What's Missing For Me

[JonesCarpeDiem]

         I live on the West coast and for the past 8 1/2 years on the other platform, I was onsite by 6am Eastern 7 days a week to see if anyone needed help before they went to work, to say hi to people I knew, to look for people that had joined that had more than one badge for joining and post a welcome on their message board.

That's all gone.

         There's no way to do any of those things any longer because when you come here, you have no idea if anyone is even on the site. No humanity.

Thanks for listening

[MarilynH]

(((((((((((((((Here's a huge hug from me to you Dale and I agree with you)))))))))))))))

[Violet_Quit]

I'M Listening. I agree.

[crazymama_Lori]

did that video ever get started up?  I think that would be a great help for new members and old members to see when they click on the community page to get themselves around.  I think what the problem is when you click on the community tab and come here, you stop because you have no clue where to go depending on what your preferences are set at.  I've found that setting the preferences on the personal landing page to "News" gets me to where I want to be.  Reminds me of the old microsoft.com news page.  Did you ever get any feedback on your questions from members or concerns that they wanted on the site?  I suppose you're waiting to see what else is going to be moved around before doing and redoing the video.  Herding cats, that's exactly what it is.  giddy up ..........

[JonesCarpeDiem]

Exactly. I don't want to do a video until things settle.

I have been going to the home page and looking at the two columns at the bottom for activity but I don't know if they've fixed the interspersed blogs from years ago yet.

We need something personal, ordered,  and REAL TIME which is what the blog was on the other platform.

I asked a question yesterday regarding if  and when our inbox and messages were still going to be migrated.

NO RESPONSE. (I later heard Mark had the day off. I don't begrudge that.)

[TerrieQuit]

(((((DALE))))))))  Big hugs!

[Pao777]

If you click on Conversations then below click on Content this should help you.

[JonesCarpeDiem]

Thanks. That helps find current content. We still have no idea if someone posted and left or they are still onsite and able to be helped.

[Barbara145]

I agree with you whole-heartedly.  It is impersonal. I truly don't  believe if I came here today I would have had the success that I do. I truly had been trying to quit for 52 years. It was the personal, loving support from the other format that made the difference for me.  I am good now. My concern is for the other people coming a long. Progress??????  Have a good day, Dale.  So glad your esophagus problems are improving.  I was worried about you.

[elvan]

I miss the message boards more than anything else.  It was a way to connect to more than one person, you would post a message and then read a message someone else posted and connect with that person.  It is a big loss to the site.

[John10forteen]

Hi Dale, Long time, not much parlay... my bad. Hope things are going pretty good for ya.

I totally agree. I miss that front page this site use to open up to where all the blogs were there in real time. the newbies and the oldies all mixed in together and being able to scroll and read and instantly get a feel for the day. It's been awhile for me but I haven't forgotten how those accumulative emotions and variety of opinions on one page helped me realize I was not alone with my burdens nor with my solutions... and also to skim past the elders and see the 2-5 newbies asking for help made it easy to interact. I thought I just didn't have my profile set up right or something, like opening up to conversations or opening up to the ex cafe. I still don't know what those pages are about yet either.

I really did like clicking on community and then blog on the old site and all the blogs being there. If that's really gone, I'll be sad.... for the newbies... that instant humanity is what sucked me in too. I thought I just haven't found that yet with this new design. 

I'm going to keep trying though, 

[Mandolinrain]

I agree Dale. Im not sure I would have stuck around when I came back in '08 had the site been like it is now. I really miss the message boards a lot. 

Im trying to get used to this new site and give it and ME time to learn how to navigate it. I don't usually have a lot of time to spend on it so its taking me longer. I want to be able to adapt with the new changes...and I will continue to press on and try. I want to participate in the daily pledge but sometimes I can't even figure that out. Im not real 'techie',lol. 

At least I am more patient than I used to be....and I certainly will not smoke over it....but there was a time...........

Have a great rest of the day!~Missy

[Chuck-2-20-2011]

Having been gone for a bit, I must say that things are different. My hope is that it's my ignorance and that in the end, I'll learn enough to figure it out, but I have to agree, it is different. Not even sure where to post right now. I found pao777's  post to be helpful, but as of now, I'm still looking around and hoping I can figure it out!

By the way, glad as always that you're here Dale! It wouldn't be the same without you.

Chuck

[sophia-22]

I am relatively new to the community 105 DOF and I started on the old site which truly helped me a great deal. I felt a real sense of humanity. I received help from the elders and gave advice to the newer members. I loved all the elder home pages, they were filled with all kinds of information and their own personal journey that truly inspired me.  Everyone was in it together. I get a very different (not better) feeling when I go on the new site. I can appreciate that the site needed an upgrade and I don't know all the issues I just know how I feel.

[bonnie.s]

It is hard to figure this site out.  I never know if what I'm reading is new or old.  I just responded to something from 2008.  The groups all look like they died off years ago as well.  I just blog, don't really know what else to do.

[sophia-22]

I almost responded to that post as well until I saw the date. I also saw that bacardigirl commented on that post so I guess that's why it became current. ???? very confusing. 

[Susie49]

I just stopped by to say Hi...to all from before and now...I'm not to sure this site is what it was...I feel sorta not in the "loop" of all the blogs and helpful conversations...Am I missing the right way into the great conversations and support??? Susie

[Sootie]

Have to agree Dale that I would like something that mimics the "active members" tag we had on the old site. Whenever I came on...especially at strange hours.....I would click that first to see who was actively "on" the site. I don't know why I liked it.....but I did.

[Giulia]

Ditto all of the above.  

[MarilynH]

Hi Susie49 ,stick with us because we're all in this together my friend and fellow Exer. 

[CommunityAdmin]

Glad I happen to come upon this.  

We we did look at a number of community solutions.  Some had an online presence feature but many didn't.  None of them had a wall/message board.  I definitely see how these items are missed and brought humanity to the site.  There is a chance that online presence will come back at some point.  Though people would need the ability to hide their presence if they choose. 

On ELGG it did show people online for about 15 mins after they had logged out.  The recent activity feed gives you a sense who has been recently active and may have been online or is online still and by looking at their profile you can see who is new. We have reply by email though so you don't have to be logged in to participate, that is one wrinkle if you used the site as Dale described.  You can ask your question or start a discussion and then go about your day.  When you receive a reply you can return to continue the conversation. You choose how often and frequent you are on the site.  

The message boards are not likely to come back unless Jive adds them.  They'd need many customers to request it in order to consider it.   Facebook (a social network) has a wall because that's where you connect with Friends.  Undoubtedly BecomeAnEX is a place that many of you have made friends but wasn't a place you originally came to be with friends.  It definitely has some social network aspects since you all are here. Other organizations and companies also use Jive for support and collaboration and not as a social network.  So I see Jive's predicament of keeping everyone happy and up to date.  

I'll continue advocating for you.  Thanks for your feedback. 

Mark

[Bree19]

Well, ‘listening’ to all your discussions about old vs new site, makes me feel better about my fumbling around and mostly getting nowhere.

Thought I was just being a typical blonde.

What really sounds great about the old site is the ‘live chat’ someone mentioned.

Now THAT would be a terrific addition to this site!

Bree

[constanceclum]

I know how you feel. It's like something that was very simple is now way too complicated and impersonal.

Connie

[sparky26]

I agree with you Dale , that it doesn't feel as personal , but it's probably just us being old and set in our ways LoL. 

[Susie49]

Hi guys...Susie here just saying I'm not here to get frustrated...Just want

to talk about old habits and enjoy new non smoking friends...It just seems

.....? I am so glad I knew this site when I could navigate around and make

friends and meet people...sorta say my thoughts.. Am I

missing something here ..?

On Wed, Feb 22, 2017 at 8:42 PM, Sootie <communityadmin@becomeanex.org>

[Yaya2.6.10]

I totally agree with Dale's original comment.  He and others talked me off the ledge several times in the early days of my Quit.  I have a lot going on in my real life right now and am totally frustrated with navigating the site and don't really have the time to mess with it right now.  One thing that I'm noticing is I have to log on each time.  It took me a while to figure that out so got frustrated not knowing how to respond to something.  I've been away for a few days and it just took me 5 minues to remember to log on.  I think the old site recognized me on my device and I didn't log on.  

[JonesCarpeDiem]

"Though people would need the ability to hide their presence if they choose."

I don't see a problem with that if it becomes possible.

"Undoubtedly BecomeAnEX is a place that many of you have made friends but wasn't a place you originally came to be with friends."

Those of us who are onsite hours each day appreciated being able to see who was onsite to communicate and break the boredom when there was no activity.

Also, at one point there was a feed on the left of every page that showed only your friends activity which I believe later became all current activity?

[CommunityAdmin]

jonescarp.aka.dale.Jan_2007 wrote:

"Though people would need the ability to hide their presence if they choose."

I don't see a problem with that if it becomes possible.

Good.  Yes, I wouldn't want anyone to feel like they could be "watched"  if they didn't want to be.

jonescarp.aka.dale.Jan_2007 wrote:

Those of us who are onsite hours each day appreciated being able to see who was onsite to communicate and break the boredom when there was no activity.

Also, at one point there was a feed on the left of every page that showed only your friends activity which I believe later became all current activity?

Is there really any time that there isn't activity now ?

There hasn't been a feed of that kind on every page of the new community. Elgg did have a friend feed. If you didn't have any friends it would recommend people or show activity from everyone.  I don't know specifically as I couldn't see what the parameters were other than to have 2-10 results.

You can set up a custom stream in My EX Feed to get a similar result.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[JonesCarpeDiem]

I think the problem's been, no one could find it.

"Is there really any time that there isn't activity now?"

I think there is plenty of slow time for some of us. I get messages saying it's dead and asking where is everybody as late as yesterday from people who are here often like myself.

I think it's getting better but it's still missing warmth.

[CommunityAdmin]

jonescarp.aka.dale.Jan_2007 wrote:

I think the problem's been, no one could find it.

Find what?

jonescarp.aka.dale.Jan_2007 wrote:

"Is there really any time that there isn't activity now?"

I think there is plenty of slow time for some of us. I get messages saying it's dead and asking where is everybody as late as yesterday from people who are here often like myself.

I think it's getting better but it's still missing warmth.

All communities have slow times where people aren't logged on. Other times they may be logged on but just not posting.  It seems that Sunday-Saturday from 2am Eastern to 6am Eastern things are pretty slow.  We're only a month in on the new community. Glad you feel its getting better.  I didn't expect things to be the same. No community I have every migrated has been the same right afterward.  They're always a dip and then things resume after a couple months.

Mark

EX Community Manager

[WLFSRFAMILY]

I so agree Dale. To me it is  not even worth coming here any more. Part of that is we are used to an different system, but you don't know who is on anymore

[elvan]

I hope you stick around, it's a challenge for those of us who were here before but, hopefully, we will all learn the new system and some of the OLD system can somehow be brought to this one.  It's good to hear from you.

[MarilynH]

I really hope you stay too wsfsrfamily give this format some more time, we're all figuring it out one day at a time. 

[Daniela2016]

I am sorry some of you feel so strong about all the changes to the platform. 

On my side, I would absolutely LOVE to have more time in my hands to learn it better, and to help more.  If given the opportunity, everyone of us can help in some way on another: blog about our own challenges, bring back up, re-publish some of the old "best of" blogs, answering the latest questions from newbies, or if we don't know how to, just go, research and figure it out. 

Dale, I loved your blogs, and daily challenging questions (it did not matter I was not able to answer any of them, or even understand if there was no comment, you know when English is not your first language, when you landed here at 39, you missed a lot shared by most of the members here, so I would wait for someone to respond, and then I would be "oh, that is what he meant"), and you keep posting them, and I look for them when I get a chance to access the site.  Today the earliest was at 8:00pm my own Phoenix time..

The newbies count on us, as much as before, on the old platform, and if they find one of us available at the EX Café, or we recently posted, or we answer one of their questions, it might have a less obvious impact, but it would have one non the less.

We just can't give up helping the newbies, I was not here, but I understand some of you went through an another platform change, and you all survived, and adopted the new.

Please don't take this for the "smarty pants" comment, but at work, being involved mostly with a big client, I missed learning a new platform used for more standard, smaller clients.  And I had to use it a couple of times in the last month, and the more I learn about it, the happier I am to use it (after crying the move off Mainframe where I learned my job, and became one of the specialists of using it in our every day activities, and we lost it after I used it for 15 years, and never thought I'll get over it).

The EX-café needed a "floating" barista, to fill in when the main one had to take care of business, family, babies, and I have seen so much activity, it became overwhelming. 

Everyone can do a short volunteer assignment, Pati is still looking for them. It is such an incredible chance to better know our newbies who decide to stop for an every day hello!

If we come across one newbie we can refer to some of our elders' pages, or documents they created, our impact gets multiplied.

If we email some of them offering help, or introducing them to other members, we are still making an impact.

And I totally understand, I never got a chance to learn the other platform, or use it as much as you have done for so many years, but I also still have a "newbie" stand point, and for that I want to say:

We need you elders, and we will look for your blogs, comments, jokes, words of support, we take the train, we say the daily pledge, hold hands with you! We need you to stay, we have so much more to learn from you!

Daniela  349 DOF

[Bree19]

Thanks Daniela.  Everything you say is so true.  I'm still a wannabe newbie aiming for my quit date in great trepidation of failing.   So I just read and re-read and bookmark and follow advice wherever I can find it.  I need all of you every day so no matter where I have to go to find you...I will even if I find it confusing.  (But then I also find my Kindle and my Smartphone confusing!)  

This site that has everyone twisted into knots may be confusing and change is something very few people thrive on so I do understand the frustration levels.  I'm not a social network fan - my daughter tries to teach me but most of it I'm not really interested in.  THIS SITE I AM INTERESTED IN.  It has purpose for me so I WANT to learn and that's the difference. Facebook, Instagram and Twitting - I don't see the point.  I'd rather interact face to face.  Makes me sound old - could I be a Luddite?   But because I NEED support and found you guys, I will figure this out.  Mark is a great help with the site as are many others, including you.  He's moved stuff for me to the correct "division" so I don't worry too much about getting stuff wrong.  As long as I get all the stuff I need.  

I'm rambling.  Thanks for listening!

Bree (Zero DOF but getting there with all the EX'ers on my side!)

[CommunityAdmin]

wsfsrfamily‌

I hope you reconsider. 

Yes, there is no "online presence" indicator but it honestly wasn't accurate on Elgg and still showed you online 15 minutes or so after you had left the site.  The home page widgets for Recent Active Blogs and Recent Active Conversations (Discussions/Questions/Status) updates area your activity indicators for who is active on the site.  You can also look at My EX Feed to get a sense of what is happening or go to All Content.  You can even go and see just content for people you are following to see who is active.  Yes you can't see people who are just lurking but realistically are people you're following or being followed by just lurking and not participating?

If you're not sure if someone is online still but they have posted somewhat recently, you can always  post a status update and mention them to see if they respond.  

The great thing about the new community is that notifications are far superior to Elgg so when you post on something and others reply you get the notification so you can come back and continue participating rather than having to go back and check the blogs if it is content you haven't authored.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[CommunityAdmin]

Thanks Bree19‌ I'm here helping to keep things as organized, searchable and discoverable as possible.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[CommunityAdmin]

Yaya2.6.10 wrote:

One thing that I'm noticing is I have to log on each time.  It took me a while to figure that out so got frustrated not knowing how to respond to something.  I've been away for a few days and it just took me 5 minues to remember to log on.  I think the old site recognized me on my device and I didn't log on.  

You can save your login information in your browser.  You'll still need to click the login link and then click login even if it remembers your login info.  There is still a session time-out and it doesn't leave you logged in permanently.  This is intended for security purposes.  If you went to the library or other public computer and didn't log out then your account wouldn't be secure.  The old login was a bit more liberal with how long you were logged. It's a balance of security. As long as you stay active it should keep you logged in. A period of inactivity will log you out.

Right now the login process isn't perfect.  We're going to hopefully be improving that in the future as we continue to update the site.  Maybe there will be a remember login option on the login page as well at some point however we'll still be making sure that we maintain a secure site.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[CommunityAdmin]

Daniela-3-11-2016 wrote:

On my side, I would absolutely LOVE to have more time in my hands to learn it better, and to help more.  If given the opportunity, everyone of us can help in some way on another: blog about our own challenges, bring back up, re-publish some of the old "best of" blogs,

Please do not "Re-publish" old content. If there is something that you think should go in Best of Ex and is applicable to your quit and most other people, please get in contact with Giulia and recommend it to her‌.  I know with Elgg it was difficult to highlight some of the best content and republishing was a way to bring it back to the front of things. Now we have ways to highlight things so creating duplicates of that content would be really bad for the site. 

Mark
EX Community Manager

[Daniela2016]

Got it Mark‌, you know what I meant; whatever way to make available oldies, but forever goodies to the newbies, not even me, here for almost 1 year I got a chance to ever review everything in the best of!!!  What I meant was find a way to make it available to the newbies, put it out there in front of our eyes, so we can review stuff that has been written well, helped others before us, but have a perennial content, applicable to all newbies.  I am not advocating creating duplicates, I am saying make it easier to be seen, use, create an impact for everybody on the site.  And if that is just a communication with the link in it, so be it!  I am asking for our elders to use their knowledge, exposure to so many valuable resources, and put it to good use for the newbies, and even some oldies like myself.

[CommunityAdmin]

Daniela-3-11-2016 wrote:

Got it Mark, you know what I meant; whatever way to make available oldies, but forever goodies to the newbies, not even me, here for almost 1 year I got a chance to ever review everything in the best of!!!  What I meant was find a way to make it available to the newbies, put it out there in front of our eyes, so we can review stuff that has been written well, helped others before us, but have a perennial content, applicable to all newbies.  I am not advocating creating duplicates, I am saying make it easier to be seen, use, create an impact for everybody on the site.  And if that is just a communication with the link in it, so be it!  I am asking for our elders to use their knowledge, exposure to so many valuable resources, and put it to good use for the newbies, and even some oldies like myself.

Everything else you said was pretty much spot on and made me smile a lot.  Sorry I didn't point out the many positives to your post. My apologies. We do want to make all the content that has been impactful to many people to be highlighted from the various people on the site.  With the new tools available to us there are some smarter ways we can go about that. So if people have ideas or ways that we can be more impactful to people who just joined or recently joined then I'm all ears.  I can then provide recommendations if there is something you can do on your own to help or we can work together if there is some limitations to what you're able to do.  Either way I'm here to help make this place efficient.

Mark
EX Community Manager

[EXProductMgr]

crazymama_Lori‌ and JonesCarpeDiem‌ we're still planning on videos, just trying to do exactly what Dale said and make them once we've made the tweaks around the edges!

Historical inbox messages are coming soon; our development team has been working on getting them over this week.

[Yaya2.6.10]

Thanks.  I have the log in info saved in my browser, but I don't remember having to do that under the old platform.  No problem, its just another step, but I'm getting used to it.  

Sent from my Galaxy Tab® S2

[Sootie]

Hello Daniela----No worries. I am an "elder" (although I am always surprised by the fact that I am quit 7 years now......) and I'm not going anywhere. Giulia is still here, JonesCarpeDiem too, @thomas (who will hit 7 years also in March), Yaya2.6.10 (who is 7 years with me), Mike.n.Atlanta  is still here, YoungAtHeart plus many,many more. We aren't going anywhere and I do my best to make sure no one is leaving. I LOVE the fact that the site is very busy now.....seems as if we are already attracting more attention on the www. 

And congrats to you as you rapidly approach 1 year! You have had some really tough times health wise to get through and still you stayed strong. I admire you!

[Yaya2.6.10]

Actually, I just paid attention to what happens.  I go to the site and it recognizes me by name but then transfers me to the new site where I have to log in. First it knows me then it doesn't.  Hmmmm. I'm really not computer literate, but wonder why I need to sign in to new site when I didn't at the old one.  

[JonesCarpeDiem]

Because they haven't changed to the automatic sign in yet. I don't know if they will make the change or not. You need to delete your old bookmark and add one for the new site.

[JonesCarpeDiem]

delay guidance videos until site functions are settled, YA

[JonesCarpeDiem]

this is the most complete way to get around I've found so far to see what is up to the minute.

Conversations 

[Daniela2016]

Thank you Sootie, thanks for vouching for all our respected elders, it just seems some of the features on the old platform were so useful, we can't find an exact replacement for them, and some of our elders are losing interest, or getting frustrated for not being able to provide the same kind of support.  And I do not want our newbies, on top of having to go through a demanding process (which we all know quitting smoking can be), to have to deal with lack of support, when we know everyone here has the best intentions. 

All I want is for anyone new here to get the same warm, friendly, brotherly/sisterly (older ones that is) welcome, as I did, almost 1 year ago.  And thank you all for getting me here, not even being health challenged (but aren't we all at least at times) pretty much for half this time, was not hard enough to change my resolve about being an EX.  Having this platform, and all of you behind it, made it easier for me to stay an EX.

[TerrieQuit]

I am no longer an Elder, but I am here supporting daily!

~Terrie~

[Giulia]

It's not just the Elders having trouble figure out the new site, it's newbies too.  I just read a post from one who didn't know where to post.  This is not good.