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gwannouncements

GardenWeb needs your feedback!

gwannouncements
11 years ago

Hi everyone,

As you may have noticed, we've been sprucing up the site a bit. Among other things, we've added new ways to upload photos and email notifications of post replies. We are still cleaning out cobwebs and weeding some areas of the site, but we are also working on some bigger projects like a better search engine (yay!) and a mobile app. We'd also like to get some feedback from you. What enhancements or additions would you like to see? What do you love? What do you hate? Think big and small!

We can't promise the moon, but please know that we will read and consider every one of your ideas and suggestions. We appreciate your loyalty and dedication to our site and we know how important your community is to you. Help us make it even better!

Please use this post to offer your feedback. But, as always, you are welcome to contact me directly by clicking on my profile page.

Best regards,

Tamara Amey

GardenWeb Community Manager

Comments (18)

  • ottawapepper
    11 years ago

    Tamara,

    Thank you for the opportunity to provide input on enhancements.

    My #1 would be the ability to edit our posts after they are submitted. It doesn't have to be open ended time wise, say, allow edits up to 12 hours after initial post and deletes if no one has replied.

    I know I have wished many times I could correct a type-o or re-word something that didn't come across right upon re-reading. Of course, I'm also guilty of posting a new thread or firing off a response I wish I could take back after hitting submit ;-)

    Just my two cents.

    Thanks again,

    Bill - ottawapepper

  • Edymnion
    11 years ago

    Some sort of "You have posted in this thread" indicator, coupled with a "this thread has new posts since your last visit" flag.

    Currently, the only way to do it is to remember which threads you posted in, and to make sure you click them again after posting so that your browser marks the link as read (since any new posts to it make the browser reset the link color to unclicked).

    Ideally I'd like to see something as small as a little icon next to a thread you have posted in (much the way we have the little camera icon next to thread names that have pictures in them), and to put the thread names/links in bold on the main forum when they have new posts.

  • fusion_power
    11 years ago

    I agree with Ottawa's suggestion of a way to edit posts for a limited time period. Even an hour would be great.

    My pet peeve is that the size of the message box is so small that it is difficult to type in and review before posting. Please consider making the message box dynamic so it can be sized according to the screen size of my computer. Note that this will help a lot with mobiles if you can get it to work.

    DarJones

  • DMForcier
    11 years ago

    It can be sized, manually. See the little drag handle in the lower right corner?
    ----

    Features:

    All of the above.
    Search within a forum.
    Search for my posts.

    Fix how special characters are coded. â â â - all are supposed to be a cent sign. I see them as that in the preview, but I bet they turn to garbage when submitted.

    Don't lose the ability to post HTML.

  • DMForcier
    11 years ago

    Well drat! They all came through. There are plenty of other examples - ð degree sign .. õ micron

    Look around.

  • habjolokia z 6b/7
    11 years ago

    I have no issues with using an iPhone use it all the time to review and post messages. Only thing I would like to do is take a pic on my iPhone and upload it to the forum, the choose file option is greyed out on the phone.

    Mark

  • fusion_power
    11 years ago

    dmf, I know you can drag it larger, I'm asking to not have to do that. Make it dynamic so it auto sizes to the width of my screen.

    DarJones

  • DMForcier
    11 years ago

    I could live with that.

    Did you get my emails?

  • DMForcier
    11 years ago

    Oh yeah, add one.

    Add the ability to delete your post. Sometimes I reply to the wrong thread. Or I reply with a mouth full of BJ-infused shine. IOW, totally out of my mind.

  • rick_in_va
    11 years ago

    I say "Bravo!" to the folks who maintain GardenWeb and make it work. I would be lost without this community and the Hot Pepper forum.

    On the garbage symbols sneaking thru, I only get garbage with punctuation marks when I compose my post on a word processor then paste it into the website message box. The IT person at GardenWeb could probably tell us what the native font is for the site and I could just set my word processor to that font so they wouldn't have to translate.

    Probably a lot of these concerns could simply be addressed with an expanded FAQ for posting messages, rather than redesigning the site. I would like to be able to post more than one photo per message though.

    After 12 hours the best responses have usually already come in. If I need to correct something I usually just tack on another post. If I went back and "corrected" my original post, I'm afraid the logical flow of ideas would get totally lost and the early posters would look like idiots.

    An enhanced search engine and a mobile app would address most of my frustrations. Thanks for asking for user input.

  • woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
    11 years ago

    When I want to search for posts that I've posted in, I just do a search using my username and scroll through the ones that may have had recent posts, but having a tracker would be useful -- let me guess, you can probably do that with "my clippings," right?

    I agree with others -- an edit feature would be nice and posting more than one pic per post without using photobucket et al.

    Glad to hear a new search engine is being introduced - 23,000 results for "5-1-1 mix" would be fine if any threads on the 1st page of results had the term "5-1-1" in the whole body of the thread .. LMAO

    Otherwise, you guys do a great job! Thank you for allowing me to talk to other garden enthusiasts about the good, bad, and ugly of gardening. You've really helped this novice!

    :)

    Kevin

  • sunnibel7 Md 7
    11 years ago

    Yes, a better search engine would make most of my GW dreams come true. Especially one where the results are weighted by the frequency of the search term occuring in the thread. Glad to hear improvements are in the works! Also the ability to upload photos from my iPad. I have no troubles with how it presents on this device currently. The idea of being able to edit my post once again after posting doesn't excite me, but if others want it, that's cool.

  • John A
    11 years ago

    You have a great website. Several good suggestions above. My No 1 beef is with the pop-up ads. I can't use your site at all using Internet Explorer. It is better with Mozilla. You could have your normal ads without the annoying pop-ups that take several minutes to open.
    Thanks for hearing us out.
    John A

  • tsheets
    11 years ago

    It's been mentioned already, but #1 on the wish list is the ability to edit/delete a post.

  • TheMasterGardener1
    11 years ago

    Avatars!!!!!!!!!

    :)

  • northern_hab
    11 years ago

    Not sure if it has been mentioned, but the ability to go directly to the last new post in a thread.

    IE: seed exchange thread, 80+ posts and you need to scroll down to the end each time you open it.

    Other great suggestions also and great site that I enjoy being a member of.

  • DMForcier
    11 years ago

    Make threads sticky-able.

    The FAQs could do part of the job, but they are hard to find for a newbie. Heck, a sticky thread could point to the FAQs. Very useful little items, sticky threads.

  • gwannouncements
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Hi everyone!

    You asked and we listened. Today we are very excited to be debuting our newest feature -- post editing! To use this feature, go back to the post you wish to correct and you'll find the link under the 'My Clippings' links on the right side of the page.

    I want to give a special shout out to all the testers who tried to break the editing tool. ;) Your feedback was insightful and invaluable. Thank you!

    You may have also noticed that we adjusted the login cookie awhile back so that you should not have to login repeatedly.

    Stay tuned -- we have more cool things in the works!

    As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

    Best regards,
    Tamara

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