How can we improve the Forums?

[Sophie_M]

Hi all,

 

This discussion is a space for all members to share suggestions and ideas to improve the Forums. This can be anything. Navigation, notifications, topics and themes, moderation, community rules, or something else!

 

We'd love to hear about what you think we can do better. We are really grateful to everyone who has contributed their ideas already, and we're always keen to hear more. 

 

Kind regards, 

 

Sophie M

 

Please note: 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 

[Summer Rose]

Hi Geoff

Thanks for your advocacy around transparency and information sharing. I agree that information around current use by community members is helpful as a signal around community satisfaction with the forum upgrade. But I also think the basic stats around clicks on pages or log ins etc won’t tell the whole story.

There are no doubt many community members pleased or very pleased with many or all of the changes. There are others advocating on this thread for change and staying within the community in the hope of further adjustments to address specific issues because of the important role this forum plays in their life. There are no doubt people who are still adjusting to the changes and as they figure out how to use the forum their participation will grow. There are new members coming on board daily who may be oblivious to the issues. I’m sure there are many more examples I haven’t thought of.

So, I think an important measure to understand is why people may have dropped off or changed or limited their forum use in response to the upgrade (and what may be unintended impacts). How many people are here but curtailing participation? Is this because they don’t understand how to use new features, the features aren’t working as intended or they don’t like the new features?

How many people are satisfied with the upgrade? 

While certain issues may be important to individuals (like you and I) they may not be the majority view. Or, they could be the majority view, but we don’t know because not everyone is comfortable speaking out publicly here.

We were surveyed on our views about the forum pre-upgrade. A post-upgrade user survey could be very useful.

This may or may not be helpful but I’d like to share that I’ve been reminding myself that a lot of people—community and BB staff—worked really hard on the upgrade with only one intent: to make this a better place for the community. I’m positive this intent remains a driving force. It helps me keep a positive outlook as we wait for any news of what may come next.

Kind thoughts to you 

[blondguy]

Hi Tealflowers

you have made a good point. If you continue to see politically based posts can you please report them. You are spot on as the forums are a mental health awareness initiative from Beyond Blue 

Thankyou

Paul 

[quirkywords]

Summer rose

I have always said the BB staff work hard to make the forums better and are listening. I agree with your thoughtful and encouraging posts.

i do knowhen I first joined the forums I was overwhelmed at first and could not even start my own thread, I feel in time I will be able to work out  the new forum. 
thanks to moderators for their patience. 

[geoff]

Hello Everyone, I am just wondering what the number next to my username is there for, as it keeps changing from, let's say 98 then suddenly changes back to 78.

Does this mean the number of people online?

Geoff.

Life Member.

[Sophie_M]

Hey tealflowers and Paul,

Thanks for letting us know about this. That’s a great call from Paul - you can report posts to moderators whenever you see something that you think shouldn’t be there.

Hey blondguy,

We’re really glad to hear you were able to resolve the email problem we were having. Thanks for letting us know. 😊

Hey moonstruck,

We’re sorry to hear you’ve been struggling to find your conversations and your friends around the Forums. We recently tried to help you with your account. Have things improved for you at all?

Hey Geoff, Summer Rose and quirkywords,

Great discussion around numbers. We’re always keeping an eye on them, and it’s been pretty stable as we’ve moved onto the new platform. As you’ve mentioned, Summer Rose, these numbers are only a small part of the picture of how the Forums are going for us. We'll be surveying again in the coming months to get a better idea of how it's going for everyone. 

Thanks for your comments and acknowledgement that we want the Forums to be the best they could be for this amazing community. We’ll keep working to be as transparent and reflective as possible as we work on reviewing and improving it. We really appreciate the discussions you lovely folks are sharing with us here along the way.

Thanks everyone!

Kind regards,

Sophie M

[mmMekitty]

Hi Geoff, are you refering to a number near your picture at the top of pages, between the 'Notifications' bell, & your picture (which. when you click, give a short list of options: 'Profile', Settings' & 'Sign Out'?

If so, that could be the number of Notifications you have. Have you clicked on the 'Notifications' bell? 

Am I on track?

mmMekitty

[geoff]

Hello mmMekitty, yes, but the number changes while I'm on the forums, as I've said it could be 98 but then suddenly changes back to 78.

Thanks.

Geoff.

Life Member.

[quirkywords]

Geoff I can’t see any numbers next to my username or May be I am looking in the wrong place. 

[britishtvfan]

i am seeing so many extremely triggering things on these forums" lately. i go there to see what threads are new, although i know you can go to "forums" & choose topics. however it is extremely distressing seeing things written about violence & many other things i cannot even mention here. some of the things are triggering to myself & has made me step back a bit. i try to scroll past & avoid them but it's impossible. also the posts about asking for medical advice when they should be seeing a health professional. i do understand that it's not easy & they need advice, etc. but we're not professionals here, just likeminded people. that is something i find distressing because we don't want to give people the wrong advice. i know it's not easy to find professional help & so forth but i think that stuff should be kept to professionals. also mentions of medications too. i have reported posts like what i'm talking about. & i have seen people with distressing usernames & profile pictures of themselves, also posts with very  graphic & violent details. i know there are certain threads for SH etc but can this please be a seperate place in the forums, something like "triggering posts", perhaps password protected or you can click see/unsee the threads there? i am finding it very distressing going onto the forums & seeing this. it wasn't an issue with the old forums at all. also like i said political posts which have nothing to do with mental health, not what they're posting about anyhow. & there's some people i'm not even sure are from Australia on these forums. again i am not judging anyone or trying to sound rude or controlling, i'm just mentioning that it's rather distressing & triggering for me, as much as i try to avoid it & scroll past & have time away from the forums.

[Sophie_M]

Hey tealflowers, 

Thanks for letting us know about your concerns. We're sorry to hear this is something that has come up for you only since we moved to the new Forums. We'll share this feedback with the team for them to look into.

While you're using the Forums, do you think maybe a workaround could be sticking to the more social topics, such as the BB Social Zone? If you need to leave All Disucssions alone while you take some time to focus on feeling good, we get it. You could also consider turning notifications off to help you get some space. 

We're grateful that you've reported posts when you've seen things that don't seem to be within the community guidelines or that distress you. Thanks for doing that, tealflowers.

Kind regards, 

Sophie M