Note from MedHelp to me

As I told you, I wrote to Medhelp about some of the concerns you all had with the new forum format.  They told me to "hang in there,."  They are apparrently having a meeting about it today.

I will let you know the outcome of that meeting, as soon as I know.

MedHelp tells me that the font size is actually the same as the last forum page.  They said that because of the "color" that is may "seem smaller."  I'm not quite convinced of that....

Will let you know as soon as possible when I hear anymore.  Hang in there all.....Knowing those at MedHelp the way I do, they will do everything they can to make this new forum format as user friendly as possible.

Heather

[Amyloo]

Thanks my friend.  I'm glad you have an in as far as input; we will try to behave...........love to you, Amy

[cjacks]

thanks Heather ,  They may be right about the font size??  But I can say the the page is VERY bright . The blue is o.k. . the white is too white .  I glad MedHelp is listening ...

Jo










h

[Want to feel well!!!]

Thanks for being an advocate for everyone!  I was shocked the first time I saw the change.  The white is a bit hard on the eyes.

[Wobbly]

Hi Heather, I'm only hoping that this doesn't turn into just a WEBSITE for information....instead of a place for us to keep in touch and ask questions etc..

for eg: with the "Related Tags" on the side, I do find that handy, and alot of people will find it helpful as well.  It's a quick way of getting answers to your specific questions.

But, I only hope it doesn't stop people from asking or talking about their situation or how they are feeling at that particular time, if you know what I mean.  It's like, I like to access of quick answers with the tags could give you, but I hope it doesn't take away new friends.

Andrea

[RIDDICK_777]

Hi Heather just seen this new page, it is not good on the eyes, see you are sorting all of this out, i'm sure everyone appreciates what you do for them all and all your hard work too, so thankyou from me and everyone take care doll

David.

[treebranches]

In the mean time, if the size of text is really bothering you, see what setting your internet browser is on, because you might be able to set it larger if it's not on the largest, already.

In the toolbar:
View -> Text Size

That works for IE and Mozilla, but I'm not sure about other browsers.

That changes the text on all websites, in case you didn't already know.

[Quixotic1]

Hi, I just got up and am trying to review all these changes and people's reaction to them.  First, I know that when something familiar changes, very few people are happy.  Many of the changes we will quickly become accustomed to.  But, I have some concerned that have nothing to do with just "getting used to it."

MedHelp has tried to make the whole thing more visually user friendly with the increased use of pictures and who has posted recently.

These are the things I'm concerned about:

1)  The black on bright white is truly hard on my eyes.  I didn't realized this before , but the whole white background of the screen is painful.

2)  There is FAR too much going on in the periphery.  I realize the ads pay for the site (drat!) but they are everywhere.

3)  On my screen and becasue this community is sooo busy, I feel the boxes that list who has recently joined the forum and who are the community members are one and the same.  The little picutres are vsiually distracting.  On our page we always can see who has recently posted, it doesn't need to be a separate space with info.  There are TWO SEPARATE PLACES to see "Community Members.  Couldn't we choose someway to hide these or display them?

4) I don't like the tags in all of their brilliant different sizes.  Again I wonder if there is a way they could be hidden or shown at the member's discretion.  I assume the different sizes indicate how many references there are for them.  I would like the members to try to use this window to see if they can truly get useable information.  If you all or some of you like it, then it's fine.

5) Thinking about it, when I click on a thread to see everyones posts and responses, it feels way less personal.  Because all of the extraneous info is still there on both sides.  I would like to see most of that disappear so that our discussions feels more private and intimate.  So that our discussions are pretty all that you see.

Heather, meet me in your inbox.

Quix

[Quixotic1]

Oh, and I hate, the line about whether the post was useful or not.  All posts are useful.  I don't like the element of judgmentalness appearing every time we post!

Quix

[Heather3418]

I am with you and your comments about the forum 100%.  I have tried to let MedHelp know this is VERY hard for US to read....

Hope they listened and will help us out.  This is visually distracting FOR SURE....

Heather

[RIDDICK_777]

I agree with your comments and to be perfectly honest i think i preferred things the way it was before, but saying that this is all new and we can probably make some changes and improvements but i  just aint sure about all this right now

David.

[Heather3418]

Just so you know...all of these changes to the forum, were made by MedHelp...no member of this forum had anything to do with it and as you can see, didn't have much of a say so, in the overall set-up.

[RIDDICK_777]

Hi Heather, yep i sure understand all that, i dont like it on the eyes thats for sure ubt will probably be able to change that the old colours were much better and easier on the eye

i also dont like all the boxes to the right and all the advertising around the page but we also have to understand that that is what funds these sites and the yes no boxes at the bottom of posts dont like them neither mind you i do like the profile pics to the left of postings

i think if we can just get these colours changed for a start would probably make a big difference and back to the origional colour

so really it aint all that bad and funny how things can seem when they are first new and take a little getting used to

hope you are keeping well Heather take care

David.

[Rena705]

I think that all of this change is just too much at one time!  Let's face it...we are human and we as human's are against change be it in our personal lives, our working lives or our Forum lives!

I think that the first thing that Medhelp could do to ease us into some of the other changes is to change the background color back to what it was...this is a HUGE change because we are the ones that have to read this and if we can't...what's the point?

Rena705

[Want to feel well!!!]

I have not read through all the suggestions, but has anyone mentioned the harshness of the light blue lettering on the bright white on the forum page?  It took me awhile to find this thread and I have never had trouble like that before, and I do not have the eye trouble many of you all have.  It's difficult enough with a headache so I cannot imagine what it must feel like for you.  

I feel bad that you are probably reading this and having difficulty!

Thanks again for your time and efforts!

Wanna
  

[Heather3418]

Yes, everything that everyone has mentioned about what they do not like has been sent to MedHelp, along with a few other comments about what is felt to be frustrating about the new format.

Hang in there forum members.  Everything possible is trying to be done to put things into a better light...so to speak.

Thanks, Heather

[Jazzyfizzle]

You know we could all move to our own MSn group. They allow font color and size changes. And have photo albums.

Jazzy

[Quixotic1]

If we can't get the forum to a readable and nonfatiguing form, then a move is an option.  The MedHelp administrators have been eager from the very beginning to make the forum better.  And maybe after a little use we will find we like some of the features.  Heather and I both have told them, though, that this format with the harsh contrast and the visually busy and distracting layout is tough for people like those with MS who have vision problems and problems with eye tracking.  My eyes are constantly jumping to the "stuff" on the side margins.

But, lets try to work it all out first.

Quix

[RIDDICK_777]

Actually you know apart from the colours etc it aint that bad at all as you can click straight on a particular person on a question to see what they have said what their reply was instead of having to click on the question then go down the full list until you view there reply

Heather what has happened to your pic, just curious

David.

[RIDDICK_777]

Or could you do that previously, i dont think so, or am i being thick now, never mind
David.

[doni54]

I agree about the page being too bright!  I have only been on here for 5 min and I can't see anything, going to have stop and come back later.

I know that I am easily confused, but wow, this new set up has me totally wacked!  I agree with you, Quix, it does seem impersonal.

Hopefully MedHelp will help us out.  Guess I am just an old fudey dutey, I liked the forum the way it was.

Doni

[RIDDICK_777]

I quite like it after adjusting so to speak just need to get the colour changing thingy sorted out

David.

[Quixotic1]

Okay, Thanks, David.  We need to give people time to see if it does work better and in what way.
Q

[mokibear]

I'm like all the others when they say it is hard on the eyes. I can only be on here for short spurts and then have to go. I see all the cobwebs, spots and lines in my eyes with the white background, same as I have driving in a white out in snow.

Moki

[Med Help]

Hi,

First off, we'd like to thank all of you that have provided feedback regarding the new look and feel at MedHelp. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us and we take it seriously.

We received feedback mainly in regards to two areas: 1)The new look is harder to read, in particular when on the site for an extended period of time and 2) The new look is too cluttered

In response to this, we've already made a few changes and we're working hard to build several others. Here is what we are doing:

Harder to Read:

* We will be adding a background color to the discussions to reduce the glare while reading
* We will add a new setting so that you can chose the size of the text in the discussions.
* We will be increasing the size of the discussion title.
* We will be changing the date format back to the old format, but keeping the time stamp.

Too Cluttered:

* We have already reduced the size of the right hand column if you are logged in.
* We have already changed the forum so that replies are listed by default, just like the old design.
* We have changed the order of replies so that the newer replies are now on top.
* We will be expanding the "preview text" in the forum so that it stretches more.

Regarding to the new right hand column, over the coming weeks and months we will be rolling out a lot of new features that will leverage this column. This way we won't need to keep modifying the forum panel every time we want to roll out new functionality. Please bear with us as we believe you will see the value as we start rolling out more features.

We hope these changes will address all of the key issues that have been raised. Our members are what make MedHelp the best health community on the web and your feedback is what allows us to become even better. Keep it coming and thank you.

MedHelp