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Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

THE FORUM NEEDS YOUR HELP!

(31 posts) (10 voices)

Started 1 year ago by Soxon
Latest reply from Nimrod
This topic is Not a support question

Tags:

Soxon
Key Master

To all members of the forum,

A forum steering committee was set up in October 2010 to look at ways in which we could improve the forum and to make it easier for members to use simply and effectively.

As Keymasters and Moderators we know our way around the site and so aren’t always aware of any difficulties that members might be experiencing using the site. We have already identified several things that need to be changed but before implementing them and amending the site guide we would like the input of members of the forum.

So can I ask all members to reread the site guide paying particular attention to the forum rules. The site guide is located at the top of the page.

Also please familiarise yourself with the site and it’s many excellent features and facilities. Have a wander around the site and look at the many sections that the site has to offer including the links at the top and the bottom of the page so that you are familiar with them. If you click on anything written in blue on this site it will automatically take you to that section.

For instance did you know
-- That if you click on the word member found under the name and avatar next to their posts you can access that members posting history?
-- That if you click on the members name under their avatar next to their post it will take you to their profile page?
You can also do either of the above to access your own profile page or posting history.
--That if you click on the blue bar at the top left of the page entitled ‘support and info’ you can access amongst other things information on OCD, the Advocacy section, the Resource Centre and a list of support groups?

So now having reread the site guide and had a wander around the site perhaps you could help us?

With regards to the forum and the site guide in particular –

Is there is anything written in it that isn’t clear?

Do you think that there are any instructions that are missing?

Do you or have you ever had any difficulties using any of the facilities on the forum because you were unable to find out how to use or access them?

Can I also ask you to look at the following thread started by Joel before Christmas at http://www.ocdaction.org.uk/forums/topic/how-to-support-young-people-on-the-forum

If you have any comments or suggestions for ways that we could improve using the forum you can either post them on this thread or contact me by going to http://www.ocdaction.org.uk/members/soxon

Thank you for your help

Soxon
Moderator and Chair of the Forum Steering Committee.

Mon Jan 3 2011 21:24:07 #
Tess
Member

Hi Soxon
I've not experienced any problems using this forum which is more than I can say for the 'opposition' which I find so difficult to use that I just don't bother.
As for suggestions on how to improve this one I would like to see past member's postings displayed in chronological order, also I would like to see a better system for browsing past threads without having to go back page by page.
I'd also like search results displayed in chronological order which would not only be helpful in the here and now but would give a historical perspective on how treatments are changing and how sufferers are responding.
But my general feeling is if it ain't broke, don't mend it.

Tue Jan 4 2011 10:13:37 #
Wombat140
Member

Just read through the site guide and spotted the following:
* I see the rules in the site guide forbid "advertising, spamming and trolling". Might be as well to define "spamming" and "trolling", for the benefit of the complete Internet novice.
* They add: "We also do not allow posts or links to sites that are sexual in nature or that violate community standards." What are "community standards" when they're at home?
* The site guide also seems confused about whether a certain feature is called "the wire" or "the wall".
* There's nothing in it about how to find posts by a given member. I knew how, but only because Truddles told me.
All this is mighty pernickety, I know, but if you're going to revise the site guide, you might as well make a thorough job of it.

Other suggestions:
* Unless this has changed recently, you can't PM anyone but "friends" from your profile pages - you can only do it by tracking down one of their postings and clicking "Send Message".
* To search for a member's postings, you have to track down at least one of their postings manually and click "Member" underneath their name. You can't do it from the Users Directory. Can be tricky if the person hasn't posted for a bit.
* Some forums I've seen have an option to address a message to the moderators in general, so that it's sent to all of them and answered by whichever has time. Might be handy if you can fix it.

Hope this helps.
Wombat140=

Wed Jan 5 2011 19:02:07 #
Soxon
Key Master

Tess and Wombat,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. Some of the suggestions we are already aware of and we will certainly look into the others.

All this is mighty pernickety, I know, but if you're going to revise the site guide, you might as well make a thorough job of it.

I don't think that it's pernickety and I agree that if we're going through the site guide we should make a thorough job of it.

So once again thank you.

Does anyone else have any comments or suggestions as to how we can improve using the forum and the site guide?

Soxon
Moderator

Thu Jan 6 2011 12:15:40 #
Soxon
Key Master

Hi Everyone,

In reply to some of the comments posted both here and elsewhere on the forum, I am able post the following:

SENDING A PM
There are several ways to send a PM:

--You can go to your own Profile page and click on Messages on the left hand side of the page. Then click on compose and on the right hand side of the page you will see Compose a Message.
You then can type in the public nickname of the member that you want to send a message to in the Send to box. You then need to type in a heading for your message in the Subject box. PLEASE NOTE - You must fill in both of these boxes or your message wont send and you will get a red bar appear saying there was an error sending this message, please try again. Then type in your message and click Send.
--Alternatively you can PM someone that you’re not friends by going to the users directory and find them there, you don’t need search for one of their posts. Once you’ve found them you can click on their name and then their Profile Page will come up and you can then send them a message using the blue Send Message box.
--You can also send someone a message by clicking on the blue Send Message box under a Members name and avatar to the left hand side of a post that they have posted.

PLEASE NOTE - when you send a PM to someone for the first time you must always type something in the Subject box or your message wont send you will get a red bar appear saying there was an error sending this message, please try again.

FINDING THE POSTING HISTORY OF A MEMBER
At the moment to find the posting history of any member including your own, you need to click on the word member under their avatar next to one of their posts.

WIRES
You can only post on your own wire and the wires of members that are on your list of friends. You can also delete any wires that on your own wire or any that you have posted on a friend’s wire.
IMPORTANT Please note wires can be read everyone so don’t put anything in a wire that you’re not happy for others to read.

Please do familiarise yourselves with your own profile page and all the facilities and features that it has.

If you are experiencing any difficulties accessing any of the features or facilities on the forum or website please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.

We do value your comments and suggestions and are taking them seriously.

Soxon
Moderator

Sun Jan 9 2011 15:31:07 #
Soxon
Key Master

USING SMILIES IN POSTS

Some members appear to be having difficulties inserting smilies in their posts.

If you insert a smilie you need to leave a space after the smilie or it doesn't work.
When you insert a smilie it automatically puts a space before itself but not after and in order for it to work it must have a space after it as well. So if you want to insert two smilies in a row like this You need to click on the first smilie and then place the cursor after the smilie, insert a space. Then click on the next smilie and then once again place the cursor after the smilie and insert a space before typing anything else including punctuation
I hope that this helps.
Happy smilies everyone

Does anyone else have any comments or suggestions as to how we can improve using the forum and the site guide?

If you are experiencing any difficulties accessing any of the features or facilities on the forum or website please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.

We do value your comments and suggestions and we are taking them seriously.

Soxon
Moderator

Sat Jan 22 2011 12:34:17 #
Tess
Member

Hi Soxon
Not sure whether I can do [b]Bold or [i]italics or [u]underline or[quote] quote, and as for the others I don't know what they mean except for URL but I'm not sure if that would work for me either. So let's see what happens when I press Send Post ....

Sat Jan 22 2011 17:58:25 #
Soxon
Key Master

Hi Tess,

Sorry that you're having problems posting using some of the features.

To use Bold, Italics, underline, "quote" or centre do the following:

Highlight the word or words that you want to change and then click on the relevant symbol.
If you want to for instance do something in bold that is in the centre of the page, first highlight the words and click bold then highlight the words again including the brackets that appeared either side of the words and click on centre

Bold
I must admit that I don't know how to use UL, OL, LI and close but will get back to you once I know the answer.

These are the sort of problems that we want to hear about so that we can help everyone to get the most from their forum.

Soxon

Sat Jan 22 2011 19:17:21 #
jo
Member

what does the code button do?

Sat Jan 22 2011 19:29:57 #
Soxon
Key Master

The code button does this

Sat Jan 22 2011 19:38:24 #
Sysop
Key Master

Hey folks!

The code button is used for displaying programming markup. An example may be this:

<div class="my_class"> <p>some text in here, which is surrounded by tags</p> </div>

So what it does is display the html tags that would normally be hidden when displaying in a browser.

Kindest regards,
Sysop.

Sat Jan 22 2011 20:50:53 #
jo
Member

Thankyou for your answer, I didn't understand it but don't think its something I need to

Sat Jan 22 2011 21:48:45 #
Truddles
Member

I must admit that it's double dutch to me, the only thing that I understood is that as it's to do with programming I don't need to use it. Can you imagine the chaos I'd create programming a computer?

Sat Jan 22 2011 22:04:38 #
Tess
Member

Hi [center][b]Soxon
Maybe I am working on an old version of Internet Explorer but your explanation of how to work these features doesn't do what it is supposed top do for me.
For instance I will highlight the word Soxon, click on bold, highlight again, including brackets and click on centre - here goes .....
No, no luck I'm afraid.
Sysop, I think I am reasonably computer literate, I worked with the very first computer in this country - the Ferranti Pegasus, then progressed through punched tape, punched cards, vast air conditioned computer buildings with huge spinning disks and on to some pretty chunky desktop machines doing desktop publishing - and I did Maths for two years at Uni (and passed the exams) but for the life of me I can't fathom a word of your explanation of the code button.

Sun Jan 23 2011 11:02:04 #
Soxon
Key Master

Hi Tess,

Sorry that you're still having problems. When I used internet explorer I found that it only put in the first bracket.
Try just making a word bold - you should then see a b in a bracket before the word and /b in a bracket after the word. If the /b isn't there go back to the B symbol as it will have become /B and then click on that after the word you want to make bold. I hope this helps.
I couldn't fathom the code explanation either.

Sun Jan 23 2011 11:34:45 #
Tess
Member

Hi [/b][b]Soxon
I've highlighted Soxon and got a b in a bracket before but no /b in a bracket after, so I've highlighted again on /b and now I've got both b and /b in brackets before the word Soxon, so let's see how it sends ....

Sun Jan 23 2011 11:42:02 #
Tess
Member

Sun Jan 23 2011 11:43:23 #
Soxon
Key Master

Oh Tess I'm so sorry
But don't worry this is precisely why I started this thread. It was to find out if members were having any difficulties using any of the features. I will speak to sysop and one of us will get back to you in due course. Technology's great when it works but not so great when it doesn't At least your smilies are working
Thank you for taking the time to let us know.

Sun Jan 23 2011 11:54:33 #
Tess
Member

Hi Soxon
Thanks for trying to help but it's not a big deal, I can live without bold and italic type. I took this up with Sysop once before and he seemed to think it was due to my computer's operating system - I'm on Windows XP and Explorer 8.

Sun Jan 23 2011 13:12:30 #
aronralstonismyhero
Member

What is the "update all topics read button supposed to do" ?

Sun Jan 23 2011 15:51:00 #
Truddles
Member

When you're logged on any topics that you haven't read are in bold letters once you read them they change to ordinary type. But you might have read them when you weren't logged on and if so if you click on that button it gets rid of the bold letters and indicates that you've read all the topics
It's handy if you jump about from thread to thread and don't read them all because then the next time that you log on you can see which you haven't read.

Sun Jan 23 2011 16:34:28 #
aronralstonismyhero
Member

Wow - think my head just exploded

Sun Jan 23 2011 17:30:49 #
Unregistered

What would be good would be if we could receive email notifications when someone replies to our posts or to a post we're active in. I think sometimes new users post and then never come back to the post because they are not notified of replies and think that no one has responded. When I first joined I thought this but then obviously I checked on the site and saw that there were replies. I was surprised that I hadn't been notified. It would really help for when you post on a lot of threads and sometimes forget where you've posted and so miss replies and comments and things. If that makes sense.

Mon Jan 24 2011 12:32:45 #
Ella
Member

Methinnks that is a good idea! Just wondering, how do you make a support question a resolved question?

Tue Feb 1 2011 17:59:43 #
Tess
Member

Perhaps we could have an arrow which moves up the threads, similar to the ones for e-mails, so that we can read each new thread without having to go back to the main forum page. It would also need to take us directly to the last page of each thread.

Wed Feb 2 2011 11:56:41 #
Soxon
Key Master

Thank you for all your comments and suggestions about your forum.

A lot of interesting points have been raised by you and we are taking them all seriously and will be discussing them at our next meeting which is later this month.

If you have any other comments or suggestions for ways that we could improve using the forum or you're having problems getting something to work on the forum you can either post them on this thread or contact me by going to http://www.ocdaction.org.uk/members/soxon

Can I also ask you to look at the following thread started by Joel before Christmas at http://www.ocdaction.org.uk/forums/topic/how-to-support-young-people-on-the-forum

Thank you
Soxon

Sat Feb 5 2011 11:26:21 #
Tess
Member

Twice this morning I have tried posting a new thread, I have filled in all of the boxes, including the Tags one but when I pressed the send button I just got a green box saying this topic is now closed - each time I lost everything I had typed so I have given up. I thought it might have been because the title had been used before so I tried an obscure title the second time but it still gave me the green box treatment - anyone know why this is happening?, I've posted new threads in the past without this problem.

Sun Feb 6 2011 10:39:54 #
Soxon
Key Master

Hi Tess,

I'm sorry that you've had problems trying to post a new thread. I'm not very good with computers and so I personally can't solve your problem but I know a man who can So I will contact sysop to find out what the problem is and get back to you once I have a reply.
With regards to losing all your typing can I suggest that you first type it using a word document or similar on your computer and then copy and paste it onto the forum especially if you're typing a long post. I keep a word document open on my desktop expressly for if I have something long to put on the forum as I too in the past have lost posts when I tried posting them. But don't do what I did the first time I cut and pasted it as I then lost not only the post but the original too

Soxon

Sun Feb 6 2011 12:47:53 #
Tess
Member

It would be really lovely to have a picture gallery on the forum where we could share our photos, any chance of putting this suggestion on the agenda?

Wed May 11 2011 9:57:09 #
Soxon
Key Master

Just an update to let you know that we’ve taken on board all your comments and suggestions.
We are in the process of collating the information in order to update the forum but as you will appreciate these things take time. We will let you know when we have finished.

Tess, with regards to a picture gallery we have been considering this for a while and are looking into the cost of providing such a facility.

In the meantime if you are experiencing any difficulties accessing any of the features or facilities on the forum or website please do not hesitate to get in contact with me.

We do value your comments and suggestions and we are taking them seriously.

Soxon
Moderator

Tue May 17 2011 11:34:34 #

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