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The Forum's future - your thoughts please!

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Adrienne said:
Personally I think the facebook page is a disgrace. DUK police that one and the advice that people give out to others is sometimes very wrong and absolutely shocking but it is there for all too see. Not good.

If you post something that a few of the regulars do not like you get bombarded with not particularly nice emails.

Not a good place to be but I do look as sometimes newly diagnosed children's parents pop up on there as a first port of call. :(
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Agree Adrienne - I have given up on the FaceBook page some time ago - DUK should be giving prominence to this forum and sorting out FB page - if it can't be monitored properly they shouldn't bother to have it . Makes me fume 'cos like you say it is the place many parents go to first at Dx (in my case it was 2nd after JDRF).
 
Northerner said:
For those who are interested, the MNDA forum that I nearly ended running has the same software, but an updated version. I think it looks quite nice and a lot more modern now that ours is a few years old 🙂

http://forum.mndassociation.org/

Thanks for that about DUK changing colour and logo Adrienne - that peice of information must have slipped past me!
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Thats a very elegant looking forum🙂 Gentle on the eye.
 
I joined this forum in September 2011 after being introduced to it by another forum member.

This is where after 20 yrs of being diabetic i've learned most of my diabetic stuff.
Thanks to anyone on the forum who's answered / helped with any of my questions.
Appologies if it's always questions i ask on here.
Thanks also to everyone for being so friendly.

Probably it would be nice to have a welcome pack on here as Cherrypie mentioned, done as a sticky, explaining about the role of carbs in diet, NICE guidelines for blood sugars, why it is necessary to be able to test, sick day rules, exercise, 15 point checklist for care, etc..........

I think a couple of members have mentioned about having split forums ie T1, T1.5, T2, maybe this would be good or maybe bad, i don't really know but personally i think you could go straight to the relevant forum or if you want then you still have the option to read things to do with the other forums.

I've been reading through as many of the posts on here as i could - How can we better promote the forum?
1. i think a regular mention in Balance
2. the posters are a good idea but also a great idea to have some business card style adverts.

Good luck Alan with the meeting with Diabetes UK.

Think that's about it really apart from long may the DS forum continue!


Gill
 
I'm not that technical so please don't make the forum to hard for me to do.

Gill
 
I hate the lips in the forum logo. I have no idea what they are supposed to convey. They don't convey 'love' because it's an open mouth, not a 'kissing' mouth. Yee Ukkkkk. That combined with the pink brings it down to what'd more likely appeal to silly teenage girlies. Makes me cringe every time I see the thing.

Let's hope DUK get better people designing their new logo than whoever designed this forum's one.
 
I've always thought they are trying to say "it's good to talk" which is what we do I suppose.
 
vince13 said:
I've always thought they are trying to say "it's good to talk" which is what we do I suppose.
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Yes, that is the idea, and please don't be too harsh on the designer - if it wasn't for her this forum wouldn't exist! 😱

To address some comments about further splitting of the forum - definitely not a good idea in my opinion. We have far more in common than a lot of people realise. We all have to learn the effects of different foods on our levels, we all want to discuss breakthroughs in research, or things we have seen about diabetes in the media. Whatever type, a lot of people have meters, problems with surgeries, nurses, sharps bins, many of all types are on injections etc. Moreover, this is a support forum, and there's absolutely no reason why someone can't offer words of support to someone however far apart they may be in age, gender, type or whatever 🙂

Other forums I have been on have endlessly categorised people into ever more specific pigeon holes, so that it quickly reaches the point where you simply don't know where to post your question! When you do post it, then you hardly get any replies, because only those individuals who happen to share your particular specialisation ever bother to look in the same section because the others presume it's nothing to do with them, yet they might just have the solution you need!

So - no splitting of Types! 🙂
 
Northerner said:
For those who are interested, the MNDA forum that I nearly ended running has the same software, but an updated version. I think it looks quite nice and a lot more modern now that ours is a few years old 🙂

http://forum.mndassociation.org/
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didn't realise you were involved in mnda forum looks very sleek although I didn't want to stay too long as I cared for my mum who had MND and all is too vivid to think about.

I hope DUK would change the lips too as I linked something one day and the lips appeared on the link which embarrassed me! Glad there wouldn't be divisions between types, very happy about this.
 
Over at 'hyphenated' we once had a membership poll to ask the very Q - shall we split, Types or Insulin/non insulin because a couple of people people had said we ought to - and it was a resounding Nooooooooooooooooooooo.

Which was good because none of the Mods or Admin wanted to either FWIW - but we all thought it was more democratic to ask em rather than impose our own views!
 
trophywench said:
Over at 'hyphenated' we once had a membership poll to ask the very Q - shall we split, Types or Insulin/non insulin because a couple of people people had said we ought to - and it was a resounding Nooooooooooooooooooooo.

Which was good because none of the Mods or Admin wanted to either FWIW - but we all thought it was more democratic to ask em rather than impose our own views!
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We have introduced a few new sections since the early days, not entirely sure whether they work particularly well as I'm sure a lot of people miss some interesting stuff that they might otherwise have seen. Originally we just had one huuuge thread for pumpers, but it became apparent that people couldn't find anything or follow it after a while! 😱
 
Northerner said:
To address some comments about further splitting of the forum - definitely not a good idea in my opinion. We have far more in common than a lot of people realise. We all have to learn the effects of different foods on our levels, we all want to discuss breakthroughs in research, or things we have seen about diabetes in the media. Whatever type, a lot of people have meters, problems with surgeries, nurses, sharps bins, many of all types are on injections etc. Moreover, this is a support forum, and there's absolutely no reason why someone can't offer words of support to someone however far apart they may be in age, gender, type or whatever 🙂

Other forums I have been on have endlessly categorised people into ever more specific pigeon holes, so that it quickly reaches the point where you simply don't know where to post your question! When you do post it, then you hardly get any replies, because only those individuals who happen to share your particular specialisation ever bother to look in the same section because the others presume it's nothing to do with them, yet they might just have the solution you need!

So - no splitting of Types! 🙂
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This absolutely fine Alan, what ever is best for the forum 🙂
 
This might be a bit way out there but I really love the 'like' button on fb and I find that I am always trying to 'like' emails or messages on here.

Could something like that be added perhaps (if the idea is liked of course 🙂) because that could also help some of the posters that don't think they get acknowledged as well.

I often read a post and would like the 'like' it but not actually reply because maybe I don't have time or have nothing helpful to say but if the poster knows that people actually have read it and do agree or like it etc then that is a type of acknowledgment.

I know that you can see how many have looked at a post but anyone can look and not actually read it !

Just a thought
 
Adrienne said:
This might be a bit way out there but I really love the 'like' button on fb and I find that I am always trying to 'like' emails or messages on here.

Could something like that be added perhaps (if the idea is liked of course 🙂) because that could also help some of the posters that don't think they get acknowledged as well.

I often read a post and would like the 'like' it but not actually reply because maybe I don't have time or have nothing helpful to say but if the poster knows that people actually have read it and do agree or like it etc then that is a type of acknowledgment.

I know that you can see how many have looked at a post but anyone can look and not actually read it !

Just a thought
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LOL Adrienne im the same I often think if i could just like this post it would be something, but I think its been mentioned more then once on and and Alan was not so keen.(hope im right there Alan)
 
Steff said:
LOL Adrienne im the same I often think if i could just like this post it would be something, but I think its been mentioned more then once on and and Alan was not so keen.(hope im right there Alan)
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No, I'm not against it Steff (I might have been in the past though - can't remember! 😉) I do remember looking into whether it is possible, and I think if we upgrade the software it is possible to include such a thing.

I think things are falling into a few broad categories so far:

  • Forum software/design changes
  • Forum promotion possibilities
  • Welcoming and inclusion of members

Lots to go on - hope no-one expects anything to happen quickly! I would like to get the forum promotion moving soon though 🙂
 
Last edited:
If you are investigating the 'Like' button Alan, could you also investigated a 'Thanks' button?

We have both on a Mororhome forum we're on, the Likes appear in the body of the original post box eg

Northerner, Trophywench, Steff and 15 others like this post

And the Thanks appear in a separate box immediately under that post

The following members say Thanks for this post

All the members names who actually clicked the Thanks button
 
I'm not sure on the 'like' thing. What if someone who needs reassurance doesn't get 'liked' ?

But i do 'like' (see what i did there? 🙄) the 'thanks' idea. More friendly and less likely to be seen as cliquey. And more appropriate I think when a lot of the posts are in order to help someone, so saying thanks from anyone else it may help is a nice idea (am I going soft? 😱).🙂

Rob
 
Hold my hands up I haven't read all the posts on this thread but I do agree with Rob on the "thanks button" I'm on another board that uses that and is great.

I am more than happy to let my local DUK group know about this site and also network and add to conversations. I also think Balance and DUK could/need promote this more and would be happy to distribute any posters if decided to go that route
 
I would say the forum dont need both, thinking about it I would much prefer a thanks then a like IMOH.I dont need my posts to be liked and as Robert says sometimes people come in here feeling quite vunerable and upset they may take it in the wrong way if there post is no liked.
 
Robster65 said:
I'm not sure on the 'like' thing. What if someone who needs reassurance doesn't get 'liked' ?

But i do 'like' (see what i did there? 🙄) the 'thanks' idea. More friendly and less likely to be seen as cliquey. And more appropriate I think when a lot of the posts are in order to help someone, so saying thanks from anyone else it may help is a nice idea (am I going soft? 😱).🙂

Rob
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I agree.

Thanks 😉
 
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