Do you know about 'Open' and 'Closed' Posting?

[RedApple]

When you write a New Post in any HealthUnlocked community/forum, you have a choice about who can see your post.

Below the text box that you type into, there is the word Share: with a drop down button next to it.

By default, this is set to Anyone.

But if you click the dropdown button, you'll see that you can chose Community Only.

What do these options mean?

In brief, Anyone means your post and all the comments on it, will appear in search engines, and can be seen by anyone on HU.

Community Only, means just that. Your post and the comments on it, will only be visible within the community/forum that you posted it in.

The only people on HU that can see a closed post, are those who have joined the community you're posting in.

To see more detailed information from HealthUnlocked about this option , click this link:

Who Can See My Posts support.healthunlocked.com/...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

Often forgotten - or simply not known.

Thanks.

[Joant24]

Might it not be better to default to Community Only and we can choose to change it. I often forget and would much rather keep it within the gang 🥰

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Joant24]

The default is set by HealthUnlocked. We cannot change it.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Joant24]

I agree, that makes more sense from our perspective. Unfortunately, HealthUnlocked have set it to be public by default. Being public by default means the HealthUnlocked platform has most visibility in search engines etc. We can't really complain, as it is free for us to use 😊

[Joant24 in reply to RedApple]

Fair enough, it was just a thought. X

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Joant24]

Imagine this... you've just been diagnosed with a thyroid problem, given some levo and sent on your way. You know nothing about thyroid isues, and the doctor told you almost nothing. So you ask a search engine for some info. At the top of the list of results, you see questions with replies from this HealthUnlocked forum. So you sign up and read lots of posts all about thyroid. Your learning curve has begun...

If all the posts here were closed by default, people needing help might never find this amazing forum!

[FallingInReverse in reply to RedApple]

I also find benefit in seeing the posts of our Thyroid community members when they post in OTHER community boards.

And yes - as this is all anonymous anyway, it’s a blessing that our posts come up in search engines, I’m certain that’s how I found my way here.

But also… forum search function is AWFUL! And as long as the posts are public, you can actually use Google to search WITHIN thyroiduk…. Like this:

site:healthunlocked.com/thyroiduk/

And on the same line type what you are searching for and press enter. I’ve searched for topics as well as user names and the results are great.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to FallingInReverse]

The biggest problem with anonymity seems to be people who join with their real name, or a name they use elsewhere.

In case anyone reading does not know, if you did this, you can change your member name - though there are severe limits - maybe only once.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to FallingInReverse]

So true! (About the search function). We've pestered HU numerous times to sort it out, but it apparently keeps falling further down their ToDo list ☹️

[Joant24 in reply to RedApple]

Not thought of it from that perspective. Thanks

[Lily905 in reply to RedApple]

I found this forum many years ago via a Google search. I don't want to imagine how ill I would of been for decades without the help & support of HealthUnlocked. My education about my thyroid, blood results, medication & a lot of other things thyroid connected has come from this forum NOT medical professionals - who expect us to know zero.

[humanbean]

One thing that may not be obvious...

If someone creates a new thread and leaves it as visible to Anyone, then all replies to that thread are visible to Anyone too.

If the new thread is made visible to Community Only, then all replies to that thread are visible to Community Only too.

Or at least - that is my understanding.