TOPIC:

HI Everyone

It now occurs to the fixhepc team that the forum needs serious reorganising. I don't think any of us were expecting the explosion in traffic when we kicked off and essentially this liimited our opportunity to get in and do a clean up/regorganisation. My thought is that we should have some main headings up front which has all of the education and information within and then another section for the general daily discussion stuff. We will also need to start considering where we won't to be creating new threads etc. Now I'm far from an expert however I do know that we have several talented people on our forum A, S and others and we'd be more than happy if you could assist and provide technical and formating advice. At present the forum is a bit of a 'dogs breakfast' and good information is being pushed back into the thread pages. I'm happy for people to respond directly or PM myself or others at fixhepc. Em

Perhaps if we could have the various categories upfront and separated on the main page this would assist people to channel discussion correctly? Just a thought. Em

What do you want done exactly,Em. Its not that hard to change the lay out we would need
Admin access. I guess as mods we can delete threads and so on.

The threads recently responded too usually are at the top of any forum.

Are you suggesting we have less posting under every heading and have maybe informative posts that
can't be replied too? Then, maybe a area that you can post anything in?

Send me a message later today Em I can go over the thoughts I had which may make it
easier for everyone to use. Id made quite a few notes all ready.

I've being away a few days will catch up later today.

Definitely Emilio, I was thinking the same. topics go off track very easily. This is understandable though. It's as if we're like a dam that has just burst through I big embankment.
I'm guessing like myself, many have been anxious and nervous about the new treatments provided on this site. Getting chatty on the forum is/was a way of feeling out this brave new way of curing and caring for people.
It's taken me a while to get used to the site too. It's very well designed but, it's taken me three weeks to get around to reading the FAQ section. Crazy I know. Luckily Dr. Freeman and the bloggers have patiently answered my questions but I could have taken up less time and space by reading FAQ first. I notice others doing the same. Would it help if FAQ was highlighted in the top bar or incorporated into the blog page.
This is my observation and experience so far for what it's worth.
All the best,

I have to say the discussion forum is working very well for me as it is. A bit of browsing and I feel I'm finding everything I need.

Yep I think its fine. Its organic and topics are dropped cause they are no longer current

I think the quickest, easiest change that could help is the link from "Forum" on the home page.

Currently it takes us to "Recent Posts" and inexperienced forum users likely don't recognize the categories available.
If that link instead took us to the "Index" page new posts and especially new topics might more reliably end up where they belong.

Also, I suspect that the forum has the option of pinning specific threads to the top of the index, below which thread topics arrange themselves by recent activity.

Thanks everyone and I will take everything on board and talk with others as we go. Nothing major just tweak to get things smoother and ensure that the expert information remains up front. I'm also some tweaking with the chat tool. I also like the organic nature of the forum but many have commented that it is clunky? Klhild, I agree with linking the front page better to the forum. Em

I was a bit confused re the chat at first, answers were not appearing. Now I know if you refresh the page all works fine, just thought I'd post in case others new to this are having trouble.

Klhilde's suggestion is an excellent one, and should be the first change imo. At least it will give people arriving at the forum an indication of the proper structure of the forum. Wrt individual threads, any posts deemed sufficiently relevant and useful long-term should be made into stickys. If it's a paticularly important post, as many of Dr Freeman's are (most of which are all over the place and not easily found at the mo), either a 'reports of distinction' type of section, or into the FAQ's.

I know it's easy for me to say, me not being a mod who has to do it all, but a general tidy up of the threads wouldn't be a bad thing. All of us regs have been guilty of going offtopic/posting in the wrong threads. On the other hand, as others have pointed out, we want to keep the friendly and 'human' aspects of the forum. Some unrelated forums I'm involved with are over-moderated. Little Hitler syndrome springs to mind .

Alsdad, your advice is definitely needed. I like some of the structure of 'killthedragon' so we appreciate your advice and experitise. It's really the structure and architecture that we need to address. As the site and activity grows it's imperative to get it right. For example I was tinkering today in the settings of chat (right bottom corner) and realised that we have a true 'private chat' via clicking on 'private messaging in the settings. Doing this brings up all private conversations that we've had with others and provides an opportunity to leave messages for each other. I didn't know that this function existed and I'd like to bring that option forward for forum members and fixhepc front page visitors. Thank you everyone. Em

Good point. Fixed. Forum now opens on index page rather than recent.

You are now a moderator.

With great power comes great responsibility

-Spiderman!

Wow.....Gee folks.....what can I say.....first of all I'd like to thank.....

I'll get my head around this later this afternoon, have a chat with the other mods, and start work from there.

I'm feeling less pressure already lol, wise move James. Em