I found using the "flag" to indicate spam to be very effective.

Think the "like" choice is a nice addition.

Agree, consolidating some of the categories would be helpful.

I agree. I signed up on Gardenweb a few months ago to try and get some information. I'm amazed at the number of redundant, moribund forums that are available, I started to count them and gave up when I discovered the dozens of sub forums that are embedded in the main list. I think it's a detriment not an advantage. So many of the super specialized forums have almost no activity. Fewer forums with more traffic in each one would actually provide more interest and information for the plants that are currently consigned to anonymity. I won't keep track of dozens of forums, even if I'm interested in many of the plants that have one dedicated to them. In a more general forum people with broad gardening interests would see the obscure posts and might participate but when they are buried in the long lists of specialized forums they just get ignored.

Agree that the forums desperately need to be consolidated. I mean -- we have a square foot gardening and a small gardening; a four season vegetable gardening (but no "vegetable" gardening?); a "Metro NY Gardning" which has NO posts; a "giant vegetables" forum? it's a mess.

Is this a legacy of a time when Gardenweb was more like the old fashioned internet bulletin board and anyone could create a forum so the number of forums multiplied with no rhyme or reason? Another great example, as was pointed out on another post in this forum, why is there a "growing tomatoes" forum? Why not just "tomatoes"? Who, wanting to find information about tomatoes, would think to look under the letter G to find it?

And the three fish forums could probably be merged into one better subject.