Help please with new forum structure!

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 20:10:39 GMT

[quote user="Lucy Fleming"]Also happy to be an "ExpertGP[/quote]

Fantastic thank you Lucy, looks like we have a good team coming together here.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Lucy Fleming — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 17:19:39 GMT

Also happy to be an "ExpertGP" (LOL! ) though I don't fit the practice owner/ team leader profile (though ok on everything else, I think?)

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 16:20:03 GMT

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]Happy to help out if required. [/quote]

Brilliant, thank you.

State of play is that I have created a new 'role' in the background called 'ExpertGP'

Adding our volunteers to that role now.

And configuring the dentistry forums so that

a) Anyone can take part in a dentistry discussion (post or reply)

b) Only referral practitioners and ExpertGPs can reply to questions (posts) in the expert help forum.

The expert help forums won't really work properly till we upgrade the site, so this is all preparatory for the moment.

There will also be a set of ground rules for ExpertGPs replying in those forums (the same really as the other forums, stay on topic, be nice, etc, but they will be more ruthlessly applied)

Any other volunteers? PM me if you would rather. I probably need twenty to kick off with.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Anthony Dennison — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 16:02:43 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]Meantime, please could I have a show of hands for anyone who would like to be a VetSurgeonGP - either here in this thread, or by private message. [/quote]

Happy to help out if required.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 14:12:05 GMT

[quote user="Joyce Whitehead"]And me if I’m allowed.[/quote]

Damned right you are!

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Joyce Whitehead — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 13:31:21 GMT

And me if I’m allowed.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 12:20:45 GMT

[quote user="Kate Richardson"]Yes if you’ll have me![/quote]

Kate Richardson - absolutely delighted to!

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Kate Richardson — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 12:01:58 GMT

Yes if you’ll have me!

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 10:31:29 GMT

OK next thing ...

As I said in previous post, discipline-specific experts will be able to reply to questions in Expert Help forums. These will be referral practitioners and others who ask, and whose CV justifies it.

Mindful of feedback so far, and of David Mills point (https://www.vetsurgeon.org/001/nonclinical/f/6/p/28673/217421.aspx#217421), I'm creating a new class of member called VetSurgeonGP.

VetSurgeonGPs will need to be qualified 5 years plus. They will need to have a track record of being helpful/on-topic/courteous in the forums (or at least a track record of not being unhelpful!). They will also need things on the CV which indicate a depth of experience. Like owning a practice, or heading a team.

VetSurgeonGPs will have permission to reply to questions in ANY of the discipline-specific Expert Help forums - the aim being that they offer or add the GP perspective to the case or discussion.

All VetSurgeonGPs and Experts need to complete their profile on VetSurgeon.org.

I plan to offer incentives for both VetSurgeonGPs and Experts that achieve the best feedback for their posts in a given period. More on this later.

Meantime, please could I have a show of hands for anyone who would like to be a VetSurgeonGP - either here in this thread, or by private message.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 09:16:23 GMT

Lindsey Edwards (and anyone else interested). Discussed with techies this morning. Methodology will be as follows:

Take Dentistry for example. There will be two distinct forums. 'Discussions' and 'Expert Help'.

Anyone can start a thread or reply in the 'Dentistry Discussions' forum.

Anyone can ask a question in the 'Dentistry Expert Help' forum.

ONLY 'first responders' (ie experts / referral practitioners) can reply to a question in the 'Dentistry Expert Help' forum.

BUT

Anyone will be able to 'Tangent' a question from 'Dentistry Expert Help' and into the 'Dentistry Discussions', where all and sundry will be able to contribute to the discussion.

I think this will work really well. It'll keep the original question focused and on track. But it will allow everyone to take part in a more free range discussion concerning any of the points raised in the Q&A.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 11:54:49 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]Could you have option 2 by default with a user customisable option of 3 where they are combined? Best of both worlds or a techy nightmare?[/quote]

Michael Woodhouse - Techy nightmare (or so they tell me). I have asked whether we could adapt the tabs at the top of the forum thread list to make them more prominent and give people the option to select All, 'All questions' or 'All Discussions'. I am not yet sure whether that is doable. I think so.

[quote user="Mark Hedberg"]I like the idea of renaming the Community tab to "forums". One other thought I had was simply removing the 'all forums' option - have the option to visit the forums, but not seeing all the topics all the time. Or just having "all forums" change destination to the list of forums. Might be a less invasive revamp.

Oh, and rename the "off topic" forum to "frequent fisticuffs!"[/quote]

Hmmm - This is sort of tricky. At the moment, we have the 'All Forums' page, but there's a drop down in the top navigation to (for example), the 'SA Clinical forums', so people who only want that can have only that!

What you are suggesting is to do it the other way around. For the home page to display, say, all clinical threads, with a drop down to see other types, like off duty.

I'm a bit nervous of doing this, because, as Michael Woodhouse says, simplicity is essential and I think it is usually better to have one page with 'it's all here, folks' than giving choices. But still thinking ...

I think if the forum home page was a list of forums you could then click to see threads, it would annoy people (because you would have an extra click to get to anything, which would be even more maddening on mobile phone, where it can take that extra time to load).

[quote user="villagevet"]I don't think either forums or questions need to be separated by topic - I can ignore threads which are of limited interest/relevance and scroll to those which are. I am not inclined to pick through various groups just to see if one of the equine or farm animal threads may be of relevance/within experience. Can they be subcategorised as an option for those who want to narrow the list but left entire by default?[/quote]

The list is entire by default. The topics are really there to help those with a special interest, esp referral practitioners. But they are now largely accessible from the top level interests menu, so I think I'm going to start pulling them out of the right hand menu as that is duplication of function to a large degree.

[quote user="villagevet"]Any chance to be able to tangent a question/answer into a discussion forum once accepted by user? [/quote]

Lindsey Edwards - this is just total sheer bloody genius. THANK YOU! I hadn't thought of that. There may be a couple of technical hurdles to overcome to make this work, but I think it is doable, and it solves the issue of restricting answers, but nevertheless allowing broader discussion.

I think the answer is for me to try various options over the next few weeks before relaunch and see what you think ... NB NOTHING SET IN STONE, so please do stick your hand up if you see a change you don't like!

I think I'm going to start with two pages, one list each.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Lindsey Edwards — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 20:05:37 GMT

I don't think either forums or questions need to be separated by topic - I can ignore threads which are of limited interest/relevance and scroll to those which are. I am not inclined to pick through various groups just to see if one of the equine or farm animal threads may be of relevance/within experience. Can they be subcategorised as an option for those who want to narrow the list but left entire by default?

A hoe page of 10-15 latest of each with choice to then pull up more questions or more discussions wounds like a good plan - regular users would then be able to scan both quickly and all new material should be accessible on one page but easily able to pull up older posts if required?

Any chance to be able to tangent a question/answer into a discussion forum once accepted by user?

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 17:09:38 GMT

I like the idea of renaming the Community tab to "forums". One other thought I had was simply removing the 'all forums' option - have the option to visit the forums, but not seeing all the topics all the time. Or just having "all forums" change destination to the list of forums. Might be a less invasive revamp.

Oh, and rename the "off topic" forum to "frequent fisticuffs!" :)

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 16:04:49 GMT

Could you have option 2 by default with a user customisable option of 3 where they are combined? Best of both worlds or a techy nightmare?

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 14:16:44 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]I click forum home and look at the list. Please leave it so that there is a single list with the most recent activity at the top, I won't look at 2 lists. If I want to search anything I use the search function.

To me any further breakdown in categories is unnecessary as I will scan through everything and ignore things that don't interest me. I think you are putting too much effort into breaking down where as I think you can chuck everything into 2 big pots and save yourself a load of work.[/quote]

I'm with you on keeping things simple, but I really do think we have to have separate lists for recent discussions and one for recent expert help questions. They are a different thing. They need to be distinct from each other.

The reason they need to be distinct from each other is that:

One is the traditional forum format we have used for years. I'm struggling to get more people engaged with the traditional forums as my 'offer'.

The other is a Q&A tool through which anyone can disseminate a question to a select group of experts, and receive a helpful, on topic response (for which the expert gets rewarded with branded promotion of their service). Together with better provenance for the responses (quals displayed alongside), this is something different to that which can be found on Facebook. It's a proper clinical question tool. Something which it is worth your time to leave facebook for a few moments and come and use.

To sell this concept, to get more people engaged, I need these two things to be distinct from each other.

Michael Woodhouse - I have two choices:

1. Rename Community at the top navigation as Forums. The word 'forums' links to this page, which has ONLY discussion format threads (which is very much as it was before). Then there are two drop down options: Discussions (which links to the same place) and Expert Help, which links to a page of ONLY question format threads. At the top of the lists of questions and discussions is a box inviting you to start a discussion or ask a question as appropriate.

2. Rename community as Forums. Comes to this page. We have two lists. The first is latest discussions. The second is Latest Expert Help Questions. At the top of the lists of questions and discussions is a box inviting you to CHOOSE between starting a discussion or asking a question.

3. There is the option to rename community as Forums. Comes to this page. We have ONE list which shows all latest questions and discussions. At the top of the lists of questions and discussions is a box inviting you to CHOOSE between starting a discussion or asking a question.

But the problem with option 3 is that it is NOT distinct from the normal forum so the Q&As would all just be mixed up with normal threads. Very difficult to convey the benefits of our wonderful new Q&A system when the questions are just in a list along with all the normal threads.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 14:09:15 GMT

I click forum home and look at the list. Please leave it so that there is a single list with the most recent activity at the top, I won't look at 2 lists. If I want to search anything I use the search function.

RE: Help please with new forum structure!

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 12:33:22 GMT

Thinking about it, probably a bit much to ask you all to get your heads around that post, so probably better if implement each change on the current live site, one by one, so you can see how these changes actually look.