I replied to that member about using ctrl and the "+" sign to magnify any screen. :)
Hi Mike,
Welcome to the community!
Ning has served us really well for 7 years now, and there's a lot we like about it! Our decision to move was based on a few factors. One is that we have received a TON of feedback over the last couple years from members who are unhappy with the our current search function and mobile compatibility, and we know that these features exist in more up-to-date and user friendly versions on a lot of other platforms. We also became aware that the science and technology of online community discussion platforms have made huge advances in the past few years, and we were frustrated by what we saw as a lag in the technology of our current platform. Additionally, we realized that moving to a platform with an API would allow us much more flexibility and creativity in the configuration and capabilities of the site, which has also become a source of frustration over recent years.
Those aren't the only factors that went into the decision, but I'd say they were the main ones.
I hope you enjoy the community, and that you'll enjoy the new platform as well!!
Trudy,
There's one more element of TuDiabetes that will NEVER change, so I think you will not miss it... the LOVE in the community and the support you can give and get from others.
This will no doubt be a change, and some things will be different, but stick around with TuD for the next step in this journey. We are working very hard to continue to make it as supportive and open environment as it has been the past 8 years.
HUGS!
Yeah, Emily, I am going to remain open to the change and trust that it will be for the good of everyone.
Emily and Manny, thanks for your comments. I do appreciate them.
I'm torn. I like the groups I'm in (Flatliner's Club and Diabetics Who Run Marathons being the main ones...) and figure that many other groups are equally helpful and supportive to their members. I've tried blogging vs. posting a couple of times, and think that I've also experimented with FB vs. Twitter vs. Tu Forums, although, as usual, I didn't log my results but the impression that I recall is that the message board, at least the one here, which is fairly tightly moderated, produces the best answers. Although maybe I got more *likes* on FB?
I think that while you can call a blog a blog, they end up being close to discussion forum threads. Perhaps it's that the format of the Ning pages is similar? I'm not sure I'd be able to say what the difference is. I guess the "famous" blogs like scottsdiabetes.com, sixuntilme.com, diabetesliciousness, etc. seem to have catchy titles and have been around for a while so they have history which I haven't seen our current platform providing for people, which makes the blog section sort of like another "thread" the way I use it but it doesn't bump them to the top. I felt that blogs were sort of self-published internet platforms and that rather than supporting blogs, although we've done so successfully for a while, I don't know that many people who've taken a Tu blog out on their own. But then again, I'm not a blog-oriented person. Maybe it would work to start a thread about "people who blog, how do you do it?" and see if people will answer.
I think that the main reason people don’t like message boards is that some people perceive it to involve “social drama” with “strangers” and people can be averse to this. I think there’s still value in message boards as you can get a thesis+ antithesis= synthesis discussion to move things forwards.
I wish you would archive the groups that will be left behind and make them searchable along with the active part of the site. This way we would still have access to information which is why I like this website: tons of experience, answered questions and solutions.
I agree, Kathy. I'm not interested in maintaining my own blog site. All the groups you mentioned are aimed at our hi-tech users. I use a 7-year-old meter period. My pre-paid cell phone lives in a drawer except when I take a walk. It sounds like we should be sure we have saved our old blogs in case our kids care to read them someday. And what about our creative history---Andreina made sure that was woven firmly into the tapestry of this haven. Should I copy to word all of Poetry Group's entries? They have fed our souls......I guess we'll see. And then I'll decide if I have anything to contribute anymore as you move forward.....Blessings
I'm with you, Trudy. Not sure I will have anything to contribute anymore--I'm so very NOT interested in counting badges to see if my contribution had any worth. That's almost worse than shunting us less frequent bloggers off to a whole different place.....
I understand how we can feel like the place we have come to enjoy is going away but in truth it isn't, it is just changing. I believe that all the ways that we interact and socialize will still be in the new platform, it will just be different. And in some ways it is going to be better. We have gotten used to the current platform and we have adjusted to it's limitations, it is really hard to see how we will do things on the new platform but I think it is going to everything we need to be a vibrant and strong community.
The concern I have had is something I saw a while back about rating levels of participation and trustworthiness based on those ratings. May I ask the rationale for this system? What problem are you trying to solve? In other words, what question are you trying to answer, and can it be answered more discreetly? To be honest, it sounded like segregation of our community. (granted, gut reaction).
On the upside, it's always good to update and remain curious about what is before us. A big thank you to the team working on this project.
I like the Blog section a lot. It goes into more detail and I find that so interesting. I hope they keep the People and Pets and the Poetry group. Trudy, getting a Blog site of your own sounds complicated but it just takes a few minutes to start one. I love the one Kathy from Tu had and still go back to it all the time for words of wisdom.
Sometimes I read a Blog and get an idea. I like how the ideas are all mixed in together. A separate blog site would mean that popular bloggers would get seen more and the "random" great blog would be missed. I really like the blogs. I spend more time there than in the discussion.
Could we possibly have blogs on our page. I hope that the page decorating is still an option. I have gotten over many lows changing my page layout.
I know what you mean, Lots. So many of our blog posts move me deeply and feel like a bridge to our shared humanity......
Emily are there any plans or proposals yet on how the migration to the new platform will be performed? I wish I had suggestions to offer on good ways to migrate a discussion group, but I don't. Generally this always turns out to be a nightmare in one way or another. But discussing it in some way with the community before hand may help. Possibly. Perhaps.
On a personal note, I became much more interested in the upcoming migration when I learned that Jeff Atwood is one of the founders behind the Discourse platform. Some of the members may recognize Jeff's name as one of the founders of the Stack Exchange Q&A sites. Or to put it another way, this the same Jeff Atwood whose avatar is shown on the right.
My opinion is that one of the driving forces behind Jeff's approach to software tools appears to be frustration & annoyance with the stupid (to use a technical term) way things are often done currently. I am curious to find out what the experience on the new Discourse forums will be.
Thank you for the link to the Try Discourse” test/sandbox site. Those who have a more technical interest in the Discourse platform may also want to look at their meta site for discussions about the Discourse forum software and design principles/goals/decisions.
-irrational john
T1 LADA since ~1979; first pump: Minimed 507 ~1997, currently using Minimed 723 + CGM
here's a little something on the trust levels
https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-user-trust-levels-do/4924/4
it's my understand that we can make up our own "rules" for how to progress through the trust levels.
we know that sometimes new members can sign up and then proceed to cause trouble. sometimes this is intentional, sometimes not. for example last year we had a flurry of new members coming on who immediately posted videos that were very bad news. They would not be able to do that on the new platform.
Plus, once you get past the complete newbie level, you can flag posts/comments you think are violations of our values, which will help out with monitoring our community.
Lorraine, perhaps I misunderstood your intent when you asked, "May I ask the rationale for this system?" but ...
The snippet below is copied from the "Welcome" page for the sandbox/test Discourse group. It is the "tl;dr" explanation for why there are "rating levels" in Discourse groups.
Why can't I do certain things?
New users are somewhat limited for safety reasons. As you participate here, you'll gain the trust of the community, become a full citizen, and those limitations will automatically be removed. At a high enough trust level, you'll gain even more abilities to help us manage our community together.
To what extent this feature of Discourse might be used would be up to the people who run this discussion group. Approaches I have seen in the past are to automagically give everyone who is migrated a "trust level" equivalent to what they had previously on tudiabetes.org. Any segregation is likely to resemble the self segregation already experienced here. That is, some people will participate more in the discussions than others.
-irrational john
T1 LADA since ~1979; first pump: Minimed 507 ~1997, currently using Minimed 723 + CGM
Hi John, my concern was for those who may not participate as often, but do add value to our community when they do, and may be denied "entrance" to some portions of the the site, not because they do harm, but because they don't have time or whatever to engage frequently.
Thanks, Marie. I hope that the rules for this group will take into consideration (as mentioned to John) those who provide value to our community but cannot devote the amount of time it takes to get to the higher levels.