New Format of BCO is a DISASTER

Hi,

Perhaps the articles choices could be an option with a list of topic that we could opt into rather than have them generated from our personal information ---  the generated list could be one of the options. I hope there will be an ignore button added to the list.

Many of the websites that I visit have a separate mobile format that can be chosen with an icon on the home page -- lucyneatby.com is an example.  The mobile format can be chosen even from a non-mobile device.

I'm puzzled by the menion of a big blue menu button,  I don't see it -- I'm using a Safari browser on a MacBook using Mac OS X 10.6.8.

The table version of active topics is much easier to scan for relevant information, which is how many of us use this feature.

I really hope the "ignore thread" option is still on the table,  I'm really looking forward to that one. 

If it's possible you might try out a beta test for future big changes  for a test drive to shake out the kinks.

I appreciate the hard work put into this and yet to come.  All the best. 

Lose the 'Articles' feature - you can't even select multiple to archive like you can with PM's - big pain to click on every single one to get rid of it.

Why is new format still so slow.That I  cannot handle. I will check back in a few days.Lack of speed will kill this site.

I think the new format looks much better today, and is not terribly different from other similar boards (go check out the discussion boards at WebMD or default layouts at Blogger and you'll see a similar layout).  The empty space on the left will "probably" be used for advertising to pay for this great site.  I didn't see a single ad just yet, I'm guessing the left side will not be wasted, eventually.

I post from a laptop, an Android phone and an iPad.  Yesterday's version worked ok from my Android, I haven't tried the iPad yet, and my laptop (netbook) version is fine now that the posting text size has been fixed.

I don't care about the "suggested reading" - I have 53 articles, most of which are irrelevant.  Not sure what type of data mining is creating that list, but I think an ability to opt in or out of this "service" would be a great idea.

I agree with those who suggest that the Active Topics was better in the table format.  I found it annoying to have to scroll through the list rather than being able to see the topics at a glance.

I am not getting email notifications of postings, even from my favorite topics.  So that is not an "everybody" problem.

Dashboard is less of a developer term and more of a corporate America term.  I knew exactly what to expect there, but I can see how most people were befuddled by that description.

And last but not least, with such a major revamp of this board, it would have been wise to roll out a beta version, run both versions in parallel, and invite us to check it out and offer constructive comments.  But hindsight is 20/20.

As for new people joining and finding their way around, well...they have no preconceived notion of how this board should look.   I suspect the newbies will do better than some of us old-timers!

I love BCO with all my heart! I hate being negative towards one of my very favorite resources that got me where I am today.  However, I have a wee bit of experience with web design, and I will say there are a lot of problems with this new site.  Sounds like some people have articulated them much better than I can, but my main beef is, the front page is way too big, it doesn't aggregate posts you've already been looking at in the same convenient way, and requires a lot of confusing scrolling which will make me miss a lot.

I have clicked 'Remove e-mail notification' from ALL my favorite topics and STILL had 27 'One of the topics you marked as a "favorite" has been updated' messages in my e-mail this morning............. 

BIOGRAPHY

Several people said they had a problem finding their biography, just go to...

My Profile > Settings > Scroll down to your Biography

In the TREATMENT section I'd rather just choose the month and year if I was filling it in.  I don't remember exact dates and why should it matter?  Started October 2009 is near enough.  For Lymphodema it looks like I had both sentinel node and clearance for both sides.  It needs some tweaking. Chemo has American drug names I've never heard of, eg Ellence for Epirubicin.  This site is used all over the world so the proper drug name would be better.

NAVIGATION back to the Discussion Board from My Profile and at least one other area takes several clicks instead of one.  

Could we have a choice of COLOUR scheme like many forums do as one colour will never suit everyone.  I'm fine with it.

I agree that the SPACE on the left is wasted and the OLD TABLE STYLE for Active Topics and All Topics was much easier and quicker to use.

Would it be possible to make the main forum window EXPANDABLE using the arrow, and maybe icons on the left of the buttons so we could shrink that column and still know what the buttons mean?   Then you'd have to move the red buttons too so maybe something along those lines.

The BCO ARTICLES could be a separate button with the others that are now on the left, but with ALL articles in date order similar to the forums, without any reference to our diagnosis. That is, no one selects which articles we might want to read. There should be no red button for them as if we've "got to" read them, unless you find a way for us to choose our subjects of interest.

I think with some tweaking this could be a great improvement over the old pink forum.

Ok, I have used this on my IPad, iPhone, and MacBook using windows. To me it acts more like an app than a website. I don't like my Facebook app on my phone so I tend to go to my iPad or computer which works the same. This acts like an app on the phone which seems ok but I don't like it on the computer or iPad. It takes too much time to find what you are looking for. All that scrolling is annoying. There needs to be more color when you scroll down the page. Too much blandness and not easy on the eyes at all. Font size seems ok to me but it must not be consistent through different computers. There is still an orange button indicating new posts but I have scrolled thru all my favorites and I have read everything so I don't know why that button is still there. I too prefer Home to Dashboard but I'll get use to it. In my mind you should have kept the website the same or very similar and rebuilt your app to access the website. Not trash the website in order to rebuild the app. Just my 2 cents.

I can get used to the new format.  I am a long time member of another on-line community and when it changed formats I hated it, still do, but have learned to navigate it.

Thank you for making the font bigger in the comment box!  (Tho it is still tiny after I post.)

Unlike some, and I certainly understand their points, I DO appreciate the recommended articles.  I like to keep abreast (pun not intended lol) of things that apply to my diagnosis, and I don't always have the time to scour the internet and oncology journals for the info.  (But that is the hook...it has to APPLY.)  So far, most of the articles have or could apply to me, or I find them interesting.  If they don't apply, I hit the archive or delete button (can't remember) and it goes away and another new article is put in its place.

I like that.

I agree with the wasted space on the left.  If the menu scrolled down that would even be better.....I see the "back to top" option at the bottom of the page after the last comment, but I may not want to read all of the comments before moving on....

Less scrolling = good.

Thanks for taking our feedback. 

I do appreciate this site.

So... 75% of users are put through this mess so that 25% can be better accommodated?  

The board is clunky to navigate now, and not at all friendly to global thinkers.

I hope BCO will consider that this board is populated by people who have more than enough new crap to deal with All The Time as it is.  As for me, I have new progression in my bone mets as of today so I need the support here more than ever, but I also don't have the patience or the focus to absorb all this change right now.  I'll be back when the dust settles.

Man, whoever designed this albatross needs to be fired! There is no excuse for use having to take a step back and use this dinosaur interface. It is slow, it disconnects, it has errors (don't bother to look at your profile page it will crash), I can no longer post a simple answer to a note (this one will probably take over 1 minute to load), what happened to those great little adds etc. on the side of the page telling us of new research, and whoever did the programming for the "helpful" articles in my profile have now given me INSULTING articles in my "must read" list. Really......I'm obese? And I don't see any way to delete them, other than archive. Really, the whole thing is inexcusable.



Sorry everyone, just had to rant, I used to use this site for support, I think I'll have to quit now as it seems to have just raised my blood pressure which isn't good (and rarely happens..LOL)

I don't like the fact that I keep getting all these "articles" that are supposed to be of interest to me! I haven't found a way to delete them in a batch. I've been archiving them...one by one....then deleting them....one by one! Am I missing something? This is tedious, especially since I don't want them in the first place!!!

The techs must be left brainers who like the cold, sterile and professional look. The screen isn't quite as harsh as yesterday, but still harsh. This may work for medweb, where it's all about medicine or perhaps the look of a doctors office, but not for a forum. Warm or earth colors are more inviting. Contrast is important. As we say in teaching art less is more.  Either darken the gray on the left for constrast or use a burgany color. If you do this the gray around the message won't be as bothersome.  My plastic surgeon reception area has low lights, soft glow, and inviting colors. When I walk in there, I have the feeling of coming home. I feel relaxed. Many doctor reception areas are too bright, white or gray giving you that stark, clinical, hospital, dread feeling. The new bco format has that stark, cold, medical dread feeling. Colors do effect our feelings about things. The former format had a lot of pink/purple or burgany color. I'm not particularly fond of pink, but in asylums to calm people down they would put them into a pink room.

Change is emotionally hard for most people. Someone once said to me if you are going to make change especially with older adults it is best to make small changes little by little giving them time to accept it. The example this person gave me is if you want to turn the piano around 180 degrees, turn it inch by inch over a year and at the end of the year they won't notice the change.

The font size for me is good. I like it better. The website is slightly faster than yesterday, but still have to click a few times before it will let me log onto a thread or to reply. I don't know why this program is sooo slow. Yesterday, I replied to someone's private message and click on submit about 10 times before it went through. A few minutes later it notified me that I had sent the same message to this person about 10 times. I tried to delete most...hoped it work or they might have gotten 10 e-mails from me (same message). Now I just click and wait and if nothing happens in 60 seconds, I click again. On another website I just happened to pop in and visit, I would had thought the website was dysfunctional and left it. We live in a world where everything is instant, and people aren't willing to wait on a slow website and for that reason bco might lose visitors.

I'm on a Mac and the code for enlarging the font isn't working here.  It works on all other sites.  This is a deal breaker for me.  If I can't read without pain and straining I can't participate here.