I remember hearing a rumor way back when that Spike was a “she” but I guess that was an urban legend.

Spike mysteriously banned me once. When I finally reached him and got a reply it turned out all I had done was a copy/paste that unintentionally contained an HTML tag he didn't like.

albert_135 　 39.17°N 119.76°W 4695ft.(❀ ✿)

Spike mysteriously banned me once. When I finally reached him and got a reply it turned out all I had done was a copy/paste that unintentionally contained an HTML tag he didn't like.

Exactly. Spike just banned at random. While eBay would suspend they usually sent a warning or two to let you know you were not being nice.

Spike was not a 'she'. He used to go to the Maryland plant swap. I have friends from 1998 and later that I met on this Soil, Compost, and Mulch forum. Several of us are meeting in South Carolina in early Oct.

After almost 2 months now and I've grown accustomed to the new format and like it ok.

As for Spike, I still have my GW t-shirt he sent me for my $15 donation almost 20 years ago....

Hey, I made a donation and never got a shirt!

What is going on with posting pictures? Is there a limit now and, if so, what is it? Why are my posts just freezing up in the middle of sending with no error message and no opportunity to go back? I just lost my post for the 2nd time. This really sucks!

Not sure what the heck is going on but I have no time to type up entire posts only to have them disappear with no reasonable explanation. I just attempted to add two posts ... One just got hung and never posted. There was no option to do anything and I just lost my post. The second was short and still disappeared. WTH! I think I'm done here. Bye...

Saw your comment if it said 'testing'. Is that the one you mean?

I haven't been able to make original posts for two weeks now. I can reply to others posts.

I am repeating myself to the point where I feel embarrassed.

We need to know what hardware ans software you are using when you have a problem.

Anyone having a problem with not getting emails when a thread you post to is updated? I’m not getting them.

Hi there, If you are still having problems posting, please shoot a message to help.houzz.com profile support and include information about your browser and version, your device / hardware, and your operating system so we can attempt to replicate the issue you are seeing. Thank you!

@Saypoint I took a look at your settings and made an adjustment. Let me know if you are still not getting notifications, please. Thanks!

Appears to be working now, thanks Emily.

Albert,

Using Dell laptop, Windows 10, and FireFox.

Printmaster have you tried signing out, clearing your cookies and browser history, signing back in?

OP: "And why the heck do I have to scroll through a slew of "topics" to post
to the forum I'm on? Because YOU want me to post to three forums?"

This morning I saw a noob's first post expressing bewilderment at what she thought was a requirement to under three topics.

I complained at one time when Houzz took over "Garden Web", as did a lot of other people. For a while it was alright. Even bookmarked it so I wouldn't have to spend time looking for different forums. It has been a while since I was here and today when I tried to sign in couldn't. Had to change password and still can't find the right forum. Houzz is always trying to entice us to buy something. After all this I'll be damned if I buy anything from Houzz. Nothing but irritation. Who needs it?

I've read most of the comments and wonder is Houzz trying deliberately to push us away from Garden Web. Every time they make changes to the format it becomes more and more difficult to find whatever one is looking for. Perhaps the original owners of Garden Web couldn't continue and sold it to Houzz, and it begs a question, why did they buy it in the first place. Houzz is not promoting horticulture, instead it's promoting consumerism. Horticulture benefits everyone, even non gardeners, consumerism does not.

"...question, why did they buy it in the first place. Houzz is not promoting horticulture, instead it's promoting consumerism."

This has been a big question in my mind too. Indeed many gardeners seem to be stingy, making our own compost, snitching cuttings, saving seed, that sort of thing. ✔

Albert, maybe 'frugal' is a better term than 'stingy' :-) I don't find most gardeners to be the slightest bit stingy as they share experiences, advice and plants quite willingly!!

yugoslava, the "original" owner(s) of Garden Web sold it ages ago. It has gone through numerous changes of ownership over the years and was owned by NBCUniversal prior to the Houzz acquisition. And that purchase was motivated by the huge GW member base, which Houzz felt would add to their platform and demographics. And while consumerism and online sales do play a big role in Houzz attitudes, I am not sure it is to the exclusion of the horticutural bent that the GW forums offer.

Each gardener cultivates their "specialties" and loves acquiring new and interesting varieties within a given species. We also love sharing what we have in abundance. I, for example, have given away over 150 adeniums and countless cactus and succulents of all varieties in the last 3 years alone to friends, family, neighbors, and strangers alike. I have been a hobby grower for over 30 years. I have also swapped plants and obtained new varieties this way. A lot of time, effort, knowledge, and money goes into cultivating anything.

I have recently joined a few local groups that get together informally to swap and give away seeds and plants all the time. We are sharing what we have in abundance and everybody benefits. We are growing organic fruit, vegetables, tubers, etc. Fantastic! I just gave away an avocado tree, lemon tree, moringa seeds, zinnia seeds, sweet potato plants, a coffee tree, and a huge taro root plant. I, in turn, have spinach, kale, kohlrabi, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries growing in 5-gallon buckets! We all share mangoes, papayas, melons, oranges, avocados, bananas, plantains, etc. There is a tremendous sense of community within these groups. We are going back to basics and life is good.

If anyone starts singing Kumbaya, I'll cyber shoot you! LOL

@Emily H, Every time I come to Houzz to post something with more that 3 pictures, I leave very disappointed. After creating an entire new thread, I hit POST and what happens? It gets hung! Looks like it's loading but it doesn't. I've deliberately left it loading an hour to see if it does so. Today was the 4th time this has occurred. WT*!

Do you have photo quantity / size limits? If so, why is there no flag indicating "Photo too large," "You've reached you photo limit for this post," or whatever the case may be? I never experienced this issue before June 10, 2018. I am running Windows 7, using Google Chrome on an Acer notebook and Windows 10, using Google Chrome on a Dell desktop unit.

In the Hot Pepper forum green_passion had same issue in post "Is time running out?". This past Sunday he posted about size/# limit. Worth a read as houzz no help!

I only have problems creating new threads. No issues posting on an existing thread. Insanely annoying to create a whole new thread only to have it get hung like that ... You know, that never-ending "loading" circle? Ugh! Lost my thread, lost my train of thought ... What a waste of time and energy.

I usually compose my words on a separate screen/wp program, and then just copy and paste it here, especially if I am starting a new thread... an old newspaper trick ...

I was able to post a new thread yesterday without any issue. I will try to post something else now and see how that goes. Will let you know.

Posted another thread with no issues on Saturday but tried today and got this when I hit POST:

The page you requested was not found.

• Return to home
• Continue browsing photos

I just posted for the first time in 2 years, (Ideas on cutting height...), and included a photo. It doesn't seem any different or more difficult than I remember.

Joe

Joe, did you try to start a thread? Posting isn't an issue, as far as I know; it's starting threads that is a problem.

annpat, I'm not the sharpest tack in the box..but what is a thread?

Joe

This whole conversation is a thread that's made up of individual postings. Does that make sense? When you start a discussion that's starting a thread.

vaporvac, Thank you, that clears things up.

Joe

Who decides which forums a thread is shown in? I mean, if I wanted to hang out with Cacti People, I would. No offense. It was just an example. I don't want anyone to get prickly. I'm finding the Soil, Compost and Mulch forum far less interesting now that I have to wade through house plant posts.

Posters select the forums they want their posts to appear in. They can choose three, so they do. I choose more than one sometimes if I think they’re appropriate, as in my recent post with a cleaning issue related to my kitchen cabinet, I posted on the cleaning and kitchen forums. I got responses from kitchen pros and from people on the cleaning forum. I usually only choose one.

I recall a couple of weeks ago a noob thought they were they required to select three forums.

The best thing to do here is to vote with your feet.

I’ve been finding lately that new posts sometimes don’t show up until a day or so after they were originally posted.

It was good while it lasted. Too many unexpected changes with zero heads up, zero reasoning ... Very "Who Moved My Cheese?" I hardly come on here anymore ... Maybe once a week to twice a month, if that. It just doesn't hold the same value for me because the sense of community is being erased slowly but surely. Too bad.

WHERE IS THE SOIL, COMPOST, MULCH forum???? I came back after an absence and the gang is no more!!! No one is talking about soil, compost or mulch. This sucks BIG TIME!!!

I tried to post a comment re. the new set up and it wouldn't post. There must be a filter that deletes your post containing certain words. Tried 3x. And there wasn't anything offensive or rude.

soil and compost forum

While I will admit that some do seem have difficulties navigating or posting (I think most of that is due to a less than ideally compatible device or browser) I do not find the new format any more difficult to work with or use or navigate than it was before. Different, yes.........but no less user friendly (in many ways it is more user-friendly). And I think some are just a lot more resistant to change than others :-) As an old time GW user (here since almost from the start in the late 90s with Spike), the site has gone through a lot of changes over the years and with different ownership, much good and some not so good. It took me just a couple of days to become comfy with the new format and I have no issues with it now.

My primary complaint is with cross posting. While it is NOT a requirement, many seem to think it is so you get threads posted to 3 completely unrelated forums. And those new folks entering directly from the Houzz side of the platform with gardening questions do not realize there are several dozens of gardening forums and just post in the Gardens or Landscape Design forum (the only GW forum that shows up in the Houzz topics listing as well as GW) and I find that very irritating. The LD forum is frequently innundated with completely inappropriate questions!!

And I don't find it to be any less of a "community" than it was before. Depending on what forums one frequents, all the same old regular posters are present for the most part with the same friendly interchange and bantering.

11otis, if you scroll up to the start of this thread, you will find that it is posted to the Soils, Compost and Mulch forum in addition to a couple of others. Click on that forum title and it will take you directly to ALL the threads on that forum. Really couldn't be much easier............. :-)

"(I think most of that is due to a less than ideally compatible device or browser)"

This is the feeling I get too.

Gardengal, how do you tag someone's name like you did above?

Candice (Houston)

You click on the person's name and go to their House page. Then go up and copy the URL and paste it into the 'link' in the edit box, above the green 'submit' button ...

Actually, it was just a copy and paste :-) Candice (Houston) No need to go into the profile page, no need to attach any link.......copy and pasting will do it automatically.

https://www.gardenweb.com/user/bragu

https://www.gardenweb.com/user/gardengal48

Hmm, mine looks different! Lol