If you view your profile, you may see an option to title yourself a professional.

Pro is a user defined setting/ proclamation.

So, basically I could be a self-proclaimed "Pro"? You do not need to be a card carrying member of some elite interior design club?

I agree rebeccamom - there seems to be a lot of 'pro' designations suddenly and a lot of less than pro sounding advice. I've been hanging around Gardenweb for 15+ years and there are a lot of extremely talented people who don't have that label and give far better advice than some of the 'pros'.

There are a variety of pros in a variety of fields here. There are interior designer/decorator pros, kitchen/bath pros (some of whom belong to NKBA/National Kitchen & Bath Assn), architect pros, art selling pros, plumber pros, etc.

As far as interior design pros, IIRC fewer than half of the US states and Canadian provinces have accreditation requirements/regulations for interior designers. Lauren Liess isn't a certified/accredited designer and so calls herself a decorator. Designer Laurel Bern, who used to be ASID accredited until 2008 when she decided it's all "a big con", had an interesting blog post the other year on the difference between an interior designer and decorator, and the question of accreditation. I'll take a talented amateur over an untalented pro any day of the week : ) . And there are also a lot of skilled pros without Pro accounts, especially on the Building a Home forum.

I've noticed recently that some "pros" seem to be keen on spamming threads, which is disappointing.

I filled out a questionnaire when I started this account and because this account is used for the furniture company that I work for, they designated it a Pro account. I had to give references, and they did check them.

I am curious as to how people are able to edit to say that they are homeowners in their profiles. I have not figured that one out yet.

I also think there are lots of people who select the "pro" designation in error when signing up. Who knows how or why, but I see more and more rooms that are kind of hot messes that are being posted by a "pro" asking for advice. Perhaps they are a pro in another profession and didn't know the "pro" designation here refers to home design professionals.

Lars, I think the homeowner designation might be either a holdover from GW or something you can select as an option instead of "pro" when initially signing up. But if you go to Your Account, there is an option for "about me" and you might be able to put homeowner there and have it show up when someone clicks on your profile.

I am a "pro" -- I work as a decorator (not designer) but here, on GW, I'm simply a homeowner. And when I give advice, I don't identify myself as a "pro" because I'm not doing it to advance my business or to dive in so deep that it becomes work. GW is a hobby for me! (Is that pathetic? I do have one or two other hobbies, I swear...)

I have been thinking it's odd how different the participants have become on this board, seemingly overnight. I don't recall seeing any GW posters being designated as pros until fairly recently. I will say that some of the so-called pros are awfully bossy and not always nice, unfortunately.

Sue, I started to post about the tone of many of the posts by "pros" but didn't know how to write about it without sounding ugly. Bossy is a very apt and diplomatic adjective.

I don't consider myself to be a "pro" by any means but when I clicked the link to be able to sell my custom built furniture on Houzz it automatically added the "pro" to my profile. If I de-select the pro option , I'll lose some of the project builds that I have on my profile etc...

I also noticed that recently some "pros" seem to take over some posts with snide remarks and what I can only assume are inside jokes. Not really on this board I don't think, but on the remodeling and building boards.

It makes me hesitant to post a question now or ask for advice on those boards, and I feel sympathy for other posters who are put down and/or have their posts hijacked. One of my recent posts went that way so I just abandoned it. I would have deleted it if I could.

I've been a member of Gardenweb for a long time (maybe over 15 years?) and never noticed it so much before, even though I used to spend more time on the boards. I also don't usually complain about it but just started flagging some comments that were pretty bad.

I was a "pro" for a while. I'm a pro something alright....

I don't put much stock in the pros on this site. If they were good at their jobs they would be busy with clients instead of constantly posting on here. It makes me laugh when a pro is commenting on "before and after" of another pros design. They always think the room is fantastic . Even if it the millionth boring white shaker cabinet kitchen with no personality. Pros who are worth anything do no give free advise. I have seen some really stupid suggestions on this site by pros and I have seen really rude pros on here. No wonder they have no clients.

functionthenlook - though I'm not really a fan of the pro designation here, your assessment is a harsh over generalization. I appreciate Banchitta's comment ^^^ about having an ear to the ground - makes perfect sense to me.

Fori, when did you become so displeased, lol. Didn't you used to be Fori is very pleased?

When I go to my account information, there is a tab that says "convert to Professional Profile" (I am using my GW account at home now), but there is no way to get the house icon into my profile that I can see. I have plenty of other icons, however.

How do you select 'homeowner' in your profile? I see how to convert to 'pro' but not homeowner. My profile is from my GW days too.