Actually, for several days, the search engine will time out, quickly! Today, more specifically, I can't open some of the threads! I'm having this on my laptop and our 'big one'! Yesterday, the problem was on any of the forums offered by GW! Haven't tried today anywhere but this one!! Is it just me?

I use ipad and have found if I leave the page to look at another tab, or my ipad times out, the GW page reloads and loses all my info. I've had to remember to copy everything if I need to go do something before posting. That way I'm not rewriting. Very annoying, but believe it's a safari refresh issue, not so much the forum.

I also have a Macbook Pro with Safari and this was not a pop up ad, it was a banner ad from the top that moved down to cover the links at the top and turned the entire page blue and would produce a new tab with a cookie ad in it, if you tried to navigate the page clicking on any part of the page to scroll or open a thread. I have not seen a problem today at all. I think there was something wrong with the ad itself. I already have my settings set for 'no pop up ads' which I don't have a problem with. And any 'moving' ads are usually 'disabled by disabling plug ins' in my browser preferences, but doing that didn't help in this case. I don't use Firefox. I can see stationary banner ads along the top and the right side of the screen, on GW but I ignore those.

I prefer seeing the more popular forums evolve and change rather than have new ones on specific topics ; a paint forum was added but there are still tons of posts on paint in the decorating forum. Rather than dilute the popular forums, I personally prefer enjoying the shifts and changes within the existing ones, craigslist is another type of retail venue now, imo, same as pottery barn, it also reflects lesser spending and recycling. The conversations side is very welcoming to personal situations which include venting about the current downslide in the economy. I guess I'm just lazy, I prefer having an "all inclusive" menu within the same forums I'm used to, I pick and choose what suits me within the boundaries of the existing forums. Brownysmom, I still think you should pitch your idea to IVillage ; the advantage of a new forum is that it would draw other new members at large who would want to form a community of like-minded individuals, not bound by a decorating or kitchen interest necessarily- it would shake things up and get us out of our "comfort" level. I'm full of contradictions but I just expressed my views on the topic at hand, fwiw.