CLL Support Association On-line Community Report October 2014
June saw HealthUnlocked release a new version of the CLLSA on-line community
site. The new design aimed to provide a better experience for those using smart
phones and tablets when accessing the site. The new version employs a simpler
design with just one menu bar and a common process for submitting all posts.
Our hard working volunteer administrator Neil Matthews and team of volunteers have
been identifying bugs still present and providing feedback to both HU and our
community to assist us all to navigate and access information.. It does seem that
there are issues persisting for Apple users; HU are working through the summary of
outstanding problems Neil and volunteers have identified below.
CLLSA and HU are working together to improve access to educational information
and community discussion. CLLSA are now building the new CLL Support
Association website that will host current CLL educational information with improved
links to the on-line community, discussion topics and information..
The on-line community membership continues its strong growth, with membership
expected to exceed 1,500 in December. The steadily increasing membership is
enabling many more living with CLL/SLL to come together and share their
experiences, concerns and lessons. This is accompanied with continued reporting of
latest CLL news and interesting discussion topics connected to CLL life.. , Monthly
growth has averaged 7.5% per month over the last year. And. about 40% of our
membership is active on at least a monthly basis. Page views per month are now
between 80,000 and 90,000 per month. This takes into account the seasonal dip
during the summer holidays, which reflects, I hope, that many have been able to
enjoy their summer activities this year.
On behalf of the CLL Support Association we would like to thank the volunteer team
and all on-line members for their continuing patience and work in providing so much
valuable information and experience that makes this facility the valuable and
successful resource it has become.
Nick York
For and behalf of CLL Support Association Trustees
Website: cllsupport.org.uk
Community administrators’ report
After a long break from polls, we sought the views of our members that are not visibly involved by seeking reasons why many do not post. There were 128 respondents with many sharing further via comments:
healthunlocked.com/cllsuppo...
Most are just happy to read and learn from what others contribute.
Ensuring community users are aware of the visibility status of a post and do not inadvertently post sensitive 'unlocked' information that is visible outside of the community is an administration priority. HealthUnlocked (HU) have implemented the option to lock or unlock a post when a post is made and a padlock symbol allows members to identify if post is only visible to the community, Newsfeed now identifies if a thread is hidden or not to prevent community members posting sensitive information to an unlocked thread. During the recent poll returns, the privacy concern option was the lowest scoring of the eight options provided in the poll for why people do not post. Nevertheless we will continue to work with HU to improve clarity for users.
There is an associated issue of community restricted content disappearing into a "Black hole", with much excellent content unable to be located easily, due to the site search being crippled by the frequent inability of the site's auto-tagging feature to identify key words. The administrators have again been pushing HU to resolve this long standing and frustrating problem. HU have confirmed this is an issue they are planning to resolve.
New features recently released by HealthUnlocked:
* There is now an indication on the menu bar if someone has replied to your question/post/reply.
* To the right of the Newsfeed, there's a list of posts a member has recently accessed, so members can now easily track further responses to topics of interest
* HealthUnlocked recently changed the Community Page to show 'top posts' over the last month. After complaints, HU reverted to the old style of showing past posts, with the top posts only visible when a member is logged out. This still gives potential members a taste of community activity without changing the site behaviour for logged in members.
* New: ability to change your username without the need to contact HU (but there will be a limit to the number of changes possible).
Other HealthUnlocked support matters:
* Apple device users have been struggling with multiple issues since the July site upgrade. Some of these have been improved by the iOS8 release. HealthUnlocked have been given a summary of outstanding problems with examples and are endeavouring to fix the problems that they can duplicate.
Other news:
* Our membership has increased 129% in the past year from just 600 in September 2013 to nearly 1,400 members today and is expected to reach 1600 by the end of the year.
* A warmer Welcome email is now provided to new members, thanks to the initiative of Bub (BubnJay).
AussieNeil & HAIRBEAR
Hi there, I'd like to introduce myself
