New format is idiotic

PookieBlue

There is a message button if you tap on your avatar.

M1

left a message on the Q&A board, font color for comments is now better, but I think it should be darkened and possibly enlarged for the subjects, posters, etc. I read those too--anyone else agree? I read that stuff and am having to squint to find it.

ImMaggieMae

M1, yes I agree. All of those fonts should be darkened and enlarged. Those little tiny pale letters are difficult to read.

Last Dance

I dislike that the profiler picture is so small and also the name of the person who makes the post is so small on the old form you could easy tell who the poster was just by looking at there picture. and if you wanted to read a post from a cretin person it was easy to scroll down the list and fine that person now you need to really search just to fine that one person. Like last week I was looking for some of Ed's post so i just scrolled down the list to fine each one it was easy now its not easy.

Last Dance

Quilting brings calm

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/168070#Comment_168070

Click on the name of the person you want to send a message to and a pop up box will allow you to send a message. I have only tried this for people who have posted. I don’t know how to send a message to someone whose name isn’t on the comment that you are looking at at the time.

Quilting brings calm

Never mind. Sort of a duplicate since my previous post was under review ( I don’t know why).

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

GothicGremlin

I'm trying to figure stuff out ....

Quilting - I sent you what I think is a private message to see if I could send a message to a person who is marked as "private". I'm not sure what my own status is .... I try to make all of my stuff private, but with this software I can't honestly tell.

For anyone who is interested -- this software is called Higher Logic Vanilla, formerly known as Vanilla Forums. My partner is a computer guy and he brought up the source code for this site and several of the files had "vanilla" in them, so that was the clue.

From there we went to their site to get some questions answered, and that's how I came to test out the message feature.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

LadyTexan

I am still struggling with the new format.

I learned about bold and italics

• I found the bullet command

I have hound a feature Crushed may find useful, its the various Headers. For example

This is header 2

This is header 3

This is header 4

You can change the header by hovering over the Paragraph icon that sometimes appears to the left of the text (Header 5)

I suspect some of you have noticed my dislike for the badges......birthday cake is "whimsical" says the moderator.

LadyTexan

in case you missed it

LadyTexan

Victoria2020 said it well:

I've tried to get this format and: cringe worthy and not as useful - are my two conclusions.

W.L.

With time to think, I realize my last rant was fraught with frustration but still unnecessary. I apologize to all for venting here. Yes the new forum is frustrating and will take some time to understand and use but, always a but, The same wonderful people are still here and so is the disease that draws us together.

I don't post much but visit often to be reaffirmed and restored as I try to navigate my way through the trials we all face. Our journeys are different but still the same, difficult is an understatement.

All of us make the forum, the forum doesn't define us and I promise to take the "high road" from now on and concentrate on the reason I'm here and not only glean from all of your experience's but share mine as well.

I also apologize to the staff of this forum, I have no doubt the thought was to improve our experience and the changes were not made to make this journey anymore difficult than it already is.

Lee

M1

Lee I think you are right. We all live with a lot of frustration already, which means that even small burdens reverberate largely. But I do think the criticisms about the "social media" aspects have a point, and the needs of those of use who are older and/or those who struggle to use the site with dementia should be taken into account. There need to be clear instructions, it needs to be easy to read even for old eyes, and IMHO the default settings should be the most conservative (private profile, no notifications) unless instructed otherwise. Hopefully adjustments can continue to be made.

Ed1937

It seems that most of us dislike the badges, cakes, and other miscellaneous "must have" garbage. Hopefully they will reconsider getting rid of the kindergarten stuff. If so many people don't want it, how can they justify keeping it? Use the space for something positive.

M1, I agree that the default settings should be geared for privacy. Personally I don't worry about it, but I'm probably in the minority.

loveskitties

You also need to check and potentially change your notification settings.

I had used the "follow" option on several threads. When I went to my email account, it was flooded with email notifications...one for each post added...what a mess!

GothicGremlin

Now that I've slept on it for a couple of days ... and I'll do my best not to rant ...

I'm underwhelmed. One of my first thoughts is one many have already stated - please, please, read the room!

Most of us aren't twenty years old anymore. My guess is that most of us (with the exception of those who are here who have parents with dementia) are over 50. That means most of us wear glasses, and tiny pale fonts are annoying.

We're not here for the fun and games, so "gamification" to keep me on the site "engaging" with people doesn't work for me. We're here because someone close to us has an incurable, fatal disease, that gets progressively worse and worse, and we have to watch this on a daily basis. It is not a game. We're here to help each other out, get advice, give advice, and offer encouragement when times get really bad.

As for badges, birthday cakes, and other markers - I've told those who ask that the best thing I can do for my sister Peggy is to make her life less bad. I can't make it better. And that's what's in my head every day. A badge (to me) reminding me of how many posts I make, or whatever, feels like a slap in the face. I can't help it, that's how it feels. I don't want to be reminded. So please, moderators, site administrators, and policy makers - please consider removing the badges and other gamification icons - it really does feel insulting to many, myself included.

GothicGremlin

One other thing - I've found how to bold and italicize things, and I've found the stuff under the little paragraph icon, but do we have a way to edit our posts once we've made them? I used to edit my posts for misspelled words and typos all the time....

ImMaggieMae

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/168100#Comment_168100

GothicGremlin, what does your partner think of the privacy policies of Vanilla Higher Logic and how that might affect us?

Quilting brings calm

GothicGremlin- at the top right of any post you make are 3 dots that are a drop down that will show the word edit. Unfortunately there is no delete.

ladyzetta

Gothic, You said what you had to say so well. I am 77+ and I find this all very hard and I do not need or want birthday cakes or badges, who cares anyway. I totally agree with everything you said. Iam having to put my computer closer to my face to see what I am reading or typing. Iam afraid to click on any of the little things below, I am not sure what they mean or what they will do. My son who is a lot younger than me looked at this and said it was a p------of s-----. and he knows computers.

Iris L.

Victoria, I finally got some likes, so I no longer feel bad about myself. But I notice that everyone who has likes has 5 likes. What's up with that?

(I found the header icon.)

Michael Ellenbogen

I so hate all of those tings as this is not some competition. Get rid of all that crap as we have so many other issues to worry about. ITS sad that AA thinks this is some kind of game.

CatsWithHandsAreTrouble

CWHAT says:

I feel like half of our issues are things that are probably by default of the Vanilla Higher Logic coding. I am a 30 something and even this new layout and such is off putting for me.

I agree that having the usernames and icons so small is ridiculous. I'm on my phone so I am unaware what it looks like on desktop. This new layout seems more like Reddit than AlzConnected.

I've added my "name" at the start of my comment in hopes of it being easier to discern who's talking. Anyone think this is helpful to do?

JoseyWales

I'm not a fan of this new format. I don't like how small the pictures and screen names are. I have to really look to see who posted what. For some reason I also find it harder to scroll through the postings, but that may just take some getting used to.

I also hate the badges, and my cake. Not great that I've been here 6 years. Soon I'll get that 7 year cake. Whoopie.

I admit - I like the "like" and "care" buttons. But I'm also on facebook, and find those to be a great way of saying "I read your post and I'm thinking of you" without having to post something.

ImMaggieMae

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/168197#Comment_168197

The Like and Care buttons are nice. But unlike most forums, there is no way that I can see to click on them and see who liked or cared about the post.

ImMaggieMae

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/168173#Comment_168173

Just go to the 3 little dots up in the right hand corner, chose Edit and use the backspace key to delete everything you wrote and replace it with this:

DELETED

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

GothicGremlin

Thanks ImMaggieMae and Quilting - I see the dots now.

From ImMaggieMae -

GothicGremlin, what does your partner think of the privacy policies of Vanilla Higher Logic and how that might affect us?

I asked him about this after I saw your post.

Several years ago he wanted to build a small social network for us and our close friends - without having to worry about being tracked to within inches of our lives. He looked at a lot of open source software platforms, including Vanilla Higher Logic. He rejected Vanilla Higher Logic because of its accessibility and usability issues. He ultimately built his own (which we still use).

In terms of the privacy policy -- that's more my bailiwick than his. I was a privacy advocate for more than twenty years, but I've stepped away from a lot of it given the time I spend caregiving. Given all of this discussion, I decided to do a compare and contrast of the AA privacy policy and the Vanilla Higher Logic policy (inquiring minds and all).

The two privacy policies cover a lot of the same ground, although I think the AA policy is better written. As with most privacy policies there's the good, the bad, and the ugly. I took a couple of pages of notes, which I need to organize and then post in a separate post. I'll probably post it later on tonight or sometime tomorrow.