Threads have always been deleted on GW but it has not been an issue on our friendly New England forum, with one exception I can think of from the relatively recent past. The forums I frequent are very congenial but I gather some are combative and deletion is not uncommon. I also have read that when the inimitable Spike owned the place, he was draconian in his deletions. And GW was probably better for it.

What did I miss? Drat, I'm never around when the fur's flying.

Yeah, Spike used to send people to Disney all the time. Not me, though, I always try to behave myself.

I have to say when I thought no one was listening I must have been wrong. I guess big brother's have their attributes after all. kt

Oh, good, I'd been toying with the idea of reporting that thread as "misuse" but had put it off because, if you skipped over anything written by the OP, it was full of very funny stuff.

You can report a thread that is spam, or trolling, offensive, or just plain off topic somewhere in the "help" or "contact us" sections - you just copy the URL out of the thread's window, discribe the misuse, and ... viola, it's gone. SOmetimes it takes a day, sometimes it happens fast. It always takes a long time to find the place where you file the complaint, though.

Oh, dear, is this off topic?

It's not always "them" deleting the threads, it's sometimes "us" alerting "them" that there's a problem.

No, I didn't do it this time, but in the past I have "reported abuse of forums" to Garden Web. Most likely someone complained and Garden Web listened and agreed.

Claire

Several of us posted at the same time.

It's easy to file the complaint. Look at the bottom of this page in the green footer. Click on "Contact Us".

Change the Nature of Message from "Gardening Question" to "Report Abuse of Forums". Say whatever you want and send the email.

By the way, Spike didn't always wield the hammer. I once alerted him to a questionable thread where people were really riled up. He took a look and answered me that in that case it was better to let the forum respondents handle it. The thread eventually turned positive as people calmed down.

Claire

soooooo ... how about those red sox?

Here is a link that might be useful:

Well, I didn't report it either but I wasn't surprised when someone did. Such fireworks are not typical of our forum. But there was some pretty funny stuff that I wish someone had saved.

Hey...Claire,dtd,marie, & saypoint,
You owe me a coke, or is it jinx, or who ever counts to ten the fasest gets the ???

Well, it's good to see the troll patrol is still alive and well at GW.

Sue

Thanks runktrun. I'm just sorry that it had to get to the point of demolition. In this case a spammer turned into a troll when the posts got indignant.

It's a whole lot easier if people just ignore the provocation. I almost miss the old regime when a thread was stopped at 100 posts. Then you could just chat it out.

Claire

My sister and her family were up all week and all but two of the boys just left today to head back to Jersey. The two will accompany me down on Monday for the Big Holiday. After a week of rain and a houseful of very bored kidlings the weather today is, of course, beautiful.

So, that's my excuse for my ignorance. That and a touch of dementia. What did I miss?

narcnh

I wasn't reading the thread in question, so can't comment on that. I don't want to open the can of worms about gardenweb before and after Spike, but nonetheless I must say that I miss him.
I used to fink out folks who tried to sneak their advertising onto the forums, but now I pay no mind.
I just don't have quite the allegiance I had before. Spike was quite the commander!!

Someone supposedly "just happened" to stumble upon the New England forum and couldn't help but gush over some nursery in Iowa. Turns out, of her 11 posts total on GW, 8 were basically exurberant praise for this nursery and it's online sister. And then she kept stirring the pot when people called her on this behavior...thinnly disguised advertising...accusing us of being mean and unfriendly and then she got political and well, enough said. Glad she's gone.

Patty

Oh yeah! I had fun with that one. Kind of like poking a stick at a wasp nest to see how far you can go before the whole thing just explodes. Come to think of it, that wasn't the brightest thing I ever did.

narcnh

NOW I remember! Musta been a really important thread if it took me this long to recall it, huh?

Spike exiled me to Disney twice... used a "bad word" once and then used a phrase that is evidently taboo in computer terms. I e-mailed him and asked why and he graciously explained it (even though I didn't really understand it all). I miss the old goat, too. ;) . He may've been draconian, but he was "fair" to me.

And there were none of those awful "survey" drive-bys, not to mention all the obnoxious advertising... . What I really miss, though, is the tee shirt my membership provided. Really miss that! too bad we can't have one for New England gaHdenin'...

You can get tee shirts and other stuff from the Garden Web store. I still have several of the old regime's tee shirts, and somewhere I have some bumper stickers left over.

Got to find the bumper stickers since I now have a car (I used to live in the East Village in NYC and had no need, or room, for a car, and the sticker didn't fit on my bike).

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Web store

It's not the same, Claire. I don't want to visit that site because I don't want to risk any more dropdown/driveby advertising.

I know you understand. :)