We’ve made changes to the way our Forums are organized on our home page and in the Forum page.
On our home page, we’re now displaying the 5 most recent replies in the forum below the images of our members, followed by 5 Featured Discussions that we will be rotating based on their relevance to diabetes and their timeliness. You can see how this looks in the figure below:
It may take me a while , but will get used to the different format .
Please let me know if you have any suggestions, Nel.
I miss the old format…can we bring it back or have an option to use the old format?
I’m with John, like the old way much better!
i agree
When you say you prefer the old format better, do you mean the old home page format or the old Forum page format?
I sort of preferred the old homepage format also. I like the idea of the featured topic section on the main page, however, it would make a little more sense to me if the recent forum replies were like they were before in the bolded font and then have the featured forum topics listed above them in the smaller regular font since they aren’t of as urgency I guess. Like Nel said though, I’m sure the more I visit the more I’d probably get used to the new look too. 
Simple is beautful,the old home page is more interesting and encouraging to participate in disussion
I hear you… Here what we are “struggling” with, if you may:
I have been noticing how in the past few months the number of non-diabetes related discussions has been increasing on the Forum. We don’t want to discourage this from happening, but there have been points where more than half of the discussions that appeared on the home page were completely unrelated to diabetes, which made us wonder if there was a way we could continue to offer a space for the more “game” oriented type discussions without taking away the focus that the site is meant for: diabetes.
With this in mind, how do you guys feel about the changes made.
But,leave the change Manny,because we will discover its value with time.I love concentrating on diabetes issues as we are expanding and members look for informations and experience.
Do you want to take a look at what we did on EsTuDiabetes, on the home page? See on the top left (I am including a screenshot): we basically created a secondary navigation that makes it easy for anyone coming to the site to find their way easily into topical areas:
The home page onEstu is very helpful Manny,just like an index,love that,and prefer it.
Diabetes has to be on front
That is a good reason Manny …I was about to ask , why the change and you explained here.?
Yeah your reasoning makes a lot of sense, Manny. I like the sidebar index over on EsTudiabetes as well.
“Featured Discussions that we will be rotating based on their relevance to diabetes and their timeliness” i guess thats a good idea. i do like seeing the discussions in real time on the home page and the convenience of it. but i do see why you would want “diabetes only” topics on the home page.
I like the new setup!
Manny,
Recently, I was considering ending the “True or False Game” and also the “Word Association Game” because I thought they were too distracting from the true premise of this site. I remember creating them a while back thinking they would help keep people coming back to this site, and they would also be an easy way for people to participate in discussions without having to say too much. Needless to say, they both became quite popular as the responses kept rolling in for each post.
And then…I remember wincing one day when I opened the home page a few weeks ago and saw that ALL TEN of the recent posts were for similar type games…I mean song games, movie games, “Yes or No Games” (wow…really?). And then there they were…my two little games sitting in the mix as well. I was a little more than embarrassed. I was actually considering creating a post called “Name Your Favorite Pointless tuDiabetes.com Game Game” just to make a point.
So I like the new format. It was obvious that home page forum section had been somewhat compromised for the sake of non-diabetes related “viral” posts . It was kind of fun while it lasted, but I’m glad it’s over…at least on the home page.
I know that new format will provide more exposure for real posts and topics that can actually improve our lives as diabetics, and perhaps make this site more meaningful to people as it was intended.
BRAVO MANNY
That is why we included the section (though with titles only, not with details about who started them, when was the last reply or the number of replies) “most recent replies in the forum” -as a way to keep an eye on the mos recent discussions in real time.
Just made a change to the Forum page, where the most recent topics are ALL shown by time, not by category.
The advantage of this configuration is that you can click on the dropdown on the top right of the Forum page to show all Categories, if you want.