The FastDay Forum

I read the maintainer's posts all the time. I think there's valuable information to share by those who have succeeded in losing their excess weight and managing their loss. I find their posts very encouraging.

Hi @GMH, I agree that all wisdom from this forum should be in places where people who can benefit from it can find it!

In some ways the tents do serve that purpose, though they can get rather long, so someone new might not even want to start looking at them. I know the length of some has put me off, but when I have found time, I read the start and then the most recent posts, and then make a decision about how much of the rest to read.

I guess the point you are making is that gems can be hidden in tents that may not have any relationship to that tent - but hopefully that info would get posted elsewhere as well??

Yes, I agree it's quiter, when I joined about 2 years ago there were a lot more posts, but that's normal as fasting was so new to a lot of people, and this was pretty much the only place to get info. Now that 5:2 has become more mainstream there are loads of books, forums, groups, articles, blogs, not to mention all of the subjects already discussed on this site, I think this means that people just don't need to ask questions and start topics as much as previously. I have also noticed that initially there were a lot of new members as the Horizon documentary was aired around the world, but this seems to have stopped too.

Personally I don't post often but I read regularly but that has pretty much been the way I have used the forum from the beginning, I just don't have a lot of free time unfortunately.

Hi @GMH, I agree that all wisdom from this forum should be in places where people who can benefit from it can find it!

In some ways the tents do serve that purpose, though they can get rather long, so someone new might not even want to start looking at them. I know the length of some has put me off, but when I have found time, I read the start and then the most recent posts, and then make a decision about how much of the rest to read.

I guess the point you are making is that gems can be hidden in tents that may not have any relationship to that tent - but hopefully that info would get posted elsewhere as well??

I rarely post in a "tent" even though I belong to a few.. mainly stick to General fasting discussion for this very reason.

I don't see the chit-chat as a problem for people who are already familiar here, but when it makes up most of the board postings it will discourage new visitors who are looking for diet support and/or information and may not feel welcome as there is an air of people knowing each other in the chit-chat with little insider jokes which aren't of interest to new visitors and in some cases can make them feel like they've intruded on someone's private party.

So if this were my board (which it isn't) I would redesign it to make it much easier to reach the forums and to put in much clearer acknowledgement that someone is signed in. Right now on my tablet the only way I know I'm signed in after I sign in is if I go to the menu (the parallel lines at the top) and then click. Then I see a silhouette on the left hand column. But I would never think to do that since it is not how any other boards work. An immediate "welcome Username" message would be much more helpful. And if the person had gone to sign in from reading the forum, they should be taken immediately back to the forum after creating an account. This is how other PHP board software works.

Understandably, but to my mind, unfortunately, the main home page of the site has been optimized in a way that so deemphasizes the forums, and with the cartoons and general tone it looks like so many other for-profit diet sites. So it may be hard for visitors to realize what a wonderful resource is hidden here in the forums. They have to click a LOT of links to find them, and the forum is so deemphasized with the new layout. You'd have to be very familiar with using forums and WHY you'd want to use forums to find them.

This redesign makes sense in that the people who have gone to all the trouble of creating the forum need to monetize it, and in my experience active forum traffic does not translate into monetization, even with ads. But it may explain why the redo of the site has significantly dampened the flow of new visitors.

good points @Peebles ... putting in a strong call to action on home page to the forum... smething like a "Hey come and chat and get support on the first page.. particularly on a mobile where you dont see it unless you click the bars is a damn fine idea and easy too.. @Moogie.. is this ok to consider?

I'm still popping in *waves*. Two years seems a natural life for these things, from experience, so it's not doing too badly. Certainly the friendliest, most helpful forum I've ever met.
This tiny, non-enlarging font is off-putting >hint<
The slow renewal of pages is frustrating >hint<
The non-return to last post is annoying >hint<
Any chance of sorting these out?

@Azureblue... the non enlarging font i fixed by hitting CNTR + on my browser.. works every time. as im in an out of here a lot i do find that most sites are now bigger but at 100% i cant read it on my 1920 res screen. Im at 120% now and its fine. to go back you entree CNTR - . i didnt know aobut these keys till recently.

@Moogie .. are the other points made by Azureblue in consideration.? i guess an easier forum experience will bring back the masses hopefully .

Oh i' m such a dumb cluck..when you get on that page,how do you get last post first pls @rawkaren? X

@candicemarie
Go to User Control Panel
Board Preferences (top tabs)
Edit display options (left panel)
There you can set your display topics and display posts to your liking. I have mine set as post time and descending. Just have a play about - you can always reset it if you mess up.

Ive changed the settings.. and geez old habits die hard. so strange to read backwards now lol but ill get used to it i think.