Explain to me....

..... how to get rid of those annoying ads ????

As a DG subscriber, you should be able to turn the adds off. Check your Add Settings under Preferences. Make sure the boxes are not checked, unless you want to see those particular adds.

If you do this and are still seeing adds, something is wrong. If the adds are 'pop-up' types (not imbedded in the DG page) they may be due to some kind of malware on your computer, especially if you are using a Windows based computer. Try running your antivirus and spyware programs to see if that will fix the problem.

I am on DG throughout the day every day, and I have never seen any adds on any of my DG pages - with one exception, that is. I added that one caveat, because recently I visited a part of DG that I had never visited before, Garden Photos or something like that, and was surprised to see embedded photos on the pages in that particular part of DG. Not sure if they were 'supposed' to be there or what, just that they were there, just one add per page, not a busy page full of them as I often see elsewhere on the web. Still, I was surprised to see adds at all, since I have my Preferences set for no adds. As soon as I left the Garden Photos area the adds ceased, and I've not seen them since. Except for that one strange anomaly, I've never seen adds on DG. If you have your Preferences set for no adds and are seeing adds when you are in Forums & Plant Files (in particular), then something is wrong.

Let me know if you need more help to find the place in Preferences to turn off adds. Also, it might help if you tell us where you are in DG (e.g., Home page, Forums, Plant Files, etc) when you see the adds.

Avea, I've confirmed your ads are off - are you still seeing any?

have a question and do not know where to ask since the "daves" forum is gone...

I was looking for those homemade/printable "Daves Garden" seed packets.
I know there were a lot that were seed specific and I loved using them.

I can not find them anywhere. where they eliminated?

and where can I go if I have to ask a question?

Thanks in advance,

Terese

Hi, Terese,

Here is a link for the seed packets (hope it works): http://davesgarden.com/files/seedpackets/

You can also find the seed packets by clicking on Guides & Information (top of page) and then clicking "Extras" on far right on the black menu (also at top of page). Hope this helps.

As for your 2nd question, they now want us to use the Contact Us link (bottom of most pages) to send our questions, bug reports, etc directly to admin. (I very much liked the way we used to handle things in the DG Forum, liked the option to discuss things in a group forum, but it looks like we are moving away from that concept.)

thanks for the link Cheryl. I looked under "extras" but couldn't find it, and a search did not good either. ~~ Should download my favorites... I have a few on my home computer, but it is in IL and i'm in FLA [new house] ... but they do me no good up there.

I wish there was a place to ask questions... something simple like "where are the downloadable seed packets?" would be helpful if others were also looking... i was actually hoping i'd just find a thread... no such luck. I think conversational discussions on "questions" are helpful to all. ~ Nothing under FAQ's either....

again -- thanks.

Terry,

It seems clear that many of us truly miss the opportunity to come to a central place where we can seek input from other DGers on site specific issues and questions. Before I send in a bug report, for instance, I like to verify that others are also experiencing the issue just to be sure it's not a problem specific to my computer (like maybe a need to purge cache or history). When experiencing a site problem, I used to go directly to the DG Forum to check for the existence of a thread related to that problem; if I found a thread on the topic, I rarely even felt the need to post anything. The thread's existence alone had answered my question.

I can totally understand the need to use the Contact Us link if that makes it easier for you 'guys' to handle questions and bug reports. I was just wondering if you might consider giving us a forum where we can start threads and discuss site questions and possible errors with the understanding that we have to use the Contact Us link if we want to report the issue to admin (i.e. admin would no longer be taking bug reports and answering questions via the forum).

It seems like this would solve both problems, so that admin would get questions and bug reports at the Contact Us mailbox, and we would still have a place where we could come to discuss things with the group and even just to see if a particular issue had already been noted by others. Perhaps you could consider providing a forum of this type on a trial basis with the understanding that conversations need to stay constructive in nature. Just a thought. I know I really do miss the old DG Forum, and it appears other do as well.

Terese,

Another option for finding those downloadable seed packet designs would be to use Tags. You don't even need to add your own, unless you just want to do so. I checked, and there are several such entries in the global tags list, including one under "seed packets" along with "seed packet envelopes", "seed packet designs", and "seed packet templates". Very easy to find.

Cheryl -- that is exactly what i was thinking too. If I could find the information on my own, no need to bother Admin with something so petty. A Bug of Glitch, yes, that I can see ....

and I always forget about those tags. I used to use them waaay back when.

I was prepping seeds for swapping and I like using the seed specific packets that were created; for various reasons .... some I have on my "tower" but they do me no good as I don't have my computer with me.

I just bookmarked the page. Thanks for finding them for me though.

Terese,

Isn't this really an example of how the requested forum would work? You asked a site specific question, and I answered it. If you had been able to start a separate thread specific to your question, no doubt others would have arrived to provide their views and perhaps additional ideas.

yes. exactly. sorta bummed the changed the original "daves" forum.

The concern I have about that arrangement is when I've seen it in other forums, it rarely works out to be purely peer-to-peer help.

Most of those forums become filled with arguments among members, along with complaints and grousing when there isn't an "official" answer to their question/suggestion/complaint.

Please keep in mind we are a very small admin team juggling a lot of tasks. The fastest way to get a quick answer to a site-related question is through the help desk. When we have to monitor this forum as well as the help desk queue, and answer the same question twice (which is/was often the case), it strains our resources even more. The help desk is also the easiest way for us to route something to a tech if there's an issue that we can't answer or fix ourselves.

Managing user expectations for these issues in an open forum is - quite frankly - pretty difficult. We can't always give a quick or definitive answer, and that leads to frustration and sometimes "wild tangents" that take us far away from the original topic. For those reasons, I'd like to see us give the help desk a fair shot before we try something else.

We will use this forum to push out information when we know changes are afoot, or there's been any widespread issue reported and confirmed.

Yeah, not yet. Sorry :-(

Thank you, Terry. I know your small crew has a lot to do.

Evelyn

Terry,

I would very much like to continue to champion this cause, but having seen some of the bad behavior of which you speak, I can only sympathize. Frankly, I marvel at the patience you have shown in allowing some of the folks in question to carry on so. It seems there will always be a few bad fruit in every barrel.

On this note, I would like to clear up a major inaccuracy stated by one fairly recent ranter, who said that no other large site has problems with software bugs. I happen to know that is totally false. Although I'm reluctant to call the site out by name, one of the largest and most well known of all web sites has been experiencing a host of very annoying bugs for months now. Just needed to clear that up.

DreamOfSpring, the issue isn't that other sites have issues. But to clarify, the newer site (not the biggest one) has all the features of DG and has no software issues.

The problem is customer service on a site that charges a fee, and the *VALUE* of DG when it becomes annoying to use.