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| HATE THE NEW FORMAT!!! Obviously designed for as many ads as possible. Also been getting ads popping up in the middle of threads. The software has always been very limited in comparison to any other forum I have been on, and now the content portion is tiny. Considering that I am one of the people providing knowledge (and photos) that continues to drive traffic, I certainly feel like I have the option of voicing my opinion, and my opinion is that it sucks. Arktrees |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| If you're using Firefox, use the adblock extension (Adblock Plus 2.2.2.). But the content portion will be still tiny. |
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- Posted by mad_gallica Z5 Eastern NY (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 14:18
| If you keep blocking things (specifically the graphics.gardenweb stuff) it does go back to something rather like 'normal'. |
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| Actually, I do have some of them blocked, but some are still gettign through. I don't mind a few on the side etc, as they do pay for the site. But things are getting well beyond that point. Arktrees |
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| When I was using Firefox I seldom (never?) saw popups here. |
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| I actually use a combo of Firefox and Chrome. Ads are limited, but that is changing. More so in Firefox. Arktrees |
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| I use Firefox and have Adblock installed. I haven't seen any ads at all today. But I don't care for the new format, but will get used to it. |
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| I see no ads on Firefox. Ark go to Tools, then Addblock, then Filter Preferences and at bottom of Filter Subscriptions make sure the box isn't checked to Allow some non-intrusive ads I don't care for the new forum either. Too much space to allow for mostly ads. Unless ads become a problem like before I finally changed to Firefox, I'll get use to it. |
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| Just found a nice little ad-on, and discovered there are 10 companies trying to track me here. NOT COOL GARDEN WEB. Arktrees |
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| I get absolutely zero ads ever (thanks to Firefox and Adblock Plus), and the text looks fine to me. I did wonder if I was on the right sight when it first popped up, but have no problems at all. In fact, I think I kind of like the new look. |
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- Posted by alabamatreehugger 8a/8b south Alabama (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 20:09
| I use an iPad and a few threads have been squeezed really tiny into the left side of the page. |
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- Posted by formandfoliage 9b (Sunset zone 15) (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 20:37
| Safari has no pop ups and the ads don't bother me if that is the price to pay to keep it free. This look is cleaner and fresher and to my eye actually easier to read. |
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- Posted by toronado3800 Z6 St. Louis (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 22:00
| Works ok on my Android. I am used to resizing. The color choices are cool. The ads just a little creepy but I am used to google targeted ads. |
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| I have been reasonable, however 10 companies attempting tracking you, and 75% of the pages devoted to ad space is not at all reasonable. End of story. I have been here for many years trying to help people as best I know, which results in driving more traffic to this site. I have asked for nothing in return. I have posted hundreds of pictures, that, that also results in driving traffic to this site. I have asked for nor expected nothing, as I did what I wanted to do. I however will not be taken advantage of in this manner. 75% ad space, and 10 companies attempting tracking your every movement, is without a doubt attempting to take advantage of that good will. Arktrees |
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- Posted by IshCountryGal 8 WA (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 22:15
| I don't like "clippings" at the top of every post to a thread, taking space away from the subject line. On my computer, the subject line is now sometimes chopped up into 2 or 3 lines. |
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| I have now broken every link to every picture I have ever posted to Garden Web. Arktrees |
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- Posted by alabamatreehugger 8a/8b south Alabama (My Page) on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 23:46
| Arktrees, how are ten companies tracking you? What companies? |
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- Posted by toronado3800 Z6 St. Louis (My Page) on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 1:16
| No doubt zedoo, ad something and google as well as a few others. Ever notice how well targeted them Google sponsor ads are every once in a while? I'm not particularly paranoid but I have stopped using Gmail. That cool Google company and Facebook have become monsters. Old and unassociated Mozilla is probably the way to go. Google Chrome I don't trust and everyone makes viruses for IE. |
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| Omniture Google Analytics Google Adsense Quantcast Comscore Beacon Netrating Site Census Vibrant Ads ChartBeat BlueKai Knux Digital In Comparison. You get the ideal. No other that I have checked neared 10. Arktrees |
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| A new format is always hard to accept and initially assaults the eyes. Give it time. Seems OK to me & perhaps slightly easier to read. I have Firefox w/Adblock and NoScript. |
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| Hi Arktrees, I knew the existence of trackers but didn't know you can track the trackers. So It's good to know. I've just installed do no track add-ons (two of them actually.) Whether GW is particularly bad..I got interested and read an WSJ article titled "The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets" So to me, it seems that gardenweb is not the worst. But you're right CNN is much better. And I cannot find myself an website that has more than 10 trackers. That article is a few years old so maybe it's not true anymore. I think in general it will be fine, for now, if a user tries not to be tracked with those add-ons (although it's like a virus, there will be new trackers all the time and add-ons play catch-up), block ads (so that even if you get tracked, there's no real consequence of viewing those targeted ads), and hope that those tracking companies stick to the current anonymous tracking and do not get into the real personal info like names and addresses (but who knows?) One can also set the browser at "private browsing mode" so that every time one turns off the browser, cookies will be deleted. But you did get me thinking whether we should post our yard pictures on web. |
This post was edited by ttonk on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 11:22
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| They definitely gave up qutie a bit of additional ad space. Pictures are now overlapped with ads. I don't get pop ups but damn this site has alot of ads running on it.
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| Well to be fair, I have been on the internet longer than most people have know it existed. My very first experience you had to hit return on the email to keep it from going off the text area. Was VERY primitive. Point being, is I have watched most all the dirty tricks that get pulled develop, and how many companies radically abused trust and good will, so that I am now very cynical of them all. If your not sure why they are doing something, you can count on it to be harmful to you in some way. That is why I don't do facebook, and most everything else. Also why I tend to stay to posting public spaces, nor give out personal info on here, not even my real name. Pictures from my yard tend to be close up making it very difficult to ID anything. No license plates etc. That certainly does not take care of everything possible, but it does make it allot harder for them. For example, my true personal email account I have had for probable 13 years, and have gotten maybe 15 SPAM messages on it during that time. While I have several "bait" throwaway accounts that get hammered. Arktrees |
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| Arktrees, I agree with you and apologize if I sounded...you know... Just tried to convince you so that you'll give the fall color pictures back. I don't have much sophisticated experience with internet and I'm very naive with those things. Should be more careful myself. In just one hour of blocking trackers, there have been 500 attempts blocked (and I got a bronze medal for it.) I guess things are scarier out there thank I imagine. |
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| Its actually amazing how long the internet has been around. I consider myself an early user from the early 90s and that not really that early. The main email account I use now is almost 17 years old. The protection and security you have these days is actually much stronger than it was as long as your educated on it. I remember blowing through two computers in the early days due to virus. I'm lucky to have a good friend that heads up the IT department at his company. |
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| ttonk, Nothing to apologize for, as far as I'm concerned. Just trying to give some perspective as to my stance on this. Some will agree, others will not. Your trying to learn and help yourself, and many people can't be bothered to do even that. As for the fall pictures, just go to my photobucket account with the same name as here, and they are all still there (see below for Fall 2012 direct link). I had not posted even half yet. I just reorganized them so as to break the links so that GW would not unfairly benefit from my work. There are also Spring and other pics there as well. All are public so that you can download any that you may want to keep a copy of. I have the originals at higher resolutions, which you can also have if there is something in particular you like. BTW, photobucket is the only other site with 10 trackers that I have found. But I am a bit more understanding of them as they have very large storage and bandwidth demands. Arktrees |
Here is a link that might be useful: Fall 2012
This post was edited by arktrees on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 13:37
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| Thanks for the link!! I wanted Fall Fiesta and I want it more now. Dreaming of having red/orange/yellow fall color maple, one each in my backyard. Currently I have red/red/red.. |
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| I like the font on the new format - easier to read.... I don't even notice ads on sites like this anymore. The pop-up blocker function seems to work well to block pop-ups (which are the most intrusive ads). My brain now simply ignores sidebar ads and I don't even register that they are there unless I consciously look at them! There are no ads on the side after the third post on this thread and the post texts use about 60% of the width, which is not cramped-feeling on my wide monitor. I do worry a bit about the tracking issue and try to avoid posting too much stuff that could be used for identity theft. That's the only thing that really worries me and I check all financial transactions regularly to watch for things like that. I have not had an issue with spam in years, although the occasional junk e-mail sometimes slips through. I do have multiple e-mail accounts and only use my 'real' one on sites I trust. I do a fair bit of on-line shopping and keep one Visa card with a low credit limit just for on-line shopping. That way, if the info does get stolen, the theif could not run up many transactions before it would get flagged and stopped. I did finally get cajoled by friends into opening a FB account. I provided very little info and find the whole thing trivial and boring so may drop it soon. I much prefer the 'conversations' on this site than the banal monologues of FB - my fear is that FB is killing sites like this because so many people aren't willing to put out enough effort to engage in a coherent dialogue! |
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| Ok, I'm sold. They have an image upload now that someone brought up in another thread. Its time to remove the shackles that photobucket has brought upon us. GOODBYE to you. |
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| whaas, Are you talking about FB? Arktrees |
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- Posted by ghostlyvision 8b/9a (My Page) on Tue, Feb 12, 13 at 18:50
| I'm really sorry you're so upset, Ark, :( |
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| Arktrees, I think the primary motivation for the new format is so that the interface is optimized for viewing on mobile devices. This has happened to a lot of websites recently (ebay, craigslist, weather.com, etc.) I don't see ANY ads ever on GW, using Firefox with Flashblock and Adblock plus on both a Windows machine (my desktop) and a Macbook. Firefox allows you to customize your settings so that you decide which cookies you want to allow on your browsing if you don't want to be tracked. On my Macbook I select: Firefox - Preferences - Privacy and then fool around with the cookies. That said, I like the clouds and grassy stuff on the new header on top of GW pages, but I liked the old font better. There seems to be a LOT of white space now, might look okay on phones or tablets, doesn't look so good on a widescreen LCD! |
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| I haven't experienced any difference in pop-ups, but I don't like change very much. What was wronge with the old fonts anyway? |
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| Just to test (and the discussion on another thread about black walnuts), here's a fine B walnut where I was briefly in an apartment. It grows well in limestone soil: |
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| The blue font is a painful assault on my retinas! Other than that, I'm not disturbed(by the change). |
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| I like the new feature where you can download photos without going through a server like Photobucket or the now defunct Webshots that turned into Smile. Go to browse and get the picture right off your computer. A really good feature. Mike |
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| The problem with the picture feature is that you can only add one picture. To add more, you need to do a post for each picture - which, of course, moves the thread down from the top of the list as it is no longer a post without a response. That's an issue in the Landscape Design forum for instance where people pay most attention to new posts. |
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| So there is a catch! Still nice to quickly upload one photo. I'll only use photobucket when I need to upload multiple photos. Going from full time to part time with pb. Although I don't have to zoom to get rid of the borders, this site on my tablet still has 40% wasted white space once you get through the top section of ads. |
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| Lucky p, what blue font?? Pretty "vignette" Botann. |
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