You may have read on the forum that we are in the process of redesigning breastcancercare.org.uk. Some of you have been involved in this project and we are keen to make all our forum members aware of the progress of the redesign.
Thanks very much for your efforts to keep us all up and going!
The only thing I would say that it is nice of you to let us know it's going to be different but it's hard to comment unless we know how its going to look - unless I have missed something.
A bit more info would be useful -otherwise it's hard to tell whether it's going to be a lovely surprise or a bit of a shock - hopefully the former!
Thanks again - we do appreciate it. Kind regards FizBix
Thanks for your comments, I'll pass them on to Bertie.
Just to let you know, a 'sticky' is like a 'post it note' on the site, it stays at the top of the board so that everyone can read it instead of it slipping down out of sight.
As Fizbix says - it's hard to comment on what is proposed if we don't know what you are thinking, Bertie. Are you asking for suggestions?
The lack of comments tells me that people feel the same as me? We have no idea what shape u think the webpage will take.... but i can tell you now that if it works less well than this you will have a stom of protest!
i think people would like more on line convo sessions - most of us have to take some time off sick but one or two nights a week may not be enough. I'm quite often thinking of going to bed fairly early in the evening/just have a bit of a nap because my sleep is disrupted - ummm, then i've missed all the ones i thought of joining for that reason - i can do awake in the morning and fade as the afternoon goes on.... sleep and then it's all over! i don't think i am the only one.
basically what we have is valuable and i would not wish to lose it.... spell checker never works for me and i type appallingly!
So... can you tell us what you think the new site will offer, please?
Towards the end of last year a major consultation took place with over 50 users from all around the country. The aim was to get some feedback on the future direction of the website and how our users wanted the information to be organised.
You told us you wanted to be able to share your experiences of breast cancer, find other site users with a similar experience and contact each other. At the same time you want more clinical information and support available for you.
Our web agency designed a ‘prototype’ and some of you tested the initial concept. We are currently discussing the technical aspects; our main challenge is to integrate all our clinical/medical information with more community tools. Our aim is to build a more robust website including better discussion forums and live chat software. There are a few posts mentioning what’s not working well. We are also looking at a better private messaging system and more detailed profiles.
We are planning to keep the posts of the forums and you won't have to register again with the new site.
Some of other new ‘tools’ proposed are blogs, photo galleries, comments on article, tags (keywords).
The list is not quite finalised yet; I will be able to give you more information in a few weeks.
hi bertie, as a fairly new user of this site, who has been very blessed by it, I am pleased to hear what the proposals for the improved version will be. it all sounds good!
It would be great to have more medical info, and also a live chat session at an earlier time of day, as Fizbix has suggested. We are too tired in the evening,often! mid-morning would be fantastic. What do others think?
hi bertie i love this site and you would be hard pressed to improve it so much...ITS THAT GOOD. the american site isn't a patch on this one though i would like to see more sub catogories like they have. i.e stage 3.....her2.....and idc. keep up the good work karen
Are 'tags (keywords)' when you can roll your mouse over a word you don't understand and see a definition/explanation? If not, then I think you should include that on the forums, and in fact the whole site. When you're a newbie and people's posts are littered with abbreviations and terminology it can feel like a different language!
I agree about the live chats being in a morning as well as evenings, as I get caught up in my children's issues in the evenings, and with teenagers, they go to bed at the same time as me (if not later). Thanks Jacquie
On speaking to my onc and in the Western General it would appear that there is no list that we can refer to, to see where any trials are taking place therefore unless it is in our area or someone mentions it on this site we are currently not in a position to ask to go on the trial. Some people have family all over the country and would possibly consider a trial some distance away, I suppose that is an individials choice to if they wish to make a lengthy journey or not.
However at this point there is nothing we can look at to see what each different hospitals are doing in order to try and get on the trials if we meet the criteria.
I feel this would be a benefit to the site, afterall we are the ones that will know what is going on all over the country and are in a prime position to tell each other about it. It may be better under it's own subject rather than being added to threads that if you happen not read will never know about it.
I think it would be a good idea to have a regional area on the site. I mean that if ladies with bc are wishing to meet others for support etc it would be useful which area of the country we all come from so we know if we can meet up if local to us.
Thank you for all the suggestions. Keep them coming!
Live chat Last year we organised live chat sessions at lunch time but they were not popular. I will speak to the team and see if we could pilot sessions earlier in the evening or at other times during the day.
Tags and definition Tags usually appear in something called a “tag cloud”. Basically it’s a list of words appearing in various font sizes depending on how often they are clicked. It’s less complicated than it sounds. You can see an example here: http://del.icio.us/tag/
Having certain words automatically linked to our Medical glossary is an excellent suggestion.
Trials I will check with the nurses team if we receive information about trials.
Regional info The web system we are planning to use allows information to be displayed regionally. I can’t promise this will be ready for the initial launch though, but it’s definitely something we are planning to do.
Now that we have the new improved contact options, would it be possible to link this to email, so that we could be told 'you have received a private message on the BCC forum' sort of thing? (Yes I know, I want jam on it.)
Profiles (only accessible to those who have joined this BCC Forum!) Notification by email, when a user has received a private message Spelling checker ... please!
is there any way of including a reminder list of threads one has posted on - I can get v confused! i think the ideas above are v good and it sounds like it will be really good.... thanks bertie!
I preferred the website as it was prior to the last "improvements". For instance, when I read comments from someone that seemed knowledgeable I then was able to look at the the person's profile and read all comments by that person. I learned a lot. The last "improvements" removed access to profiles. I would welcome you reinstating the facility.
What about people with "foreign" names? When I registered on the site about 12 months ago, the system would not accept my Christian name. Admittedly my name is an unsual one, but I had to call myself "Elena" just to be able to register, because the system kept rejecting my own name. It seems to me a simple adjustment to make the registration name fields to accept a certain number of letters, in whatever combination.
I agree with rgenr2. Now that I'm back at work I don't come onto the site as often and threads that I have posted on are pages away. My memory is not so good now either.
Would it also be helpful to lump all the common questions under one heading? There are some questions from new users that come up lots of times. For example what to take into hospital for mastectomy.
I've just read that and it looks like I'm complaining I'm not I just mean a new user can easily access everyone's ideas.
I agree that we do need a link to threads we have started or posted on, as at the moment it is difficult to keep track of these. A link say, to the left of the screen, entitled My Threads perhaps?
Also, I have to say that I preferred the format that was used before this. Bring back the profiles ASAP and the link to all threads to which a particular member has contributed.