I think things are getting better and I do not think Houzz is ignoring us. But I'm not sure how far change for the better will go. Can you remain Keeper of the List, and wait a few more weeks please?

DLM2000, I think things are settling down, but you never know when the hosting company will decide to make other changes or discontinue the service altogether. If you are willing to keep the other site active, even minimally, so that we have a retreat all ready, that would be great. I'm happy to test the new site, but I'm an amateur when it comes to forums and hosting.

Thank you for the work you have done to keep track of us. All seems to be working on this site right now, maybe keep your records for 'just in case'?

ML

My thoughts would be to get it “ready” as much as possible and have a plan. That would include testing it, have the list and so on so if the day ever came, we’d all know what to do. I’ve never set up a forum but I’d be happy to help do some testing.

I'm having no problems with it now, seems to be settled.

Things are working okay for me here now. Thank you for all your efforts!

Well, I’m very ready to make the leap to a new site! I wish that I was computer savvy enough to help you with it, DLM, but I’m not. I don’t even know what a bandwidth is! If there is anything else that I can help you with, though,!please contact me.

I will follow the group if decided to go rogue or I will stay if that is the consensus. I find the site fine now but it is the company not format that I appreciate most. DLM I am very impressed with your organizing abilities! Thank you so much.

The hardest part of the H-GW site for me is the HUGE number of threads/posts on the other-than-HD Conversations forum. I can't keep up and seldom go there now.

For the moment it seems our Conversations forum is off the radar and it's just us locals using it. The Decorating side is another story as are the rest of GW forums. It's sad.

The alternate site (GW-expats!) can sit in limbo as can 'the list' until and if... Yogacat has offered to help tweak and test and maybe someone else with a bit of experience will see this. I think for the moment we sit tight and see how this goes.

As long as we have a separate conversations place, I will stay -- or follow. I can't keep up or follow other forums either. I occasionally look at one or two, but that's about it. Might change when I have a big project again -- will have to see how it feels when that happens.

Most of us "old timers" seem to gravitate to the Conversation Side, so I also appreciate your efforts in having a place where we can land.

To be honest, I don't really look much at Decorating or Kitchens like I used to. I also like The Kitchen Table, another nice place to discuss everything and anything.

I've been a moderator on another forum and wrote on a website, so I would be happy to help look at or test the new place. Thanks for doing this, DLM2000.

I'm having no problems now. I did change my user name. I will message you again with my info as I never got an email, though you said I was in.

I’ve adjusted. I know we have had a couple rounds of “ready to leave” here and then we adjust. I agree with eld - conversations seems to be flying below the radar so we still have the sense of community. Anything could happen at any time though. I think it’s good to be prepared.

hcbm I have not sent out emails yet so you haven't missed anything - only replied via Houzz messages that I've rec'd your info and have you on the list. But I'll need your new and old user name so I can match them up with the email address. It's the only way I have to somewhat know who is who and make changes if necessary.

DLM you have been amazing in your organizing and giving people a reason to stay and, for that, I thank you.

DLM, thank you for all the effort you've put in to keep this group together and in contact. Even though I don't post often, I've been connected for almost 15 years and the thought of losing it was disturbing to say the least. I'm hanging in with everyone!

Again thank you! I am still looking forward to a change. I really feel like houzz doesn't care about the GW people.

I used to belong to quite a few listservs back in the day. Liked them. But I dunno about posting photos. For home decorating and some other things, that is very important/useful. I think there are also private Facebook groups. I am trying to lock my FB down more so I don't see so much junk. I don't mind ads, but only to a point. I don't belong to listservs anymore. Toyed with the professional groups on Linkedin but found them too obnoxious and lacking on professionalism, which was disconcerting considering the members and source . . . I miss some of the better listservs, so would consider experimenting but I barely can keep up with my housework so have to really parse my social media involvement.

Well, I rival LynnNM in lack of tech savvy : I had to google PopSocket to see what Sheeisback was talking about. I sure do appreciate your stepping up DLM!

I can't imagine setting up something like this, but I'm awfully glad you can! Thank you.

I also think things have settled. That's good.

You all are giving me WAY more credit than this calls for - you haven't seen the proposed forum yet! But at any rate thank you for the 'atta girl' - it's nice to be appreciated.

Are you kidding DLM? You deserve a Huge Atta girl! You took charge and ran with it!

LOL, Delilah, I had to google pop socket too!

Thank you, DLM! I agree with others who said that the decorating side is overwhelming these days and I don’t feel like I “know” anyone there any more. Now that I’ve separately bookmarked Conversations on my iPad, at least I can get here now.

Ha, honestly I didn't know the correct name before I goggled....

I also didn't know what the phone pocket things were. I've never seen one IRL.

Thank you DLM. :)

I'm so sorry to hijack, but I just tried to start a new thread on Home Decorating Conversations and realized I can't because I can't choose it from the "topics", There is no Home Decorating Conversations in the topics at all (even tried to do a search). How are other people posting here if the forum isn't listed in the topics? I think I have to choose a topic in order to post, non? Obviously, I'd start a new thread to ask instead of hijacking - if I could. So again, apologies.

daisy - I think if you explore topics and find Home Decorating and then pick that, you will see Home Decorating Conversations at the top along with Kitchens, Baths, etc.

Thank you! I think I've got it now.

Thank you so much for providing a safety-net for us, DLM.

• I have been around forums for more than two decades, actually almost three. Yes I am old. And I was married to an Atari engineer. I have been part of other various mass exodus and, in the long run, those sites dwindled off. The setting up and running a forum is a lot of work. It gets to be expensive especially if you have tons of photos and/or gifs. Even just moderating a forum can be draining and like an extra job that you aren't getting paid for. One of the ways some groups work with a situation like the one here, is to create a "secret", "private", or "closed" group on FaceBook. I participate in several and once you get used to FBs format it seems to work quite well. Thos private forums are also much more private as they are usually by invite only.

• i am very much enjoying this particular forum/board and will be quite happy to follow the group wherever it is you decide to go.

Louise I am in one of those home and garden groups on FB. We started back in the BHG bulletin board days and had to learn some basic HTML to even put pictures in our posts. Before that we relied on written descriptions, dimensions of rooms and furniture and as a result we got VERY good at painting a verbal picture to offer or receive help. We went to MSN and were there for many years but when they closed their forums we were a group without a home, drifting from site to site and like Goldilocks each one had an issue. We are private on FB so feel comfortable discussing whatever, but it's far from ideal. One of the things that people ask for here is the ability to respond to a specific comment which you can do on FB. But truthfully it makes following a thread very complicated especially if it's particularly active. The most recent comment could be in a response to a response in the first couple of comments, then the next most recent might have a great photo as illustration and be somewhere else in the thread...... you bounce up and down in a thread and it's VERY easy to no only miss a response but great advice. But I know a lot of people really prefer that system and are asking Houzz for it so we'll just have to see what we get and how it functions.

Your comment about the expense and time involvement are top of my mind and as I've said, I don't believe the potential site will allow the kind of photo use we're accustomed to. This boondoggle 'update' from Houzz is one step forward and two steps back each day - as soon as they get one glitch fixed they create a cascade of issues in other areas or other platforms. The problems for a PC are different than an iPhone and vary from using the app to browsers and on and on. On the main complaint thread that Emily started I said short of blowing it up and starting over I don't see how on earth they will get it all fixed. My guess is they'll get it as functional as they can and call it done and if you're in the user group that requires a complicated fix they'll say oh, well, just suck it up buttercup and do the best you can. But then, I'm a bit cynical when it comes to Houzz so we'll just have to see.

My experience has been the same as louise’. Starting a new forum is a lot of work/time — more than you think to get it moving and fun again. People lose their routine, some drop off, some don’t move and you lose the source of “new blood”. There’s not a lot of activity this time of year as it is.

I think staying is wise — but I do appreciate your time and effort DLM. Maybe we will find a need to move in the future —and now we have a landing pad!!

I'm ready to move to another location whenever the switch is flipped, but I'll also stay here if that is the consensus. I really detest Houzz, and the Home Decor forum has become unbearably annoying with endless posts that seemingly shriek at the reader..... "HELP ME GET RID OF _____!!!!" and "YIKES!!!!" Such drama.

Either way is fine with me, but please let me know if we do move. Thanks to those who are willing to work on a new site!

When/if we decide to move I will contact everyone who has given me an email address. I'd say it needs to be a majority decision but realistically I have to go by the 'voices' I hear here and make a judgement call - I'm not going to set up email voting.

Repeating what I said upthread in case people aren't reading through, for the time being we will stay here and see how many of the issues get fixed. This little conversation corner is off the radar of the Houzz population it seems and with luck, will stay that way. The issues in the other home forums are another story and the garden forums are a total mess but both are beyond my ability to rectify with a new forum.

Based on what's happened in the past, I doubt that facebook is really a viable alternative. There were so many forums where people got mad and jumped to facebook groups back when GW was losing posts all the time, and those groups all petered out eventually.

Thank you again for being willing to do this if necessary, DLM2000. I think wait-and-see is the best choice for now.

DLM, thank you for your efforts to keep us together. I know there are some who are still not totally sold on the new format, but overall I think things are improving and I do believe Emily is listening to the majority.

The quick rollout with no warning came as a surprise and I think that was what most of us hated so much. Perhaps a warning banner of changes to come on a certain date would have been easier to take. Houzz, are y’all listening?

Change happens anywhere at any time and most of us have learned to accept it and move on. I am still interested in a move to a new website if there is one in the future. Perhaps this pause gives you and everyone a chance to work on it and test the waters but more to see if one might work. And you can judge how much work it would be. I too have been around gardening forums besides GW for a long time and have seen them peak and almost die. Sad to see once vibrant and fun sites go down.

I'm one of the hordes of people who can't start a new thread. As far as I can tell, Houzz couldn't possibly care less. I don't start a ton of threads so it's not a major issue for me - but I keep seeing reports scattered all over the forums that others can't start threads either.

I don't like the cross posting, and I'm sure this is the end of GW. We've been assimilated into the Houzz format - and now that the "GardenWeb Discussions" link is blank I figure it's just a matter of time before the last traces of GW are eliminated.

I am still really angry at the way they rolled this out, and I'm really unhappy with a moderator who shall remain nameless for helping/responding to some people and not others.

I am only a very minor voice here though. I almost never post. Historically I used to read here almost every day, but since the upgrade I'm spending less time here. (I haven't been here in days.)

So I'm not a fan of this new forum at all, but I will still happily follow the GW majority on this decision - and if the rest of you are comfortable here now, so be it.

I think things are working well here so why take on the work of running a forum?

Houzz user you are in a minority - for some us the continuity and use issues are huge and not getting better - imagine not being able to start a post. For others the issues are small and workable and there is a whole range in between. As for taking on the work it is not something I've done lightly even to this point of just getting it modestly set up and I appreciate your concern. BTW - have you had a recent name change? I can't mentally connect your user name with someone I 'know' from this forum but I don't know everyone.

You're a good soul DLM. Thank you again for taking this on.

Edited to add - is it just my imagination, or is it slow here? There are only something like 4 active threads here in conversations in the last 12 hours.....?

I just sent you a PM, I've never used Houzz messaging so hopefully it went through. Thanks very much for your efforts! :)

I got it Moonshadow and sent a reply through Houzz message

patriceny it is slow in a lot of forums. Partly the time of year I think and partly this boondoggle forum change.

I can't start a new thread from my computer, but can from my phone. It's exasperating. I'm ready to take the leap if and when the rest of the gang goes.

Thank you DLM. I will keep watching and follow, should you all decide to move.

(I didn't know about this particular forum until Houzz made the switch. Shh, don't tell anyone).