Changes to the Forums

This is a screen dump of my home page - no tags , bookmarks - anything like that I could find

Tony, your personal bookmarks are on the page marked "My Info". You can even see it in your screen print. At the top right it says, "Hello tonyjr", "D-Mail". "My Info", "Preferences" and "Log Out".

Click on "My Info". There will be several lists on that page (it's on the left on my computer, but yours could be different). On the list titled "Your Actions", click on "My Bookmarks". It will bring up a list of all the items you've saved by title. It should say "tonyjr Bookmarks". Just under that heading it should say, "View in Cloud Form". If you click on that it will bring up your personal Tags - the ones you used to identify items you have saved.

There also used to be a heading on the same page to view the tags of all other members on DG. I believe that was moved when they re-did the Bookmarks (originally called "Tags").

If you want to view the tags for all DG members, click on "Communities" at the top of any page. Scroll down to the very bottom and you'll see a heading called "Tagged Pages". These are the tags that DreamOfSpring was referring to. I have used them often and they really are quite helpful (Thanks D.O.S. - great suggestion!)

Tags are in alphabetical order with the exception of a section at the top using numbers and titles that may be difficult to alphabetize. After that first section the tags will start with the letter "A". Your personal tags are organized the same way.

Hope that helps.

Then there are those of us that never tagged or bookmarked anything bc we knew were they were.

Thanks for helping to better explain things, nuts.

1lisac,

I'm not talking about using your tags. I'm talking about the large list/cloud of ALL tags, tags created by everyone here at DG. Even though you didn't tag the items you are now trying to find, there is a very good chance that other people did tag them. If you look through the group of ALL tags for words associated with those tags, you may be able to find them.

Oh ok thanks.

You are welcome!

Here are 2 quick examples. Hope this will help to clear things up.

Pic 1 below shows the DG menus. Click on Communities.
Pic 2: At the bottom of the Communities page, click on Tagged Pages (shown)
Pic 3: Shows the top part of the giant cloud of ALL tagged pages. These are the tags created by all DG members. The cloud contains words and phrases in alphabetical order. However, the items at the top of the cloud, those shown in Pic3 consist of nonstandard entries, numbers, etc. You will need to scan down to find the regular alphabetic listing starting with 'a', etc.
Pic 4: Example 1. This shows the part of the cloud where "winter sowing" is found. Note the many different words and phrases related to winter sowing. Here is what one of them shows: http://davesgarden.com/tools/tags/tag.php?tag=winter+sowing
Pic 5: Example 2. This section of the cloud shows words starting with the letter 'c', including 'compost', 'composting', etc. The words are set out in blue here but probably won't be blue on your screen (not at 1st). If you click on the word 'compost', for instance, you will see this: http://davesgarden.com/tools/tags/tag.php?tag=compost

Edited to rearrange things, because naturally I got the pics in wrong order.
I hope this helps to better illustrate what I'm talking about. For this exercise, you don't use your bookmarks/tags. You use those created by others, so it doesn't matter if you have never tagged anything. You can still take advantage of things tagged by your fellow DGers. That is how tags are supposed to work.

This message was edited Sep 9, 2015 6:22 PM

tonyjr,

Attached is a portion of my home page to show the section I was referring to earlier. On my home page it is in the lower right corner; however, it may be located elsewhere or not at all on your home page depending on how your home page is setup (see your Preferences).

Thanks , I found it but there is nothing there , clicks on cloud , same thing .

I'll bet that something you set up preferences, DOS. I don't have that either. I'm off to look though – in preferences.

That is it. Go to preferences, custom home page. There is a giant list of stuff that you can select to have show on your homepage. For me, it was the first item on the list and I did not have it turned on.

tonyjr,

Sorry, I had to go out to run an errand.

You found what? Please explain. Do you mean that you found the box on your home page for 'recently tagged pages'? If that is what you mean, as I said before and as Pattie explained in more detail, if the 'recently tagged pages' isn't showing on your home page, you need to go to your Preferences to add it. Your home page is customizable. There are probably lots of other things which you could also add to your home page if desired. You need to check that out.

To customize your home page, click on Preferences at the top of the page above menus. Photo 1 below shows the location of the Preferences link. When you click on Preferences you will see a page with lots of things you can set/change for your account. On the far left you will see a vertical menu or list of options. See the menu/list on the far left in Photo 2 below. Note that your Preferences page will not look like the rest of that photo, because that is not the 1st or opening page of my preferences, but the menu on far left should look the same.

From the left side menu on your Preferences page, choose 'Custom Homepage'. That is the page of options you can add to your homepage, and it should look very much like the page shown in Photo 2 below. Scroll down that page and look for the option 'Recently Tagged Pages'. Note that it is at the bottom of my page, but Pattie says it is at the top of her page, so I'm guessing it could be anywhere on that page.

To the left of 'Recently Tagged Pages' you should see a selection box which allows you to select the position of the item (where you want to put it on your home page) and whether it is disabled. If yours says 'disabled' as I'm guessing it probably does, you need to assign it to a space using that selection box. Note at the bottom of Photo 2 to see that mine is assigned to Column 2, Position 7. Those Columns and positions can be a little confusing, but since mine is in the lower right corner, you should get the same if you set yours up like mine. Be sure that none of the other items on the list is set to the same column/position though. Don't worry. If you don't like it where you put it, you can change it again. Once you do this, it should show up correctly on your Home Page.

Edited to fix a label name which was not exactly correct. I'm human, Folks, so not perfect.

This message was edited Sep 9, 2015 9:51 PM

Thanks, Dreamofspring - that's an excellent suggestion, and your step-by-step instructions are awesome, as always!

Wow...lots of posts since I was here earlier.

Tony are you referring to your Home Page or your Info Page? The Cloud view is on your Info Page.

Have you ever saved anything using the Bookmark icon and then added Tags to it. If you've never saved anything you won't see anything. Those are only items that you, personally, saved. They can be things like threads, Plant, Bird or BugFiles, even individual posts.

If you want to look at the Tagged Pages of other members, you have to click on Communities and scroll down to the Tagged Pages. That's where tagged pages for the entire DG Community are.

Here are some more pics to show you the Tagged pages for the Community. In the third pic I clicked on "Lasagna Gardening" and the fourth shows a list of threads or other items about Lasagna Gardening.

With all of DreamOfSpring's excellent tutorials in this thread I bet some people will bookmark the thread or the posts just so they can refer to the info later.




This message was edited Sep 9, 2015 10:51 PM

Specialty Gardening seems to be a bit of a catch all.

There are posts on there, on the first page that clearly belong on houseplants and indoor plants.
And there are others that are from floral design as well as cottage gardening and container gardening.

In the form it is in now the topics are too broad and unrelated to be useful.

In the state it is now I would remove it from my watch list.

This is a shame particularly for the container plant forum which has a lot of thoughtful complete information.
Maybe a forum of Container and Houseplants would be a better fit. At least the containers are consistent on both.
Cottage gardening might be better put in with perennials.
Although there are a lot of annuals you can use in cottage gardening it's more about a full flowing outdoor garden.

I can see how tiny gardens, fairy gardens are specialty gardening.

Thanks , from what it looks like , the only bookmarks I made were to safari .
I have a folder for plants and another for plant info in Safari bookmarks - I guess I never tagged anything either .
Oh well - at least others have been helped by my questions .
If you care - spotty rain last night , ranch is a couple of miles away , so will try to get there this morning .

Good observations. I'll try to carve out a block of time to focus on it later today and shuffle some threads to other forums where they're a better fit.

Thank you very much, Terry,

Unfortunately, I seem to have unintentionally hijacked the thread momentarily with my suggestions. Please accept my apology as that was never my intention. If there are other questions regarding my suggestion, I will do my best to take them offline via dmail.

Thanks Terry!
Thanks sempervirens for your great suggestion!

Terry, I noticed something odd yesterday on my Home page under my Watched forums. It says I'm watching fourteen, but only six are listed.

I clicked on "Watching" which took me to "Preferences - Forums" (supposedly all the forums on DG). I'm supposed to be able to add a checkmark to a box for each one I want to add to my home page. But there were a total of nine forums under two headings plus there were no boxes to add a checkmark to.

I tried entering the same page by clicking on "Preferences" to see if it worked that way, but the results were the same.

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. Because I pay more attention to my watched threads, I only just discovered it yesterday.

Here's a screen shot of that page"

I got the same thing. I'm not sure how I got there, I have no idea what it is.

I was in there yesterday,trying to clear some stuff up, and noticed the same thing, nuts.

Dream, why are you apologizing? You gave a wonderful suggestion, with step-by-step instructions, Thanks to you, I learned how to put most recent tags on my homepage, which I did not know.

I'm confused, but what else is new.

Agreed that no apologies were necessary: your suggestions were on-point and very helpful.

The page where you can pick-and-choose your favorite forums "en masse" is messed up (pardon the technical terminology :-) at the moment. You can still "favorite" forums one at a time when you are on each main forum page.

I have alerted the techs to the problems with that page, and I hope it will be fixed in the next release. (No ETA just yet, though.)

D.O.S, we cross-posted.
You did not hijack the thread! The questions asked (and your answers) are all related to the "Changes in Forums".

It's interesting that others are also experiencing the same problem with the "Preferences - Forums". I wonder if, like me, most people just haven't realized it yet.

Edited to say: Whoops...looks like I also cross-posted with Terry.
Thanks Terry!

I usually check when there's a new post. Guess I just missed both of them. :o)


This message was edited Sep 10, 2015 9:28 AM

Terry, those are technical terms I understand! Lol I am confused about the apology.....we appreciate all your work.

Where's the Houseplants forum?

Indoor Gardening and Houseplants:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/houseplants/all/

Thanks!

I have to laugh with all the heavy stuff being discussed and in light of Terry's quote above. I just got a peek at myself and my "get up" as I headed to the garden on this gloomy drizzily humid day... it is no wonder beauty and fashion disappeared. If my house caught on fire-- I would be ashamed to have the firefighters show up. They would hit me with the hose first. Guess we don't go to DG for beauty and fashion.

Regarding the changes. I might as well put in my two cents infused with my sense....
A "heads up changes are coming" and "we respectfully will say now...we cannot invite input" would'a been a good thing.

If something is due to be archived...a heads up will help for the silent few that refer back and may be something to be considered.

700.000 registered members IS a lot...but that doesn't mean they are active. The last time big change occured with little to no community input, DG lost some valuable and experienced human resources. I miss them. I suspect once again some will disappear. Membership may have increased and those numbers may have been replaced, but something some community 'quality" got gone from DG ..and has not come back.

With this latest change, I feel DG went from a niche market to a flea market. I used to like a good hunt. Now, I am old enough and spoiled enough to want to go straight to the little organic brussels and not have to weed through ALL the green veggies. If I want a size two toddler girls cotton bloomer...I don't want to wade through ALL the girls bloomers in every size and every material to find what I want. And, as a new kids bloomer buyer..I may not know it is cotton I seek and so my hunt may be skewed. I pay for DG because I wanted the convenience of the niche market.

That being said... I will get used to this...and I guess one day there will be another big unprepared change and I will finally be at that tipping point that many have reached now and in the past..and will no doubt hit in the future. Maybe that is the point? Fix some technical and process problems and hopefully with a new format attract new blood. Too many cliques? Rejuvenate. Revitalize. Hope the loss of experience wia those that can't or won't change won't be too critical.

Well, I will hang on for one more turn on the dance floor. I don't have but one or two left however.




This message was edited Sep 12, 2015 10:53 AM

This message was edited Sep 12, 2015 11:14 AM

Great post missingrosie. I think that admin somehow mistook not posting for not using, just bc I wasn't posting in a forum/thread didn't mean I wasn't lurking. I know there are ways to find the info but if we had been forewarned I wouldn't have needed it.

I remember a post on the Changes to the Files thread, asking for no more unannounced changes. They were assured there wouldn't be, then this hit.

Actually members is a large list, but suscribers is a different story and they are only ones using the forums. I don't know how many actual suscribers there are, but Georgia lists 16107 members but only 74 of those are suscribers.

Where did the Classic Threads go? There was some great info there. No, I didn't post but I lurked.

Farmerdill, where is the data about number of subscribers per forum? I knew the numbers were like what you posted but not the specific numbers.

Ok..I took a trip...went into Preferences... Updated a photo...used an avatar, etc etc.


Then on to the forums....

There it gave instructions that say to put a check in the box box next to each you want to watch....but when I click on the red headings...nothing happens...where do I find the listing of each discussion group so,that I can add, delete, or change what I watch?

Like others I've already gone through the cycle of surprise/shock, complaining, relearning the system and helping others (when I can). I'm managing to find and save threads and "bump" some of them so others can also find them. I'm adjusting (kind of).

Even so, I couldn't help but be saddened while looking through a website this morning (I think it was a DG Top 30).

On one page they were talking about Winter Sowing seeds that would normally require stratification. They recommended "Garden Web" saying they have an extensive forum on Winter Sowing. It reminded me that we used to have an extensive forum on "Winter Sowing" and "Soil and Composting" and others that deserved to be "Stand Alone" forums. They still exist and some have stickies at the top of the page, but for individual threads you have to search under rocks and behind trees.

Once the dust settles, we'll all get "used to it", new members won't know the difference and those that hate it or can't adjust will go somewhere else. I'm still trying to understand why some forums stayed and others merged.

I'm not complaining again, not at all. I'm long past that. I'm only writing this because my trip to a nursery's website reminded me of "what was". I'm actually upbeat and using DG daily. I still love this site and have no plans to leave, but I do sometimes stare at the downsized list of forums trying to remember where to find something. I occasionally think about a new subscriber that may not have heard of Winter Sowing or Lasagna Gardening...or would never think to look in Organic Gardening for help with their clay soil.

Farmerdill, I agree it's only subscribers using subscriber-only forums, but there are tons of non-subscribers using other forums. And I, like many of us, sometimes go a while without reading or posting in particular forums, but it doesn't mean I've lost my interest in that forum any more than I've stopped liking watermelon because I don't eat it in winter.

Lilac, Click on members, Then choose state, that will give the members in that state, at this point ypu are given a suscribers only option. Could not find that option for the total list.

Missingrosie, sorry our posts crossed. That's a glitch that Admin. and the techs are aware of and they're working on it. We are all experiencing it. You can still watch a forum by going to each one individually and clicking on "Add this Forum to Your Favorites" at the top of the page.

Nuts..you have a point. The life's blood of any business is the ability to bring in new business..,..keeping it going for the future. As people "Google" and find DG...they may become interested enough to join..( not especially subscribe but join ) ...but what brings them over to the 'subscribers' side...? Personally, I think the large numbers of forums and the specific nature of each told me a newbie that DG was a good investment. Each description reminded me of all I didn't know....things I might want to learn about....the new large groupings don't lend to that --especially to new gardeners. They don't know what they may not know!

BUT... as Farmerdill points out...there may not be that many subscribers...it is likely DGs important revenue stream comes from the numbers of MEMBERS ( members = advertising dollars brought in ) and is determined by followers ( free members) and not especially subscribers.

Advertisers are interested in reaching people...they don't are if they are DG subscribers...the only thing necessary iare members ( viewers) interested in what they got to sell noticing their wares. Think of it like FACEBOOK.. Worth a ton of $$ ...because it reaches so many people.... No membership fee necessary. AOL - stopped all fees --but if you want to feel 'special' and be part of the elite few..for $6.95 you get some perks... We need to stop thinking of ourselves as paying subscribers with clout. Our $25 bucks/year won't pay for nothing -- not with the subscriber membership numbers as they are. What counts is that 700.000+ enrollment and mostly not subscribers....and those numbers are growing daily. Those new eyes are not signing up because missingrosie is a subscriber with a vast knowlege about how to kill plants in a week or grow weeds to exceptional heights .....they don't care how smart or seasoned I am. I do not mean to upset anyone-- everyone counts -- but what is gonna happen is gonna happen to the format of this site and our majority subscriber value to DG is ( may be ) as a focus group. When you think about it...we get a lot from this site and the $25 gets us a few perks and access to a few more groups and that is likely because there needs to be something extra to make us feel special.




This message was edited Sep 12, 2015 12:40 PM