I've only been on the forum a relatively short time and originally joined to ask for a plant identification (which I got of course!). But I love the community feel of it. A few years ago I had a little shop and there were several times when people I barely knew came in and we got chatting and quickly arrived at what was troubling them. Hugs, tears and cups of tea ensued. But I take the point that this forum is read by many more than those who post and of course there was no audience to the little intimate chats I had in my shop. Nevertheless, I feel this is a safe place and I know that I have found my tribe here!
It occurs to me that these could/would have been the results of searches for ‘bombs’ as well as ‘bees’ and ‘bee bombs’.
Search engines results will give you a list of website hits for your keywords. People would see GW listed and then open it -- it's very clear that a gardening site they would be entering.
This below is the Google result for "Plants that root in water" (as it appears on my Firefox browser). It's pretty clear what kind of website you would be entering if you click the link.
Don’t think that’s quite how spam-bots work … otherwise we wouldn’t get so much ‘furniture spam’ on threads mentioning ‘beds’ etc … they don’t weed out inappropriate sites … they just post their spam on any site that has the word ‘bed’ repeated a number of times.
Thankfully the set up of the forum is much better than it used to be … before the forum re-vamp it wasn’t unusual to get page after page of automated spam before you scrolled down far enough to find a normal thread.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Don’t think that’s quite how spam-bots work … otherwise we wouldn’t get so much ‘furniture spam’ on threads mentioning ‘beds’ etc … they don’t weed out inappropriate sites … they just post their spam on any site that has the word ‘bed’ repeated a number of times.
From what I can see, it is people, not bots that are posting spam on the forum, which is why you can often have conversations with them. The people bomb various sites with links on the off chance someone might click. And it's why there is now that much spam.
Genuinely interested gardeners should be able to see clearly on their search engine that this is a gardening before they enter. There should be no ambiguity.
Spam, bots etc are not pushing up forum viewing figures, from what I can see.
Having belonged to an Irish forum for some time pre-GW, it has pretty much declined but, if it does, it occurred to me that there'd be a wealth of advice and comment that would fill a sizeable book but be lost for ever. Such a shame.
Posts
But I take the point that this forum is read by many more than those who post and of course there was no audience to the little intimate chats I had in my shop. Nevertheless, I feel this is a safe place and I know that I have found my tribe here!
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.