Well, I'm guessing that perhaps they expected one to present with their specific plant.

For example here is tomato diseases

@albert right, and people can still do that if it is a species-specific disease. But I think having all plant disease questions in one place would be a great asset to people researching diseases as well as to people with questions on common diseases.

Interesting. I have been here since before b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶r̶n̶a̶m̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶r̶e̶q̶u̶i̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶ Hector was a pup and I don't remember ''Garden Clinic".

@gardengal48, they need a name change. I would never have associated the word clinic with disease. One of the definitions of the word 'clinic' is "a conference or short course on a particular subject." That's what I would have thought that meant.

They should change that to "Garden Diseases Clinic" or "Plant Disease Clinic"

Hmmmm........when one visits a clinic, it is usually for medical purposes :-) The primary definition of a clinic is "an establishment or hospital department where outpatients are given medical treatment or advice, especially of a specialist nature." That is exactly the same as the Garden Clinic for plants, if one makes the assumption that pests and diseases are the equivalent of "medical issues".

Albert, even under Spike, before the Millennium, before iVillage, before NBC Universal and before Houzz, user names were required on GardenWeb!! I have had the same one for going on 25 years here and the Garden Clinic has been a forum all that time.

@gardengal48 When one visits an investment clinic, it is never for medical purposes. Pick up any dictionary and definition #2 is exactly what I defined in my earlier reply.

Primary definition does not resolve this ambiguity because of actual use. If we compare the number of "garden clinics" that are hosted each year to treat or discuss disease versus the number of garden clinics that are just plant lovers gathering to discuss their favorite plants, the latter outnumbers the former about 100 to 1. So by common convention when you see the term "Garden Clinic" it will empirically always mean a gathering of plant lovers.

In any case, this fooled me, and I knew both definitions.

Personally, I think you may be picking nits :-). The primary definition of a clinic - the first when listed by any dictionary - pertains to medical issues. And if you do a Google search for 'plant clinics', this is what turns up: https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=plant+clinic&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

You will notice that ALL refer to some sort of diagnostic office or service........not a general discussion about plants by like-minded individuals. Even the widespread Master Gardener plant clinic services are devoted to assisting homeowners with plant pest and disease issues.

@gardengal how about they rename the forum as "plant disease clinic"

Because the forum addresses more than just diseases. It also addresses cultural conditions and fertilizing/watering issues that can affect healthy plant growth as well as insect and other pest problems. Many times hobby gardeners are just not aware of what precisely is affecting their plants - they just know it is not doing well and assume it is 'sick'. But 'sick' can infer a lot wider range of plant problems than just diseases. So they visit the Garden Clinic forum with an assortment of ailments for evaluation and help. Sometimes it is a disease issue but many times it is something else. Diseases and plant pathogens are often tricky for even very experienced horticulturists to diagnose accurately.

Very few garden clinics focus solely on diseases. The Garden Clinic forum subheading says this: "The garden clinic allows users to share information on pests and diseases."

@gardengal the problem is you do not see the subtitle from the A-Z view of all subforums. It would be great if they had an A-Z view that included the subtitles.

wetes, do you have any reason to think that such changes as you are suggesting can even be done? [Often old software has laminations because the bits and bytes have already been use up or old versions of the software simply do not allow modifications.]

Do you have any reason to think that such changes as you are suggesting would ever be done even if they could be done?

@janes you never know unless you try