What Happened to the Site??

[Anonymous]

I may be alone in this…. but I have been staying off the site for a while. It appears that the format has taken a drastic change?? I find the new format very difficult to navigate it has left me………hmmmm…….very confused. The simplicity of the previous format seemed to me (and I can only speak for me) was very user friendly and the threads were easy to return to. The site seems to have lost that intimate community conversational feel. I really, as I said struggle.

When I visited the site before the ‘hot topics” were up front, and threads I was engaged in were right there. I could see at a glance which of my site community was responding and when. It was all so friendly and easy….it was a pleasant place to share and spend time, it was comfortable. Now……i don’t know where many of my new “Site Handle” friends are, or how they are doing……….I’m lost and sad.The site for has become more of struggle to navigate and share than is beneficial……for me. I’ll try once or twice more but, I’m afraid it has become unfriendly to me…….maybe others too.

I hate to be negative…….but…..I feel I must speak up??

toofat

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[Anonymous]

I guess I’m not done yet….. with my issues here. Aerin…Dr. J……I hope you read this, and soon.

I find now that I must go thru each and every major catagories, sub catagory then the sub-sub catagories to attempt to find what has been happening and who has been posting. This is an onerous task!! I have to try remember every place I’ve been and where I was last, let alone what I came for originally. My look at the community at a glance is gone!!!! This is a site for people with attention issues and now the site requires way too much attention and focus to get around. I had a quick look at the responders and time frames and it looks to me like I’m not the only person who is being scared off?? Folks seem to be falling off…..sad.

Changing things drastically like this throws many folks into a lather, and can cause serious anxiety. We have enough to deal with without what was a nice predictable haven being chaotic. Sorry I’m usually not so caustic….but I am troubled and I fear others may be as well.

If I’m alone so be it…..if others of you out there feel the same, please speak up. It is our site…and as it’s community members we should let the team who manages the site know, when things are right and when they are not.

I will wait for you response…….. it might just be me???

toofat

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[Anonymous]

Thanks for your comment, Toofat. We always appreciate feedback on the site, and strive to make totallyadd.com a place that everyone can enjoy.

All the changes that have taken place on the site are in response to continued requests from the community. We are still working towards a sustainable structure to the forum as the site grows beyond our expectations, so you will see more changes over the coming months.

In response to your point about the position of the hot topics, there are now 3 areas of the site where you can access the freshest topics, home page included. The hot topics in the forum sidebar have been changed. Or were you referring to something else? You can still find all your recent activity on your profile page, where nothing has changed.

Please continue to send your comments, as we value them and take them all into consideration.

Best regards,

James

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[Anonymous]

Thanks for your feedback Toofat. As I’m sure you’re aware, we are working very hard to respond as quickly as possible with limited resources. As i mentioned in my last message, the forum restructuring was necessary given the vast amount of content on the site now that we have in excess of 20,000 members. The sub-forums organize the content so that information can be more easily found. While we’d like to keep things as simple as possible, our goal is also to make the information in the forums accessible.

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[Anonymous]

I dont mind the changes other than the fact that there are far too many sections ….and it must be a pita to sort all of the topics for the admins….

Best example is the medication section which pretty much has a section for every available medication on the market. It becomes hard to search through the topics especially for someone who cannot make the difference between the different medications.

It would be more user friendly if for instance you classified the threads in broader categories so instead of having a section for concerta and one for ritalin, i would have probably one for stimulant base medication including concerta and ritalin…..if you really want to make a distinction between the different stimulant based meds, you might want to have a short acting med section and long acting but personally i wouldn’t even make them as precise as this.

Of course, you cant please everyone but i feel its important for users to be able to follow the different ongoing threads. The number of sections does not encourage the user to follow the different threads.

Juste my 2.5 cents!

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[Anonymous]

Great, thanks John! You can imagine the discussions that continue around categorization. It’s not easy. I will pass your thoughts along to the team.

J

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[Anonymous]

Toofat, hang in there. I always enjoy your comments, especially about music!

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[agnoscet]

James, I like the format and the improvements. Thank you all for what I know is a major effort.

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[trashman]

hi .Toofat I think that the topic ‘s on the table your brain does not find interesting. you know if the adhd brain does not find it engaging the we are bored and become unhappy very fast . so then start to post things that keeps your focus and stimulated. Thats how I find it for me. having said that I have to say that I have not always agreed with all your posts, but find them interesting and good intent . so I hope you do not lose focus and continue to take a active roll in these forms .

thanks trashman

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[trashman]

Oh, I have bean told I am a high functioning adhd er with a low IQ and the only thing that keeps me out of the being slow class are my very high verbal skills . so Toofat some of us are still learning from you . so thanks again. till I was told of this site I never used the computer so for me its great to get into this . until this site I was not focus enough to learn anything about this ,it is a slow go but I find it to be fun and at times topics to be very simulating .

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[shutterbug55]

I feel your pain, TF. I hit the forums button and the hot topics are on the top right. I completely ignore the front page or main page. It changes too much. I have a combination of ADD and Dyslexia, and I have a real problem with pattern recognition. The ordinary rules of minimizing white space do not apply to Dyslexics and ADDrs. Having to drill down several levels to get the information we want, is at times beyond our capabilities. Normal web design practices do not apply as well. Please keep that in mind, when you are adding content to the site.

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[Anonymous]

The home page needs to show enough info to interest someone who is new to the site, so I get having all the different things there. But for someone who’s been here before, constantly seeing the same thing there over and over gets stale pretty fast. We want to see what’s happening in the forums!

So on that note, on the forum main page, I would ditch the tag cloud. I mean, it’s an ADHD site, we don’t need to see that ADHD or ADD or Ritalin or Concerta are the most talked about things! By ditching the tag cloud, you’ll allow more space for the “recently posted” comments section. If someone really wants to see where Ritalin is being discussed on the site, they can use the search function, right?

I too find that it’s very difficult to see what’s going on. I post, but there aren’t replies to my posts very often, so just going to my profile to see what I’ve posted doesn’t give me a very good overview of what’s happening in the forums. And I find it frustrating to click on a forum topic and subtopic only to find that there’s nothing there. A good forum, imho, gives us broad categories, but then allows us as members to define the topics within those categories. So I would say ditch the subcategories too! It’s way too many clicks to get where we want to go.

The fact that it’s confusing is emphasized by recent posters who reply to posts because they don’t know how to start one or what forum topic might be an appropriate area to start one in.

But THANK YOU for making this forum available and listening to us to see how it might be improved!

Four cents worth for a two cent discussion – I do tend to ramble on, sorry!

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[Anonymous]

Yes No_D, and SB…I have to agree (for me and I guess you too) the change to click click drilling into a category, then click click a topic, then a sub then backing out drilling back in again trying to see what’s been posted, when, by whom….hmmmm….now where was I…..better back right out? Yikes…….

Sorry, I know we are all different…..strengths, weakness(s)……some follow some process(s) better or maybe different than others. I just thought if I was having issues with then new format, there might be others too. Funny I find I feel very attached, and protective of this site, and it’s community??

Anyway….surprises can throw some folks off too…….kinda of a “what the hell’…thing. I know in my life one of the management tools I have used and use where I can…. instill routine routine routine predictable routine. Simple predictable routine where I can, allows me put so many things aside (never think of them again) , then I can deal with all of the other stuff very effectively….so when my routine is upset, without warning hmmmmm……..it doesn’t always work so well. Discomfort is, maybe an appropriate description???

Now….I don’t like people who just complain with no “build” solution…..so here is another ‘build” from me to add to John, D_P and SB’s and others great “builds”.

It maybe (if I understand) that the site is becoming somewhat unmanageable…too large,whatever. If so an “archive” section of older topics and responses that have languished for (X number of days, or weeks, or months) may be an appropriate solution. Using a “stale date” as the archive criteria might be a simple way to manage such a section??? The “search tool” could be a nice archival retrieval too???

Benefit:

1. Keeping more current (fresh) topics and responses accessible may certainly help with keeping the conversational aspect of the site……which I love about it!!

2. Provides a good tool to assist the administrator in keeping the site to a manageable content level.

3. Ensures the site content is user relevant, and the topics are important to the larger demographic within the community.

4. Would assist users in topic navigation, acquisition and response generation.

5. Would provide an historical, retrievable site resource.

just $0.25 from me……..

toofat

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[Anonymous]

Yes No_D, and SB…I have to agree (for me and I guess you too) the change to click click drilling into a category, then click click a topic, then a sub then backing out drilling back in again trying to see what’s been posted, when, by whom….hmmmm….now where was I…..better back right out? Yikes…….

Sorry, I know we are all different…..strengths, weakness(s)……some follow some process(s) better or maybe different than others. I just thought if I was having issues with then new format, there might be others too. Funny I find I feel very attached, and protective of this site, and it’s community??

Anyway….surprises can throw some folks off too…….kinda of a “what the hell’…thing. I know in my life one of the management tools I have used and use where I can…. instill routine routine routine predictable routine. Simple predictable routine where I can, allows me put so many things aside (never think of them again) , then I can deal with all of the other stuff very effectively….so when my routine is upset, without warning hmmmmm……..it doesn’t always work so well. Discomfort is, maybe an appropriate description???

Now….I don’t like people who just complain with no “build” solution…..so here is another ‘build” from me to add to John, D_P and SB’s and others great “builds”.

It maybe (if I understand) that the site is becoming somewhat unmanageable…too large,whatever. If so an “archive” section of older topics and responses that have languished for (X number of days, or weeks, or months) may be an appropriate solution. Using a “stale date” as the archive criteria might be a simple way to manage such a section??? The “search tool” could be a nice archival retrieval too???

Benefit:

1. Keeping more current (fresh) topics and responses accessible may certainly help with keeping the conversational aspect of the site……which I love about it!!

2. Provides a good tool to assist the administrator in keeping the site to a manageable content level.

3. Ensures the site content is user relevant, and the topics are important to the larger demographic within the community.

4. Would assist users in topic navigation, acquisition and response generation.

5. Would provide an historical, retrievable site resource.

just $0.25 from me……..

toofat

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[Anonymous]

Here’s a forum format that seems to work well. http://www.tpmg.ca/forum/index.php

The organizers set up very few categories on the forum and then it was up to the members to make the forum GO! and they do!

What I like about this forum is that there is a section where people can go to explain the rules and how to use the forum. They have “sticky notes” that keep these kind of forum postings at the top of a particular forum. And people can reverse the thread to show the most recent posts first or the oldest posts first (the way email comes through when people reply to a post). This is really a more natural way of reading things if you’ve just joined the conversation.

Not saying that the TOTALLY ADD forum is not useful, but it’s not user-friendly. The TPMG forum is way more user-friendly.

Just curious as to what people think about this style. As for this particular forum template: it’s not hard to set up, this forum template is widely available (I even started one up for a different purpose but abandoned it because of the advertisements when using it as a freebie version). It might be worth looking into.

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