I find the entire site baffling. I just go to the garden web forums I know.

I just know it 's pretty glitchy. I don't even know which one I use because it honestly changes all the time. I saw on one it showed I had a new message. When I went to it, it was a previously read one from 2019.

Just adding to the venting and the puzzlement.

I wouldn’t even know how to find this forum on houzz as it’s not listed on the topics dropdown. Same for cooking; not sure how I made that a favorite. (Now KT is in my browser history, but before that I’d get here by finding a CF thread that’s cross-posted. That’s actually how I got here in the first place, accidentally.)

I’ve noticed minor differences between the two, where Houzz seems to have additional features such as last edit time stamp.

My name is different on the two sites. On Gardenweb I’m Dedtired and on Houzz I’m ded-tired. I have GW bookmarked so I usually go there but sometimes I inexplicably end up on Houzz. I have not noticed much of a difference between the two except that I can “like” the original post on GW and not on Houzz.

I have had a world of trouble using the site, also. It started when I cleared the cache and it cleared my auto sign in . Trying to sign in again proved to be highly problematic.

In order to get here I had to find a back door to sneak in through.

Very frustrating. Apparently I am not alone. I have had the same experiences as some of you are saying that you have had.

I have posted (whined) many times that I prefer the GW format (with gardenweb in the url), but starting a few days ago, the bookmarks I have for the GW url will not let me sign in--I get a notice that the page isn't redirecting properly. I have kept H-t t-pics bookmarked since Houzz took over GW, because it was the easiest way to get in with GW format. I was happy to see that it still worked for a few days after H-t t-pics was archived (and added to the auto-filters--hence the -). When that page wouldn't let me sign in I tried the 'top sites' icon on my FF homepage, which has the GW url for KT. It does the same thing--not signed in--so now I'm using a bookmarked thread from Kitchens, which has the Houzz url, and allows me to sign in.

I noticed a while back that if I wanted to check my messages or activity while using the GW url, I had to sign in again using the Houzz url. After I sign in to Houzz, KT no longer has the Kitchen Table heading, but Home and Garden Discussions. Also, if I'm already signed in under Houzz and I open a new tab with the KT or H-T bookmark, I'm not signed in on that tab, where in the past, I would still be signed in on any new tab in a GW forum. It seems that any evidence of GW is slowly disappearing from Houzz.

A side note: I've found that changing the font size for the Houzz format makes reading easier, but then some info is missing on one side and I have to use the -> button to see it.

Whatever glitches one may encounter, they are NOT uniform with everyone, so difficult to assign simply as a Houzz move to complicate access to GW and the eventual removal or elimination of that platform.

I am not sure what factors are involved but I have absolutely no trouble accessing any GW forum. I am always signed in and the URL always shows as www.gardenweb.com/discussions. There are a couple of GW forums - one in particular - that will not allow a response while signed into GW. To be able to respond, I must call up the Houzz URL but I do that in a separate window, do not need to sign in again when doing so and close that window once I've finished commenting.

fwiw, I have never been 'bumped out' of GW or required to sign in again. To be honest, it's been so long since I did sign into the website that I wouldn't know how to go about it nor do I have any idea what my password was/is! Maybe 20 years???

I will say that I have little to no interest in any of the Houzz based forums so have rarely even visited any of them. But my access to all of GW is free and clear and very easy. And all notifications appear as they should, with the respective threads easily accessed just by clicking on the notification.

Dedtired - this is Stacey_mb. I cleared my cache and also am not able to log into KT anymore. My login information is all on the Houzz site and I may have to stay with my new HU identity.

Last night when I clicked on my bookmarked Gardenweb it told me that I needed to sign in. When I just clicked on the bookmark it did open but it now states "Your Houzz" in the upper right but in the search feature it is "Search in GardenWeb". I have not checked the normal places I look at.

Oh dear, Stacy, you need a better name than HU etc. At least I have a name even though it changes depending on the url.

maifleur03 See if this link will help you. It takes me directly to buying and selling via gardenweb, not houzz https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/realestate

Except this thread does not show in Gardenweb but does if signed into Houzz. This is the one that I was mentioning in the OP. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6024650/front-walkway-redesign-and-material-advice-poll#26246884

For me Kitchen Table is "gardenweb" but Home Decorating Conversations is Houzz. I have no idea why. I have them both bookmarked.

"Except this thread does not show in Gardenweb but does if signed into Houzz."

Ahhh......but it does!! https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6024650/front-walkway-redesign-and-material-advice-poll#n=23

As I said previously, I am only signed into GardenWeb and the URL clearly shows GW, not Houzz

"Except this thread does not show in Gardenweb but does if signed into Houzz. This is the one that I was mentioning in the OP. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6024650/front-walkway-redesign-and-material-advice-poll#26246884"

If you edit the URL and replace "houzz" with "gardenweb", does it come up? It does for me.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6024650/front-walkway-redesign-and-material-advice-poll#26246884

I don't know for sure but I think when a notification pulls a person off gardenweb and onto houzz, it's because the OP was posted while on the houzz domain.

Edit: gardengal48 beat me... I'm slow. :)

Must be a glitch in my computer because if it go to the left side of this page and click on buying and selling houses that thread is not there. Period.

It is not in buying and selling here either, on gardenweb or on houzz. It is however on landscape forum, for gardenweb.

Yeah, it's not in "Buying and Selling Homes" (Realestate) so clicking Buying and Selling Homes on your left won't get you to it.

It appears to only be posted to: "Landscape Design", "Exterior", and "entry". Maybe OP or a mod changed it?

My bookmark shows both Garden Web-vs-Houzz!

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6027335/gardenweb-vs-houzz#n=18

Yayyyy!! I'm back under my old ID! Don't know how it happened because I was still not able to log in, but I'm very grateful!

I still have to sneak in the back door and hope that the site doesn't see me do it.

What a badly structured website!

I just wonder if it is to discourage those who just lurk but don't buy any of the goods and services.

I have just about finished with it due to the hassle of walking through the front door.

Since yesterday, it doesn't keep me signed in ( as it did before) and each time I go to sign in, it circles back and asks me if I want houzz to email me updates. Whether I put my email in, say no thank you, or log in, I get the same groundhog day all over again.

When I first came across this I thought it's been a long while since I cleared my browsing data so I did that, and knew I would have to re-enter the password etc. But usually when I do that, I am good for a long time. I keep going round and round and even though I am logged in now, no guarantee what hoops I will jump through in 5 minutes.

@arkansas girl I am having very similar issues and I too cleaned up yesterday. Uh oh.

arkansas girl ,

I had the same problems yesterday and the very small photos on the Houzz site. Today I am back being logged on on GW and all is well.

Arkansas girl- I have the same issues. I emailed Houzz and all they said was that the two sights were the same. Not helpful!

Same here. I logged out to do a test and then it pulled the " ... isn't redirecting correctly" stunt.

Luckily before logging out to do the test I zipped up a backup copy of my Firefox profile folder so was able to restore it and be logged back in.

Hopefully the techs are working on something and will soon get the kinks worked out.

ETA: My copied gardenweb login cookie quit working.

Maybe they are trying to consolidate the two sites? So, in the meantime, I changed my bookmark to houzz.

ETA2: Copied Mozilla folder from laptop. Logged in again and will NOT log out. :)

Well how nice. I just typed a post and it vanished.

This is what I get, though somehow it just let me in--- after 14 attempts.

Over in Antiques one of the long time members was accused of spamming then of leaving. When I clicked on the name to see if they had actually left only the heading appeared. Along with the number of times the person had posted which were in the thousands. I suspect that people who are not signed into Houzz will appear in a similar manner.

Richard,

Thanks for posting those links! Last week I searched everywhere for Landscape Design and every thread kept saying it had been lumped into Design Dilemma. Got very frustrated with Houzz, but thank goodness LD is back!

I now bookmark all my favorite forums.

Now, all of a sudden, I'm logged into the gardenweb link...it's magic! HAHA!

@annztoo

Wow, I was going to point you to a list of old links I had posted in the test forum but after looking, saw that I had given up on Landscape Design as no longer existing. (maybe for awhile it didn't?) Thanks for pointing it out.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5971310/old-links-quick-and-dirty

@arkansas girl

I absolutely believe you and I am tempted to log out to test but after having to copy cookies from another computer earlier to get logged back in... I'll try another day. :)

@Richard (Vero Beach, Florida)

Thanks for the additional links, and also for the idea to highlight GW member's name 🙂.

I know LD wasn't around last week so I guess Houzz got their act together and separated it from Design Dilemma, but I'm afraid a lot of talented Landscape professionals have left because of all the changes. Why would anyone lump Landscape discussions with Interior Design?

My other issue with Houzz is their poor search engine. I find it very difficult to search for a post within a forum. If someone has figured that out.....please let me know.

Sometimes I highlight names, sometimes I don't bother. It's not like the person actually gets a notification that they were mentioned. They don't but it might be a nice feature to add to the forum.

I don't search this site enough to know how good/bad it is. Usually I'll just Google and specify the site/domain to search.

Something like: raising rabbits site:gardenweb.com

and again on Houzz: raising rabbits site:houzz.com

I used to use Google Advanced Search a lot.

Off topic...

Some might say the bad thing about Google is that it sticks its nose into everything. It knows too much.

Others, even the same folks, might say the good thing about Google is that it knows everything about everything.

A good tool to gather information, solve problems, whatever.

Personally, I just see it as a useful tool. Just a tool, powerful, useful, and dangerous. Just as willing to give bad advice as good. I never did like the "Google is your friend" meme or whatever its called. As much I use Google, Google is NOT my friend. But I love it. 🙂

Gardenweb url is working again for me, too!

I always sign in via GW. If I visit things under Design Delimna it switches me to Houzz, and if I check messages I am switched to Houzz. Occasionally I end up there anyway, and often I don't. Not planning on clearing my bookmarks or history, either on my laptop or phone.

Would hate to lose access to Landscaping or any other interesting forum here. (I don't post often there, but I read it.)