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This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Josh DUK

Josh DUK

Former Online Community and Learning Manager
Staff member
Relationship to Diabetes
At risk of diabetes
Last edited:
Are these home based roles?
 
I was the first ever member to join this Forum when it opened, and I am concerned as to the direction it has taken over the past 12/18 months, it was started by a lady who then past it onto to Northener, they then asked Diabetes UK for support with a money donation to keep the site going, this was granted and they were left to get on with it and built the best and most brilliant diabetes helpful Forum online. After such great success it looked to me like Diabetes UK suddenly took an interest in the Forum and wanted part of it, it became to business like, compared to the early days, and suddenly we had an administrator, now we have a number of Moderators, a number of Administrators, and on top of that we are now looking to appoint a number of Community coordinators. I am waiting now to hear about a Membership Secretary and Treasurer to collect a membership fee to pay for all these add ons.
Having been a member of this Forum for so long I often think of the hundreds of members that started with us and the reasons they left, I have often thought that it would have been nice to have someone follow up on these members to let them know that we still think about them, after all there is a lot of experience there to help new and younger members.

Just my thoughts, not expecting anyone to agree with me.
John.
 
ukjohn said:
I was the first ever member to join this Forum when it opened, and I am concerned as to the direction it has taken over the past 12/18 months, it was started by a lady who then past it onto to Northener, they then asked Diabetes UK for support with a money donation to keep the site going, this was granted and they were left to get on with it and built the best and most brilliant diabetes helpful Forum online. After such great success it looked to me like Diabetes UK suddenly took an interest in the Forum and wanted part of it, it became to business like, compared to the early days, and suddenly we had an administrator, now we have a number of Moderators, a number of Administrators, and on top of that we are now looking to appoint a number of Community coordinators. I am waiting now to hear about a Membership Secretary and Treasurer to collect a membership fee to pay for all these add ons.
Having been a member of this Forum for so long I often think of the hundreds of members that started with us and the reasons they left, I have often thought that it would have been nice to have someone follow up on these members to let them know that we still think about them, after all there is a lot of experience there to help new and younger members.

Just my thoughts, not expecting anyone to agree with me.
John.
Click to expand...

I joined in 2010 John - so a relative newcomer. 🙂

It is true that Diabetes UK has become more involved in recent years (complete with new colour scheme!), but personally I think this is a good thing for the forum. They can help with the technical running of the forum so that it complies with legal requirements and regulations and help train the volunteers (eg safeguarding) as well as financially support the web hosting and financial costs of running a website of this size as they always have.

The forum has always had moderators and an admin. The originator of the forum was the first admin and she passed on admin duties to Northie. When I was asked to be a volunteer moderator (March 2011) there was already a team of 6 volunteers who looked after the forum, booted out spammers, ensured newcomers got a prompt welcome and helped smooth out any miscommunication or disagreements between members.

I don't believe there is any intention to ask for any fees - quite the opposite infact - I think Diabetes UK recognise the importance of the impact for people with diabetes in sharing their experiences and having questions answered by others who have been there before them, and want to help the forum reach many more people than it ever did before.
 
ukjohn said:
I was the first ever member to join this Forum when it opened, and I am concerned as to the direction it has taken over the past 12/18 months, it was started by a lady who then past it onto to Northener, they then asked Diabetes UK for support with a money donation to keep the site going, this was granted and they were left to get on with it and built the best and most brilliant diabetes helpful Forum online. After such great success it looked to me like Diabetes UK suddenly took an interest in the Forum and wanted part of it, it became to business like, compared to the early days, and suddenly we had an administrator, now we have a number of Moderators, a number of Administrators, and on top of that we are now looking to appoint a number of Community coordinators. I am waiting now to hear about a Membership Secretary and Treasurer to collect a membership fee to pay for all these add ons.
Having been a member of this Forum for so long I often think of the hundreds of members that started with us and the reasons they left, I have often thought that it would have been nice to have someone follow up on these members to let them know that we still think about them, after all there is a lot of experience there to help new and younger members.

Just my thoughts, not expecting anyone to agree with me.
John.
Click to expand...

hello John,

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and concerns with us. I am still relatively new to the role, and I wanted to expand the forum team because a community such as ours run 24/7 and we need the people to manage it. You may be aware, but our previous administrator has retired and we were putting in place procedures to replace him.

There will be absolutely no fee associated with the forum. The Diabetes UK forum is such a crucial part of the organisation and my role is highlight the importance of the forum and make people aware of what the online community has to offer.
 
Shouldn't this be bumped from time to time?
 
It's been made as a 'sticky' @AndBreathe, so will stay at the top of the General Messageboard list until the closing date I expect.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
It's been made as a 'sticky' @AndBreathe, so will stay at the top of the General Messageboard list until the closing date I expect.
Click to expand...

Do many people often navigate via the individual boards? Personally, I go to Recent Posts to find out what's going on.

Surely the idea is for maximum coverage and exposure. Posting, and reinvigorating it on Recent Posts, doesn't stop it being a sticky, but might bring it to the attention of more visitors to the forum?

Just a thought.
 
Ah I see! I don’t often use the ‘recent posts’ thing 🙂
 
With the sort of thing that can happen on the net, you need admin/mods. Forums can also be too tightly run. Or too formal.
On other forums & chats I've also seen bad admin, who'll go off on one or generally behave like an ass. (Been on the receiving end of bad admin myself.)
Balance is required. If you have a good selection of admin/mods it can even things out. They can run things pass each other.
Speaking as someone who's been an admin elsewhere (and on occation removed people from groups).

Modding on here seems to be done quietly and can be missed. It's easy to be unaware of it.
 
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