We still seem to have members, new and not so new, not knowing that a question they asked has been answered, or at least responded to, or where to find it. On some forum sites an email is sent to notify a thread starter of new posts - I assume that would generate too many emails with a membership as large as this site's? I think @dave might have mentioned some other way of helping people find their threads, just wondering if this is still in the works? "Watch" notifications presumably show up on peoples' home pages but not everyone visits the home page (or maybe don't see the notifications).

I know on the ask a question forum, at the end it asks if you want an email sent when your post gets a reply.so if someone clicks no, they do not get notified via email. But again that is in the ask a question forum.

Another way is they can look in their own profile, and look under the "posts by....." then they can search for their post with the question. I how that helps. Maybe Dave or another moderator have a better answer

Nhra_20 said:I know on the ask a question forum, at the end it asks if you want an email sent when your post gets a reply.so if someone clicks no, they do not get notified via email. But again that is in the ask a question forum.

Does that follow them to the new forum if their thread gets moved from Ask a Question?

For me, the simple answer is to set my profile preferences to 'automatically watch' any threads I have either started or replied to. It's been so long since I've even looked at this, I don't know what the default is. I get entirely too many junk emails as it is, generating more would just be annoying (for me).

I'm not sure about that. @dave can you help out Sue with this?

Dave recently updated the verbiage that appears after they are finished posting their question. It says that it may take a awhile before the member responses start to come in and to check back in a few hours.
I have noted that there seems to be a little improvement with the OP coming back but some never do for whatever reason.

Do they always know where to check? Maybe someone who knows more about using the site than I do could help answer Teresa's questions in the post linked below, which was not in Ask a Question:

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Deb, I was thinking of optional email notifications, same as we have for Tree Mails if we set that in our preferences. So it would just be for those that want it, not everybody. But maybe the Ask a Question forum does work like that already?

Sooby, I'm not sure how Ask a Question works. I quit watching that forum a while ago.

I let Dave know, he may have to tweak it again. It may be that the thread watcher has to move to the top for the new members that start threads so at least they know they have replies. I know projects are keeping him busy so it's on his list to check into it and he'll come up with something I'm sure.

If you look at the ask a question page, there is a bit of disconnection from the actual ask a question forum. At the time you ask the question it's not very clear that the question will be posted in a public forum and I think this can add some unnecessary confusion as to in what form the answer will be delivered. I wouldn't be surprised if some posters has a different idea of what an "expert panel of gardeners" is and therefore doesn't expect or even want a public forum discussion around their problem/question, so they may not return for that reason also.

I haven't seen the notification the question asker gets after they finish posting the question, so not sure how it looks. However I'm thinking it would be better that the poster understood what to expect and where to go for answers before the question was asked, rather than having an afterwards explanation.

@sooby, Delayed reply here but I was following along, trying (and failing) to remember what appears when I ask a question or post a comment, and thinking about how I agreed with your concern, and then I stumbled on something that @William said.
To wit, 'it would be better that the poster understood what to expect and where to go for answers before the question was asked, rather than having an afterwards explanation.'

I hate to ask, but of course I will, would that be knowing the answer before one knew the question?

sooby - I know sometimes I have to hunt for answers and sometimes not. That's the extent of my memory.
William - Of course we know that everyone is an expert. Mostly.