Provide feedback/advice about our site and campaigns?!

Peregrine...your post has made my day. FYI...there is a core group from 2013 that still gets together. We are bonded for life because of what we found together on BCO.

I am against the like button.

It looks like BCO has big plans for the new site, so I wonder if they really want feedback or just another token discussion on the topic. Here's the current ad fundraising for their new site:

"The new Breastcancer.org will help people make important care and treatment decisions quickly, confidently, and with far less anxiety. By leveraging the latest and best technologies available now, we will seamlessly integrate the best qualities of our current site with new features that enable social connections and real time conversations to help people find support and make informed decisions.

It's critical that we rebuild Breastcancer.org, and this project must start NOW ."

Mods, how about posting a précis of the proposed changes and inviting comments. It's too dispiriting going on with backchat here not having a clue what is even planned.

I am convinced that we are being "tolerated" as a token discussion. I will not participate in this topic anymore...been around this rodeo too many times.

I also agree that BCO is trying very hard (for reasons I fail to grasp) to become the "Ultimate" expert...sorry...I believe that bco's role in providing expertise in the world of bc is best served by the discussion threads of actual bc patients. That is the part of BCO that I support, and the threads do not need a million-plus $$$ overhaul.

how many times has a product we love gets revamped to new and improved and we yearn for the original formula. I know ive emailed companies saying please dont change the formula and a few years later they do and they lose money. There is nothing wrong here. The discussion forums which is critical since we all have bc in common to share is structured nicely. Adding more go here buttons is maddening. People shouldnt rely on 1 site. Their medical team should be first on the case side of it and here as supplemental. I never read the info stuff, came straight to the forums.

Ok talking about transparency, why do we see on the information pages at least three ads for Ibrance? Is the pharmaceutical company paying for these ads? Makes it look like BCO is pushing the drug, thus giving me the feeling of a conflict of interest.

And the Mods have gone silent again.

Mods, how about posting a précis of the proposed changes and inviting comments and additions.

I daresay the majority of us are working in the middle of a Wednesday

I think we have to accept that BCO is a business and they will do what they have to do to please monetary contributors and that is what capitalism is about. I am a bit distrustful of this show of interest in what the members want other than using the information for marketing purposes.

The site has been very valuable to many women and men but that is because of what they have given to each other. The contribution of these many women and men can't be calculated. I hope they don't lose this forum and each other. I am forever grateful to the women and men here for helping me.

Edited to add "men". Sorry.

I guess I must have misunderstood what BCO was telling us many months ago, both online and thru the first online meeting--that they would welcome our input, we would have input opportunities, and we would be able to suggest what was changed and how the new design would look and feel for us users. Again, I have to say how disappointed I have been with the results of the first online meeting--I haven't seen follow through on most items discussed, I have only received one followup email asking me for input on a super minor thing about asking for donations, and not one message on what was being changed, or any specifics on this thread which BCO started in response to our asking for it during the online meeting.

The title of this BCO thread is " Provide feedback/advice about our site and campaigns?!" Almost no one saw it and responded to it when it was originally posted. I was out of town and missed it originally and had to ask. I reposted the link to it when someone else asked and now a few of us are responding, but I wonder to what end?

We would love to provide feedback/advice about the proposed site changes but we still have no idea what changes are proposed and what is being worked on that could possibly cost millions of dollars. I just don't get the secrecy, even though the moderators say they are "listening," it appears the only thing they are listening to are our comments about being totally uninformed and uninvolved. Communication is the key to making most anything work. Communication must go in both directions. Trust cannot be built or reinforced if there is no communication.

No offense Mods but wouldn't it stand to reason that someone from the development/implementation team should be moderating this thread. It is obvious from your comments back to us that you are the go betweens as your answers are guarded and vague. By having someone, in authority from the team, an open discussion could be going on instead of weeks of silence at a time. I don't see where an hour or two, if that, from one person a day would slow down this "urgent" need for changes. You state, " As you know, we are asking for member suggestions and feedback in 'user testing'." Am I wrong here in interpreting this as meaning our input/discussion is not needed for the development of the changes that are to be made? I am one of those members who is not able to do the video conferencing.

SummerAngel, this point has been raised many times here over the past many months and BCO is yet to even acknowledge this as a possibility.

Mods, can you please get the word from above on this topic.

Moderators, while I appreciate your reply to me, I am mystified by it. I volunteered during the online meeting and again in PMs and on threads to "help" in any way with the new design but never received anything from BCO about the proposed website revision. Many others have volunteered here also. During the online meeting it was explained how members local to your physical office were included in feedback and testing about such things as the Outbrain ads (and we know how well that went over) and now, as we all ask about the planning for, justification for, and prototype testing for the $2.5 million update for BCO, you reply that "we cannot get everyone to have input on everything." Wow! That seems more like a door slam than an invitation!!! How about involving the parties here that are interested??? Very, very disappointed.

Like many here, I've offered help and advice on this forum and have not even received acknowledgement let alone a PM. To consult a few people only is not only ludicrous but poor business practise.

If you sent a survey email to BCO's 199,147 members and got just a 1% response, that would be 1,991 replies that would surely be invaluable for planning the new site. Given that it was well over a year ago that you first mooted the site changes, and that you've been conducting "user testing sessions" I'm guessing you're close to launching the new site. I can understand why you might want to get a few more dollars in the tin before you do this, but in the interests of transparency I believe you should confirm that you have exhausted the possibility of charitable funding from the many tech companies looking to help worthy NGOs like BCO.