Put me in the "I" group.

Rose,zone 5 Iowa

I vote "Aye" for removing forums that are hardly ever used.

"Aye" means "yes".

Just don't visit it. On one hand, you want to create forums, then you want to take them away from those who managed to have their forum created. Calm down, please. When you stir the poo-pot, all you get is a poo-covered spoon and more odor.

I agree: "Calm down, please. When you stir the poo-pot, all you get is a poo-covered spoon and more odor.

And since we've no visit counter how do you decide the forum is a zombie?

This post was edited by albert_135 on Tue, May 21, 13 at 13:16

The only trouble I see with 'ghost forums' is that newbies might come along and post a question and never get an answer. So they give up and go away with the impression that GW is useless. By rationalising the forums the remainder would get more traffic and become more useful and more entertaining.

Speaking of poo. This year I am using the free elephant/rhino poo I got last year from the zoo.
It's well aged now and no odor.
I didn't use a spoon to stir it..a pitch fork.
Nice stuff.
:-)

This post was edited by bugbite on Fri, May 17, 13 at 11:51

Flora, what you say is true. I check some of the dead forums from time to time and redirect anyone who's asked an unanswered question to another forum and explain that this one doesn't get much traffic.

So the thought is, "...I'm not using it, so nobody needs it."

?

Gosh, purple....I don't think that's what eahamel meant at all. He/she simply redirects someone who has posted to a stagnant forum to one where the question is likely to be answered promptly by a number of people. I do it pretty frequently....hoping to encourage a positive experience in the GardenWeb.

There are so many forums and category subdivisions that some are, quite naturally, overlooked. But I think that subtracting them from the list will prove to be impossible and not even necessary as long as the questions get answered or redirected after a week or two.

That's not what I meant either, Purple. It's nothing to do with whether I, personally, use it. Take the UK forum, for example. I look in regularly but there are unanswered questions there from early March. It can hardly be said to be being 'used' if the rare posters who do visit get no response.

This post was edited by flora_uk on Tue, May 21, 13 at 11:56

I like the idea of removing the hardly-used forums. I would like to see *more* activity on the regularly-used general forums (shrubs, perennials, annuals, roses, etc), removing the barely used ones would naturally direct a newbie to one of the general forums and encourage more activity on those.

i have just started to use other forums besides the cacti and houseplants. i now visit annuals, perrenials,sansevieras, adrenium, and african violets and hoyas. the first forum i used was canna and i almost abandoned this site due to a slow responce

Without a click counter how do you know the forum is unused? Persons need not post to use a forum, do they?

That's the advantage of these forums. If I do not get an answer then I can go to another. When I garden I do not just grown one plant or flower. If those forums were not there many of my questions would just not get answered. Like doctors they can help with what they know and this is also true with plants. We seek out those that can help. If I put all my photos in one file (5,000+) it would very hard to find what I am looking for most of the time. So feel they need to stay there. Each year more plants become known so more help is needed. There is a lot of information out there on the web but many things not enough and those here who have grown them in THEIR area have different results and love to share. If someone post information that I feel I need I can copy and paste it into my records later and use and share. I love to brows these forums to see what is there as just using a few gets old as many do not post and share as often as I or others might need at times. So I use both the web here and out there for information that I would not find without these forums. Plus they provide information that helps me and gives me ideas that I would not have. I enjoy all the feedback here and because of all that I now grow more plants I would not have even tried without this interaction. So thanks for all these post.
Paul