Post by Brad on Jan 14, 2002 11:47:53 GMT -5
Hi, Dean. Congratulations on the sleek new board -- it's much funner to post messages here, by the way.
I read your concerns regarding the diminished traffic on this new board and people's replies to your post. I've a suggestion you might want to try out before you decide to move the board elsewhere because I think this board is superior and has the potential to be very effective.
In my opinion, what's happenning when people access the board initially is that they are bombarded with a wealth of choices. This is great for research purposes because you already break down discussion topics into tidy categories, but not user-friendly when it comes to those of us who just want to pop in to take a quick look at what's being discussed while we're going about our busy schedules and to post a quick thing or jot down a question, instead of having to click at six different topic areas to read new posts.
I think that people were posting more often previously because it felt like an ongoing conversation and there was only one place to go to without any guesswork. When it boils down to the internet, people don't want to have to think -- they want things fast and at their figertips.
I believe that if you divide the board into two sections again, a discussion section and an archive section, the board will take off. This would be similar to what you had before, but different in that after a preset amount of time, the threads would be archived into the new categories that you've intelligently created. <br>
So in the discussion section, people would discuss surgeons and surgeries, ask questions to Dr. Paul, talk about their experiences and concerns, gossip about celebrities, etc., on a routine basis. They would only have to head to one place to get this sort of immediate access and gratification and would avoid having to check all sorts of different topic boards to read the new posts.
Then, when people actually can/want to spend more time here, or need to do research on a specific topic, or are preparing for surgery or trying to decide which surgeons to consult, they could access the archive section and spend all the time they wanted reading old threads that are already divided into specific areas.
Alternatively (and this might be the better option), you could have a general discussion section, an archive section subdivided into the categories you've already created, and an Ask Dr. Paul question, to make it easier for him to read and answer posts, and for readers who are just interested in professional medical opinions as opposed to information gathered from other posters. This would make use of the new board's capacities while remaining user-friendly.
Obviously, this would entail much more work on your part, which I don't assume you might have, but I thought I'd post my thoughts thinking they might be helpful and to see how you and others here felt about them. There should be a viable solution out there given that the audience is already here.
Thanks again for all your hard work, Dean -- and best of luck to us all.
I read your concerns regarding the diminished traffic on this new board and people's replies to your post. I've a suggestion you might want to try out before you decide to move the board elsewhere because I think this board is superior and has the potential to be very effective.
In my opinion, what's happenning when people access the board initially is that they are bombarded with a wealth of choices. This is great for research purposes because you already break down discussion topics into tidy categories, but not user-friendly when it comes to those of us who just want to pop in to take a quick look at what's being discussed while we're going about our busy schedules and to post a quick thing or jot down a question, instead of having to click at six different topic areas to read new posts.
I think that people were posting more often previously because it felt like an ongoing conversation and there was only one place to go to without any guesswork. When it boils down to the internet, people don't want to have to think -- they want things fast and at their figertips.
I believe that if you divide the board into two sections again, a discussion section and an archive section, the board will take off. This would be similar to what you had before, but different in that after a preset amount of time, the threads would be archived into the new categories that you've intelligently created. <br>
So in the discussion section, people would discuss surgeons and surgeries, ask questions to Dr. Paul, talk about their experiences and concerns, gossip about celebrities, etc., on a routine basis. They would only have to head to one place to get this sort of immediate access and gratification and would avoid having to check all sorts of different topic boards to read the new posts.
Then, when people actually can/want to spend more time here, or need to do research on a specific topic, or are preparing for surgery or trying to decide which surgeons to consult, they could access the archive section and spend all the time they wanted reading old threads that are already divided into specific areas.
Alternatively (and this might be the better option), you could have a general discussion section, an archive section subdivided into the categories you've already created, and an Ask Dr. Paul question, to make it easier for him to read and answer posts, and for readers who are just interested in professional medical opinions as opposed to information gathered from other posters. This would make use of the new board's capacities while remaining user-friendly.
Obviously, this would entail much more work on your part, which I don't assume you might have, but I thought I'd post my thoughts thinking they might be helpful and to see how you and others here felt about them. There should be a viable solution out there given that the audience is already here.
Thanks again for all your hard work, Dean -- and best of luck to us all.
