Ok, I tried..

Peace!!!

Laura

Thanks, Laura.

Al

I'd like the thread to be sticky'd as well, please.

hey, read this

Thank you, guys!!!

Hopefully others will follow !!!

Have a great day!!

Laura

I'd like the thread to be a sticky please

I suspect the effort is wasted since no one is moderating GW, but even so why do you want to sticky XVIII when the most recent version is XXII?

Andy, you missed it:

Container Soils - Water Movement and Retention XVIII

Garden gal.. I will do that for this thread as well as others that we enjoy and feel that we need to find and bump up at times. Thank you !!

Josh.. Thank you!! ;-)

Laura

Josh I didn't miss it. My point is, version 18 of the discussion isn't the most recent. That was started in Jan 2014. Version 22 was started in Feb 2015. If you're going to sticky it, might as well sticky the most recent one.

Hi Andy..

I see what you are saying..

Yes, the latest version is what is needed to be the sticky.. I'm not sure they will ever do this, but its a good try..

Thanks for the catch..

Laura

I am in favor of the sticky as well.

What the heck is a "sticky"??? I have never ever seen anything that was a "sticky" on GardenWeb and I have been a member since the late 90's! And a pretty active one t that, usually visiting multiple forums on a daily basis.

Houzz has a feature where you can "save" threads or even individual comments to threads although I have never used it and have no idea where the saved stuff shows up. I just use the bookmark feature in my browser - I do this for anything I find online I want to save for future reference, including GW threads. Al's threads are among them :-)

This board is about the only platform that does not use sticky. a "sticky" is a topic that is "stuck" or "pinned" to the top of the board and never moves down or is erased. Most with pertinent information will also be locked to prevent comments from being added. It would be an invaluable tool to all new and old members alike.

Who are the mods/admin here anyway???

Like I said, I have never seen any sticky on any of the GW forums I visit - and I visit a LOT!! 20-30 different ones typically. I also see no value to having a thread stuck permanently to the top of any forum discussion. And with the value and frequency of Al's remarkably informative and helpful threads, the entire first page - or more - would be filled with stuck threads!!

Just click on the save tab or bookmark and it's all good. But if you want to contact Houzz to see if they can do this, try the Suggestions forum......that's what it is intended for.

Right, its not available here, that's the point.

The value would be immense, especially to new members who do not know to seek out certain threads BEFORE asking questions. Myself included. If I had found many of the threads I now have access to, I would have known straight away what the issues were caused b and how to fix them.

Here is an example from a fig forum, note the stickies/pins at the top. The one titled "Frequently Referenced Topics" would be a great tool to have at the top of most forums here:
https://www.ourfigs.com/forum/figs-home 

Well, Houzz isn't a forum, (good explanation of a true forum can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum#Structure ) its a message board as it lacks Mods, and other tools common to true forums.

In more than 25 years of usage, it is my experience that new visitors to these forums tend never bother to read or review anything that has been posted before regardless of how obvious it is. They often don't even always pick the correct forum to post in!! Even with those forums which have FAQ's (most do), they never bother to check. Even when the FAQ's were directly attached to the associated forum, they just skipped over them. At most, they may Google the question and an appropriate previous Houzz/GW thread will pop up, often very outdated, and they will stick their post on the end, never bothering to read any of the previous posts to the thread that 9 times out of 10 will have already answered their question!

btw, the Houzz/GardenWeb discussion sites are most definitely forums! They have all the components of a forum including moderators and administrators. They are just not terribly visible. But threads and individual posts get deleted for various reasons (that's also what the flags are for - to alert the moderators) and members banned routinely for inappropriate forum activity.

Who are the mods? Please show me. I've been looking all day so I can message them.... You know on this message board. Forums would have those visible. :)

Where are faq??? Nowhere visible! This so what Houzz looks like on the app for instance.

Again this is the way we've always done is a death sentence.

The mods are not ID'd by name. And if I was a mod, I sure wouldn't want to be either!! Like I said, they are invisible but most definitely present. You can message them via the Contact Us option or the Suggestions forum.

And the FAQ's are grouped together, just as all the home improvement or gardening forums are grouped together. Just scroll down to 'Explore Topics' on the lefthand side of your screen and voila - click on Gardening FAQ's and there they all are!

btw, using the app is the least efficient way of accessing anything on this site!! It is very abbreviated compared to using a computer or tablet and any number of features common to those devices are unavailable.

You have done more to substantiate the fact that this platform is awful than you know! Thank you!

Why are mods hidden? No forum has them hidden! They are there to help and for users to have access to, that's their job! Why are the FAQ hidden and buried in side menus? Stickies at the top of each message board would surely solve that.

Can you show me where in the "contact us" this exists to get a hold of a mod?

Have you yourself looked under the FAQ? There is not one FAQ for containers, tropicals or the houseplant message boards.....again, the reason this thread was created years ago and many users chimed in, stating we need stickies and a revamped system, such as a true forum. When I do click on an FAQ, such as Cacti and Succulent, it brings me to a bunch of threads, not a true FAQ answer area.

Do you happen to belong to any true forums, or just Gardenweb/Houzz message boards? If you frequent other platforms you would understand how archaic and not user friendly this setup is.

Im done here, you're right everything is fine in Houzz message boards and nothing can be improved upon!!

Great points from all of you, but I find they don’t and will not make this happen as

with other “forum” places .

I tried along time ago to get Al’s threads available... looks like they will continue the way they are posted . ( search and find it if they are linked)

Al has always been helpful about placing threads ( linking) in certain forums.,

So maybe he can add that here so others can see a list of his threads ?

He's always been helpful to those that ask and we all tried to change the style here at one time but it never happened.

So sorry but we tried..

Laura

In a garden forum to me the best sticky will be titled "There is no such thing as a house plant".

You can figure out who has been around a while on this "forum" when they refer to it as gardenweb or houzz. In those days tech was not that advanced. Houzz acquired it and just pushed its own modifications that were awful in the beginning and eventually everyone accepted it.

I can always figure out who is a newbie when they ask for a sticky topic just because they found it useful. To me stickies should cover topics like basic navigation, how to post a pic/video, do's and don'ts when you post, to include details of problems, basic terminology and meanings, code of conduct, etc. Individual articles, however you much you like it, should not be stickied. It defeats the purpose of a democratic dissemination of information. A sticky should be neutral in its objective. I can imagine a sticky to list the most popular threads but that is it. Or describe code of conduct and be meaningful.

To me stickying a particular topic or post defeats the purpose of unbiased information. If a person is serious about learning then should learn to effectively search, take notes and persevere. If not then they are coming for a quick fix for their immediate problem - bulk of the posts here like that. The difference how they phrase the problem and describe it. People who are trying to help are most of the time trying to just get more info out of the person regarding the problem. So in my mind, this the problem - how do you described your problem that is meaningful.

In this age of social media and instant-everything people have forgotten how to do research. It is evident in the postings. They want a quick fix. The title will be something like 'I bought this plant and now it has keeled over' without any attempt of any research on their part. People like Al try their best to steer one away from that quick fix solution but these days most, except the dedicated, are not inclined to accept that.

Al would still call them “sticky “.

Just saying... ;)

LOL!! It is not just with this thread but I'd have to say that winter is getting on the nerves of a lot of people :-) Responses to comments seem to be uncommonly contentious or argumentative, if not downright snarky or rude.

If you find this site so awful and difficult to use, leave it and go somewere else. And yes, I have visited other site forums but none offer the depth and range of knowledge and communication about plants and gardening issues as this one does so I do not hang around. Except for maybe the UBC Botantical Garden forums. I participate in forums based on the information and the discussions they provide, not how easy or convient they are to use. YMMV

Personally I find stickies annoying. I like to see the latest posts first, not something that has been there for ages and which I have to scroll past every time I go on a forum. There are FAQs where this kind of info. Would fit well.

This is a great message board in terms of the depth of information. No doubt about it!

Could it be better? Heck yes! This site is awful to be effective in research. The search us useless.

Do you love seeing the same posts each week about failing plants? Do you love answering the same questions over and over? Doesn't seem it. Stickies could solve a lot of this, it's why they are used on message boards like Rediit for example, and every forum out there. They help!! "read this first" would be a great sticky with links to key threads to read before posting.

The way a lot of you old guard "Gardenweb glory days" folks bark at us newcomers is a real turnoff. The few who are patient, and thoughtful are what keep us "newbies" here. Al, TOC, and others have been truly instrumental in my quick learning curve and I am forever thankful.

Yes, we are in 2019, information at our fingertips is why the generations before us worked so damn hard! Now we don't have to lug text books around with us and spend days and days at the library, HOPING we are researching the correct information.


Personally, I want to LEARN so I'll put up with the folks who have sand in their swim suits resulting in short fuses and useless replies besides to flex their clout as longtime users.

I'll leave everyone with this, hearing this in my early 20's changed my outlook on the world. There's always a better way.

Our dear and beloved Al, for example, lives by this principle, clearly. Why would he put so much effort into his research when everyone around him was saying the way they were doing things (and still are!) is fine and stop worrying about it.

I'm a former member of Dave's Garden, which used to be a pretty popular site and probably GWs most notable competitor. I probably had a dozen or so stickies posted to fora related to container gardening, houseplants, and 1 or 2 other fora (maybe they're still there somewhere - not sure). I quit going to the site when they deleted the container gardening forum and said they felt it should be incorporated with just 'gardening'. The stickies seemed to work out quite well - and it's no problem to look beyond the 2-3 threads you might find pinned to the top of a forum if one felt there was nothing there to capture one's interest. Those threads did get an extra measure of traffic, so there were a lot of gardeners following them on a day to day basis, even if for no other reason than there was a considerable amount of information being shared.

About there being a better way ....... I have probably read "It works for me" as a direct reply to me about something gardening related a thousand times or more as a point meant to terminate the discussion. It doesn't matter how many better options or potential issues there are, if it works for that person, the method should never be questioned or even gently criticized. For those of us who try mightily to keep the impressionable from falling into the patterns of the "it works for me crowd" who have little interest in honing their skills, it presents a dilemma. Say nothing and let the information stand unchallenged, or explain why there are potential issues involved with certain advice/practices or even offhand comments. When I come across obvious misinformation, I always ask myself if it has the potential to diminish the gardening experience of others. If 'no' - I offer no comment; if 'yes' I explain clearly why I disagree. That's held me in good stead for quite some time, so I don't plan on changing anything.

I didn't write this, but it illustrates the folly in using the "I've always done it this way" argument, a logical fallacy called 'Appeal to Tradition'. Following that, you'll find "The Story of My Old Pal, Joe Pye", and what worked for him.

The Way It’s ALWAYS Been Done

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on
a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go
to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all the other monkeys with cold
water. After a while another monkey makes the attempt with same result, all
the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another
Monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put the cold water away. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it
with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the
Stairs.

To his shock, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and
attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new
one.

The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes
part in the punishment with enthusiasm.

Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth,
then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is
attacked.

All of the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not
permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating
of the newest monkey. After replacing all of the original monkeys, none of
the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless,
no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not?

Because as far as they know, that is the way it has always been done around
here.

It works for me: I usually shake my head whenever I hear the words “It works for me“ used as either an argument in a debate or as a justification for particular methods when there has been a suggestion that there might be a better way. I’ve encountered those words so often that I even wrote a silly little story to illustrate how ridiculous it is to use “It works for me” as any kind of argument. After the story, I’ll look a little deeper at the phrase, if you’re still interested.

It Works for Me - or The Story of Old Joe Pye

There’s this story I often tell ‘bout a real good friend I had a while back - called hisself Joe Pye. Now ol’ Joe was kind of a stubborn sort, but at least sometimes he'd listen ...... if you caught him on a good day. Well, I’m gittin off the track here, so lemme git back to my story.

Ol' Joe had a real peculiar habit. See, ever’ mornin he'd commence to banging his head against the wall for 15 minutes or so before he went to work. When I'd ask him, "Why o' why do you do that, ol' Joe?" His answer would always be, "Well, it works for me - wakes me up inna mornin. Gits my blood a movin‘"

Now I'd been around the block a time or two; and I was sure as sure can be there was a more productive way for ol' Joe to wake hisself up inna mornin, so I timed it to when I figgered Joe would be in one of his listenin’ moods, and sorta half whispered a suggestion to him. Had to do it more'n a coupla times, too - even got some other folks agreein with me and telling’ ol’ Joe the same thing … to sorta help ol’ Joe along.

Well by gosh, through the blessed power of multiple suggestions, and jus like I proposed, ol' Joe commenced ta huggin & kissin on his wife ever’ morning’ afore work instead of pursuin his other long time habit of bangin his head 'gainst that wall. Stubborn as he was, ol’ Joe recognized right away he was better off - he just lacked the benefit of enough experience to see it at first. His wife was quite pleased with the change as well - took right kindly to it. Ol' Joe never ever did go back to bangin his head on that wall neither.

There's a moral to this yarn: If yer real happy with how things is, and ‘it works for you’, by all means, please maintain the status quo; but at least allow it is possible there’sa better way you might not know about .... at least consider it …. please?

Al

Good ones Al.

The technology used for gardenweb is pretty poor, non standard and I suspect not easy to fix it either. Houzz made it even worse. They want more traffic and more members so that they can push their commercial stuff more. What better way to attract more members than make it difficult to find the info. If the correct info was easily available then there would not be any incentive to become a member.

Search on this site is useless - agreed. But so it is on most forums because of the underlying tech even though they use standard forum technolgies. It is not easy to implement a good search feature without oodles of resources. Most other forums were created by people who are in interested and deeply involved in the sites they develop. So they have a vested interest in making it relevant and useful. Houzz is not and I suspect never will be.

I do a lot of research on many topics whether it is hobby or work. So I have a vested interest in finding alternate and better solutions to make my life easier.

Most do not realize how to circumvent poor search capabilities using something better - you guessed it probably - it is Google. TG: I will give you an example using your recent question on white spots on begonia.

Go to google.com. Type in site:www.gardenweb.com begonia white spots And the first result would given you some answers to put you on right track.

You can do even better. Create a new bookmark using whatever feature is in your browser. Call it say 'Search Site'. In the location field copy/paste the following cryptic piece of code:

javascript:Qr=prompt('Search%20Site%20for','');if(Qr)location.href='http://www.google.com/search?&q=site:'+encodeURIComponent(window.location.hostname)+'+'+escape(Qr)

After that whenever you visit a site and want to search its contents just click on that bookmark. It will prompt you for the text that you want to search and off you go. Nothing to install.

ToC

Thanks for the tutorials. I actually am in Procurement and for better or worse, searching the world for stuff is what pays my bills. Having to go to Google, to find information on a forum (it's a message board, BTW) with a search feature and close to two decades of content, is a work around, a band-aid if you will.

Doesn't change the fact that this site is poorly built and stickies would solve a whole lotta stuff quickly. Heck, even a true FAQ would be a huge step in the right direction.... We don't even have that. There actually isn't a tab called "Houseplants faq" that I could find.

I asked the begonia question to get different info. I had the soapy baking soda solution already. That cinnamon thing was exactly the type of "different" I wanted and got!

What your suggestions remind me of is when I talk to a factory about a product and they tell me the price. If I need a better price I ask for it. The good factories come back and work toward meeting that price goal. The poor factories come back and offer me a lesser product or other "solution" to meet my price point.

I like you, I'm not looking for friction! But we both know this could be much better.

Personally, I do not have excessive difficulties with the search features here. Admitedly, they are not the easiest to use but once you figure them out, they are adequately serviceable. The trick I have found that works best is to start your search process in the forum that most applies, then enter your query in the search bar. Immediately below the search bar will be a highlighted entry and clicking on the hghlighted entry will take you to a list of results.

Per the begonia leafspot example referred to above, here are the search results when hunting under Houseplants: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/houseplt/query/white-spots-on-begonia-leaves/nqrw

And here it is if searching under Begonias:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/begonia/query/white-spots-on-leaves/nqrw

And more to the issue at hand, here are the results for Container Soils:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/contain/query/containers-soils/nqrw

I guess the biggest drawback is that there is not a "universal" site search for Houzz that will get you very good results so you do need to know a little about what you are looking for.

ps. you can call it whatever you want but Houzz and GardenWeb are indeed forums!!

This thread is nearly four years old!!!!! People have been wanting this for longer than that. Let that sink in.....four years this has been an issue.

I am glad youre satisfied with how it is here, keep on keeping on! Me and plenty others want it to be better. It can ALWAYS be better, but man, the room for improvement here is near blank slate status.

Call it what you want Gal. Like lipstick on a pig, it ain't pretty. Gardenweb to Houzz is exactly that, lipstick on a pig.

Seems some feel the best way to spend their time here is by complaining while others manage to function through all the obstacles with minimal discord. It's up to you how you approach it.

Slow down TG. Members here including me gave you alternate viewpoints. It is OK if you not agree but such personal attacks on others views and solutions is uncalled for. You revived a 4 year old thread and turned a curious topic to a personal crusade to solve a problem that has been established cannot be solved.

ToC.

Will do.

This is a very old thread dating back to 2015 and back then I tried with the help of Al and some other friends here at GW/Houzz to try and makes things easier to navigate for some other friends and newbies..

I never intended this thread to get to this point where we are getting into how Bad this forum is and how slow this forum is and with its technology. I agree.. it’s behind the times,but I still come by when I have time to see friends and to learn and do searches.

Thank you all for trying to focus on why we are here.. to help answer questions and to make new members feel welcome . It honestly is a pain sometimes to navigate this site, but it’s also an informative challenge when we are trying to find something of interest .. ( we sometimes find more interesting threads too!)

Is there a better way?? I suppose there is...

Thank you Al for chiming in and helping as you always have ... Years ago we tried to make things happen here to better this site for others and we did our best. We can’t fix things that we can’t control.. So if others want to search other places, go ahead. If you like what is here, then do as the above friends have mentioned....

It’s wonderful seeing you all. ( Al, TOC GG and TG... Thank you for your interesting and thought provoking post!

We All need to just relax and be thankful that if this is the only problem we have going on in our daily lives, then we should be very thankful...

Take Good Care,

Laura