Brand New Forum and Social Community - Need Your Input

[Bill - Seemiller]

Hey everyone,

 

So we are currently working on a brand new, mobile friendly discussion forum and social community that's going to replace this one in the very near future. But before we do, we'd like your input. We are still in the beginning phases and we haven't yet migrated any of the data over from this forum to the new one.

 

However, we'd appreciate it if any and all of you could create an account on the new forum to test it's features and then provide us with input. You can reply to this topic with your thoughts or email me at help@hairtransplantnetwork.com.

 

Remember, this is YOUR community so any feedback you provide will be helpful in creating the best environment for you to share your experiences, stories, garner support and find the best doctors.

 

Please go to http://34.228.25.120 to view the new test community and start testing its features.

 

NOTE: For now, we only have a few test forum categories and forum topics. You can create your own topic just to test or reply. When we go live, everything will be there :-).

 

When we go live, all users, login and passwords, forum topics, posts, photos, blogs, etc. will be migrated over to the new community. Amongst the many other great features, this community will be fully responsive and mobile friendly :-).

 

I look forward to your feedback and creating an even better forum and social community for all of you.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

Edited June 20, 2018 by Bill - Managing Publisher

[Spanker]

There will have to be more posts to be able to tell, but here are my thoughts after about 5 minutes.

 

1. It is not easy, so far, to see threads with new postings and who they are. It may just be the UI, but I like coming to the forum and clicking "New Posts" and getting to see what has is being posted about. I am sure it is there, it just doesn't feel as visible. Hopefully, new and hot posts will get to be visible in a more user friendly way. (That said, I am a person that is resistant to change, so that could just be the issue).

 

2. Speaking of resistant to change, so far, it looks like every other forum out there that I don't frequent, because I don't like the UI, I guess I will reitterate, I can't see the title of the threads that are being posted on easily (so far). I like to see the number of views, posts, and if there has been a new post, I like to be able to easily see that. But I only want to see the title of the thread, and then I will decide to click on it or not.

 

3. I do like that you can like a post along with other emoji's. That is long past due.

 

4. I saw something in there about warning points or something like that? That seems interesting. Where is that going?

 

5. Also, there seems to be a value for how well your posts are liked call Community Reputation? Interested to hear more about that.

 

6. The thing I like the most about it is that the mobile version seems much easier to upload images on.

[voxman]

I like the pictures being available for viewing in the regular post. Not the old thumbnail form.

 

They can be viewed much quicker.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Spanker,

 

Thanks for your detailed feedback. I will try to answer some of your questions below and if there is any feedback we can implement, we certainly will.

There will have to be more posts to be able to tell, but here are my thoughts after about 5 minutes.

 

1. It is not easy, so far, to see threads with new postings and who they are. It may just be the UI, but I like coming to the forum and clicking "New Posts" and getting to see what has is being posted about. I am sure it is there, it just doesn't feel as visible. Hopefully, new and hot posts will get to be visible in a more user friendly way. (That said, I am a person that is resistant to change, so that could just be the issue).

There actually is something similar called "Unread Content" under the "Activity" tab. We also have a "Today's Posts" link under the "Browse" tab although I'm thinking we need to move this to "Activity" since it makes more sense there. I believe the "Unread Content" will give you what you are looking for here.

 

2. Speaking of resistant to change, so far, it looks like every other forum out there that I don't frequent, because I don't like the UI, I guess I will reitterate, I can't see the title of the threads that are being posted on easily (so far). I like to see the number of views, posts, and if there has been a new post, I like to be able to easily see that. But I only want to see the title of the thread, and then I will decide to click on it or not.

I think if you use the "Unread Content" or "Today's Posts" you might see more of what you are looking for. Right now, thyere isn't a lot of views or replies so those numbers probably don't exist. But those numbers should exist once everything is imported.

 

On another note, one of the problems with change is that people are often resistant to it. But our community is starting to get a bit stagnant because it's not mobile friendly and all the new communities use UI's that are modern and a bit different. We are trying to emulate some of the similar features you all like which is the purpose of getting feedback. However, there are certain things we just can't change unfortunately. Once we do an actual data import, we will see how everything looks and see if there is a way to manipulate the data a bit to look a bit more friendly and familiar. If there is something specific you like about the way things are displayed here, please share and we will see what we can do.

 

3. I do like that you can like a post along with other emoji's. That is long past due.

I'm not sure what you mean here, but I'm glad you like it.

 

4. I saw something in there about warning points or something like that? That seems interesting. Where is that going?

I see a lot of the new forums contain these tools where you can impose infractions and warnings although I don't know that we'll ever use those. But it's something to think about.

 

5. Also, there seems to be a value for how well your posts are liked call Community Reputation? Interested to hear more about that.

That's really nothing new - the "reputation" here is something like "Senior Member" or "Follicular Wizard". We will likely use similar reputation stuff that has to do with the number of posts.

 

Have you tried using the community on a mobile device? In my opinion, it's way easier than using the current one because it's not scalable at all. But the new one scales down to any mobile device. And we are still tweaking the design to be as convenient as possible.

 

Did you notice there are blogs and articles as well? Just like the social aspect of this community, you can add blogs, photos and articles. I'm not sure if anyone will use these or not, they don't seem that popular on this community, but maybe more people will use them on the new community. All the current blogs will import.

 

6. The thing I like the most about it is that the mobile version seems much easier to upload images on.

 

Yes, and it scales down to size and you can easily send private messages, etc.

 

Feel free to provide any other feedback you have :-).

 

Bill

[Bill - Seemiller]

Voxman,

 

Thanks also for your input. Any other specifics you like or don't like?

 

Did you try out the mobile?

 

Bill

[voxman]

Voxman,

 

Thanks also for your input. Any other specifics you like or don't like?

 

Did you try out the mobile?

 

Bill

 

Haven't tried mobile yet - I was just over there again testing out the newest topics and unread topics, etc.... I have no problem with it - I like it.

 

Can I get a warning point? So I look like a Bad Boy?

[Spanker]

I tried the mobile. I'm almost always on it. I liked it.

[Hans - Webmaster]

Spanker, one of the innovative features is the ability for you to create a custom view that fits whatever you feel is useful to your viewing habits.

Under the tab for "Activity" there is a menu item for "My Activity Streams" and there is the facility to create your own custom stream, which may even be more useful than something that is pre-set for all users.

While the forum does not have that much content, it would really help if more members here popped over to give things a test drive and add some content. That would populate things and give everyone a better idea of the new forum.

[hairsprint]

My quick thoughts based on a few minutes of usage. It is also possible I have missed seeing/exploring all the options available on the new site,

 

1. Formatting - There does not seem to be a formating/font selector option when posting threads/responses, only a size selector option is available

2. Bookmarks - This is something I had just mentioned via another forum thread. As someone who likes to keep track of specific threads/posts/patient cases/surgeons, it would be helpful to have a bookmark feature within the site without having to create an id or store them on third party sites

3. Space - Relative to the present site, the new site seems to use far more real estate for the same text lengths (maybe, this is just me?!). While this isn't necessarily an issue, it would force readers to scroll a lot more

[hairsprint]

Oh, and I had a question too. I used the same email id/user name combination that I have used on the present HRN site to create my account on the new site. I assume we will end up with the ids/posts merged and not with one id overwriting the other when the new site goes live

[Hans - Webmaster]

Hairsprint, It is certainly possible to change the font colour, - to the left of the Font Size, there is an option for colour.

 

It may be a bit different in layout and options to the current forum, but I am confident*that as users get to understand these differences, they will enjoy this new version.

As to the bookmark option, this is also done by "Following" the post and once you have posted in it, you can also use the "Activity Stream" feature to set a really wide filter option to keep track of things.

 

Yes, indeed

Oh, and I had a question too. I used the same email id/user name combination that I have used on the present HRN site to create my account on the new site. I assume we will end up with the ids/posts merged and not with one id overwriting the other when the new site goes live

, once we import everything to the new forum, all the test posts and profiles will be cleaned out

 

Hans

[Bill - Seemiller]

Hairsprint,

 

Just to address your point about following posts. Any time you post on a topic you will be subscribed and automatically get an email. Also, there is a "follow" button on each topic so you can always follow a topic without posting.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Bill - Seemiller]

And yes, right now anything that's posted on the new site will be deleted. None of the forum categories, topics or posts have been imported. It's just there for test purposes while we build the design and get everything functional. We should be doing the first data import in the next couple of weeks. But don't worry, before we go live, we will give substantial notice and all topics/posts/messages/etc. will carry over.

 

What's also nice is that your usernames (email address) and passwords will remain the same.

 

The only bad thing is that if you have it set to REMEMBER your password, you will have to type it once to login. Then, you can have it remember again. There's no way around that no matter what. It has to do with a cookie installed on your computer.

 

Other than that, I expect people will enjoy using the new features and the ability to easily use everything on your mobile device without having to swipe left and right.

 

I'd love to hear more feedback :-)

[Bill - Seemiller]

Are there any other features on THIS forum that you regularly use that you don't see or can't find on the new forum? I want to see if it's something that's there that you just can't find or if it's something missing. If it's missing, now's the time to try to add it if we can!