We seem to be having growing pains, IMHO!!

jay123 · Post by **jay123** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:39 am

This is my humble opinion, but we seem to be having some growing pains with the increased number of posters lately.

This board has been the best one I have ever been on for staying 'on topic'. Everybody has a lot of great info but I'd like to suggest we try to limit this forum to CCSVI, and then try to keep each post in the thread related to the topic of that thread.

There are other forums on this board for nutrition, etc if you want to post.
This is a great board, but lately a lot of our threads in the CCSVI forum that start with CCSVI have been going everywhere, it's difficult to keep up! A great example is the acupuncture thread. It was an interesting idea, so I read it. Then it has migrated into about three different topics, going all over the place. I know it's a tough call, like there is a thread on 'nutrition and ccsvi', that I thought belonged here but someone else thought should be in the nutrition forum, but let's at least keep each thread 'on topic'.

And one other point, please try and see if there are any other active threads with your questions, for example I think right now there are two threads for donating to Buffalo, and three or four for the great news from Vancouver and for the latest Canadian TV coverage.

Thanks for all the interest!!

Algis · Post by **Algis** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:53 am

Thank you jay;

As for peeps like me; it is very difficult to follow so many fuzzy posts while I only have interest in one

Be all well and cheers!

Algis

jay123 · Post by **jay123** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:57 am

I agree with you, and that's why I even brought up the idea that some people will have different ideas, such as our 'discussion' in the one thread.

bestadmom · Post by **bestadmom** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:13 am

Thank you Jay123 for pointing this out.

It would also help if new posters would search before asking questions that have been answered elsewhere. The volume of posts has made it impossible to read them all.

jay123 · Post by **jay123** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:00 pm

Yes, I agree thats why I put note in there about the dupicate posts. Hopefully the forum will stay focused!
Thanks

fiddler · Post by **fiddler** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:16 pm

While I agree with both of you, the huge amount of information here and the significant cross-thread utility of many postings means that it is almost impossible to search all the threads, many with "semi-duplicate" information. Then people, especially newbies, are almost forced to start new threads with questions that have already been answered because they can't possibly follow all the threads, many with important information not obviously related to the topic title. It doesn't help that there is no way to search only the CCSVI topics, and even if there was, choosing search keywords would be difficult.

I really think we need an information specialist to work on this, but in the meantime couldn't we a) clean up the stickies (making sure that these are the stickies we want, that off-topic conversations are deleted in them, and perhaps creating some more if we feel that some "sticky" info is missing) and b) create a "primer sticky" for newbies (and as a reminder to the rest of us when we're not sure)? There is so much good information here and so much hard work by pioneers, it shouldn't be lost in the din.

bestadmom · Post by **bestadmom** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:28 pm

I only found out last week that you can view individual posts when searching on either a keyword or words or author. That way you don't need to read thru thousands of threads.

You can also select which forum to search through if you want to narrow it down. I only search on CCSVI.

I hope this helps.

fiddler · Post by **fiddler** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:33 pm

Hi bestadmom,
That kind of information should be in a primer sticky, wouldn't you say?
...Ted

bestadmom · Post by **bestadmom** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:39 pm

Absolutely. I'm not good at finding things, and usually don't spend much time looking. I picked up the seach tip from a post where someone else mentioned it - and to think I've been digging thru threads since May!

cheerleader · Post by **cheerleader** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 3:40 pm

fiddler wrote:Hi bestadmom,
That kind of information should be in a primer sticky, wouldn't you say?
...Ted

we have that as a sticky in site support-
FAQs
http://www.thisisms.com/ftopict-5284.html

fiddler · Post by **fiddler** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:00 pm

Hi Cheerleader,
Many people, especially newbies or people we send here like the media or health professionals, will never go to the main ThisIsMS forum index to find the FAQs, or the specific one you refer to. I believe we need a primer regarding procedures within the CCSVI sub-forum, and maybe a FAQ that contains specific information-related (as opposed to procedure-related) questions that keep getting asked time after time. Much of that would be in the existing stickies (especially if they were cleaned up), but could be more "user-friendly".
...Ted

SammyJo · Post by **SammyJo** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:27 pm

Maybe a sticky that is a collection of important posts. As new posts become important, they could be added. This way you could include posts that are outside the ccsvi topic, like "how to search" FAQ.

jay123 · Post by **jay123** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:59 pm

and I agree newbies might duplicate some real old posts that were answered before, but for example the Vancouver study was the title of like 3-4 threads in the top 20 today at one point, there was also at least 2 on giving to BNAC - people should at least look a little for what they want.

And my only problem with this is we are getting so many threads and posts now that it is getting very difficult to keep up with all of them, and I'd hate to miss something important!

zap · Post by **zap** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:52 pm

When this kind of complexity is reached, a subforum may be called for, with posts separated out into categories ... think of the themes that tend to repeat and have lots of posts for ideas of subcategories within the hypothetical CCSVI subforum ....

Sharon · Post by **Sharon** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:49 pm

Oh, boy! We know that things have changed when there is an idea for a subforum

I will agree that things have become a little confused the last month or so -- I think this is understandable. Newbies come here and post on the first thread that they click onto. They may never even see a "sticky" - don't even realize that it exists. I guess my thought is, if you see this happen, then redirect them. The "stickies" were started to keep that information free of posts ---hmm. it worked for awhile -- It is sort of like new people that move into town -- you just got to take time and point them to the best diner - - -

Jay123, what I realize is that many people have not been on a forum before -- and no matter how you try to get them to interract correctly the first time -- it ain't goin to happen. I think you have done an excellent job the past few days to remind people --- guess what, you will probably have to do it again next week when there are another 100 newbies looking at the site.

BTW - welcome to all the "newbies" We use to be able to make personal welcome posts to each "newbie" --- obviously, can't do that anymore -- again back to my new people in the town -- we just don't have enough time to bake a plate of cookies for all the newcomers! This is a good thing.

Sharon

This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

We seem to be having growing pains, IMHO!!

We seem to be having growing pains, IMHO!!

Structural changes?

For the primer

Re: For the primer

Site support