Update from Internet Brands

My most frustrating aspect of the "new and improved" was the restructure of the ability to search this website for past people's post. nutsaboutnature has sincerely helped me with this problem. Do I do it well? NOoo, but I do it better! :) I'm always up to learning--be it internet use, another plant to grow, soil improvement, baking etc.
I find the quickest and easiest way to find past information is doing a Google search. A Google search was suggested to me by our lost member, Pirl. Google search works if you're not looking for an exact post by an exact member.

The other frustration has been the Plant Files. I know, I'm singing to the choir. Hopefully, it will improve. I use this part of the website a lot. I especially like the reviews from real gardeners that tell it like it is.

Anna, I had the same experiences with Cubits and couldn't have described it better!:)

I'm a long time member as well and went through the selling of the website.

The good part about this website is that the people are sincerely trying to make this a better website. They went about it wrong but at least now, they are communicating with us, LISTENING (I think) to our unhappiness, and attempting to make this website a good one. Well, I think the worst is behind us. If we made it thus far and the programmers are communicating and listening, then I'm willing to give it another year at the price of $20.00.

Terry, I wasn't blaming the website for losing my post. I'm not sure what happened. I don't usualy have a problem with losing posts. I think my fingers accidentally hit some button and poof. It does show your are reading the posts, listening to concerns, and trying to "fix it".
VV, that's a good perspective.
Peer pressure can be very powerful. It's never bothered me. I've always been one to dig my heels in.

It is my hope we all will grow from this and make this a better website. There's still a lot of good in this website. There's more good in this website than bad. Right now, I don't want to start learning a new website. I'd rather learn the new stuff on here. Problem is, I'm more of a gardener than a computer nerd. :-/
So, let's join together, work together, continue to share our knowledge, meet new members, and enjoy and appreciate the old members.

I have lost posts by hitting the wrong button but I don't mention it here bc it was my fault....and the result would have been the same on any site. I thought by lost posts people were talking about ones eaten by DG.

1lisac: I meant this jokingly. I guess I should have clarified. :(

Takes 6 weeks to accept change, good thing you are almost 4 weeks into the change.

Thought this all started in December....................

Terry, It's my pleasure!

I have friends here who are not on any other sites. I value their friendship.

Absolutely! That is possibly the number one reason I stay.

I feel the same way as well.

For me, many reasons that mostly rate quality of exchanges above quantity of exchanges. And then there is consideration to those of us who, feet to the fire, are still smiling and talking...those that have a sense of humor about the whole DG burp, those whose lives are not ruined due to technical difficulties. I would like to continue to exchange ideas and information with like-minded people. By like-minded I mean topical interests, not that people agree with my opinions. So I want to suggest this...

Many unhappy posters are longtime members and I too have history here. The focus of the site has evolved from a garden site to include an ever expanding array of peripheral interests. It's not a bad thing but it does personify a more mature demographic. Where forums originally included topics akin to gardening, like beekeeping or homesteading, there are now more active threads in sedantary interests and chats. It's not a bad thing at all. In fact, I'm most surprised that I've never seen complaints about that but I do understand if people are disappointed about the current lack of chronic chat here and need to fill up elsewhere. Whatever works.

I have hosted four Round Ups and have had numerous DG members stay at three of my homes from S. FL. to N. GA.. I've participated and exchanged opinions here, over the years, regarding convolutions and evolutions. All I can add is...

Cville, I love your big blue hair!

Thanks, Laurel. In real life, it's much grayer. lol.

As life is taken with a grain of salt- I take my DG with all its foibles. I say a very hearty Yes! To Maypops' views as well!

I so agree with you Laurel....

I also applaud Maypops' views and appreciate her setting them forth so clearly.

Cville, you may be gray but us insiders know you are all about Big Blue Nation! Even me, a hater of all things team and especially sports. lol It would be awesome if there was a blue wig for Kentucky fans like the cheese wedge hats for Wisconsin fans.

Kitt, keep on truckin'.

Barb, you are always a bright note on a dreary day no matter what the challenge. You are an inspiration.

Thank you June.

The online punishment meted out to Admin should end. Mistakes were made, grievances were aired and apologies were expressed. Terry has amazingly born a burden of blame. But more importantly, there has been a sincere effort on behalf of Internet Brands and Admin to address the unhappiness of every individual complainant. Quotes keep being bandied about that were never, to my knowledge, stated by Admin or IB like "new and improved". It has been, and is, an effort to make the site more workable for a greater population. I'm at the bottom rung of functionality when it comes to adapting to tech change but I'm okay with knowing it's me and not them.

A couple of hours after my out today, I received an email saying I had a D-mail from admin at DG. I was pretty excited thinking it was surely about the issues we have been having. Alas, it was a reminder that my subscription expires in a couple of weeks, yada, yada, and I should take care of it right away.

Sure, I will get right on that, just like you are solving your software problems and taking care of your customers. Funny isn't it how that particular segment of DG wasn't affected?! It did offer me the option to contact DG with any questions. Hmmmmm, you think I might be doing just that?

Has anyone noticed that all of the posts have suddenly and 'miraculously' moved to their proper locations! Yay! Now if only we could hear something from a real human.

March 5, 2016 630 pm cdt. Dates are beginning to function and posts are 'aligning' themselves as best they can. Grab your hats, guys, the roller coaster is starting again!

Yes, I'm finding posts in the correct order and newest posts seem to have appropriate dates/times.

If anything else goes wrong, I really think Zen_Man needs to immediately be named Admin so that everything will be instantly and always correct.

I'm probably not the only one who let them know, but I noticed that posts were not updating for three days in a row, so wrote them a dmail and, VOILA!!

Fun catching up on my reading.

Donna, you must have had the magic touch. :o) - I think most of us wrote them more than once with no results.

Wouldn't you know it, though. We finally get used to functioning in the year -0001 and they change it again...geeesh.

Actually we may have spoke too soon. On the main forum list many of the threads (including this one) still show -0001.

I don't like the new format at all. The fonts are hard for me to read, but I will be here as long as I live....and at age 81 I don't know how long that will be.
I would be gone by now if it wasn't for our good and faithful "servants", Terry and Melody~!

I came aboard the day after 9/11....looking for something to take my mind off the tragedy, and I was lucky to find DG.

I'd hide if I was admin. There will be so much complaining why bother?

If the membership #s are inflated on DG they are on the other sites too. I have accounts with other sites even tho I have never even posted. Just bc Alisonrose doesn't work for IB her account doesn't just disappear.

Not sure what to do now that the time is correct....don't feel like I'm on a ghost ship anymore. Lol

You have to admit, it was kind of a "bonding moment" for us members. With no response from Amin. who else could we turn to but each other to figure out what was going on.

I sent them a message from Facebook. No answer as of yet.

Nuts-I agree...it didn't stop us from posting. I dont know what admin could say, without getting chewed out...I'm just glad it's over and we are moving forward. I guess they do work on weekends.

Also, the threads at the bottom, are more current.

The posts at the bottom were more current before this happened - they are all started by Terry.

Looks like the forums are mostly back to the (new) normal. For now. Hang on for the ride.

It looks like it's working well now.

Dang - now that we're no longer in 1 B.C., I'll have to put away my iPapyrus and the stone Tablet...

Kind of liked refreshing on the latest onion-skin reprint of Confucius, Socrates, and Cicero.

Back on the shelf with my amphorae wine totes and the hypocaust...

It's still not working (at least not consistently). I just replied to a new thread in the Plant ID forum and it went back to 1BC at the beginning of the forum list.

The only thing that has changed back is the correct dates/times within threads. The Home Page thread watcher still shows 5200 and the threads on the forum list still show -0001. It is forward progress, though, always a good thing.

But my one question is are the techs actually working on it or did something clear on it's own? There's still no banner or anything to let us know they're aware of the problem. I have to assume it wouldn't just start to clear up on it's own, but right now we seem totally automated.

Sorry! Alison discovered the problem Saturday and the techs dove into it over the weekend. I thought she had posted here to let you know we were aware, but I'm not seeing an update as I skim through the posts from Saturday and yesterday. The date/time stamp went a little buggy but it appears it's been fixed and the posts are now back in correct reverse-chronological order.

Nope, it's not working very well. I'm not getting threat watching updates, and the newest post I started is at the end of page 151 of the Mid-South Gardening forum due to the date error being shown as '-0001'.

How come this was just noticed on SATURDAY and it happened on WEDNESDAY and I know people were reporting it at least a day or two after it started?

No it's not fixed!!! I also want to know why the problem wasn't found until Sat when it happened on Wed!!! I sent a dmail to adm and got no response!!! I know numerous other people also reported the problem and also got no response from anyone! What really got me was that during all this time someone was making posts on the Dave's FB page with links to Dave's. I assume this is to promote the site and try to get new members. Absurd to be promoting a broken site. Since I hadn't been able to get a response any other way, I posted the problem on FB in comments to FB post. Several other people did the same thing. Still NO RESPONSE!!!

The dates are fixed on the posts BUT if you read the posts on this thread and the Feb 3 thread you will see that isn't the only issue. Also, somebody called IB and was told Alison no longer worked there, so I don't see how she could post.

I have to admit I was expecting a better response now I'm very disheartened that this will ever be resolved. All this BS to make it more mobile friendly and it's not usable on any device. I'm wondering what happened to cause this and why it took 3 days for anybody in management to notice it? We thought we were on a ghost ship and that seems even more so now. Really sad....

I've been very patient with all the changes and glitches but this situation was unacceptable. If anyone had checked it would have been evident that Alison did not post anything here or anywhere about the situation. For days everyone had to scroll endlessly through pages of old incorrectly dated posts in efforts to find new ones. It did not go well. Several of us created new threads that, although still incorrect date-wise, at least saved endless, futile scrolling.

"The date/time stamp went a little buggy" hardly sums up the mess. The site was virtually unusable for days! There were no responses at all to endless posts and d-mails about the situation. None!