Vee, I hadn't seen that, sorry! My past use of Houzz was mainly looking for kitchen and paint ideas, I never posted. I was thinking in terms of experiencing malware, obnoxious emails, etc., which I've never had via this site. Mea culpa!

Dear RP friends....I feel like we've been derailed.

This is an odd site and not feeling user friendly to me.

I am going to sit in my comfy chair and whine.

Yvonne

I couldn't get recognised under my normal user name and password and got a headache trying to register. I took a break, ate a banana and had another go. This time I registered as a new account and found Reader's Paradise by Googling "Houzz Readers Paradise" then bookmarked it and deleted the old bookmark.

I now get notification of new posts in my email post box. I suppose I shall get used to it. I had the same trouble getting on to a new "home" when a chat room closed and we started a new one. This time without people who we didn't like! Not all chat rooms are as nice as this one...

Yooyobon, I will join you and whine too. We had a great site and now it's been downgraded...sigh I feel like I'm going to lose a group of friends, most of whose I've never met in person, because of this change.

I will give it a chance though...

Let's try to hang in there despite the antiseptic look and feel of the new site. We can just have a good whine and then carry on -- It would be terrible to lose you all!

Did someone say something about wine?

Oh, WHINE. My mistake.

I personally miss the old brown background from the early days :)

I just got an email from Rosefolly who can't log in at all. She says she'll be back as soon as she's able.

Martin, WINE would help, I think!

It is possible to keep from getting emails when there are new posts by clicking on the line at the very end of the posts in each topic where it says something like "Click to switch off notifications about new comments". Unfortunately, you have to do that for each topic where you have posted a comment.

My "whine" is that using the html codes to italicize book titles does not seem to work. When I first submit a comment with the codes it displays them as typed. Then, when I click on edit, it shows my message with the title italicized as I want it to be. But then, when I click on submit again, the codes and the italics disappear. Maybe I just don't understand how to do it.

Frances, I'm also stumped how to italicize or bold titles. It seems all the italics and bolds disappeared from the Feb book thread.

I don't appreciate these changes at all. It seems to me that some amateur software wielding non-participants of these forums have used this site as a cyber guinea pig to unsuccessfully experiment with their wares. The forums used to serve as an exchange of information in a simple manner between people more interested in relevant questions and answers than being subjected to an IT revolution. As they say, " If it ain't broke - don't fix it !!!!!! "

Are all the "i"s and "t"s and some of the down strokes of other letters bold on your messages? This drives me as crazy as everything else.

Annpan (not again), I have marked all the Houzz messages in my email as spam and hope this gets rid of them. I was amazed when I saw 20 messages in my mailbox.

Carolyn, No, I am not getting any bold letters. In fact, the type is a good clear size. As I have put in software that stops ads, I am not getting any that may be there. I can live with this but I think I shall stop stuff coming into my inbox.

I think I could not register because the email from Houzz to do so went to an old address which I had a block put on when I got spammed years ago.

It was simpler to register again, I eventually worked out, after I tried a number of ways to get my old user name and password to register and despaired of "seeing" you all again!

I pressed the button to stop the email notifications and got a message that I had unsubscibed but now I see another message that I can opt in again.

Phew, I thought I had blown it and had to re register yet again...

The message that you unsubscribed just means that you unsubscribed from getting email about added comments to that topic. You don't have to opt in to continue posting and reading the comments.

In my latest email, I note that there is now an option to stop notification on all comments. I have decided to do that as reading the post in my email, I get a version that has quote instead of quotation marks and other similar directions which do not appear on the actual thread.

Also it was sending notifications about additions to a thread each time one was posted. TMI

I am joining those who whine. I could feel my blood pressure mounting as I tried to deal with all these changes. I had to change my password and then I forgot the new one. I still don't know to automatically pull up Readers Paradise threads as we used to do. Why could they not put it in the alphabetized list of other threads? What I hate most is getting all of your messages sent to my e-mail address! When that happened, yahoo kicked out the usual messages I had been getting from 2 groups I am in. And I hate the way it looks, too, aesthetically!

I am discouraged and disgruntled as well. The change from Spike's ownership to iVillage was not nearly this difficult or this traumatic either. More than that, I feel rather angry. I feel that the new owners are playing fast and loose with something I have loved for years, and dismissive of the importance of the members' wishes. I'm sure they honestly think they "know" better. They are wrong.

Looking at this, I think the goal is to have a similar look and feel as Houzz's other sites. Very good strategy for branding, which is immensely trendy tight now. Not so good for us.

Personally, I like to know what is going on in fashion and trends, but don't necessarily permit myself to be led around by the nose by the latest thing unless it actually makes sense to me personally.

It took me 36 hours to be able to get in at all. That at least seems to have been sorted out.

We do have other options. I for one would be deeply sorry to lose this community of readers we have spent years building up. But it would be easy to set up a similar group on another platform (FB? Yahoo?) and let this one drop if Houzz is not more responsive to our desires.

Rosefolly, going off muttering and grumbling

Quote from SheriZ6:

"I do have a Houzz account, and I like their website. As long as they don't change RP it's all good!"

Agreed in both points. Unfortunately, they DID change it.

Rosefolly

Rosefolly, I completely agree. Maybe some of us could find an alternative way to set up our group on a new site. The experience of trying to get on again was very jarring and I was wondering if I was ever going to get in touch again with you all, my dear friends.... I think I've been a member since before 2000.

I am able to go directly to RP because I Googled" Houzz Readers Paradise " which got me a link to this place which I then bookmarked. I get here directly from bookmarks by this method.

As I couldn't find the email which probably went to the address I had when I joined in 2003, I rejoined with the new username and password. I write down all passwords in a notebook as I have quite a few.

Please bear with this new format and don't leave.

It did not take me long to confirm my account and was able to keep my old username, though was not able to use a capital R, as I wanted.

Do NOT like the new look AT ALL.

Had never ever heard of Houzz before.

I was not paying attention and I didn't see any button to opt out of receiving messages. Will I still have time to do that?

Happy to see that a good part of RP'ers has survived the change and is still here (big grin).

is not an actual button, reader (with a small R!) just a sentence at the bottom of the email I had in my inbox. Click onto it.

I have suggested that the change to "gray headings" for already read articles from green be altered to a more visable colour . I cannot make out the difference easily against the background. Or is that just me?

It is just so antiseptic and uninspiring. Not cozy at all! But at least the functionality is similar, though I haven't been able to figure out how to make things bold or italic, which is annoying.

Annpan, I agree, the grey/green headings are very hard to distinguish between on my computer, too. Is there actually a place here to make suggestions?

Reader-in-transit, In addition to the links on each email that read, "Stop notifications of new comments on ONLY this discussion" or "Stop notifications of new comments on ALL discussions" there is a VERY, VERY TINY line of green text at the very bottom of each thread that reads "click to switch off notifications about new comments" so you can opt out of the emails right at the source.

I'm also using the same method as Annpan and hopping directly here via a bookmark.

Sheri, on the right top of the menu page is a "read the latest updates" link. Go there to find you can make suggestions. Please endorse my suggestion about the invisible grey colour of the changed headings!

I expect that you may find how to do italics and bold if you ask. I have never tried so I don't miss not being able to do that...

the computers I use cannot "bookmark."

So I have to keep the access thru my e-mail, which I dislike greatly.

Maybe it's just me, but how do you access the forums and see all the threads at once? The way I am getting on now only sends me certain threads on which I've posted. We used to be able to pull up all the different threads on a forum. GRRRR!

Thank you, Ann and Sheri:

When checked my e-mail this morning I had about 7 messages from Houzz. Following your instructions was able to stop notifications.

I have no problem getting to RP through the same bookmark that I've used for a few years.

Well, it's just not fun, anymore.

Woody, I just used Google to get the Houzz Readers Paradise link and was able to access the menu page from there.

If you cannot get Bookmarks/Favorites, I suppose you have to access all your preferred sites the hard way?

Hang in there, please!

I contacted the Customer Service to enquire if I was registered twice as I cannot return to my old user name as it is already taken. They replied very promptly, seeing that it is night time in the US. It seems that there is another Annpan so I shall have to continue being annpanagain.

Perhaps it isn't night time at Houzz after all! My last post a few minutes ago was marked as Feb 12th 5.40pm. I am writing at 9.45 am on Friday the 13th Feb. in Western Australia.

I wonder where Houzz Customer Service is located. Perhaps outsourced ? They are very quick and helpful, wherever they are!

Sounds like they are on the west coast of the US, e.g. California or Washington.

The new system seems to work OK for basic posting, but I don't see any improved functionality to make the disruption worthwhile, except of course Houzz has probably saved $$ by laying off the Gardenweb programmers.

I rather miss the preview; I liked the second chance to check for stupid mistakes. :)

Donnamira, there is an edit facility you can use to change your post.

I read we have to look for a pen in order to edit. Do you see it?

I thought I had fixed my profile so I would no longer get those darned e-mails, but today there were a ton of them. So I went back in and checked "never" under every box. Is this what you folks did?

Some people on HT forum have their photos posted by their names. You can do this on your profile page.

(formerly jwttrans--I doubt that anyone will remember me. I changed my name here to phoebecaulfield)

I tried to find this forum today. I hadn't tried in a couple of months. I could not get to the main page by my Bookmark or by doing a Google search. I confirmed my registration with Houzz, received a confirmation e-mail, went searching, tried unsuccessfully to send Houzz an e-mail. (I promptly received a notice of mail delivery failure.) I did find some of the threads, and so I'm posting in this one, but I'd like to see the main page, the page listing the threads with the most recent ones on top. Maybe someone can help?

If you read some of the threads on this forum, it may help. I started one that noted we are now to be found under Miscellany. You can always google, as well, which is what I did at first. I think I am gradually getting the hang of it....

jwttrans, try this link: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/paradise

Hello all,

Just checking in here. Apologies to those who had a difficult time confirming their accounts. There have been some hiccups, but we have a team working day and night to get everything sorted out as soon as we can.

There have been adjustments made literally every day in response to feedback from the community to help make your new space more comfortable to you and more adjustments are to come. Please check out our FAQ page if you have a chance. We are posting updates about the changes we are making and there is a lot of other information there that may help you get settled. Thanks for hanging in there!

woodnymph and sheri_z6, I posted in this thread out of desperation. I had spent at least half an hour trying to find the main page that I've seen for many years. I had read through this thread and got the impression that there may be no more main page. Is this really the way it is?

sheri_z6, the link took me to the page I'd been seeing before, not to the old main page, the one where each thread was listed, with the most recently updated threads at the top.

Maybe a free message board would be a good way to keep this group going and to provide a more user-friendly atmosphere. I've had good luck with a couple of these--and the one I'm using now is createaforum.com. I run a small message board as a support forum for people with a chronic neurological disorder.I've run the board for 9 years now.

There are several other free message boards that I know of. One is ProBoards. The free versions of these boards offer a variety of styles or templates to choose from. Often users can choose from several styles.

There needs to be an administrator, and moderators are usually optional.

I haven't had any of the e-mails others have mentioned in this thread. I hope that somehow I can find this group, whatever you decide to do.

So far this doesn't seem too bad although I agree the look is very antiseptic and the grey/green is a problem for me too. If there is any migration to another board, is there any way to make sure all the 'oldies' are notified?

Whoever administers this (Reader's Paradise) board should have access to the e-mail addresses for all members and could notify them. I've never known just who that person is, or maybe it's more than one person.

Most message boards have ways of gaining easy access to previous threads so you can look up what a person said at other times or what has been said on a certain topic. Reader's Paradise hasn't offered that kind of access, and still isn't doing so, or if it is, I'm not aware of how it can be accomplished. Others don't seem to have minded this, and so maybe it's OK. I for one found it odd to have no way of easily finding previous posts and threads.

jwt....I can get the menu page. There is a heading on this thread which says Readers Paradise and a click onto this link brings it up.

I used to be able to access old messages and can probably still do so . I used to do it through Google, by entering key words. I have brought up posts I made some years ago by this method.

Thanks to Emily Hurley for the post. It is good to know that our complaints are being addressed.

I'm a long time lurker and very occasional poster on the forum. I just wanted to let those of you who'd like to change your user name that you can do so by clicking on Your Houzz at the top right, then Edit Profile. Type in your preferred user name in the top field. Hope this helps.

Thank you, Evenshade 8a! I've never liked jwttrans as a user name but at the time there seemed no way to change it. I'm now phoebecaulfield.

I think Houzz is located just 20 minutes up the Peninsula from me in Palo Alto. If they have their customer service locally, that would be the Pacific Time zone.

As for the name thing, almost EVERYONE got that message about their name already being taken. Somehow I think there is some kind of doubling effect that goes on when you register with GW. I was absolutely not going to give up my online name so I wrote to customer service and insisted that I am the real, original, one-and-only Rosefolly, and they gave me back my name. I think the same kind of thing is going on with many GW users. I believe that if it is important to you (it was to me) and if you persist, you can get your name back.

Rosefolly

I'm not seeing your name change, jwttrans. Did you hit submit after the change? Also, many people were having difficulty with changing their user name (what is directly under Account Information), but have had success changing the name everyone can see, under the Profile Information "First Name".

Rosefolly, I did persist but was told someone else definitely has Annpan!

asm198, thanks so much for the suggestion. I changed my name in the "First Name" box as you indicated, and it worked.

I tried to register as just "Phoebe," then as "phoebe," but those names had been taken.

That's right, woodnymph2_gw! I always liked that character.