Seems to me that we have too many forums. If a forum has no posts for several months it should be moved to an archive. I have posted to forums that have no one watching. Those forums should have a black hole warning:)

Frank, do you actually mean "forums"? or threads within the forums? I looked through the entire list of forums and almost all have had activity in what I would consider a reasonable length of time. (The exceptions being a couple of "regional" forums, and, for some reason, the "Fuchsias" forum.)

Before posting in any forum, I always check to see when the last post was added. Suggest using the Ask A Question forum if that other forum doesn't get frequented often. There is still good relevant info on all forums and also new members can come along and revive a forum so they are never removed and adding them to an 'archive' area would probably discourage anyone from ever using it.

I just scrolled through the entire list of Forums and only found 4 that haven't had posts in awhile but perhaps it's because of the time of year? Many families vacation during the summer but perhaps due to heat and other weather conditions, people aren't posting as much.

Heirlooms Forum - last post was September 2022
Fuchsias Forum - last post was July 2022
Midsouth Gardening Forum - last post was July 2021
Tennessee Gardening Forum - last post was Nov 2022

There is a specific time span without participation that prompts a forum to dissolve. I don't know what that time duration is, but I am sure Dave oversees any of the "auto deleting". There use to be a Gladiolus forum, for instance.

But I am with you, Frank: too many splits up the community and one doesn't get exposed to as many new ideas, genera, or methods that are applicable to more than just the individual forum it was posted on.

I wouldn't want to see those forums deleted though. Many times there's some info in there that will help someone. Maybe consolidate them a bit more, list them under Archived or Inactives, but I'm in favor of keeping old info available.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said "delete". I know (at least sometimes) they are absorbed into a "mother" forum somehow.

The threads in the Fuchsia forum could be moved (or returned, actually) to the Pacific Coast Gardening Forum. Many Pacific Coast Gardening threads about fuchsias served as the basis for the Fuchsia forum when it was created.

But on the other hand, anyone NOT living on the Pacific Coast wouldn't think of looking there for Fuchsia info or posting there. Not really in favor of either move, just playing Devil's Advocate!

By my very quick and rough count, there are currently 108 forums. Would reducing it by 4, or even 14, really make any difference?

There is always the search function (for fuschia, for example).

Every addition or subtraction continues to add up. IMO, yes, it would make a difference.

Early on, if I recall correctly, Dave tended to feel the same way as me, but was and is happy to acquiesce to new forum requests (with a sunset clause), of which there have been many. if we keep adding, without the ability to subtract, we'll end up like gardenweb with 500+ forums. Yikes!

Leftwood said: There is always the search function (for fuschia, for example).

You won't find it if you misspell it.

zuzu said: You won't find it if you misspell it.

Righto !!!

I agree with the principle of not wanting to fragment the community into too many smaller areas, especially when those areas aren't very busy. A forum that rarely gets posted to should be removed IMO, as long as we have a place to move the existing threads to. I don't want to delete threads; they need to be moved into a new home prior to removing the forum.

Feel free to make specific proposals (like the above proposal to move the fuchsia threads to PNW) and I will make it happen.

Most of the threads in the Heirlooms forum could be moved to the Vegetable forum. Or, an Archive Forum could be created and threads from inactive forums could be moved there with the inactive forum removed. Of course most threads in any of the forums could be moved to the "All Things Gardening" forum.

Calif_Sue said: Before posting in any forum, I always check to see when the last post was added. Suggest using the Ask A Question forum if that other forum doesn't get frequented often. There is still good relevant info on all forums and also new members can come along and revive a forum so they are never removed and adding them to an 'archive' area would probably discourage anyone from ever using it.

Yes, I have learned not to post on an inactive forum, but does that just make the forum more inactive? If a new member happens to post on an inactive forum, the result is usually few or no responses. Also, my experience has been that posting on an inactive forum does not revive the forum. If no one is watching the forum, how do you revive it? Maybe new member posts should be restricted to a new member forum? Or, maybe new members should be directed to the Ask a question forum.

My original post on his thread was a suggestion to improve the membership experience. If we had fewer forums, we would have more interaction on the active forums. This would be a win win for both existing members and new members. However, many "new" members create an account and are never heard from again:) You can spot them because they usually create an an account that includes the word "nubie":)

dave said:Feel free to make specific proposals (like the above proposal to move the fuchsia threads to PNW) and I will make it happen.

Dave, please do move the fuchsia threads from the Fuchsias Forum to the Pacific Coast Gardening Forum (not the PNW forum).

I think there are too many forums too but when I scroll through them, obvious consolidations don't seem so obvious after a little thought.

Purslane forum, for example, is a real snooze but they are a mix of annual & perennial plants. The ornamental ones are almost always grown/sold as annuals...

I think what we all want is a forum page where each forum appeals to each of us personally without having to scroll past the others that we've never clicked into and might, but have no plans to, currently. Maybe that kind of arrangement could be a setting, where each member can choose which forums to view on the (their) list of forums page? Then at the top/bottom there could be a link to show all forums.

Tiffany, if you "watch" (at the top of the forum page) the forums you're interested in, your list of "watched forums" will show up on your home page (if it isn't, go to "customize your home page" and add that option).

Thank you very much, Sandy! I have probably been told that before.

Happy to be able to help!