Update on the new HealthUnlocked

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would write a post to clarify a few issues that are being brought up with regard to the platform’s upgrade.

First, we’re glad you’re here. I know it was a pretty frustrating experience for some of you to get back into the platform at the re-launch. We’re really sorry about that.

Some of the headlines-

What happened to notification emails?

When we launched there were, as many of you know, a number of technical hiccups. To better control the situation we temporarily disabled notifications. We did this to limit the amount of traffic to the site (we send over 1 million emails a month) in an effort to limit the number of people who might run into the bugs. These notifications will be turned on again next week (the week starting Jul 15).

Why was I having problems logging in?

We tested the system across all browsers including iPad/mobile before we launched but sometimes you can’t replicate real life, and login was unfortunately what suffered the most in this. Most of the early login problems are now fixed, but a few people may still be being logged out when they are browsing. We’ll have that straightened out soon.

Where’s my badge!? Why are my photos psychedelic/upside down? etc

Almost all of these type of issues we are aware of and on our list of fixes over the coming few days. We have had to prioritise the most urgent ones first. You can email [e-mail] to help identify any you think we might have missed.

Where are my blogs?

As most of you have noticed ‘blogs’ have been renamed to ‘posts’. However, all the same content is still there. A lot of users told us they were daunted by the idea of blogging when they first joined the site so ‘posts’ are aimed to make it easier and more welcoming.

Why did we make these changes?

Changing the platform was imperative as the old one was built three years ago and was not coping anymore with the amount of traffic we receive, the amount of contents we have and the increasingly more sophisticated information needs of our users.

We are still a very small team and we are working very hard to make your user experience better. The site is built for you, and we do care about your views.

I'm sure that after we finish all the transition process, this system will be easier to use than the previous one but will also be much more useful for the members. Thanks for still being here and having the faith in us to get things back on the rails.

Best wishes

Team HU

[etterus]

I appreciate this explanation and hope you are on the correct path.

[honeycombe3]

Perhaps the key to most of the frustrations lies in your own words "The site is built for you" & the fact that you are a small team. It might have been productive to involve some of the more willing (& able) members of each platform (I assume this = condition) &/or conduct an online survey asking for current strengths & weaknesses.

"The site was built WITH you" has a positive ring to it.

[Hidden in reply to honeycombe3]

That's a pretty good point you make.

I do want to mention that this new site is evolving, and was built based on feedback of users who actually provide feedback (and will continue to be this way) so if you have particular thoughts on anything, please speak up. That's the only way we'll know what's on your mind.

[honeycombe3 in reply to Hidden]

Lora, thanks for your frank response & please don't worry about me speaking up - I usually do. There are several users who regularly contribute to informed debate & most of them have posted or commented on the changes so we should be fairly confident that, given a little time & patience, the result will be an improvement.

[shasha]

also what about the strange phenomenon of the comments one puts onto a blog or post ends up as a list at the end and not where it should be - i.e at the end of the blog ?

[Hidden in reply to shasha]

if you see the two arrows above where responses start, it gives you the option to present comments in a chronological or reverse order. The function doesn't always work but we are fixing it.

[cabbagecottage in reply to shasha]

I am really struggling to find my way around this site now and also miss the E mail notifications . Why mend what's not broken .

[Hidden in reply to cabbagecottage]

Notifications will be turned on again this week so that'll bring this site back to its normally activity.

Our old site was actually built far before HealthUnlocked had grown so large and simply could not handle the amount of traffic coming to it anymore, thus had to be rebuilt. This new site has been built mainly on user feedback, so if you have more specific comments you and more than welcome to message me directly. I'd love to hear from you.

[ldq1997]

I liked this website much better before all the improvements were introduced. I used to come here every day to see what was new. Now, since the improvements came, it has been more than a week since I've been here. I don't plan to visit again any time soon.