Ideas for this forum!

Hello my digital Lyme family 😄

I have some ideas for this forum that I wanted to share and was hoping people would share theirs as well. I don’t know if new ideas are even needed/wanted but thought I’d try.

Here’s what I have so far:

Email notifications that are on by default (that you can opt-out of)

So I know most people don’t like getting constant emails but please hear me out. Sometimes I see new members joining and posting a question, getting many very helpful responses and then they never return to read them.

What I think happens is this: people are used to social media where they get all their notifications on a daily basis. However, they are not used to logging into HealingWell every day. So they simply forget.

Also, HealingWell moves slower than social media so if they don’t get a response right away, they might figure they won’t get one at all. By making email notifications a default feature they would learn that it just takes some time to get a reply and also serves as a reminder that people did reply.

In that same email, there could be a feature that says “Don’t send me these emails again”, so that people that check the forum every day regardless, don’t have to get them. I think this would attract new members to come back to the forum.

I’m on a non-Lyme forum where this is a feature and so many new members come back to the forum once they get an email notification that they have received a response.

Fix the quote feature

So whenever you quote someone who has quoted someone (a double quote), the entire function breaks. It should be an easy fix. You could make the new reply the quote and not include the quote before that. Alternatively, I guess you could have nested quotes but that’s a bit of a mess when it turns into 2+ quotes.

Get more members/advertising

So I could be wrong but I feel like the amount of new members are slowing down and have been for a while. Does HealingWell do any advertising at all? Because we do have advertisers on the website but I never see ads for HealingWell itself anywhere else. Also please check out Garzie’s thread on how we can get new members. I’ll try to find it.

Additional sticky thread

So right now we have the “New to Lyme... Start here!” sticky thread on top. I thought it might be a good and easy to implement idea to have a second sticky thread. I browsed some of the other disease forums on HealingWell and noticed the Prostate Cancer has 2 stickies, as shown here:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35

Some possible ideas for a second sticky:
– A weekly/Monthly off-topic thread
– A weekly/Monthly treatment update thread
– Other ideas?

Share buttons

So I think we could get more members if we shared this website with others more. However, there’s no currently an easy way to share threads. I personally cut and paste but keep in mind that many people use mobile where not everyone knows how to cut and paste. Also, sometimes people just want to click a button and “boom! Shared on social media” without going through any trouble. Yes, part of it is maybe laziness but I guess that’s how it is.

Login with email

So I recently looked into how the signup process works and noticed that there’s a difference between a username and a login name (you have to pick both). I think this causes people to forget what name they used to login with. ie. Was it my login name or username? So a fix for this would be to either:

1. Just use one username and not a login name + username
2. Let people login with their email address (this would be an easier fix)

Make links easier to use

When people post a link, you can’t actually click on it. In order to fix this you have to put URL tags before and after. This is not really that easy for most people that aren’t used to forums. I really think many links don’t even get visited because people don’t know how to click on them, especially on mobile. I’m aware this would increase people posting spam links but there are ways to prevent this.

Autosave draft

Sometimes people write entire responses only for their tab to close, losing everything. Many other forums have an autosave draft function where the draft gets saved while they type. Then when the tab closes and they login the draft is still there.

Allow sending private messages to members to share LLMD’s

When a new user posts their email address to get ideas for LLMD’s the email address usually gets removed and they are told to “activate their email address on their profile”. I think an easier way to go about this is a private messaging system of the forum itself.

That’s what I have so far 😃.

Thank you so much saraeli! I really appreciate it.
I have followed your advice to email the admin and asked him to kindly read this thread over the next few days (when others might chime).

Thank you Garzie, I tried really hard to find your thread on that but I can't find it.

Some good suggestions you have.

Don’t hold your breath Rainy. The site Admin (owner) is difficult to reach.
I have been waiting for many months - maybe a year by now - for him to assign another Moderator or two.
Haven’t heard back.

I hope you do get a response.

Nope - i know there were two threads

one over a year ago where i suggested we consider doing some promoting the forums elsewhere on the internet ourselves to increase membership - there wasn't much love for it at the time - people seemed to want to keep the forums small - for reasons i didn't fully get - to my mind - more minds, more experiences to share, more ideas, more fruitful discussions, less day where there are only 2 posts.

i think it had a title something like - "should we takes steps to increase membership?"
and talked about posting links to the forum in other forums and social media

another more recently where i highlighted that the change in algorithms imposed by all the major search engines has dropped traffic to all alternative health information sites across the board to around 1/4 or 1/3 or less of previous levels - but i think this was just a comment in response in someone else thread who was mentioning that the forum seemed quieter than before

i cant find either with the search tool - or with a google site search

i think there is always going to be quite high turnover of new members Astro

-some coming - but then finding somewhere else that suits them better
-some deciding they don't have lyme after all and diving deeply into heavy metals or mold - so going elsewhere
-some getting better so getting on with life
etc etc

but those things have always been the case - i think the two big factors that have changed in the last few years - reducing membership are
1, the search engines making this forum much harder to find - the 4th page of results instead of near the top of the 1st page
2, the rise of social media groups in general - where people revert to that as being the first place to look for advice - rather than google for forums ( although i - like you - prefer forums and more long form discussion they suit)

social media groups are typically much more reactive - more active members - more responses
and that's what most people want today - an instant response
(strangely quality of information or thoroughness seems less important)

my point in the previous posts is aside from the regulars here - few new people come and join the discussions - which is our loss - and that this is unlikely to change - unless we do something different.

Rainy's ideas are all good in my view - but most rely on the owner taking action - which based on their past record of being MIA but dipping in to randomly delete a post now and then - seems somewhat unlikely.

"i think there is always going to be quite high turnover of new members Astro "

Yes, but there was also about 50% more people here any given time 2013-2018. It was very busy. Many new posts each day and many comments. Its changed a lot.

And yes...."FacePlant" health groups were not as popular then either. Like you, I will never understand the draw to Facebook for information.

(Some other areas of HW had more people too, so its a forum thing, not a lyme thing).

Post Edited (astroman) : 10/27/2022 3:13:52 PM (GMT-7)

Hi Rainy!!

Some great suggestions here!! The first I will comment is on the auto save!! As I’d just typed out loads and lost it!!

This site is such a great resource and some additional advertising would be great. I’ve come across so many people that have never heard of it!

Private messaging would be great as would an additional sticky thread. It’s great to get to know people for who they are and not just the lyme. The people behind the lyme.

Email notifications when someone replies would be fab too. Due to time differences etc sometimes there can be a delay and maybe people (me being one) can get put off posting for this reason.

Hope you’re all doing well here I’ve not been on for a long time!! Still treating with herbs, still trial and error!

MargaritaLyme said...
A suggestion that moderators could implement is a note at the top alerting members that threads are closed at page 3 so members don’t waste time composing a post that goes nowhere.

We often go past page 3.
And then it’s not closed - when it gets lengthy we put a link to Part 2

To clarify my question, when a thread breaks up,it’s continuation doesn’t automatically appear on the board?

MargaritaLyme said...
Ok- Where is the link posted? Thanks.

It’s the last post on the last page

I believe the change in Google’s algorithms is the most influential factor as Garzie stated. This forum as well as flash net lyme were always the top hits. It was posts from these forums which helped me confirm symptoms I was experiencing were indicative of Lyme. Of course, there are members who have recovered and would prefer their experience here to remain a distant memory. But given the increasing incidence of Lyme worldwide, you’d think traffic here would reflect this.

saraeli said...
For what it's worth, the search engine Duck Duck Go still yields HealingWell results readily. It also doesn't track or sell your information.

If I type in “lyme forum” on Firefox , this place is still towards the top. I will try it at the library sometime where the computers dont know me.

Post Edited (astroman) : 10/30/2022 12:48:40 AM (GMT-7)