Dee, me too. It was when i was renovating my kitchen in 2003, i think.

I got here from ”That Home Site!”, was that Spike’s group? I wasn’t posting then, just reading as a non-member. it was early 2000s and I was using the household computer, then got a laptop of my own in about ’03 or ’04 and eventually created an account, but it was free. I think I recall THS joining with GardenWeb from iVillage.

Also remember That Home Site at some point. I started before 2002, as I remodeled the kitchen at my old house that year. I had been following the site for at least a year or two by then, maybe longer.

I forgot about That Home Site! It had a little dog on the first page. Actually imfound it when my rhododendrons were looking sick, then worked my way to kitchens, cooking and now HDC. I wonder when Houzz picked up Gardenweb.

The podcast is interesting.

Here’s the description of the podcast. Maybe there is a transcription somewhere.

“When Adi Tartako and her husband started the home design and renovation website Houzz in 2009, they had no expectation that it would grow into a global business. In fact, Adi was a hesitant entrepreneur, preferring to foster Houzz as a lifestyle business and pushing back when experts told her it could grow into something much bigger. But as Houzz morphed into a go-to site for users to get ideas for home improvement and connect with industry professionals, Adi decided to go all-in. She walked away from a promising career in finance to become the CEO of Houzz, helping lead it to a platform that now has 65 million users worldwide.”

I was a member of Houzz before Gardenweb was absorbed/bought? by Houzz. I have followers who are from my real life. At first I was hesitant to share much after the merge because of my IRL friends/followers but I've since adjusted and carried on.

Now I’m wondering if ThatHomeSite was earlier? Maybe 1997?

According to this article, Houzz bought Gardenweb in 2015. Sounds about right.

Houzz buys gardenweb

Ah yes THS! I remember that's where I started and found this group. I think I took a little break and suddenly it was GW. Took another break and it was Houzz. Sounds like I shouldn't take any more breaks.

Bpath, for some reason, I thought I was on THS as early as the late 1990s. Then I wandered away when they started charging to post but came back when I started planning my kitchen renovation.

My favorite podcast is How I Built This with Guy Raz.

I remember we had just bought our house, and every time I googled about things to fix, maintain, or improve, the very best answers were always at THS!

prickly, don’t tqke any more breaks. I’m getting too old for another transition.

Yes - That Home Site! was part of Gardenweb early on. I found Gardenweb in the 90s, so pretty early, and there were 2 sides - the gardening side and the home side. It was all free at first, then they started a subscriber thing, but I've never paid for anything, then it was taken over by iVillage, then Houzz. The original webmaster for the entire site was Spike and he was pretty hands on, but as more and more forums were added, I think it got to be more than 1 person could handle alone.

You can browse old pages on the Internet Archive...

https://web.archive.org/web/20000815072019/http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/

Do you remember the book section, Glyphs?

Bbstx, i had forgotten that now i do remember it. Wow

I don't remember what other groups were here besides "That Home Site" groups. I'm sure I'm sure there were gardening groups, after all this was, and still is Gardenweb. This group is on what used to be called That Home Site and now is simply called "Home Groups", I think. Spike owned the website and was somewhat of a tyrant, but at least we knew what his rules were. Wish I could say the same for Houzz. I miss those days and I miss Spike.

bbstx, I'm pretty sure I started here in the late 1990's, too.

From the Wayback Machine link, a thread on Home Decorating in 2000:

https://web.archive.org/web/20000818203235/http://forums.thathomesite.com/forums/load/decor/msg080138108562.html

First page list:

https://web.archive.org/web/20000816021639/http://forums.thathomesite.com/forums/decor/

List of THS boards:

https://web.archive.org/web/20000815071540/http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/

I only read here once in a while back then (was a regular on HGTV).

I miss the old logo of the stone house in a snowy setting.

Even before THS I was posting on the BHG boards. Some of those women have been in my life (online and IRL) for over 23 years, and I'm in a private FB group formed out of those friendships. Several of us also posted on THS, then GW and now Houzz. I've ventured into lots of decorating/home/garden sites over the years but for one reason or another most don't click for me. There has to be that magic combination of people, user friendly format and topic breadth for me to stick around. And in all honesty at this point in my life I'm unlikely to give a new site the time it takes to develop the familiarity you have to have with people for it to feel like home.

I wonder what type of discussion "The Refrigerator Door" was? I joined GW around 2009 I think via friend who told me about it.

I've been online since the Prodigy days in 1991, then to AOL until we got rid of dialup. Been friends with three others since 1991. Funny how you can meet a best friend as strangers, isn't it? We still talk, call, visit if possible. The four of us know each others deep dark secrets. :)

Thx for posting that link, Ded.

I remember very clearly my first date on Gardenweb/THS

I had put in Viking double ovens in my first house, and they were very loud for a long time even after you turned them off. They were just outside the DR behind a double door to the kitchen, and the fan noise drove me nuts when we entertained in the DR. The old ones were quiet and only ran briefly.

When we bought this house in 2010, before we moved in, I was researching wall ovens since I did not want noisy Viking ones again. NO ONE had any idea what I was talking about. I googled it, ended up "here," and someone explained that newer wall ovens had stronger fans that ran longer to reduce the risk of fire.

Since I was just embarking on the total reno expansion of our new home, a K redo, and redo of all 5 BA and 2 PR, I spent a lot of time here. Still do ...

Funny, I got here because of ovens as well. In my case I wanted to know if Wolf was the way to go, turned into a Blue Star convert but ended up with induction when all was said and done becasue GW was persuasive.

I came to GW in 2004 while building a home. Then I sashayed over to cooking, stayed there a decade or so, and finally landed home in Home Decorating Conversations.

I've been here since the GW days and I think I may have landed there from Rate My Space. Does anybody remember that?!

I can't remember now but I'm pretty positive I joined in 1998 or was it 97. I'm pretty much addicted to gardening and kitchen renovations and conversation groups.

I just looked up Garden Web 1997 and this is what came up. It's a bit of a curiosity mostly I think.

http://www.ibiblio.org/london/agriculture/feedback/new-links/msg00278.html

I was perusing Wayback Machine for old BHG threads, and I came across a 2001 thread titled ”BlondeMom sucks”.

I was BlondeMom on those boards!

@#$&!!

That’s one of the few threads Wayback decided to save. Thanks a lot! (I couldn’t open it, so don’t know why the OP thought I sucked in 2001.)

omg Jinx! That was funny! Thanks for the laugh!

...BlondeMom sucks...perhaps you've reformed. I wonder what you did!

Fun to see how folks wandered over here.

SEA SEA, I need closure on it! Need to know what happened! 😁

Right? I agree. Closure is needed. I wonder how you missed the thread back in 2001?

I probably saw it, just put it out of my mind. :D

Oh, geez. I decided to see if I could find it doing a Google search. I used the term ”BlondeMom sucks.” Let’s just say there were plenty of hits but I wasn’t led to any THS/GW/Houzz sites! 😳

OMG! Bb!! Those aren’t me, I swear!! 😂🤣😄😁

I’m laughing so hard! 🤣

GardenWeb stood alone for a few years. Loved the Hosta/garden junk/garden accoutrements/TrashtoTreasure posts. Most of those gals left when Houzza took over, went to Facebook. I saw Spike's posts but never paid him anything! I never saw the iVillage transition so maybe that was independent of GardenWeb, part of the gathering of a few sites ???

Does anyone know Spike's real name? I wonder if he/she is still around.

Graywings, if you Google ’Spike Gardenweb’, it comes up. My first hit was an interesting thread on Dave’s Garden. 😮

(“Spike” was doxxed on that thread.)

I joined That Home Site, let’s see…we were doing our kitchen and a friend told me about it. Maybe it was close to 20 years ago. OMG that can’t be right, can it? yikes

Jinx, you're adorable. No way someone was really mad at you. It was probably someone goofing around with you.....

Ally, thank you.❤️

It just cracked me up. Of all the pages to save! @#$& Wayback! 😄

Okay, so I think Spike was long gone when I got here ~10-12 yrs ago ... but I was curious so I Googled where he was doxxed as one Robert Stewart of Highland Park NJ. Then came across this: Asbury Park library director, facing variety of issues, suspended for alleged insubordination

https://www.app.com/story/news/investigations/watchdog/government/2021/08/10/asbury-park-new-jersey-library-director-suspended-alleged-insubordination/5556280001/

Juicy. Wonder if it is him? It seems plausible, as starting a site is rather librarian-esque.

I went down the rabbit hole of doxximication (my word) and saw that he and his SO live in Massachusetts now.

Spike was gone when I arrived but his legacy lived on for a long time. To this day some people still talk about getting sent to ride the tea cups.

I really do miss GW. It wasn't perfect, but the moderation was low key. Since Spike was just one person (yes, thank you Captain Obvious), some people complained the moderation felt inconsistent, or that he had favorites, etc. GW solved that and their moderation felt fair to me. It was a strong, lively community. I've never liked it here, but keep coming back because of the posters and the really fascinating discussions we (are sometimes allowed to) have.

Yep, the old GW address is still just barely hanging on. They try all sorts of sneaky redirects though.

I joined Gardenweb around 2001 because of the cooking forum. I was thinking about writing a cookbook, and I wanted to find out whether some of the recipes that I developed had already been done by someone else. Although I have written over 100 recipes of my own, I have never published them - I sort of lost interest.

I joined Houzz before it took over GW because I wanted to research furniture designs that I was working on, and I joined as a professional, and they called my workplace to verify my employment as a furniture designer. Then when Houzz took over GW, I had two identities on Houzz, but I used my GW ID at home and the Houzz ID at work.

LindaC at the Cooking Forum has met Spike and told stories about him.

Lars, did your old user name have something about vacuums in it? I can't remember what day it is but your old user name rings a bell :)

The annoying thing about HIBT is I find some founders disingenuous. I imagine you acquire something like GW because you want to expand the platform. Explosive internet growth doesn't happen without a good business plan, tech, and capital.

I came across THS when I was researching hydrangea. Can't remember the year—could it have been the late 90s? Before pinterest and saves, I saved some threads in pdf.

Here's a little trip down memory lane...

FWIW - I believe explosive internet growth can, and has, happened without good business plans, tech or capital. It's sustainability that won't happen without those things.

I think it's been about 20 years for me - I remember THS, of course GW and then Houzz. One of my interests has always been decorating so Home Decorating was where I landed and then moved with the group to HD Conversations. So many years, so many have come and gone but I'm sure happy about those that have remained !!

I joined back in 2000 or 2001 when I was searching for how to make concrete countertops. I learned a great deal and made the concrete countertops for my old kitchen and bath. Miss those days!!!

Thanks for the links, Jinx ! I got lost over there for a bit just enjoying old memories and seeing familiar names. Btw, now we all want to know what that thread you found was about : ) Seriously, I can't imagine anyone thinking that about you, unless they were joking.

I know I joined Gardenweb back in the late 90's, but I can't remember the exact year. I spent most of my time on THS and I thought of Gardenweb and THS as two parts of a whole. I know the url was ths.gardenweb.com for many years.

(Edit: It looks like that link still works ! The only difference is it takes you to a list of all of the forums, not just THS.)

Thank you, woodrose! :)

I used to like Houzz. <crickets>

And, I miss the old gardenweb.