What's up with this?

We like to keep an eye on what's going on with other websites, and this week iVillage.com released their 3rd quarter results:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/11-03-2003/0002050224&EDATE=MON+Nov+03+2003,+04:06+PM

Not terribly interesting unless you own stock in iVillage, OR you happen to scroll down to the 3rd footnote, where it states the following:

"Properties under iVillage.com: The Women's Network measured by comScore Media Metrix include: iVillage.com, iVillage Astrology, iVillage Family, iVillage Health, iVillage Substance, iVillage.co.uk, Americancapitalservices.com, Business Women's Network, Cosmomag.com, Countrylivingmag.com, Countrylivinggardener.com, Gardenweb.com, Goodhousekeeping.com, Housebeautiful.com, Mail.com, Marieclaire.com, Marieclairereader.com, Promotions.com, Redbookmag.com, Sendthisaround.com, Tncweddings.com, Townandcountrymag.com, Victoriamag.com, Webstakes.com, and Women.com..."

I added the bold to the pertinent text to cut to the chase, but it appears that GardenWeb is now owned by iVillage. Anybody heard anything about this? Curiouser and curiouser, as my mom would say ;o)

Interesting! Wonder if the site is still under the same managenent...

http://www.vmirror.com/
I just scrolled to the bottom of the forums page at gw and found this.

hmmmmmmmm, so who owns gardenweb?

Interesting, vedy interesting.

Cheri'

Liz, the Virtual Mirror info has been on the GW site for eons, and I don't think it's been updated anytime recently. I can't find any press release or anything to indicate when iVillage might have acquired GardenWeb, but that appears to be the case.

Well, if there's new owners, they haven't gotten around to bringing some of us back from Disney. I just tried it to see what would happen.

Oh...........I kinda like La La Land!!!!!!

"eyes"

Trust me, Spike is still in charge. My son got a couple of emails from him last week, but DS luckily escaped the axe or the teacups.

Bump- Since it has been announced that GW has been sold to Ivillage.... I'm DYING to know what the price was. I stopped my paid membership at GW when all the pop up adds started.

I noticed in the list of ownership...lot's of magazines....including Goodhouskeeping!! Jo

Spike has been retained as an employee and is merrily still banning folks. There is a lot of concern by posters over there about the future of GW since it is now owned by female oriented owners and with the increase of pop up ads that can even get around blockers. (I'm not sure how advertisers think their very annoying pop up ads would ever convince someone to buy their product - it has a completely opposite effect on me.) We could soon see a lot more interest in Dave's Garden! Harold

I just stumbled in here (not drunkenly tho) and I know that coulntryliving gardener, and some of the other mags are owned by the Hearst Publshing company, and for all I know the hwole shebang is now.

I know Country living gardener ahs gone thru some dwnsizing of comtent, issues, etc that I NOT happy with! (for what it is worth)

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/suggest/msg031109057810.html

Here is a Posting that Spike Made Yesterday, March 19th.

I Also Have to Add...
Click on the 'Return to the Suggestion and Comments Forums' Link at theTop Upper Left Hand Side and Look at the Picture on the Right Side of the Page of...
"Spike Empties the Suggestion Box".
(It Says a Lot About What/How They Respect/Treat Their Forum Users and Their Comments/Suggestions).

I Hope Everyone Notices the Person in the Box.

I'm not bashing Spike as I've never had any problems with him at all. I was a paying member there for years- almost since it first started as I said I stopped once the pop up adds started to appear. I was just curious (nosey) as to what it was sold for.

ZZ- that picture on the suggestions and comments forum has been there forever.

I too had been a subscriber of GW in 2002. Still have the same options as I had before, never had the first bit of trouble with Spike. It is not the busiest website, but some good people on there. I do get irritated with the popup ads, as they drive you bonkers.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that paid a visit to Disney, I still don't know what I did. I sure wish Dave would have purchased that forum, he would show them how to run a forum. Norma

Spike reminds me of an old elementary school principal. What a joke and what an attitude. I can't say how fortunate enough I am to have found Dave's. It really was the BEST money I have ever spent online (beside my concert tickets to Stevie Nicks LOL!)

As many of you know, iVillage bought The Virtual Mirror, Inc., which in turn owns GardenWeb, on November 22nd of last year. I am for now an employee of iVillage with most of the same responsibilities as I had before, but much less control.
"I can still trash and burn!"

I thank you for all the good wishes, they are much appreciated.
"As for those who have made rude comments or expressed any views in which I did not agree with, to heck with ya!"

There have already been changes and there will doubtless be more.
"I will remove another random 15 users tomorrow"

I realize many of you are not happy with the changes. You can feel free to voice your opinions on the matter in this forum, but try to limit the number of separate threads onthe subject and keep your comments respectful of all involved.
"I MUST agree with them or you will get a friendly reminder, remember, two strikes and your out, or was it three? Oh well, I make the rules up as I go!"

Likewise, limit your assertions to what you know to be true.
"Which is nothing, ha ha ha, I rule!"

I have never allowed any rudeness, directed at anyone, in these forums and I never will. So don't let your rhetoric get ahead of you. I have already banned one person for their remarks and I willl not hesitate to do so as often as necessary.
"Edited to replace one person with several persons"


There are a few people who have stated "facts" about the matter which are demonstrably false and I have to assume they are doing it merely to cause trouble. If you don't know what you are talking about, leave it unsaid. I am not going to be battling misleading rumors posted to this site.
"I will kick you off instead"

A representative from iVillage has responded to some concerns in another thread on this forum:
"Of course, it is all general sugar coated cr@&

Sorry Dave, hope this doesn't offend anyone, just light humor. Remove it if needed.

J

Predictably enough I suppose, the on-going discussion over there about the sale has resulted in a whole new spate of members being banned. I'm one, and while I'm not sure who the others are, the evil Spike has refered to them in a posting (which he subsequently deleted in his constant work to re-write history).

My crime appeared to be mentioning "alternative" bulletin board software and pointing some other users toward a few example boards (not gardening boards) that ran something else. Only later do I learn that Spike apparently wrote the BBS software over there himself and apparently takes great offense in discussion of alternatives. Good grief...what a psycho.

I'm liking what I'm seeing over here, but fear that I'll miss the Appliance talk (which is what I contributed more to than I did the gardening discussion).

I'm sorry sgip, you'll find another place to talk about appliances, but it's just hard to chanhe when you're use to something else. I got a big letter from Spikey because I mentioned you could buy those cheap little mini greenhouses at www.OverSt***.com Oh no!

There is quite a group of us rejected Garden Web folks here - all for the better as far as I'm concerned. My sin was after I posted a picture of my tomatoes, someone wanted to know where I got the seeds, and I posted a hyperlink to the site. Apparently that site didn't pay him to advertise, so I was zapped. No big letter, no nothing. Whatever. You'll be very happy here sgip. Harold

Sounds like Spike needs to buy his own island and become a dictator there.

"Sounds like Spike needs to buy his own island and become a dictator there."

And, we will give a little laptop PC which can only access one site, Dave's, and his subscription will be UNPAID!

gently clearing my throat...

I know it's tempting to start up the bash-fest, but let's not, please.

Welcome sgip! - I hope you find a lot of friendly faces here. If you need assistance in finding your way around, just ask - you'll get plenty of volunteers to help you get your bearings.

As to an appliance forum. Offhand, I'm not aware of other sites to recommend (sorry ;o) but here you'll find lots of gardening (and non-gardening) forums to try on for size.

Thanks! Not meaning to start up a bash-fest...there's sufficient info in old posts to let me know that I'm not alone, and that's all that's necessary in the short time it should take to move onward and upward :-)

If anyone does have a recommendation for an appliance forum, that'd be great; and I look forward to exploring what this site has to offer!

This isn't a forum, but there's a lot of good info here and it's a funny site: http://fixitnow.com/

Oh, and this one looks pretty good: http://www.applianceblog.com/forums/


This message was edited Apr 1, 2005 12:37 PM