Questions about how to use the new community space

Thanks! Right now there's no way for you to delete your avatar, you just have to replace it. I uploaded one of the default ones to your profile.

Just noticed after posting the times of posting are still GMT,is there any where I can alter this BST.

Strange its just gone to BST after editing my profile.

I don't know why your account was set to be following so much, but I unfollowed everything for you, so this should be fixed for you now. I'll see about getting a 'select all' button to make that something users can do. 

Somehow your post about riding a bike ended up listed as 'unmoderated'. I'll investigate whether it somehow got put in as a new conversation or if it went to moderation for some other reason. UPDATE: It just went to moderation for some reason and when I approved it it reappeared on the correct conversation. I'll find out what happened, thanks for reporting it!

Re: about seeing who is posting replies, It's a good idea and I'll ask our developers how much work adding that feature would be and we can look at adding that in the future.

Hi George --

The old forum topics are in a separate area because the terms of posting have changed and we didn't want to change the rules on what people had already posted on the old forum. In the new topic areas, the body content of posts (but not usernames or profile information) is visible to users who are not logged in, to make the forum a better resource to men who are looking for answers. Because all the pre-move messages were posted when nothing whatsoever was visible to users who weren't logged in, we wanted to maintain that same set of rules for that content. Right now users who aren't logged in can't see the archive forums at all.

What we want is for members to move conversations to the main areas, and eventually after a time we'll lock the archive areas so that they're read-only. New conversations, for example, should be posted in the main areas rather than the archive areas, with the archive area mainly used to finish up conversations in progress. 

I hope that makes sense. In the meantime, I think the easiest way to keep up with the community without having to click through different topics is to use the Recent conversations view. You can see all the latest updated conversations, with newest on top, from across all the topic areas. This was a feature that a lot of people liked on the old forum but many people didn't know about -- we tried to make it more prominent in the new community space.

Best,

Sadie

Hi Sadie,

Thanks for your swift reply. I can see where you're coming from as regards the new forum menu v old forums.

I didn't appreciate the viewing permissions for non-subscribers.

What baffles me a bit is that when we start new conversations, the subjects of our posts don't fit exactly into the new section titles.

I can't see them being collated into an appropriate section.

It looks as though the list of 'Recent Conversarions' could end up a mile long.

I'm a dozy Geordie, you know. Am I missing the obvious?

Very best wishes,

George

At second attempt the thread post quote I initially selected and wanted has appeared.  My first attempt would have had me quoting a message that I did not initially select due to the screen leaping up towards the start of the thread and selecting a random post for me.  Now, some may find it irritating that the screen randomly pops about but I love it.  It will keep me on my toes and ensure that I am giving it 100% attention.  No relaxing in front of the laptop for me from now on, and this should stimulate the grey matter and ensure mental acuity until my old age, whenever that may be.  

At first I thought that the screen leaping was maybe down to my twitchy mouse fingers, not that I have the fingers of a mouse, and that they are twitchy , I mean "computer mouse" fingers.  Maybe twitchy mouse palm and forefinger would be more accurate?  Keeping up?  Anyway if the screen is not meant to randomly scroll up maybe the fact that at least two people are affected could be addressed?

Dave

Hi again Sadie,

About the new menu for conversations:

How can we transfer Personal Stories from the old forums to the new section on the menu here, which does have the correct title?

We have had some wonderful long running posts from some great men, some of whom have now left us, such as Andy Ripley and Spurspark (Mark) and his 'Rocky Road' and from longstanding members such as Rob and Allister and others who have run the gamut of treatments and clinical trials, acting as pioneers for us all. There are many more names.

It would be a shame to have those stories locked away in the old forum, or even lost altogether.

The information in those posts is priceless.

And the new 'Treatment' section'...I don't think 'Getting Rid of Prostate Cancer' is a suitable heading.

We don't have a cure yet, unless someone is lucky enough to be diagnosed in time and have the perfect op carried out by the best surgeon around.

Surely it would be better to word it simply 'TREATMENT', (but I do agree with the next one, 'Treatment of Advanced Cancer', because there is a big difference).

Yes, there are suitable new topic titles on this site, but how can we transfer very valuable Diet and Lifestyle and Prostate Cancer Guidelines posts for instance from the old to the new.

One of our members, Art, submitted brilliant posts on tackling bureaucracy and how to complain etc.

Very important, since so many of us have had shoddy medical care at one time or another.

So, is there a way to do all this? All I could think of was the slow business of copying and pasting old posts to the new forums, as some have done, but how about the transfer of those important stories from members now deceased, but who inspired us all?

Any ideas?

George

Hi George --

Yes, our developers are actually working on a whole load of fixes as we speak. All of the bugs and quirks people have reported we've reported on to the developers and they have booked in time this week to fix a whole raft of issues that weren't discovered until after we went live (including: repeated logouts, conversation titles disappearing, confusing 'confirm topic' button, inability to delete own posts, and more).

We're also going to be adding the list of all topic areas back to the Community Home page, so it's on the first page you see when you log in. Some users have complained that it's harder to find their way around, and I think putting the topic areas list right on the homepage will make it feel more familiar and like the old community space in terms of getting around. 

In response to your question about transferring conversations out of the archive sections -- we'd rather people just create 'continued' conversations which in their first post contain a link to the archived thread. Otherwise the old posts will be moved under a new privacy policy and without getting permission from every person who posted to the original thread, it doesn't seem right. I'm happy to help people create these links to/from conversations in the new areas.

The old well-loved threads that are so important to people will never be lost. In fact, if you post to 'top' them right now, once the archive areas are locked from new posts, they'll stay at the top of the archives forever. You can also start a new thread in the relevant new areas to signpost to those threads for newcomers who may learn or feel supported or inspired by reading them. 

Hope this helps,

Sadie

George,

I've just read your list of all the old headings, and I totally agree. I'm not the most computer literate of people, but I so loved this web-site when I first looked at it July 2013. I found it co comforting. I no longer get that feeling