Manny, the following link is for ieSpell, and works very well. In IE 8 it becomes part of Tools and can be activated easily.
http://www.iespell.com/download.php
You can add to the dictionary - good for the medical terms and abbreviations used regulary once you know they are correct.
1.Do you feel the site promotes a favorable member experience? Why? Why not?
Yes, the member’s experience is what makes this site unique
.
2. What specific areas of the site do you feel are successful? Why are they successful?
The discussions, and the groups
There is repeat of same discussions; we can list most important topics in an index for each forum
.
4. What is the primary “action” you take when coming to the site? What do you do next?
. Home page
Interesting groups:
Hi Karen -
If you have a PC and a mouse with a wheel, you should be able to hold down the Ctrl key and roll the mouse to make the screen larger or smaller - this helps me on sites that don’t have a user-friendly font…like Jenny’s - I absolutely adore her site but the font is HORRIBLE! Manny has smartly chosen a font that is easy to read.
Yes! After 20+ years of diabetes I finally don’t feel all alone. People truly treat this as a community where we can all learn and laugh
specifically the ease of use. I am web savvy but not everyone is so this format appeals to all levels of geekness. I really love being able to post questions to the group in an easy to use format.
put chat back online. I know there are some tech issues on this but I really used the heck out of it before it had to come down. Also, if the email length could be more than 2000 characters without hosing up the servers, that would be great. If not, its OK, i will just stop trying to be so wordy in my responses to others.
I check mail and then my comments on my page. Then I hit the forums to see what is being talked about.
Alive! There is new stuff out here everyday so it is never boring at all! Welcoming, friendly, and warm
these are sites I follow because I love the content:
http://the-bad-blog.blogspot.com
http://www.diabetesmine.com
http://feeds.feedburner.com/sixuntilme/xHYh
http://www.thebuttercompartment.com
http://www.bernardfarrell.com/
How else can we advertise the site? I know that I do alot of word of mouth in places like Yahoo Answers but I want to do more to get our name out there. Also maybe it is time to have a recommended blog section for blogs outside of here that are from members of this site who also have their own site. See the examples of what I mean from answer #7
Hi Manny -
First off - thank soooo much for this site.
Favorable member experience? Definitely. I feel so accepted here.
Successful areas? The welcome that came almost immediately was so cool. In addition, the forum is what I have found most helpful.
Shortcomings (this is a strong word - let’s say, “desired enhancements”) -
Newbies -
When someone first signs up, it would be good to automatically send them to a “primer” that explained the site and how they can do things. It would get people up and running quickly. Nothing difficult - take a look a one or two of these videos - http://www.commoncraft.com/ - brilliant in their simplicity.
Forum -
> What about the idea of a time limit on discussions? Maybe one week or two. I think this would spur people to get more involved versus hanging back. And it’s not like the info would be lost - it would come up in a search. Some times a response to a discussion seems silly when it’s two months old. And having to read through pages and pages to get the gist or direction of the discussion is very time consuming. A time limit might also allow for expanded discussion listings (like Gerri mentioned)
> Speaking of searching - how about a more powerful search capability? And the ability to choose which forums are searched?
> Threads - I know there’s been a lot of back and forth about threads and their necessity (iStone), but there are some down sides as well. The threading allows for more “side conversations” and sometimes the entire discussion is sort of “hijacked” from the discussion owner. However, a time limit on discussions, as mentioned earlier, would help this.
> Organization - I would like to see more sub-categories under each forum.
Other -
> Would be nice to add a dynamic “most popular searches” feature to see what’s on people’s minds - might spur new discussions, too. I think this is more dynamic than “popular topics”
> Posts should not be public outside the site - period.
> I’d like to see a list of “best practices” on being good Tudiabetes citizens.
> Member of the week?
> A “rant” forum - just for venting?
> I agree about having notification on the home page when you get emails or comments
Groups
> I should be able to unjoin a group.
> I think groups should have an “owner” and that owner should have certain responsibilities - like to keep the discussions and contacts going. It’s disheartening to find a group that might be interesting, only to find it’s gone silent. I also think each group should have a stated purpose (beyond it’s name)
Primary Action? - Forum, My Page, then just generally poking around.
Adjectives? Welcoming, caring, accepting, interesting, teaching, sharing
None
Additional Comments? If you didn’t change a thing - I’d still be here!!!
Cheri
Lots of great comments here!!!
Just wanted to respond to one point. You can leave a group. If you go to that group page, you should have some options just to the right of the info about the page. One link should say “Leave group”. If you click there, then confirm, you should be out of the group.
That’s good to know, Kristin!
Wonder if they could make it possible to leave a group from your own home page?
Just another comment - why is it that when you rollover the Forum menu, the “General” category doesn’t appear? Only appears if you click on Forum…took me a long time to figure that one out. I didn’t know there were many more forum categories.
I think there can be a maximum of 8 categories in the drop down menus.
You’re right that it would be much better to have all show up!
Absolutely! The members directory is easily accessible. The members and open and friendly – both to friends and to complete strangers. The discussions are inviting and offer great informative feedback. TuDiabetes is, by far, the most accessible and friendly diabetes social network on the Internet.
The email system, with the option to send email from a checklist of your friends, is super successful and helpful!
I can’t think of 3. I have one thing I may change – waiting on friend requests to be answered. I guess it’s a “be here now” mentality of mine. I read a profile and think to myself – I SO want that person to BE MY FRIEND now. I guess it’s just an idiosyncratic shortcoming of my own. It’s not you, TuDiabetes. It’s me.
Look to meet new members, journalists, people with blogs… anything to build a web of communication on the Internet and in “real world”.
Friendly, engaging, and open.
6 and 7. _________
1 yes
i love the post and comment section I love to read what i have posted on each day and i think it is a wonderful site.
I would like an easier way to find discussions that are no logner active.
I check my mail, then I check recent posts.
Wonderful, friendly,useful
None
i wonderful you might take the live chat to something like yahoo. Where more traffic would appear and not jsut folks who use this site. Just an idea.
Rick Phillips
Do you feel the site promotes a favorable member experience? Why? Why not?
Yes, as it relates to general support, the site is very encouraging with lots of places to go to gain information
and or support.
What specific areas of the site do you feel are successful? Why are they successful?
I primarily use the Forum, because it is front and center on the homepage and is most recent discussion
What shortcomings exist with the current site and what three things would you change on the site today, if you could?
Reorganization of all the groups, many have value but to many to chose from.
Application to track diabetes maintenance, one stop shop.
Make navigation more intuitive, and determine when images are beneficial.
What is the primary “action” you take when coming to the site? What do you do next?
Review forums, 2. check in with groups - although never much action here
Use a few adjectives to describe how you perceive the site today.
Friendly, Informative, unorganized, supportive
List any URLs of sites you find compelling. What specifically do you like about these sites?
Additional comments.
Great use of the forum to gain valuable information about your site, so that you can respond to the
needs and wants of your members.
Oops! I see the Search now…sometimes I just can’t find things as there is so much. But it didn’t work…I was trying to Find the discussion “Carb Counting Questions” and it didn’t find it. Thanks
Hi Gail!
Here is the discussion.
I typed in “carb counting” into search to find it. I find that the search tool is not always the best. Usually if something doesn’t come up, then try typing fewer words. I think the problem in this case was that you wrote “carb counting questionS” instead of “question”. On Google, that would be fine, but with this search, I find that it takes everything very literally.
One tip that I would have would be to improve the search function to be more flexible. If someone searches “insulin pumpS”, it would be nice if discussions including the word “insulin pump” also came up.