Where is best place to get support on EX?

[jake-rock]

Updated - fixed some errors - Jake

@Abracadabra Sorry to hear that quitting vaping is so challenging. Glad to know you're back at quitting!

I quit (smoking) eons ago. I just happen to get a notification today and came back to the site to check things out. I typically come back to the site a couple times a year and just read without logging in. Glad I did login as your post and the responses spoke to me and glad to see this site still up. I appreciate it was around when I quit, it's certainly different from back then. For the better! I hope you get as much value as I did from it. I worry a lot about the people who are quitting today with all the new nicotine delivery systems there are today. I worry that I might have been hooked if I had had vaping available to me when I tried to quit.  The important thing I think is to be here and use the resources available to you, whatever they maybe. Whether it be this organization's papers or research or whatever , an app if they have one, in person meetings or this support community. Putting your all into quitting and distracting yourself is key. Don't fall into your habits. I think you should post wherever makes sense for you. Don't listen to the people who say otherwise. You've gotten a lot of great support, you haven't fallen into a black hole as is suggested. This site is amazing and frankly gets first replies much faster than many other site's I'm on and more posts have responses than other sites I'm on too.  It's good to see newbies posting here on the site after all, this site is especially for you.

Please share with the supporters here on the site why you chose to post in Support over Blogs. I think it's important to hear your opinion rather than just speculate as I reflect back on my own quit experience. That will help us adjust how we do things to best help people like you.

Gets up on soapbox to speak for the minority... sorry it's long

To the supporters out there:

If I were new here, I would post here in Support and hope that the people who are here to support others would come to wherever I've posted and provide their wisdom to me.  I'm not a blogger/journaler, whatever that means. I really didn't know what I was doing early on in quitting so I wouldn't have much to write. If someone had responded to me like that I might have thought twice about ever coming back. Frankly, I'd rather post a question, if I have one or bring up an interesting topic if I see something in common with someone else than spout off about myself. I'm inclined to think others might feel the same. If people do post a blog and they're confident in doing so, great! Maybe there would be more people posting Support posts if there was an easy home page button to do so. 

Maybe down the line after I'd gotten more confident in my quit then I'd have posted my experience to share with others but I don't think early on in my quit that I'd feel comfortable coming into a group of strangers and posting very much. As supporters, myself included at this point. We need to really be supporters (so many of you are so amazing and positive, but there are some who bring unnecessary negativity) and be glad that people spoke up at all if they're new to the site. I remember reading some pretty raw **bleep** back earlier on in my quit as some people can get really upset if you don't do things their way.  Don't get me wrong, it's super important that long-time and experienced quiters are here supporting the new people but this site isn't for those people who quit long ago. It's a place for the new people to get support in a way they feel comfortable. We as supporters need to adjust to them. They don't need to fit our mold and do things the way like them. We're the more confident ones who should have the ability and awareness to adapt. Let's go where ever people seek support. There really aren't that many places to look and all posts appear on the home page. The links I provide will also help you find posts easily.

@Kimshine your post got me wondering if what you were saying was true, certainly it's important not to spread mis-information just because someone else said it. You're not the first person to post something similar so maybe you heard it from someone else. I'm not trying to start anything, I just want you to look at the data. I'm kind of a math nerd, love data and actually did a little digging because I use this same forum software on another site (it sure looks different though, crazy how they can do that) I am on. Actually you're less likely to get a response statistically if you post in Blogs (2%+ unresponded to) than if you post in Support (0.6% unresponded to).  I'm not sure how many don't have a response as i see 20K with no reply out of almost 955K posts where as there are only 900 out of 139K posts. So i'm guessing it just gave the first 20K results but there are more than that since Conversations rounds to 30K, as none of the other places in Conversations have any posts without a reply. That would mean that, at minimum Blogs have 29.1K/955K (~3.04%+ unresponded to). 

Your opinion matters, this just isn't the right place to share that opinion. Especially since it may not be seen by the mods. If we have some constructive feedback to provide, I'm sure there is some channel to properly channel that opinion on. Someone's call for help is not a place to complain about the site. Any member who has been on a site a while should know not to add in off-topic things and rather use the correct channel. 

@JohnRPolito Ofcourse some people will mis-use or overuse nicotine replacement therapy but that's no reason to scare people away from using them. Nicotine is freaking addictive.  Not everyone will be able to cold turkey it.  I'm sure you will find people here who are addicted to replacement therapy and even the non-tobacco things like vaping and pouches.  There is a category here somewhere on the site for it, so it seems to exists but the numbers aren't there to suggest it is a common thing. Don't freak people out. I'm pretty sure this company started back years ago as a result of the tobacco companies or something so they don't likely have pharmaceutical sponsorship that would suggest a cover-up.   I see one of your posts has no response, it feels like an advertisement. It's been definitely been looked at...

dismounts soapbox

Updated: Moved from:  Struggling with self control - EX Community  

[Kimshine]

@jake-rock  Thank you so much for your input! 

Since you don't come to this site much there wouldn't be a way for you to know that because this area is called "support", most of the support comes from the blogs/journals area of the site where most of the folks hang out. Whether you believe it or not my intention was to get the quitter help and not to be scolded by someone that spends little to no time here. Obviously, the OP can post wherever they would like. I do spend time on this site and I wanted to direct the quitter to help. Thanks though!😀

If you don't like me telling the poster where to actually get the support from the community, you may be able to report me? You could possibly post in the support area to figure out how to do that. As far as opinions go, if I shouldn't have one then what makes you believe you should have one about what I said. It didn't hurt you or the original poster. 
Updated: Moved from:  Struggling with self control - EX Community  

[jake-rock]

@Abracadabra I apologize that your post has gotten sidetracked with this side conversation. But I am very curious about your perspective.

@Kimshine I'm not scolding you. I am sorry. Just doing some fact checking because you said that the person's post you felt would be lost in a black hole 🕳. It's actually getting some nice traffic now, just started a little slow.

It's nice that you're trying to get people more assistance but it seems that the recommendation isn't necessarily more effective based on the facts. I don't want people like @Abracadabra to get discouraged thinking that where they posted won't get a reply and they'll have to post again to get a reply. We might just have to adapt a little bit to what a newbie is doing, and we can especially if we've quit. We've adapted to a new way.

No doubt you are here more than me. I do probably come here more than I realize. I just don't login or post often. Furthermore, it appears that some of my early posts are gone. Perhaps I deleted them previously and I can't remember. It's silly if I did as I think it is good to look back at what I went through.

I can agree most content is and has been posted in https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/t5/Journals-Blogs/bg-p/quit-journals however I would venture to guess that most people view the new content from the home page https://excommunity.becomeanex.org/. Only a mod could really tell us if people really spend most time on the home page or visit the blogs home page. It wouldn't much matter if you're creating a Journal - Blog or something in Support as they both appear there frequently in Recent activity box on the home page every time something is posted.

I can easily see which have kudos and comments and which do not.  The Active Areas thing on the home page seems to sort by the New column from most to least. Still the Active Areas doesn't determine what is or isn't more effective.  I do know that there is a special box in many areas of the community that has a quick list of "unanswered topics". The other sites I'm on have these too and help draw attention to the posts without out a reply. 

Now you got me curious how fast people typically respond the first time in Blogs compared to Support and also how many responses on average in Blogs vs Support.  Not something that can be answered without a mod unfortunately. We're just peasants here. Maybe one of them will pipe up and let everyone know where the best place to post for fast answers is.  However speed and quantity doesn't mean quality. 🙂

Yes Blogs has most of the historical posts unless there is some archive I don't know about. But does that mean it's better for new quiters to successfully quit? Maybe the seasoned quiters should direct people to ask their questions first in the Support area and then once a person has gotten comfortable posting and asking questions then we recommend that they venture into the Blogs and Journals area to start sharing how they're doing. Maybe there would be even more people getting involved if the Support area was more lively from participation by the long time quit people?

As a new quiter I would think they're looking for information so clicking on things like the Labels/categories that you see in places throughout the site or searching might help them find relevant information that they're curious about. They're not looking at the latest posts, they want to see success from others.

Whereas, for someone supporting others, they're more focused on just browsing and and reading the latest posts to see what titles interest them and feel they can comment on. 

Funny thing is, the more that I look at the Blogs page the more I am getting annoyed by how spread out everything is and how much it requires me to scroll because it has a whole bunch of pictures. It's much easier and efficient to look at the home page or the Support area. If I were to be her to support people daily like I am on other communities, I would feel I'm more effective at helping people in Support than I would be in the Blogs. Just my $.02
Updated: Moved from:  Struggling with self control - EX Community  

[Kimshine]

@jake-rock You told me this might not be the place to express my opinion. Aren't you doing a lot of that yourself sir? No need to answer back. I'm not that interested.

@Abracadabra I do apologize for trying to direct you to post in an area that I see gets more community attention and activity based in my own experience on this site. I have been schooled by Jake, who hasn't been here in a long time and he knows best.😀  Again, I apologize if my comment was negative or hurtful to you or anyone in the community. It really wasn't my intention. It has really gotten a lot of negative attention now. 😢

Please post wherever you would like. It's really none of my business.

Updated: Moved from:  Struggling with self control - EX Community  

[jake-rock]

@Kimshine Fair point. I got sucked in even though I tried not to. I do have some good notes to share my opinion in the appropriate place here on the community.

Back to the regular scheduled programming @Abracadabra 

Updated: Moved from:  Struggling with self control - EX Community  

[Kimshine]

@jake-rock  That's great. I'm sure you know exactly where that is! You do know a lot!

Updated: Moved from:  Struggling with self control - EX Community  

[Kimshine]

@CommunityAdmin Could you please let @jake-rock  know what is appropriate and what is not to post? I would assume this would have been removed or flagged if inappropriate?

@jake-rock  rolled into the scene yesterday after some time from being here. He has a lot to say to a few of us, including myself, about how to help others, what we should be saying or posting or where we should be posting it. I feel attacked and taken aback after being scolded and called negative after trying to get someone help that posted under the "support" area. I completely understand this area of the site, however,from what I see, the area gets little attention from very few folks and most of the support from the community comes through the blogs/journals area of this site. I might be completely mistaken as Jake scolded and implied?

Jake also had several statistical questions in a very lengthy response that you may be able to answer for him? It seems very important to him which is perfectly fine.

I just want to add that I really do try to be helpful to folks here. In part of Jake's lengthy response to Abracadabra yesterday, he mentioned about the "negative" folks on the site. It was in reference to me because I feel that the "support" area goes unnoticed by many and I wanted to direct the newcomer toward help . After reading his scolding, I really wanted to smoke  a cigarette but I don't want a "Jake" to allow me to feel so stressed that I take it out on myself!

I also feel like I should be a lurker on the site and not a participator. I know what it's like to be a brand new quitter, my intention is to be helpful but apparently,I come off as very negative and I don't want to be a reason that a new quitter gives up. It took me awhile to shake Jake's responses to me yesterday and I don't want to make anyone feel the way he made me feel. 

Updated: Moved from:  Quitting cold turkey? - EX Community  

[Barbscloud]

OMG.   @jake-rock Please share your opinions and data about the site under Community Help with the site administrator.  There are limitations with the site with that we have no control over.

@Kimshine spends lots of time on site helping other quitters--quite well I might add.  She really doesn't need any help on how to go about it.  I hope this doesn't cause her not to participate any longer.  It would be a great loss to the site.  She is one of the most positive people on the site!

Yes, Support posts do show up in Recent Activity.   I always check there anyway, because the posts  seem to get pushed to the bottom out of view before they're not responded to.    That's just my experience.  Feel free to discuss the data on this topic  with the site administrator.

Barb
Updated: Moved from:  Quitting cold turkey? - EX Community  

[CommunityAdmin]

@Kimshine Thanks for mentioning me. It's a gray area. Not necessarily inappropriate or warranting removal but it has created some confusion it seems.

@jake-rock does have a good point and I'm thinking that others might question intentions. @JohnRPolito does have a connection to WhyQuit. I am currently evaluating with our team on how to address this as it is a bit of unique experience given that WhyQuit is another free online quitting resource. I certainly acknowledge how WhyQuit has been a valuable resource to a variety of quitters on EX over the years whether they've chosen to use quit aids or not. We're commited to keeping EX advertisement free and focused on quitting journeys from pre-quit education to long-term abstinence maintenance.

@Barbscloud and @Kimshine Comments about @jake-rock are off-topic for this thread. I'm going to look back at posts and get up to speed. Please note: I may branch some of these comments out to Community Help so I can respond without distracting from the topic of this thread. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Glad to hear you kept your quit @Kimshine 

Updated: Moved from:  Quitting cold turkey? - EX Community  

[Kimshine]

@CommunityAdmin Thank you. I also feel that I have a good point in regard to the support area. There are a few people that respond there. I don't know why but the blogs/journal area in Ex get more attention from a wider variety of quitters than the support area. To me, the support area should get a lot of attention but it doesn't. I may be wrong about that but I don't think so.

@Barbscloud Thank you. I try to be helpful. I understand the support area but am I wrong that blogs/journals appear to be the main drag of the site. I didn't make that happen, It's just how it is.