How frustrating!

Have you tried using their Help or Contact Us feature?

help.houzz.com.

Sure it's not a fluke in the system? Others have been reporting issues with notifications, maybe it's all tied together.

I wonder if the OP has tried the help desk too. I understand that dispute and complaint threads are outside the forum rules and disappear pretty quickly. Perhaps working in accordance to the rules we all agree to as members here and utilizing the help desk would be of more benefit to getting some answers the OP wants.

I would think that if the mods had removed your latest thread (Paging Emily?), they would have posted to it first, or at least sent you a notification. IIRC, that's been the reaction in the past--Emily would explain their policy and include the link to contact them directly.

Maybe there no longer is an "Emily"?

I'm at a loss for words. I agree with you.

I honestly don't think Houzz is doing these deletions.

"I honestly don't think Houzz is doing these deletions."

Who is then? Gremlins? Users don't have the ability to delete other's posts. Like I can't delete yours, and you can't delete mine. If I'm wrong, show me.

Sephia, if 2 different users flag your post, it disappears from view. This happens all the time in HT and is now a common occurrence here too.

Sephia, I could do that to you without houzz knowing that it was me doing it. Very simple to create two accounts using anonymized/borrowed IP addresses and have each of my accounts flag your post. Then the post would disappear. But I won't do it.

Houzz could ban the accounts I flagged with, but I could endlessly create new accounts, so it would not affect me in any significant way.

I, too, have had things deleted from these forums. Houzz used to restore the deletions when they investigated why they were flagged, but now it appears they do not bother. I do not ask for posts to be restored either.

One of the rules is, if your post gets deleted and you keep reposting it, you can get in trouble with the powers that be.

I complained and got a boiler plate response that didn't address the problem.

Has anyone looked on page 2 or 3 for the deleted items. That is where they often appear in HT.

They used to reappear on back pages, maifleur. Try looking nowadays for a deleted thread (deleted by users other than the OP) or single post within a thread that did not break any rules. Let me know if you find one that gets returned anywhere. I think intolerant, juvenile, forum users are delighting in their power --same as toddlers who are proud of the poop they drop in the toilet.

I think intolerant, juvenile, forum users are delighting in their power -

Which is why I wonder if the grownups (moderators) have been removed from duty on Houzz indefinitely.

There are no moderators, and haven't been since Spike, I think. The staff reviews posts that are flagged. No one is actively monitoring.

Emily is still with us, and evidently monitoring the 'Using Houzz' forum:

She answered a question yesterday.

To clarify and give my tin foil hat conspiracy theory.

If multiple users "flag" a post, it is hidden from view but will still appear to the OP in their notifications.

You can see my 2 previous posts that were flagged by other users still show up in my notifications but not on the board.

However, my most recent post asking for an answer is noticeably absent.

It DOES appear in my activity-posts you started

Now, on to my tin foil hat conspiracy theory...

Gardenweb was grandfathered in to the Houzz website. It isn't profitable for them and doesn't fit their business model, however to outright do away with these forums would cause an uproar as well as lose potential "new" users (us GW folks who they undoubtedly hoped would start using their other services)

They kept the forums up for awhile, actively monitoring and moderating them but they are slowly dialing this back, allowing the ingrained tools (such as multiple users flagging causing a post to disappear) to drive us away.

Have enough posts disappear because of other users flagging and eventually, YOU (the end user) just start posting less and less and this forum itself dies off; a seemingly "natural" death.

Like I said, I know this sounds like a tin foil hat conspiracy but at this point, it's my best guess.

I've enjoyed this forum for years and will be sad to lose these connections, even sadder to know that, while it IS Houzz' ultimate goal, it was sped up by members of the very forum I wanted to participate in and enjoy.

I am still active on Reddit under the same user name if anyone wants to reach me.

I will miss all of you.

Final post- I attempted to create a post on the Using Houzz forum and was unable to do so, lending further credence to my personal theory...

Most nights (evening here in NY), I am completely unable to log in and post anything. This has been going on for several nights now. I just keep getting the site is "under maintenance and be back soon" screen.

It feels very unstable around here lately, in all sorts of ways. I too am wondering if the forum's days are numbered.

Last night I received the "under" message. I backed out and was able to enter immediately. May not work for others but you might try it.

Yes, I got a lot of that under maintenance message last night.

I've gotten that under maintenance message numerous times. Perhaps foolishly optimistically, I choose to ignore such things. I try not to take it personally as so far I'm still here, you're still here. Texas gem I hope you will stay here and keep trying.

I too have been getting the under maintenance message on several occasions over a few days.

Houzz does have the ability to ban an IP address, so you can create multiple accounts but that doesn't mean you are safe. They can and have banned users IP addresses.

I've been seeing the maintenance notices popping up too. Wonder what's going on with that? Haven't tried starting a thread recently.