which forums are still open to non subscribers?

There used to be an asterisk next to the forums that were limited to subscribers only but when I checked today it is not there. Is there any way to know which forums are open to everyone?

The reason I ask is that if more people were watching those few open to all forums it would make it easier to give the non subscribers the assistance they need, show them how friendly we can really be and encourage them to subscribe for access to information they are seeking that is not available to them as members only.

I know that if I asked a question on a forum and never got a response I would not be inclined to pay a subscription to go to other parts of the same site. I would assume the people were unfriendly or the site was not very popular and look elsewhere for my information.

If some of our active forum users would adopt an open forum we could give these people a chance to get to know what a friendly and knowledgeable group we are and I truly believe more of them would be inclined to subscribe.

The asteriks are still there; they are kind of small though. :-)

Am I looking in the wrong place? Here is a screen shot of what I see and I can't see any asteriks! LOL and I cleaned my glasses to make sure ;~)

Here's the main list; it has the asterisks: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/

(The asterisks don't show up on the page in your printscreen, which is where you can select/de-select forums "en masse" to show on your home page.)

Zanymuse, click on "Communities" then when the next page loads, click on "Discussion Forums" and you'll get the page Terry is speaking of.

Thanks! I thought I was missing something but couldn't figure out what!

There are a number of subscribers who hang out in the beginner forums and help people out. (Some of the non-subscribers who hang out there are pretty knowledgeable too). I'd say all in all I see very few questions that don't get answered.

I agree that the forums marked as beginners are pretty well taken care of but there are a few others that get little attention. I realized this when I visited the Apartment living forum and found myself answering a post that had been sitting since April with one post welcoming them but no answer or direction to an answer. That post turned out to belong to a subscriber but others that were nonsubscribers wer left twisting in the wind.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/715085/ This person asked about wintering their Angels trumpet indoors in their apartment in April. In August they got a nice post from gessiegail and I responded today. But I seriously doubt this person will be checking back after all this time to see the response. Where if we had been watching that forum the answer would have happened quickly and they would have felt welcome and might have decided that it would be good to subscribe.

There are other examples like http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=2702937 from 2006 with no response at all and I would guess others as well that I have not come across yet. I doubt this person found us to be warm and friendly or understood that with so many forums their post just didn't get viewed by enough members to get the attention they needed.

(again, one of the downfalls of having too many forums!!)

pet peeve of mine...sorry

I know how you feel. Once the forums began to proliferate DG changed radically and a big part of that community feeling of a large family gathering vanished. But it has it's upsides too. People who are only interested in a certain area of discussion can find a forum that appeals to them and a group of others who share that single subject.

I can choose to keep track of as many or as few subjects as interest me or I have time for and can peek in on others if a need arises for information on something new to me.

Now, instead of one big "family" gathering there are smaller "family" units I can visit or I can decide that I don't have much interest in common with part of the big family and decide to spend my time discussing Hosta's with the Hosta family rather than drudging through the Hoyas.

But no matter what home a newcomer visits I would like to see them made comfortable and welcome and not left wondering if anyone is home or if they have the wrong address.

There are always going to be a few questions that slip through the cracks for a variety of reasons. But I really don't think you wind up with any more unanswered posts in the beginner/open to all forums (at least the gardening ones) than you do in the subscriber ones. The home forums are a different matter, there are a number of those that just don't get much traffic at all, probably because we just don't have nearly as many experts on home repairs, electrical, plumbing, etc as we do on various gardening topics (not entirely surprising given that it's a gardening website!)

Yes, there will always be some posts that are not responded to and there is no way to change that. The garden forums for beginners have been taken under the wings of many subscribers and the members who visit them are very fortunate to have found such a nurturing group.

The home forums however, do not generate much traffic and I feel that unless we are going to make a point of watching them for nonsubscribers they should be closed for lack of interest or closed to non subscribers. I think having them open and then being seemingly ignored sends the wrong message. As I mentioned before, a newcomer will not understand that it is not because the people here are unfriendly but just that they are not seeing their posts. They will just see that we boast a huge membership and not one person acknowledged them.

I do agree it would be nice if those forums saw a little more action. But in terms of attracting new subscribers or not, anyone who comes here and just posts in the home forums was probably never going to get that involved here to begin with since gardening is a much bigger focus. If the person is interested in gardening as well as home stuff, then they'll post in one of the gardening forums too and most likely will get an answer and feel welcome. Or at least they'll look at the gardening forums and see how much more activity there is there than in the home forums, and they'll make their decision to stick around based on how much they'll get out of the gardening forums.

I also think that the people who have expertise in the home areas do make a point to watch those forums and help people out, the problem is that we just don't have as many people around here with expertise in those areas. The other problem with the home forums is if nobody has the answer, there's really nowhere to send the person. With the gardening ones, if you don't know the answer, you can generally point them in the direction of a forum that's all about the topic they're asking about. But with the home forums we don't have that, so even if you post and say "welcome, but sorry I can't help you", I don't think that person's any more likely to stick around. I really think decisions to subscribe or not are going to be driven by their experience with the gardening part of the site. But that's just my opinion!

Home repairs and maintenance forum looks like it has more traffic and is open to everyone. There at least it looks like a person would get an answer. As for the site being a gardening site, you have a good point. But then these people found these obscure forums here on a gardening site somehow so it may be they came for the gardening info that is open to them and discovered the forums at that time.

Oh well, I guess I am alone in thinking it is a problem so on with the show!

I tend to agree with you...............I joined last summer in August and not until December or Janurary did anyone say anything to me...............then I got brave in January and haven't stopped since..........

My main problem was that I didn't know how and couldn't figure out how to navigate my way around.............so it behooves us to be very friendly to a new user name and question........I know I get caught up with my friends and don't always use my most welcoming post to a newcomer...

Why do you think we have too many forums, threegardeners..............I love all the forums and feel they add great depth to the DG site..........."different strokes for different folks"

ecrane3: Well said!


I have a list of favorite forums that I pop in on every day, but there are many forums I have never even checked out because I have no interest in the topic. My interests are mainly the different plants, so that's where I stay. I think I checked in on the pets forum once and also the sewing forum. But mainly I just visit a few gardening related forums and the trash to treasure forum.

I always wondered about all the non gardening related forums on a website called "Dave's Garden". I think it's wonderful that there are so many different forums to choose from but wonder how folks find some of them to begin with since I always thought of it as a gardening website.

Lin, you always go out of your way on the gardening forums to welcome people.........so I am confused about what you just said or>>>>>>>>>> are you just talking about the non gardening forums????

Huh? Ok Gail ... now I'm confused about what you are confused about! LOL. I try to welcome newbies on the gardening forums when I notice a new name. But, sometimes I'm so wrapped up in thought (remember my brain freeze?) that I forget to say "Welcome"! You know how I like to talk ... I ramble quite often and might not even notice a newbie until someone else says something.

This is maybe why we are friends.........(LOL)..........we both stay confused...........you are funny