Firefighter Will started a cedrus gallery that has now disappeared. I'm ill and spent time photographing editing and posting pics for someone to just delete it all.

My thread asking where it is has now disappeared too.

>Photo Galleries Have Been Moved Against our Will>Firefighter Will started a cedrus gallery that has now disappearedSo they were moved against Firefighter Will's will. All you can do is gripe to the site. They do state that pictures put up here automatically become subject to use by iVillage.

A small complaint myself: The new ad bar at the bottom of your screen while viewing all the threads. Does this bother anyone else? I'm running on a flat screen monitor. The top banner ad bothered me enough (how it goes down when you first come to the page, then back up). Now we have a new banner at the very bottom... this site's becoming more of a hassel than anything. Because of my widescreen monitor, my book marks, toolbars, now the new ad bar at the bottom, I have 6" of vertical viewing space.

Use a blocker.

I use Firefox with Adblock Plus, and do not see any banner ads.

"I use Firefox with Adblock Plus, and do not see any banner ads".

Only way to go.

What's a banner ad. Never see them.

Dave

This site is remarkably primitive. I'm not aware of any other discussion forum/media site on the web running such an old code base. (Not that I know of them all but I have other interests like electronics, music, and photography) I wish somehow gardenweb's users could be migrated to something modern, like what diyaudio.com runs on. But seeing as gardening types are technologically averse, in general, I don't think you'd ever get everyone to migrate.
Does anybody remember if gardenweb was once affiliated with the now defunct garden.com? In the late 1990s? For some reason I have a memory of that being the case, but I could be wrong. Not that there would be any threads left, but I can't even remember the ID I used from 1997-2001!

A bunch went to that other site that charges membership awhile back. It claims a huge membership number and has different features from here. I think the analysis that appeared on one thread here some time ago stating that this had become "an orphan site" was probably correct. The main lingering benefit here is the lack of a charge for using it. Since, except for Hot Topics the recurring interaction I experience is filling in blanks for other people I have absolutely no interest in paying for the priviledge.

iVillage is aimed at women and its most trafficked site is Astrology. Orphan is right. They aren't selling much ad space on GW and the real question is why do they even bother to host it? As noted above, the site is incredibly primitive, but I doubt they have spent a dime on it in years. ACS is looking to update its website and maybe a conifer forum can be developed there.

Well it bothers me that they feel this need to micromanage, despite a clear preference of the people who use the site to allow the galleries present in the non-gallery forum.

You'd think an intelligently run company like Gardenweb might realize that keeping their posting members happy(and clicking webpages) is a good thing but more importantly, google searches consistently drew people from all over the world to the garden web when they searched for various cultivars of conifers and google sent them right to Gardenweb.

For my part, I'm done posting regular galleries until they get their head out of their ass. I'll pop in with occasional photos of cultivars and some time lapse photos, but if the Gardenweb is either too ignorant or to narrow-minded to realize the benefit of our hard work, that's their loss.

-Will

ACS is always looking to update their site, and they do have a forum. However, it looks like a very lonely site, if sites can be lonely. I have to admit that I hadn't visited in six months or more.

I actually tried to post photos to their galleries several years ago, but found the navigation difficult. On top of that, the one other person who apparently used the site at that time didn't care for my photographic abilities.

However, the most apparent thing the site needs is critical mass, i.e. more visitors. I think it's time to give it another try.

Here is a link that might be useful: American Conifer Society

heres what you do..

you make a folder in your bookmarks for FORUMS..

and you put each forum you want to visit ... there ... and then.. each day.. just browse thru your links..

you admittedly are making galleries.. but you are adverse to them being in the gallery side.. whats that all about ...

most of us can make it here .. the tree forum .. the maple forum .. perennials .. etc..

but all of a sudden.. you cant find the conifer gallery on a regular basis .. whats that all about ...

as to FFB.. i am very surprised at the vitriol .. i just didnt expect it from you ... hmmm .. what happened to happy go lucky will???? you ok??? .. i am concerned.. not mocking ....

ken

I'm level headed here Ken and not going anywhere BUT I won't be spending any more time making galleries that get discriminated into some forum that is seldom trodden. Since my individual photo shoots from my garden weren't ahnihilated, I may continue to post some photos that way but it's apparent by now that GW inexplicably would prefer we didn't contribute to photo galleries in the forums where the people using the actual forums want them to be.

Apparently they don't realize that without us they are nothing, just some zero's and ones floating around in cyberspace. WE are gardenweb.

-Will

"Firefighter Will started a cedrus gallery that has now disappeared. I'm ill and spent time photographing editing and posting pics for someone to just delete it all"

It's here in the gallery section . . . not too difficult to find!

Though I must admit I'd stopped looking at the gallery section with it being cluttered up with 213 threads on brooms that I'm not interested in ;-)

Resin

Actually that's not the one that Will started - it seems to have disappeared completely. That is the one that Severnside started after his disappeared, and re-posted the photos that she had originally posted on his. Not to belabor this, but it is a bit odd that that post vanished! I will make sure to check galleries now, as I love looking at the photos.

Well, I decided to contact the "Gardenweb Staff" to see what we could do about the little predicament. What follows is my original message and then the reply from a kind lady named Tamara.

My message:
"Hello, Gardenweb Staff.

I participate regularly in the forums here at Gardenweb, particularly the conifer forums. By default, I typically post in the 'Discussion' section because it is most convenient. However, there has recently been great interest in posting photo galleries to share photographs of our plants and our experience with them. These threads have been incredibly popular (100+ follow-ups in some cases).

That being said, I was terribly disappointed and somewhat frustrated by the fact that the photo galleries that Gardenweb members had posted in the Discussion section were moved against the poster's will because very few people actually take the time to click the 'Gallery' link. It is evident that the Gallery section is not a very high-traffic region of the website. Because of the popularity of these photo galleries, I strongly encourage you to leave the photo galleries AND the discussions in the same location.
You are risking losing a great audience on these now-inconveniently-placed photo galleries. I, for one, am becoming very disconcerted with the unwarranted and unwanted changes by the Gardenweb staff, and I am considering abandoning the forum. With that in mind, please consider my urgent request to facilitate forum members more adequately.

-Sam"

Her reply:
"Sam,

While it is noted that the gallery photos have been popular and are well-liked, please understand that they have created a hardship for many other people. Members come to this forum to discuss conifers and ask questions or give advice. When these photo posts continually bump their posts down, it's unfair -- especially when there is an area that has been created for the sole purpose of sharing photos. It is not an unreasonable request to ask that these posts live on that side of the forum. It really isn't a hardship to click one extra time to access that side of the forum. The reason that the gallery isn't 'high-traffic' is because of your refusal to post your photos there.

That being said, I would be happy to create a more visible link within the board description or just above the posts directing others to the gallery side of the forum. I think that's a very fair compromise.

Sincerely,

Tamara Amey
GardenWeb Community Staff"

So, basically they're going to give us a bigger link. It may help some, but I can't help but feel that the photo galleries will never be as popular as they once were.

I would encourage us all to venture over to the "Gallery" side of things more frequently; broaden our horizons, etc... Hope to see more Photo Galleries and more follow-ups cropping up very soon.

-Sam

When I go to garden galleries and enter Conifers in the search box, all that appears are posts from 2008. WTF???

Is there a way to access the Conifers gallery directly?

I doubt GW staff rolled into the conifer forum and decided to move everything because thats the way they want it. Its quite obvious that folks are complaining (likely non-regulars) that the galleries can be overwhelming and bump questions down and therefore the help they came to seek is getting ignored. Although I'm sure its the minority since the galleries are by far the best threads.

I think if GW makes the link more visible with a right justify and larger text it will be tough to miss it.

Personally I stopped going to the gallery section for the very reason Resin mentioned above. Not that I don't care, in fact its enjoyable, its just a bit too intense.

{{gwi:48040}}

The bottom line is there is an opportunity for another entity to start a conifer forum and get it right. I'm not sure there are enough people at ACS to accomplish this, but it sure would be a welcome option.

I don't click on the galleries. All the forums have them. GW has lost lots of posters, it really is becoming quite dead. I don't go into even half as many forums as I use to. I do NOT go into galleries. Rarely does the galleries have anything going on. I said before we need to NOT put the gallery word in the post.

I really don't believe questions are dropping down from them either. I mean really you guys are the ones that answer the questions, why bother if you can't post what you want where you want also. What they are saying is that those people with questions (which you all answer) are important but your own posts are not. I say also let's get another forum working right and they'll get all the directs from google. I don't come in here to read just questions and I do not have time to go to all the galleries in the different forums I read.
Cher

I also prefer to have everything in one spot, like a smorgasbord.

I as a rather new member had nothing against the pictures threads being posted in the discussion section.
I asked quite an amount of questions and never had the feeling that they got bumped down too often. I always got responses very fast.

At least on my screen, it appears that there is plenty of room beside the Discussion posts (on the same page) to put all the galleries.

It would be discussions in one column on the left and galleries on the same page in a column on the right.. This would be the best of both worlds in my opinion.

-Sam

Good discussion here and many valid points.

I think much of this comes down to consideration of others. I could easily post twenty times a day asking various questions, showing time-lapse photos of cultivars, posting question threads, photos, etc. but I don't. I am aware that I am not the only person on the planet that matters and that posting too many photos becomes overwhelming and distracting to others.

When it does become a bit of an unintentional problem is when there are 20 galleries that are spread out over several weeks/months that get bumped by 3-4 photos, then another user bumpers 2-3 galleries, etc. and all of the sudden the top 8 posts are galleries - even if they are created by different forum users and bumped by seperate people as well.

As I've said before, from my end, I'll still post some photos from time to time, for sure some time-lapse photo series and make contributions/questions, but as to making/contributing to galleries that are going to get lost in the gallery section with one response, oblivious to most, I'm not going to waste my time.

GARDENWEB: I DO SECOND SAM'S IDEA OF HAVING THE GALLERY SECTION VISABLE ON THE RIGHT, NOT A SEPERATE LINK.

-Will

Sadly this forum has never got back to 2010. Photo galleries were fun, full and not a dirty word. Then someone found they had a problem and complained. That person.

They just didn't get it. Do they really think making the link bigger is going to make me check galleries every day? No. Why do they pick on conifers, galleries are NO different than the alphabets that are done other places. Heck you can go into Hostas over winter and a couple pages are filled with alphabets. Which by the way would be a good time for the galleries when not much else is going on. Just saying though that this whole thing makes no sense. They aren't just galleries, we are discussing them!!!!!!!!!
Cher

I agree that putting the galleries on to the right of the discussion would be the best solution and most convenient for everyone. Please Gardenweb! We greatly appreciate that the forums that you provide for our community. Please add the gallery section to the right on the same page.

I guess I'm not on the same boat with everyone. checking a gallery link is no big deal for me. I check other websites and links every day. I personally would rather have all the galleries located in their own list. If it has to be on a separate page so be it but Separate on the same page would be ideal and smart. Please GW coder person I'll bake you cookies =)