On Topic Discussions". I was not alone, there were a lot of us. I think it would be simpler to have the links to all the subforums at the top of the page

-I know some folks here like the layout as it is, but I think it would be great if the main page were a listing of all of the sub forums with maybe a couple of the most recent threads underneath. Why??? Because three of what should be often used subforums, the galleries and conversations, are hardly utilized because no one goes there, because no one posts there, so no one goes there, ad nauseum. If we could see *in one place when we log on* that there were new postings in these neglected subforums, I think we'd all want to use them more appropriately and often. That feature would be a bonus for the Roses/Antique forums which get the most use.

The seasoned veterans on the rose forums overwhelmingly recommend that readers get regional advice. I continue to be offended by writers in California or other low black spot pressure microclimates, and those using a spray regimen who contribute comments like 'my roses are perfectly clean,' etc. without having their location information following their screen name, stating their location, or stating that they regularly spray. I think the screen name location and zone fields should be REQUIRED. I think there should also be a SPRAY/NO SPRAY field added and that it should also be required.

I'm definitely seeing an enhancement request for us to create a list of posters that we want to filter out of our results!

"I'm definitely seeing an enhancement request for us to create a list of posters that we want to filter out of our results!"

Agreed. :-(

I love a good link, and the more the better. It would be helpful if one were able to include more than one link in a post. Computer skills vary and 'copy and paste' can be challenging. I'm not a programmer, but I was thinking it might be "doable" if the first link were always on the initial submission page and that link went into review status like the post itself with a new add-a-link on the review page. One could review and add links at the same time. Just a thought. Thanks.

I agree with many of the previous posts that modernizing the board would be a plus, as far as 'last post' capability to find one's last read post on a long thread, the ability to filter out some of the posters here who not just once but many times derail a thread with their irrelevant pet projects.

And as a tip of my cap to those who are pleasant, insightful, helpful and patient, it might be good to have the equivalent of a 'like' button to let them know that their efforts are appreciated.

If there were a filter for regional advice only I wouldn't use it. I enjoy hearing from people everywhere on a subject. No, of course, some of the information from CA or FL or TX isn't relevant to me but I still like knowing what their growing conditions and challenges, and their solutions to them, are in comparison to mine. It's how we learn new things about each other and roses.

Many a warm climate grower has given me good advice on a variety of subjects. And during this past scorching hot drought of a summer I did use some of their tactics in keeping my roses hydrated. You never know when a piece of information you previously thought didn't pertain to you will come in handy!

Knowledge of any kind is always a good thing! The wisdom to know what is usable for you and what isn't comes with time and experience. But if you never receive the knowledge in the first place you've already lost out.

To all my warm climate rose friends, please feel free to give me your advice, help and answers on any of my posts! And I hope that you don't mind my sharing my cold climate experiences on yours. If so, my apologies in advance.

Love this forum, and look at it almost daily. I would like to be able to save threads to a favorite pile. The ads are a great bother, but I understand the need. It is irritating when one can't seem to get rid of it though.

Too, seems there are perhaps too many sub forums that are unused, and posters post those topics in more main areas, which is fine with me....but somehow a more organized way on this, as mentioned earlier, would be nice.

Overall, a great place, great people, and beautiful roses!!

From seil:
"If there were a filter for regional advice only I wouldn't use it. I enjoy hearing from people everywhere on a subject. No, of course, some of the information from CA or FL or TX isn't relevant to me but I still like knowing what their growing conditions and challenges, and their solutions to them, are in comparison to mine. It's how we learn new things about each other and roses. "

seil and I seem to be on the same wavelength lately. I agree, if I don't know about it, how can I know if it will be helpful for me??? I know I'm a minority in that I garden in both SoCalif coast and SoCalif mountains approx Z8 and 5,800ft elevation. I learn from everyone pretty much (with a couple of exceptions ;-)

One other thing I forgot to mention in my last post was a more robust search feature. I'm sorry I can't reproduce some (failed for me) searches to demonstrate a previous problem.

Oh, and thanks for trying to update, we've been on hold for quite awhile - not always a bad thing, but sometimes 'improvements' really can be. Thanks for your help, we here on the roses forums really enjoy our camaraderie.

I agree with seil and lagomorphmom. I would not use any filters, whether to filter out regions or certain people. I want to hear from everyone on the topics they choose to comment on. I also would like a better search engine. I, too have had failed searches, only to find the thread I was searching for using Google search because the forum's search feature couldn't find it. Strange. Diane

I always use google's search to find items in gardenweb. I gave up a long time ago trying to use the inner search.

I must say, the developer in me says - since google works so well for searching and returning gardenweb items, perhaps gardenweb enhancement time is best spent elsewhere? (Just a thought).

Yes, the GardenWeb forum software is clunky and showing its age.

First, here's a general suggestion:

A good model for renewing this forum would be the forum called Ravelry. Take a look at it and the way it is organized, with provisions for crosslinking many details of members, projects, patterns, etc.

Second, as an example of clunky, how do I change my email address on my member profile?

I have tried repeatedly to edit this detail and it still reverts to the email address I quit using 7 years ago. Good grief!

Thanks.

Please send replies to: MBP@ATT.NET.

Thanks.

Mary Beth

I think Idixierose has a great idea- about making member info more accessible. There are many very learned and experienced folks on here, and many of us who come here just for hobby interest. Knowing peoples' backgrounds, and having a better idea of where everyone is coming from (including zone! I cant figure out how to add mine) where they have grown before etc. will allow for more flowing discussion I think.
Some forums people add this info to their signature. Everyone, please toot your horns.

Sure -- I have suggestions. Too many G**D*** ads. Everytime I figure out a way to block them, you find some way to get around the blocking. %%$##^&&(

Focus on removing some of the ads and you will probably see your traffic increase.

Hi everyone!

You asked and we listened. Today we are very excited to be debuting our newest feature -- post editing! To use this feature, go back to the post you wish to correct and you'll find the link under the 'My Clippings' links on the right side of the page.

I want to give a special shout out to all the testers who tried to break the editing tool. ;) Your feedback was insightful and invaluable. Thank you!

You may have also noticed that we adjusted the login cookie awhile back so that you should not have to login repeatedly.

Stay tuned -- we have more cool things in the works!

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Best regards,
Tamara

Some sites have an icon placed on each thread that when clicked, alerts the site that it is a spam post. That might be an easy way to notify when someone sees spam.