I'd appreciate your comments on how to make our community more user friendly

[neetugarg37]

hi, it is a good idea that we uses hyperlinks so that community made more user friendly.so that every user that unknown about the site can get useful information.

-------

neetu

--------

Edited January 21, 2009 by Mark

[paula]

What about people like myself that has only just learned how to switch a computer on, never mind going on about stickies and all the rest of it!

No dare I say, that there's bound to be others like myself? I haven't got a clue? I may have a son who is clued up about computers, being an Administrator of his own site his self, but I can't keep asking him 'how to do this and how to do that?' You forget that!

[paula]

Do you know, what is it with my post! You try and get involved within the community by answering post and WHAT FOR?

I DON'T KNOW WHY I BOTHER! THIS POST WILL GO UN-ANSWERED TILL IT GETS KNOCKED OFF! GET INVOLVED! NO THANKS!

[kaudio]

Hi Paula, I agree that learning about information technology can be difficult at times. Yet, wherever there is a will to learn, people will find a way.

Everyone's suggestions and thoughts to improve the user experience are always welcome, but please remember that this is a community of volunteers. Members have their own daily tasks to take care of alongside the tasks related to participating here. The time it takes for others to respond to your post does not mean anything.

Also, I am not sure what is meant when you say your post will be “knocked off”. Your post will remain on the forum.

neetu: I agree with your hyperlinks suggestion. I will include hyperlinks to other Mental Help Net pages wherever I can. I also strongly suggest that everyone take some time to explore the site beyond the community section. Mental Help Net offers a wealth of information concerning a vast array of topics by way of articles and podcasts.

finding: I share your observation that some members are seeking help in the blog section. When I can, I direct these members to share their thoughts on the forums as well. In my opinion, the blogs tend to serve more as journals for members to share their thoughts on a more ad hoc basis on any number of topics. The forums may share this ad hoc nature, but they serve as a space for posts focused on seeking and offering support.

[paula]

Hi Kaudio

Everyone's suggestions and thoughts to improve the user experience are always welcome, but please remember that this is a community of volunteers. Members have their own daily tasks to take care of alongside the tasks related to participating here. The time it takes for others to respond to your post does not mean anything.

How can I forget that this is a community of volunteers, it's drummed in often enough!

I also have given a lot of my time here in the past! I just expect a LITTLE back of what I've give! If not of the volunteers, as you would put it, then of the staff!

I too have my own daily task, like a full time job! I'm sure if I can manage it, others can, including the administrators! It sure looks to me like it's the same volunteers that carry this site, and keep it going! Because lets face it, without us volunteers, where would this site be?

Going back to the original post, could it be possible to ask one of you volunteers or any of the administrators, to explain the jargon that you all are so keen on having here. I mean, because we all can turn a computer on/off, we're supposed to know the in's/out's of it's capabilities as well, are we not?

The problem here, is taken for granted, that we are all related to einstein? Well I'm not and I'm not ashamed to admit it either! It's all good and well making all these suggestion's, but if you take a minute, just to sit back and think, 'well for the sake of them that are not clued up on the computer and are a bit thick! what we will do is EXPLAIN in a non computer jargon, exactly how we prepare to modify things on this community, by asking for any feedback on any problems, that volunteers may be facing, trying to understand all this **** that you all are so quick to add!'

[Guest ASchwartz]

Hi Paula,

You "sound" kind of angry. Is that true? Do you have any suggestions on how we could make this experience better for you and for others?

I am asking this of others as well.

Allan:)

[Karl13]

What and where is this lounge that you speak of? What is a stickie? I work with computers all day i dont know this stuff. But what if you had a chat room that u could interact like now time. I really enjoy the blogs but if there was a Chat room sometimes it is easier to interact now time. To share ideas one at a time in stead of sitting down and writting a book report. Sorry about taking 2 whole pages in "Abuse and Bullying". It takes alot to write it all out. i actually worked on it for quite a few days on word then copied and pasted. I still have it saved incase i want to add later.

Duh never mind i just saw it as i left..(the lounge)

Edited January 20, 2009 by Karl13

[paula]

Today 03:43 PM

Karl13

Lounge??

What and where is this lounge that you speak of? What is a stickie? I work with computers all day i dont know this stuff. But what if you had a chat room that u could interact like now time. I really enjoy the blogs but if there was a Chat room sometimes it is easier to interact now time. To share ideas one at a time in stead of sitting down and writting a book report

I think you can kiss my arse goodbye to that idea! There not to well up on volunteers idea's on here, didn't you know that Karl?

Glad to see your in my world here Karl! So, you too are not clued up on this stickies lark? Gosh! I thought it was just me, being thick on here! That makes Two of us, beep, beep! move over Beethoven!

[malign]

Paula,

I understand that you are asking to have some of the strange terms explained, but it is not entirely clear from your posts which terms you have trouble with.

I will try to explain 'sticky' threads. They are threads that an admin or moderator has decided will always be displayed at the top of the forum that the post was made in. For instance, if you go to the Self-Injury forum, there is a thread started by Mark whose headline starts "Sticky: Read this first, please". It has a little pin symbol to show that it is sticky. It is meant to remind people to use the 'Trigger' warnings. For that reason, he wanted it to always display at the top of the forum, so people wouldn't miss it.

There are lots of other terms, and I know they're confusing. Maybe (as a suggestion for improvement, perhaps) we could all throw out words we'd like to have defined in a Glossary attached to the FAQ (frequently-asked questions) link at the top.

[JustTrying]

ok i am not too smart ask anyone that knows me... forget the fact that I have passed alot of test like the GED for 2007 top 3 percent of all graduates.. not just GED but all graduates... Started and bulit , ran 4 bussiness.. I am stupid! I am stupid.... but I digress.... Stickies i did not understasnd until I read about them. CHAT I would like...... <Mark

JT(gabs)

[Mark]

for the sake of them that are not clued up on the computer and are a bit thick! what we will do is EXPLAIN in a non computer jargon, exactly how we prepare to modify things on this community

Paula,

can you ask specific questions? or name specific terms that you want defined? I would like to help clarify things for you but I don't know specifically what you need to know about. This software is not the easiest thing in the world to understand, I know.

The community is divided into "forums". Each forum is about a theme, so we have a forum for "Depression", and a separate forum for "self-injury", etc. the "Lounge" is an example of one of the forums.

Forums are composed of "posts" which are the individual contributions made by each member. You've made many posts yourself, Paula, and that is why your posts are now marked as "Senior Member". These status labels like "Junior Member" and "Senior Member" are detemined automatically by the community software, in this case based on the total number of posts you've contributed.

Member accounts are divided into three categories. There are regular users who can create posts, there are moderators who can create posts and also edit and delete posts (according to the community rules), and finally there are administrator users like myself who can create, edit and delete posts, and also set up new forums and do all sorts of back end stuff to alter the community. There are only a few moderators, kaudio being one of them.

Within forums, posts are organized into "threads". A thread is a collection of posts that have been made in response to one another. Threads are started with an initial posting, and then people respond to that posting. All the responses considered together are called the "thread". I guess they use the term "thread" to denote the idea that the various posts in a thread are strung together kind of like a chain of threaded popcorn that might be put on a Christmas tree as a decoration at Christmas time.

Most posts have no special status. that means that they enter the thread they are made to in order of the date they were created. So posts made on monday will appear before posts made on tuesday. The threads are read in decending date order, so the first post in a thread will appear at the top of the thread, and subsequent posts will appear in date order down the page, and then onto additional pages as are necessary to display the whole thread.

It isn't only posts within a thread that are organized in order of the date of their creation. It is the same for threads within a forum. There is one exception to this rule. Some threads are "sticky". Sticky threads can only be created by administrators (and possibly by moderators). Sticky threads always appear at the top of the list of threads within any given forum they appear in, regardless of the date of their creation. Sticky threads are used to highlight important information that readers who are viewing the forum ought to know about (in the estimation of the community). It has been suggested here in this thread that we make sticky threads within all the majojr forums that contain information about the resources available within the larger Mental Help Net website so that people visiting the community can find that information quickly. It has also been suggested that we create sticky posts that highlight the site rules, which presently can be found in the "FAQs" section of the website.

Please ask if there are other terms that you want defined.

Mark

Edited January 21, 2009 by Mark

[paula]

I think you knew exactly what I meant?

Karl13

Lounge??

What and where is this lounge that you speak of? What is a stickie? I work with computers all day i dont know this stuff.

Stickies i did not understasnd until I read about them. By Gabby

finding my way I am not techno at all. I tried to see if my question was already answered here, but I just got more confused. The thing I wonder is, do people understand that only the last post in a category shows up? I wish no post showed up at all for the big list, so that people wouldn't think their post disappeared, especially new people that are already fragile about speaking up. I finally discovered the "new posts" feature a week ago... there is so much to figure out about using the site! Anyway, if no posts show up in the big lists, it would be more obvious that you have to click on the heading to get all the posts for that category.

confused12

Conflict

I don't know about anyone else but I am triggered by all this conflict being spilled into general sections etc. It is as if people are trying gain support from the idea 'you are either with me or against me' type of posting.

I already restrict myself from some places here so I wont be triggered but I am finding conflict spilling out from other threads and trigger topics being brought up in places I would not expect

.

I am glad I am not alone on this one and Thank you Mark and Malign, for explaining something that should of been explained at the beginning of this post, which would of saved a lot of confusion, regarding, how to use sticky threads on a forum! Now that wasn't hard was it!

[kaudio]

For future reference, there is a faq concerning general use of the forum as well.

[paula]

I know, I've read it, now!

[confused12]

Hi Mark,

Are you able to add a 'thank you' reply to the bottom each post. So like if I started a thread and wanted to thank someone for there reply but others had posted in between I could actually go to that post and click on a thank you icon or something and the post a thank you from me, with my name attached.

This would let the poster know that I have read the post and appreciate the time they have taken to respond to my thread.

Confused12

[Mark]

I'm not sure there is a way to accomplish this. But I do think that you can simply append a post to a thread and start addressing the concerns of an earlier post (even if there are posts in between). People do that all the time.

[malign]

One way that seems to work is to just address the person you're replying to by their screenname. That allows you to reply to multiple people with one post, as well, if there have been several posts since your last visit.

I only rarely thank people directly for their reply; perhaps that means I'm taking them for granted, though I don't mean to. The way I look at it, we're all here to exchange our thoughts. The gratitude I feel is towards the community as a whole.

[kaudio]

One possibility is to use the reputation system to convey one's thanks. For the community, the reputation system is currently presented as part of the sandbox policy against spam; but, we could also use the reputation button as a 'thank you' button as well. Under the 'User CP', a member can see the threads where other members have given them reputation approvals. This way, the reputation system can be used to give thanks to a particular member while ensuring that the member in question will know what thread they participated in that merited that thanks. The only missing feature here is that one cannot tell who gave them the reputation approval.

[finding my way]

Hi Mark,

When I am NOT logged on, I can view many posts when I click on "todays posts." When I log on and comment on one, all the other ones I wanted to comment on disappear. I have to log off to see them again. Can that be fixed?

Thanks!