topic Re: Forums changes - updates thread! in Archived threads

Forums changes - updates thread!

ProjectTeam — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 06:05:35 GMT

Hello everybody

Really excited to reach out today with an update about your forums. To cut to the chase, we’re undertaking significant work to upgrade and re-design the platform to be a space that better supports you and your needs.

I’m aware there have been some announcements like this in the past, which haven’t resulted in the change you were hoping for, and we appreciate that can be very disappointing.

However, while there is always the chance that things don’t work out as planned, this time around we are confident that we’ll be able to deliver significant improvements to your online experience. This has us really excited here at Beyond Blue and we’re so happy to start sharing with you more about what we’re working on, how we’re working on it, and when you’ll be seeing changes.

What we’re working on

Simply put, we’re setting up a brand-new technology platform to power these forums. We’re working with a great technology partner, who specialise in forums, to deliver a more modern experience with improved features (many of which you have been asking for for a long long time).

In setting up this new technology, we have a lot of work to do to make it align to your needs, to make it a safe space and to make it really valuable to you. But at the end of this process, we hope to launch with a fresh, modern website which looks and feels like a warm, supportive space, and which allows you to really get the most out of your interactions here.

To say we’re excited about this, truly is an under-statement 🙂

How we’re working on it

We know we cannot do this without your input and feedback. Beyond getting deeply acquainted with the existing feedback you’ve provided in these forums, we’ve also set up a ‘community group’ with seven of your peers to support this project. At the moment, we’re meeting weekly to talk through a range of questions, workshop out ideas and ensure we’re really representing community need with the work we’re doing.

From this point on, we’ll be using this space in the forums to provide updates on the work that’s in play, to get your feedback and comments and really bring you along this journey.

While we know we won’t get everything right the first time with this work, we know that involving you along the way, will help create a much better outcome in the end.

Please look forward to seeing more posts (hoping to update you all weekly) in this space!

When you can expect changes
At this point, we’re hoping to deliver the new platform in 2022 and are working hard to reach that goal. We’ll of course be updating you along the way if that changes.

Given we’re moving to a brand new technology platform, a lot of changes will come all at once, and this could be a bit of a shock when you log-in. We’ll be doing our best to share sneak-peeks of the platform as we’re working on it, so you can see ahead of time how things are shaping up and to help smooth that transition.

Although there will be new things to learn and explore, we’re confident that the platform will provide much improved functionality and really improve your experience overall.

Interacting with this thread
We would love to hear your thoughts, feedback and questions! While we can’t respond super quickly to all questions, the aim is to send answers to any questions we’ve received weekly on Fridays - so be sure to check back in then 🙂

Next week, we’ll share some early updates on some of the new features that are coming with this platform and start talking about what we’re currently working on.
Thank you so so much for your support and we’re so happy to be finally making improvements to this space for you.

Forums changes - updates thread!

Summer Rose — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 08:11:44 GMT

Hello ProjectTeam

A big thank you to the team for your excellent communication. It feels really great to be included, informed and valued.

I am really looking forward to more updates and the opportunity to make a contribution to this very important strategic project.

Thank you for all the hard work that you are doing behind the scenes.

BTW I really like your vision to create a warm, modern safe place! We’re off to a great start!!

Kind thoughts to you

Forums changes - updates thread!

Guest9337 — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 15:22:46 GMT

Good morning All BB’ers.

Great news about the technology update, cool. Which, if any, of the following forum software is your technological partner developing for BB?

PhpBB, MyBB, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Vanilla Forums, Simple Machines Forum, FluxBB, Codoforum, Discourse or are you All going for a more customized hand written option?

Will all the current posts be shifting into the new software/forum or will they vanish/go elsewhere?

Good luck with the change over, I reckon that will be challenging work.

love dng.

Forums changes - updates thread!

geoff — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 16:23:30 GMT

Hello ProjectTeam, appreciate your feedback and have my fingers crossed.

Thank you.

Geoff.

Forums changes - updates thread!

Guest_1643 — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 07:00:56 GMT

well done to all involved.

i like the way transparency is being encouraged. We deserve it.

Forums changes - updates thread!

ProjectTeam — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 06:24:28 GMT

Hello everyone

Thanks for the replies back and the positive encouragement. It's really energising to read this!

Before posting an update for this week, I thought I'd answer some of the questions you've asked:

DavidnGoliath, such great questions, thank you.

Looking at the list you've provided - it seem like most of those are open-source technologies / frameworks I think? We haven't gone with those options, but instead we've chosen to partner with a market-leading provider of forums tech, who have their own custom technology, including some proprietary languages / frameworks.
Essentially, they provide the core functionality and we have the ability to build on top of it to make it fit the Beyond Blue Community 🙂

Regarding the current posts. Our plan is to bring across all the existing content from these forums. Some really old content, that hasn't been visited in a good while, is likely to end up in an 'archive' board, which is still fully visible to you, but locked for replying to.

We would do this so that we can tell search engines like google not to 'index' these old threads. This is helpful because by removing low-traffic content from being indexed, the Beyond Blue forums will rank better in google search results, meaning we can reach more people who are looking for support.

By the way, we're open to feedback on this one! But by keeping all content visible and accessible to you in the archive board, we're really hoping this is still sensitive to community need 🙂

OK... I'll start a new post to give the weekly update... incoming!

Forums changes - updates thread!

ProjectTeam — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 06:26:41 GMT

This week's update!

We've just kicked off design for the new platform, which is really exciting. To give you an insight into this, the technology partner we're using provides the core functionality as well as a basic 'template' for things like posts, buttons, topics, etc. It's our job to customise this to make it work well and feel great.

Today at our community workshop (with a group of your peers), we workshopped out some of the key issues with the current forums and looked at common frustrations when starting new threads, finding content that's useful, etc.

We also spent time reviewing other forums on the internet, including other mental health forums to get a gauge of what is good, less good, resonant, confusing, etc.

Things we're thinking about:

Creating a supportive, encouraging, calm space to be in
Making key steps really easy to use, such as starting a thread, replying to a post, exploring and navigating the content, searching the content
A design that doesn't overwhelm with too much information, but allows you to focus on what you're here for - seeking support and supporting others.

We'll be testing designs with our community group, and we'd like to share some sneak peeks to you- perhaps in a few weeks time.

Other things:

One big feature the community has been asking for, for a long-time, is getting notified when someone replies to a post.

Good news is that our new forums will have this feature and we've been working on setting it up this week.

The notifications are highly customisable, but one thing we've been working out is what the default settings should be. We don't want to bombard people with email notifications as soon as the platform goes live, especially as we're aware that many people might not like email notifications if they share an email address with someone else.

In light of this, we'll be keeping the notifications switched off by default, and allowing you to easily customise your own settings if and when you're ready to turn them on. Any feedback on this is more than welcome.

That's all for this week - looking forward to touching base again next week

Cheers

Forums changes - updates thread!

Guest_1643 — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 09:33:58 GMT

thats good....does that mean we can unsubscribe to threads soon?

Forums changes - updates thread!

amberlite — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 00:07:47 GMT

Sounds amazing, thank you for the update.

Forums changes - updates thread!

Summer Rose — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 23:45:20 GMT

Hi Project Team

Thank you very much for the update.

You said that you are thinking about, “creating a supportive, encouraging and calm space to be in”, which sounds great. However, I would like to ask you to consider if “safe” should be added to your list of design deliverables.

To me, a “safe place to be in” means all users are protected from harm. In my mind, safety should underpin every aspect of the forum, rippling through design, community rules, functionality, communication with users, privacy, security of the digital system, etc.

One particular safety issue that intersects with design and that sticks in my mind is the safety of young forum users. I think as part of this design process, thought should be given to how we can better protect children and young people from potential harm whilst using the forum.

With regard to notifications and other new features to come, I think it’s vital that you give community members as much choice as possible.

For what it’s worth, I support leaving notifications off as the default setting. It’s great to know the feature is available but also wonderful to know it’s not being forced upon people.

I highly value having choice and the ability to manage the change that new features bring at my own pace, if I want to adopt them.

Kind thoughts to you

Forums changes - updates thread!

amberlite — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 05:05:47 GMT

Hello Summer Rose, I had no idea that kids use the BB forum. I did read a post once where a child was asking how to improve eye sight and I posted that in my day we ate carrots to improve vision. I guess I thought it was a crack up and not a real kid. So is there a kids section where we encourage them to post? And what should I do in future if I read a child like post? The eye sight post sat for days unanswered and inclusion is good so I posted. Anyone know if there is an internet etiquette for adult / child communication? Thanks for reading.

Forums changes - updates thread!

jtjt_4862 — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 05:52:52 GMT

Looking forward to the changes, and all the best to implementing it!

To answer Amberlite's question, there is the "Young people" section that's for people ages between 12-25 to post about any questions they have regarding life and well being. I'm not sure about internet etiquette for adult/child. I try to answer with as much understanding, and not dismiss any questions/concerns they have, regardless of the simplicity/innocence of the question. It's like, "How would you answer if it was your child speaking to you?". Hopefully that helps.

Forums changes - updates thread!

amberlite — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 07:29:11 GMT

thanks jtjt, it is reassuring to read your post, I had not noticed the 'young people' section. good on you!

Forums changes - updates thread!

Summer Rose — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 11:35:39 GMT

Hi amberlite

I would guess that you’re not alone in not realising there are children as young as 12 years old participating on the forum.

I didn’t realise it for awhile also. Once I did, I started to think more about how I worded my responses when talking to someone who seemed young because it’s impossible to know the age of who you are talking to.

I talk to children and young people here like I would to my own children. I do my best to provide responsible support with care and kindness.

I like your suggestion about a tool to help guide adults in talking to kids and young people about mental health. Content really needs to be age appropriate to mitigate the risks of forum participation for children and teens.

Kind thoughts to you

Forums changes - updates thread!

ProjectTeam — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 01:44:06 GMT

Hello everyone

I hope you've all had a good week. With so much of Australia in lock-down at the moment we know this is a really tough time for a lot of people.

Writing today to provide another update on how our forums upgrade project is going. But before that, I'm taking a moment to write back to some of the questions that have come through 🙂

Sleepy21 - you asked about unsubscribing to threads. Yes, you will be able to both subscribe and un-subscribe to threads. You can also subscribe / unsubscribe to entire boards - though I suspect doing this for threads is more useful?
We're still in the throws of working out just how to manage this on the platform.

I'm at risk of getting a bit complex here, but there is a 'my threads' type feature on the new platform, which does act a little different to the 'subscribed' threads feature. We're working through how to set those up, so that what you're viewing continues to stay relevant, and so that you (hopefully) have more control over what you're seeing.

Summer Rose - thank you so much for the feedback on the design goals. You're spot on about safety and you're right that should be made explicit. We've talked a lot about this internally, and our community advisory group on the project is really passionate about this too, so I'm confident this is being well represented in the process.

Thank you also for the more specific feedback about young forum users, it's great to see conversation around this, and thanks for the feedback about notifications, choice and managing change at individuals' own pace.

Project update coming next!

Forums changes - updates thread!

ProjectTeam — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 01:58:23 GMT

Update on the project

We've spent the last two weeks working with our designers to develop concepts for the experience and visual design of the platform.

When we talk about 'experience' we're meaning how do various parts of the website link together - how simple is it for you to find your way through the website, how well does it meet your needs.

When talking about visual design - we're looking at the colours, spacing, illustrations and 'feel' of the website.

It's been a really productive and valuable few weeks! We've regularly caught up with the community advisory group to get feedback and 'test' the designs, making multiple updates and changes based on this feedback.

Where we are now, is we have really great design concepts for the new platform that we'll look to build out, as well as many great ideas for future development, that address some of the feedback and comments that the community has made on these forums.

Over the next few months, we'll be looking to implement these designs, and get our community group to start using the platform, testing it, and again providing more feedback.

We're still investigating all the constraints around the technology we have, to understand exactly what we can, and can't do... but when we're feeling a little more confident around exactly what we can and can't build into the platform, we'll aim to share some sneak peeks!

Aside from this, our team has been working hard on some of the more technical aspects of the project - helping the new platform to integrate with our existing systems and websites here at Beyond Blue - complex, but really important work.

An open question

Interested in your feedback on the following: if you were talking to someone and said:

"Check out the anxiety ______ on the beyond blue forums"...

.... what would you call that "______".

Do you call it a board? A topic? a forum?

We're interested in this so that the language we use on the platform makes sense to the people using it!

Thanks and talk again soon

BB Project Team

Forums changes - updates thread!

Guest_1643 — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 03:29:19 GMT

Hi all, thanks for the feedback

I'd say "board" - the anxiety "board"

and a specfic topic/discussion on that board, a thread

Eg check out the Coping with the Coronvaris thread on the Anxiety Board.

Forums changes - updates thread!

Guest_1643 — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 03:30:02 GMT

or what it iactually is -

The Coping During the Coronavirus thread on the "Staying Well" board.

my bad.

Forums changes - updates thread!

amberlite — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 06:01:10 GMT

Hello and thankyou for the update

For the open question, I understand the second post by Sleepy, it makes good sense.

bye

Forums changes - updates thread!

tranzcrybe — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 10:32:36 GMT

'Thread', 'Topic', Board', 'Posts', are all very formal (archaic) references and don't really promote inclusiveness or even being involved - you just access it and walk away.
Even saying 'Check out' suggests leaving before one even arrives!

Perhaps more interpersonal terminology could include:
'Chat room on Anxiety'
'Conversations about Anxiety'
'Feeling Anxious, join us here for awhile'
'Talk with us about Anxiety'