Me and My Trees defected from GW

Been hanging out at Garden Web for a long time, (as "Joolz") but I got annoyed by the ads, so Hi Everybody! If you haven't yet seen my Web site, A Tree Grower's Diary, take a look. It's my little hobby and the best part is: there's no ads! Not one.

http://www.coffeedrome.com/jtree2.html

I'm always updating, adding new stuff, so I'll let you all know when I finally get around to adding some of the fall pictures I didn't get to yet. As of right now, my favorite page is the sugar maple transforming. That's at http://www.coffeedrome.com/jtree2k.html You can click on the link at the top to see a slide show, or look at the individual pictures on the page I directed you to.

Have fun!
Joulz

Hey Joulz, a very warm welcome to you. Seems like there are lots of people who come over here from the Garden Web site. Glad you found your way.

Your sugar maple is very pretty. Nice tree. Such a staple in any landscape.

Again, a very warm welcome to you,
Lauren

Joolz! Welcome aboard! I missed you when I left GW. Missed some of the others too, but it looks like they are beginning to trickle over here. This forum will rock like it never has before if we can drag enough of them here.

All you Dave's Garden lifers take note -- we started inviting some of the best GardenWeb folks to come over here, and it seems to be working. Please join Equil and me (and Decumbent, Shortleaf, Treelover, etc. -- all GW grads) in welcoming them.

Guy S.

Hi Joolz,

I just browsed your website a bit. So sorry to see that gorgeous purple beech
go. I've been dreaming about planting one in my field. I just love them!

Welcome to DG & Happy New Year!

Hi Joolz,
I came over last Fall. For me it is so much faster here and more personalized. There are some good people over there yet, but you can't make up people's mind for them.
Al

I still retain dual-citizenship. I'm not sure if it's the software I'm running, or that members at GW are not bombarded by the ads I so frequently hear about over there, but I have equal ease navigating either site. I usually frequent about 8 forums at GW and contribute regularly. I think I have about the same # I regularly follow here as well.

I notice the reception I get here is cooler than on GW. Often, replies to posts pass w/o comment, as if not offered. To be fair, I need to consider that I've been a member there (GW) for many years, and here only since a July invite. Perhaps it's because my replies to posts often tend to lean more toward technical aspects of gardening - I'm not sure.

At any rate, I contribute out of a sincere desire to help (and as a result of being rather dispassionate about TV). I'd much rather spend leisure time here or at GW in the company of folks that have similar interests in plants & gardening.

Happy New year.

Al

Al,
I know my computer is not that new anymore - it certainly doesn't like running animation. When I'm on GW I spent most of my time looking at a white screen while it's loading. I have no delay here.

BigCityAl, that's been my experience too -- much, much faster here, no floating ads, apparently no spyware, ease of loading photos directly from your hard drive, etc.

Tapla and BigCityAl, what were your handles over there on GW?

Guy S.

Joulz,
Glad to have you here!

I'm Bigcityal wherever I go {:)
I probably would be in shrubs more than trees, mainly in Dahlia. I still go in a few of those forums, but it makes me glad I have DG to come back to.

I also am glad that some have come over here too.
Joolz and her trees! hehe!

Guy - I also use "tapla" at GW. My post history can be viewed by using the search feature & just entering "tapla" w/o the quotes.

Al

My smallest tree:

Oh yeah! I remember that little acorn-cap tree!
I was so struck by it that I guess I forgot to look at who sent it!
Guy S.

It would seem that an exodus has begun. Me and my trees and shrubs and my greenhouse and my containers and my perennials and my tropicals have essentially made the jump.

I like the fact that you can actually talk to "Dave."

SB

You can talk to "Dave"? Because I actually registered as "Joolz" a long time ago, but when I went to become a subscriber the other day, it wouldn't let me subscribe as "Joolz." I've had my October Glory red maple pictures on Dave's for well over a year under that other name. I'm still having a bit of a learning curve problem as relates to navigating things here. Doesn't seem intuitive. Or maybe it's just me. Help!

Hi Joulz, I had the same dilemma about a month ago.
In Oct.05' I signed up as Shortleaf2005, because plain old "shortleaf was taken.

All I did, after I thought about it for a minute was email DG support here and had "Shortleaf2005 deleted and my older unpaid name "shortleaf" resurrected.
But, it comes with a cost, all my posts from Shortleaf2005 had to be deleted, I agreed. It was pretty simple, they just applied my subscriber fee to the old name and it was a done deal.

If "Joolz" is just an old unpaid member name that you created some time ago, I bet you could do the same thing.

They're support was helpful on the matter.
They just want to be sure that is what you want because it is ir-reversible.

Will

The "Daves Garden" has lots of posts and threads from Dave. SB

I would like to add my welcome to those new folks, although I'm still pretty new myself.

I would like to say here and now that Tapla is THE MAN when it comes to potting mixes! I have benefited greatly from his copious knowledge and excellent advice, and I'm very happy to see him here at DG.

Joulz, I love your website and I'm just a little envious. Okay, a lot envious! Someday I would really like to learn how to create something like it. Guy's too!

I love participating in these forums. I have learned so much from them. The only downside is there isn't a way we all have a beer together!

Scott

Hi Joulz!
I'm the same Undercover_Owl here as at GW. I recognize "Joolz" handle.
Glad to see people join this party.

Howdy Folks!

Guess I'm the old-timer in this thread! However, this here DG old-timer wishes to give all ya'll a HEARTY WELCOME TO DG!

I, too, was once a GW member, for a short time...then was invited here and never went back! I'm sure I'll be a DG Lifer from now on.

I don't often come to this forum but perhaps will be doing so more in the future (I'm contemplating branching out into growing more trees/shrubs for our farm/g-house business).

Again, welcome to all (and yes, a belated welcome to some of ya)!

Shoe.

Shoe, we need to motivate the folks on that DG greenhouse forum... ;-) SB

Decumbent, Thanks! Nice comments about my Web site. I really have a lot of fun on that little project. Wish I had an entire forest.

And thanks everybody for the warm welcome! So far, I'm liking it. And actually, I think I'll keep my new screen name. It's, ahem, growing on me.

Stressbaby, the g-house forum seems to "come and go", almost seasonally. I post over there from time to time, usually fielding questions and/or contributing. Maybe you could post some pics of your g-house? And all your plants? Would love to see them and hear what you are growing!

It's pretty easy to defeat the ads on GW.. Someone posted in the Palms forum on how to do it but it looks like it got removed.. Basically it involves editing your %SYSTEMROOT%SYSTEM32DRIVERSETCHOSTS file and adding a few lines. Anyone interested can D-mail me for instructions.

Shoe, I have posted some pics on the "Pics of your GH" thread. SB

I just joined DG myself, after being at GW since 1996. In the last two years, I just haven't had much time to particapate at GW. Between the upkeep of two properties, a large Orchid collection, and work, I have been pretty busy. But winter is here and this is always a slower time for me, so I am on line more. I have missed many of the regulars that have left GW, and IVillage has really made a mess of the programing. Sad. But, I am glad to be here and find a new home to chat and share plant mania at. Maybe I can load pictures here as well, have to give it a try! Thanks Guy for the information about this site at GW...

Hi all,
I have now left GW, permanently, due to all of the "crap" that iVillage is doing.

To see what some of the "crap" is, go to the trees forum and check out the thread titled: maybe a tree will fall on their house - or something along those lines.

I was Greenthumb on GardenWeb and decided to try a new handle here since I really, really love trees.

It's good to see so many familiar "faces" here. I think that when the new rules go into effect, on the 24th, there will be a mass exodus from GW to Dave's - and that is great news.

I, too, had registered twice at Dave's Garden. I had a paid sub under just plain treelover and I wanted to use treelover3, but found that it was already taken. I tried to sign in under treelover3 and found that I was the one who registered the name as well.

I did change my user name from treelover to treelover3 and Dave didn't delete any of my posts, but he said that it was a royal pain to make the change. I would guess that's why he now needs to delete all of a person's previous posts when a user name is changed.

Mike

It's great to see the familiar names keep trickling in! I hope the rest join us soon.

If any of you go back there (GW Tree Forum) for any reason, please bump up the "Ghosts" thread and bring it to the front page where more will see the invitation to move here.

Guy S.

Welcome treelover3/Mike.

Guy, I'd do what you are suggesting, it's just that I don't even like to open up the website anymore because it takes so long and then I have to "scrub" all the cr@p off my computer after each session.

I could be doing a lot more productive things here, like working in the PlantFiles, and posting pics like a kid in a candy shop.

Oh V V! Please do add to the PlantFiles. Adding to the PlantFiles is the best. Photos are always needed and you probably have many Viburnum to add.

By the way, my Sister-In-Law is a member over at GW and she found this thread which is pretty wild-
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ponds/con0118302124709.html?23

This is a big concern if anyone out there has future aspirations of writing a book or contributing to a local newspaper or selling their photos or anything it would seem. I personally think it is sort of creepy.

I went over there and found the thread Guy was talking about-
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg012100006157.html?10

But look at this thread-
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg1211270512948.html?43
Quite clever if I do say so myself. I was told that if somebody tried to post a link to anything that had to do with us over here at Dave's Garden that they were blocked and the post couldn't be submitted because of filters. I guess if you try to post links to us at DG enough the GardenWeb member will get banned and will end up at a Disneyland site. Yup, looks like it is a Web over there all right. A big tangled web.

The massive exodus has already begun. This is great for all of us. And all of you people who have "dual citizenships" should go over there and post a link to the privacy issues with that iVillage claiming copyright. That blows my mind away. How rude.

Patrick3852, treelover3, and ViburnumValley...
A HEARTY WELCOME TO DG!


Good to have you join in! Thanks for coming to share; I'm feel positive that you will enjoy it here! Hope to see you around the site!

Shoe.

Oops, a big warm welcome to Patrick3852! So glad you have joined here.

I think I've finally given up on GW. The technical problems have been intractible, and with so many throwing in the towel, the quality of the content and traffic on many of the forums is declining precipitously. I'd been reading and posting there for years. Sigh. A hard habit to break, but it was nice to read posts from so many familiar users over here today.

Some conspiracy theorist posited that they were doing the re-re-re-re-registration for hits. It seemed preposterous on the surface, but I did a little digging. Seems the mgmt did trumpet a large increase of hits in Jan, this while they had put the whole iVillage business up for sale. They did not get the money they wanted and pulled the For Sale sign late last winter. They still have a lawsuit from their shareholders dating from 1999 going, no settlement there. Seems there was some shenanigans from the people who run the site, something about driving up the share price in their IPO and then giving kickbacks, something along those lines. I too was a long time contributor. I don't even check in anymore, don't want them to count my look-see as a hit. ivillage is a media company whose whole aim is to increase the number of eyes that look at the ads. The don't care about anything else, not the GW posters, not the content, nothing. They want to proclaim themselves a 'women's company', but from what I can tell, the ladies took it on the chin like everybody else. Welcome aboard. This site has a lot of the feel of the old GW, R.I.P. GW.

Al(tapla)
I just cruised by this thread, and WOW! I have to say, that is the coolest most unique little guy I ever saw!!! Is that really a jade growing in an acorn shell? Please, please, please tell me more. I think I'm hyper-ventilating! :-)
Deanna

Joolz, sure enjoyed your tree diary. I moved to this acreage in 1995, nothing here but native grasses and sagebrush. First thing I did even before the house was in place was to plant trees., Now have about 100 different trees. I live on 5 1/2 acreas of which about 2 1/2 acres are completely enclosed with redwood fence. the deer do not prune the same as I do.

One of the first trees I planted was the Prunus cercifera Thundercloud. It is near 30 feet tall now. But only bloomed nicely for the first few years, now just scattered blooms, Have never seen any fruit. The foliage is very nice but when there is a strong wind blows off lots of the leaves, Not really a problem. I'm not sure i would plant another.

It is sad that the beautiful beech (wasn't it) had to be removed, especially as there didn't appear to be any damage. Trees are so important it is sad to be removed. Here is a partial photo of my windbreak trees on the hill just north of my house.

DonnaS

Hey Mary, so glad you're on board with us now! Please go back to GW just one more time and bring anyone else with you who still hasn't found us here! I did that several times myself when I first came over here to DG, but my slow computer and slower connection just get all bogged down over there. Every time I clock in at GW I have to run Adaware and Spybot to restore my system.
Guy S.

Hey Guy, I just clicked on the link to the Ghosts of Christmas Past thread and it's gone! Time to go and clean up my computer with SpyBot and PestPatrol for having gone over there to that site to take a peek.

Pest-Patrol -- hadn't heard of that one, is it freeware? I'm surprised that Ghosts thread lasted as long as it did at GW. Or maybe not, given the lack of attention that i-Village gave to anything except ads over there.

Anyway, it's their loss that so many of us felt forced out, and I hope the original Dave's folks consider it their gain that we've joined them. Reminds me of two rural high schools consolidating and fielding a much better football team than either one previously had on their own. I learn more here every day, from some of the best talent there is.

Guy S.

I won't go back to GW because if you access their site, you agree to all of the terms and conditions that went into effect on 2-24-06 (I believe that's the date). If you access their site after that date, all of the personal info that they have collected on you can now be used as they see fit. While I would love to have everyone that was at GW, here at Dave's, it's just not worth letting iVillage sell my personal info to some schmucks, for big bucks.

Since Google crawls the web, maybe we should put a thread here at Dave's that has the names of as many woody trees, shrubs and conifers as we can. We can also include the name "Garden Web" and "Dave's Garden" so that when people search the web, the link will come up in a Google search. We can also warn people to stay away from GW and recommend that they join Dave's. This certainly couldn't hurt? It's just a suggestion; what do you think?
Mike