Time to go

You are not alone. It's very disconcerting to lose 'friends' seemingly overnight, but it goes back to common rules of social etiquette - common courtesy & respect for others. A few of my friends have disappeared, and a few have turned out to be snobs - people I don't wish to associate with. The members who vanish in a blink want it to be so. I've also picked up some new unexpected friends without trying. This isn't the fault of GoY, it's life in general.
Take care and all the best to you.
Good bye.

if you want to leave the photos for us to enjoy and for you too look at in the future just leave your account as it is. Then you can dip back in should you decide to come back.

Don't apologise this is a natural concern of many. Its good that you are letting us know that you plan to 'disappear' as when members leave we do wonder what has happened.

keep well.

We will miss you blogs Lori. Perhaps you'll come back again when you're ready - I hope so.

Don't delete lori, they will continue to give pleasure to many of us who dip in and to yourself most of all, they inevitably hold so many memories. Yours has been a great achievement! Hope to see you here again sometime, as stera says, when you're ready. Don't forget you can always 'lurk' as I'm sure many of us do..

Yes, lurk on! I think Bathgate has summed it up well. We will miss you. But enjoy your break! Thank you for letting us know.

Like Lori, I've noticed a marked decline in the number of members, both active and lurking, on GOY. I am now questioning as to whether to continue posting photos on here, or merely on Facebook and Twitter where they are seen by a much wider audience.

I wonder why it is. Goy is by far the best. I suppose it depends what you are looking for, but I like the Catalogue facility and the expert advice from people like yourself Andrew. I also post on another site, but its not the same. You can't write blogs. GoY is excellent for that...blogging and cataloguing. But if you only want to share photos then I guess other places are probably better...more of an audience. I used to post on Facebook pages, but tbh I don't much like the hoards of people I don't know having access to my Facebook photos. I like to keep my gardening separate to some extent. I suppose the ideal would be to have your own blog where you can keep everything together...but that can become a burden too. I think Goy is excellent for what it offers for free in terms of blogging space etc. I'm sad that it is declining so markedly.

Lori are you sure your friend is deleted? There seem to be deleted messages going around which are not true. Apparently I've been deleted according to one friend, but I haven't.

Karen - I've been writing a blog for a couple of years now, two entries a month, with followers in the UK, USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia.
Ditto my photos on Twitter.
Also there's a Facebook group for photos of unusual plants, so I'm catered for on those platforms.

Find it hard to keep up with my GOY friends...I lurk often... Maybe u will lurk again soon Lori..x

I agree with Sandra ... better to lurk than to exit completely... you may regret leaving.
It is almost impossible to visit every photo and blog, especially when one's own life is difficult and full of demands and stresses, but I do my best to look at everyone's contributions.
GoY isn't as good as it was some years ago, but it still has advantages over other groups.
There are some very nice members... including all those who have commented above !

I will look you up Andrew...have you a link?

Karen - the blog is amateurplantsman.wordpress.com

Thanks! :)

I've only just found this blog Lori, reason being I have just started reading your recent one, I am so pleased you haven't disappeared, I've been following you ever since I started on Goy, watched you slave away over the years, your gardening experiences are completely different obviously to anything I have come across, its always fascinated me and also amazed me to see how hard you work at it..
I have been absent a lot in the last year but not because I wanted to be, I was having problems with Goy and it took a lot of sorting out, very frustrating as I still do not know what caused it or how I managed to fix it, that doesn't matter though as long as I'm up and running again.
I have noticed how slow Goy has become in the last two years, many people just do not seem to be around any longer, I often check though to see if their accounts are still open, I think its a shame when they have been deleted, I know its the members own choice usually, sadly not all though but after all the years of following its a shame to lose contact, I often feel like I've lost a friend, also all the beautiful gardens and places from different parts of the world, I would never have discovered without being a member on here, all just gone in the click of a button..
Like Karen I think Goy is the best group I have found, I do belong to two on Facebook but they are more gardening chatrooms, made new friends to chat with admittedly, some like myself are Goy members but without the blogs and pages whereby I can record my garden diary, also they are so big one can get lost in a crowd, just not the same Lori....As I already said I have seen you are still here, so pleased Lori....

I've noticed a few members have indeed returned and are with us again. I don't judge them or hold a grudge. I just welcome them back. Life is short. Some come back under a different name and don't think I know who they are..."I know who you are!" But it's OK, I'm glad your back anyway! lol

I do like Goy, but it can be very time consuming, time needed in the garden. If your account remains live, we can look at it at leisure, on rainy days and over the winter. And more importantly you can pop in now and again when you feel the need.

Paul I find it very frustrating when someone returns under a different name, I know a few who have changed their names over the years, it was explained to me a very long time back that you have to change your name to open a new account, I do like to know if I'm chatting to a member from way back, most let you know who they are straight away, thank goodness.

As most of you have already seen...I'm back!
At worst all that I intended was a hiatus... a break to collect my thoughts.
I'm thankful to all who commented as it made me realise that I'm not as isolated as I thought.
To the folks who work/help on the sight I hope you know that I appreciate it and never intended any comment to be considered severe criticism.
I have loved GoY since I happened upon it back in 2008. I truly do miss some of the first friends I made on here and often go waaay back to the start to remember some beautiful gardens, great ideas, amazing plants and great gardening works done by "GoY friends". Some I've had since the beginning and those friends I really treasure... that is why when I saw signs of some changes on good old GoY that I began to question my own commitment to garden blogging.
When I moved from town to country back in December 2010, I thought that I would have a better defined indentity if I made a new account about the new property... but it involved a name change and that seemed to be when I lost a lot of the people I had followed since my beginning. After about a year I just gave up and went back to my original name and photos.
Does anyone else know how to transfer blogs and photos from the "new" account back to my "old and present" account?
Thanks to everyone for your constructive and informative feed back. My garden is evolving slowly and I'm feeling a little more successful than I did the first few years. It took me much longer to see the changes I had envisioned here in the "new" garden, and along the way the land had a lesson for me that I've only just begun to appreciate. (I've discovered (?) so many plants that grow in the wild that have either escaped gardens or were captured out of nature and put in gardens...especially ferns...that I could literally spend years catalogueing them. Life's too short and my garden moves too fast...or seems to because I've become and old fart.
So, here I am folks. I'm back.
Love ya GoYers!~

Love you too Lori! :) No idea if you can transfer old blogs...maybe try copy and pasting them, but that's all I can think of. But it doesn't matter. We all know who you are. I'm in the same position as you of course. But I think a lot of people have left for various reasons...and why not...I suppose that's just what we should expect from an online group. Its the nature of this technology. I'm just glad you are back! :) K x

Bless your heart Lori, I'm an old fart as well but with a lot less garden to care for, I panicked last winter because I thought I was in danger of losing all my Goy, I tried everything to work out how to save all my pages , even managed to get my first ever blog copied, trouble is I couldn't get the rest to work, I have never managed to copy and paste three times in a row, actually my oldest daughter says its my laptop that won't do it for me, she has tried doing it for me to no avail, which actually made me feel less of a dumbo.. Love you too Lori..xx

Hi Lori & welcome back. You just reminded me to order tickets for 'Hello Dolly' Hello Dolly with Bette Midler.

glad u returned Lori...i rely do feel like you are a cyber friends as are many on here. I find it hard to keep up in the summer but you guys help keep me semi sane through the winter..xx

It's all been said but welcome back old friend, although I don't go quite as far back as 2008. Goy wouldn't be goy without lori from canada, your blogs I think have been an eye opener for many of us. It's great to see how people cope in different parts of the world and with such different climates, yours being pretty extreme. Enjoy your garden this summer. I'm looking forward to your next blog.