How can we improve the forums? Your suggestions and comments please

[Chris_B]

Hi all, this thread is a running commentary for all members on things for improvements to the forums. This can be anything from how it looks, the categories, to moderation, community rules etc.

While we might not be able to implement everything straightaway, or keep everyone happy all of the time, we'd like to hear about what you think we can do better.

This is not a thread for discussing the moderation or editing of individual posts - if you have questions about this please contact the team offline via email modsupport@beyondblue.org.au

To avoid repeating suggestions already received, below are some results from our last user survey giving an indication of which new features people would like to see on the forums. This survey was answered by 1,597 users:

44% - Email notification when I have a reply on the forum
39% - Access to the forums via an app
27% - Ability to block seeing posts by specific users
25% - Ability to contact users privately
25% - Ability to use emoticons
25% - Ability to follow posts by specific users
24% - Ability to share links
23% - Forum posts visible only to registered users
22% - A profile, viewable by others users, where I can introduce myself
21% - Ability to quickly access all posts by a particular user
15% - Ability to tag users in a conversation
10% - Ability to share images
6% - Ability to share videos
17% - None of these

Update July 2022 - This discussion has now been closed. Please go to the updated version below to share feedback and follow our updates:

How can we improve the Forums?

[quirkywords]

Hi Quercus

I know too how hard people behind the scenes at beyond blue take suggestions and feedback seriously.

[Summer Rose]

Hi Quercus and Quirkywords

Thanks so much for your reassurance. I also know that bb cares about nothing more than our community and is working very hard to provide the very best service it can within its means on all fronts.

Thanks to Sophie we better understand the feedback consideration process and I am grateful that she invited feedback on the process.

I have no doubt that the issues raised will be considered behind the scenes and understand fully that’s what the current system allows for.

I would encourage anyone with forum improvement suggestions to make them now. This is because The forum is being enhanced now, making it a great time to ensure all ideas can be considered.

Kind thoughts to all

[Sophie_M]

Hi Summer Rose and the entire Beyond Blue Forums community,  

    Wow! What an amazing group of dedicated and passionate individuals looking for ways to improve how these forums support those who need it. We are incredibly thankful for your words and suggestions.    We are sorry that we have not been active enough in this thread and we have not been responding as you want us to. We are going to do our best to address this here in the 'Improvements' thread.    If you have questions or concerns about moderation decisions we welcome this feedback directly to the Moderation Team (modsupport@beyondblue.org.au). This way we can discuss the reasons we make the choices we do and continue to keep this community safe. This space is for making suggestions about the community as a whole and what we can do to make it the best experience possible. We understand that sometimes these are linked, but we ask that moderation concerns be handled with us privately.

    We definitely want all community members to feel valued for their contributions here. This thread is for forum members to post their ideas and suggestions around how the forums can be improved. The community wants to hear from us, be more engaged and be acknowledged for their input as well as how their feedback supports the continued growth of this incredible community. Your voices are central to the ongoing development of the online forums so we do look forward to facilitating conversations with you around what meaningful engagement looks like within the community.

 
   While we have been working towards this for the last few years, unfortunately it has taken longer than expected to get to a place where we can share how your feedback can/has been implemented into real changes on the forums – we hear your frustrations! However, the team must take precautions to ensure these changes are being implemented properly and with a great deal of care. We can confirm that we are very close but again we greatly appreciate everyone’s patience as we prepare to share these updates (stay tuned for a post under the Welcome and Orientation section).
 
   We will continue to depend on community insights as these changes are underway and we look forward to bringing the community along on this journey.  

Kind regards, 

Sophie M

[Summer Rose]

Hi Sophie

Thank you for listening, acknowledging and sharing a heartfelt, timely and well considered response.

Your role is very important on the forum and you are appreciated more than you might know.

To all the beautiful behind the scenes bb folk working on the forum, thank you for your consideration of our suggestions and for making the forum happen.

We are a community of conviction. And, at the end of the day, we all want the same thing—the best forum possible to help those in need.

It is so lovely the we can work together. Thank you for letting us “in” to make our contribution.

Kind thoughts to you

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Hi all,

Just wanted to make a suggestion. It may seem small and possibly even petty, but I think it could be helpful to a lot of people. A long time back, there was talk of giving members the ability to remove threads from our "My Threads" list. I bring this up again for two reasons 1) Sometimes we look into and reply to something that ends up triggering us and it's a problem if it keeps popping to the top of our lists reminding us of that trigger, and 2) Those of us experiencing depression and other mental illnesses are easily overwhelmed. Where I may once have managed fine to follow two dozen threads, I may only now be up to following three. But can I find the three among the two dozen that keep coming up? I think sometimes people get caught up in the overwhelm and end up not connecting with the friends they need in the here and now or who need them. I know that my important threads getting buried in irrelevant stuff like novelty threads from the Social Zone does often lead me to just give up and not talk to anyone.

Blue.

[Sophie_M]

Hey SummerRose, thank you for your warm feedback. We are so glad to have you and other community members present to help us create a better and safer forum. 

Hi Blue's Clue's, thank you for your suggestion. We'll report your suggestion to the manager. Although, we do believe this feature will be available on the updated forums. 

Thank you again!



 

[Croix]

Dear Blue
I can quite understand your reasoning and it is very valid. I'm not sure how technically possible it is at the moment to remove a thread from your My Threads area, I do know you can exercise a form of control by bookmarking in your browser a page in the thread you wish to return to. When you do return hitting the LAST page number takes you to any fresh posts in that thread.

This might seem cumbersome but does give you a way to control which threads you see, by-passing the My Threads pages entirely.

Some browsers have a way of auto-syncing bookmarks between computers if you use more than one.

Perhaps Sophie_M might have a better way.

Not ideal but hope this helps at least a little, menagerie sends regards

Croix

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Thanks Sophie. Is there a rough timeline for when the updated forum will be rolled out? It's a few years since I last heard it was just around the corner.

Hi Croix, and thanks for your (as always) considerate response. I do know the tricks you mentioned, though as you say, they are quite cumbersome. I mostly check the forums on my phone, in which event cumbersome is something of an understatement. I think also that there are plenty of people on here less technologically adept than we are, so here's hoping things can be streamlined for their benefit, too. Regards to the menagerie, puffballs send a song.

Blue.

[Guest_1643]

hi, i've used other forums with this feature

you click "subscribe" or "Unsubscribe" to the thread
This means u can even subscribe to threads u haven't commented on, effectively bookmarking them to engage with them later

this makes, i think, more sense related to MH

automatically subscribing when u post doesn't seem to make sense as a big feature for mh recovery is occasionally taking a break.this is harder to do when the notifications pop up etc on very busy or triggering threads.

I think a direct answer related to when such changes could be expected would also make sense, or also if it is nt possible.

Thank you 🙂

[Sophie_M]

Hi Blue's Clues,

We have not received word as to when the expected deadline for the new forum will be. We are still working on it and the it is still in progress.