The FastDay Forum

I can't find the forum wiki

Here it is Claire

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1133

[carorees]

I can't find the forum wiki

It's at the top of any of the forum boards. But also a link in my signature below...

Maybe there could be a section for people doing variations of 5:2 like the longer water only fasts. Some people may not have read the book and it is not strictly speaking the 5:2 diet.

This looks wonderful.
And I would find the foodie ideas a big help. As this goes on new ideas are very much appreciated.
Oh and yes the 5:2 "variation" section would be nice. I do the 4:3 and it's not much different, but nice to see others that do too.
Thanks for doing this!

[Moogie]

Any more feedback before I go about rejigging things this afternoon?

I like your ideas so far Moogie. My main feedback is that as a veteran of many forums/boards over the years, less generally seems to be more... Too much splitting makes life complicated for everyone. However, so far the splits on your list seem to make sense. I can definitely see the merit of splitting the progress by duration for example. Time will tell if some bits want merging back together again.

The thing that bugs me on every board I've ever been on is how lazy people are about searching to see whether a topic has been covered before. ANY way you can ram that point home is always going to get my approval! I don't think it even occurs to a lot of people, or else they think that searching means paging back though old posts rather than using the search tool.

Thanks so much for all your hard work!

Hi Moogie
A lot of what you've suggested makes sense. However I like things the way they are with the faq a separate section, and one board for general 5:2 chat rather than splitting it into diet / exercise / health. Although the split makes sense when asking questions it might reduce the variety of opinions if people don't look at every board.

The thing I feel this forum is missing is group's of people in the same situation - I guess as it grows it is difficult to get to know everyone, so if there was a way of grouping it might work. I guess the progress reports will do that for length of time doing the fast, but it might make sense to have others e.g. fasting on your own, fasting while feeding a family, veggie fasters, student fasters... Just an idea and you may not want to create groups like that.

I've not been here that long so will prob get used to it, but the main thing I struggle with is working out where to post something especially if it fits in more than one category. Hence I mainly look at the front list of topics and reply to anything that appeals, but don't really start posts myself!

[Moogie]

At the moment there is a lot of crossover in terms of where things might get posted, I'm hoping with the new categories/forums it will help people choose a more apt spot to put things in

Regarding splitting people out by similar situations, I'm not sure entire forums are needed for this - we had suggestions before for age/gender related boards but I'm not sure segregation is something to encourage when we're all in this together. These sorts of things could be discussed in ongoing specific topics I think rather than entire forums - but perhaps this need will change with time.



@Winsome: There is an addon I want to install which looks for similar posts when users go to start a new post, and suggests they read those instead of making a new topic. However, at the moment I'm loathe to install it as I imagine it will increase server load somewhat. Once we've moved to the new server (currently being built, woohoo!) I can look at setting that up

Thats fair enough - I had wondered whether to suggest the situation splits it on the basis that segregation wouldn't be a good thing - one of the things I like about this forum is the variety of people posting about different things. I guess it's what I've been used to on past forums so it will just take a bit of being used to this style!

One more suggestion - I love the hot topics section at the top, is there any chance this could be expanded to show the most recent post for each forum (eg under each forum like on moneysaving expert). Just makes it more obvious if something new is posted in a favourite forum.

PS I do appreciate this forum & all the work you've put in a lot, so regardless of how things change I will be sticking around

Hi,

Am just a newbie but think it will be great to reorganise the forum more or less as you suggest, but also with Carorees suggestion about the nerdy/science stuff separate from the progress/inspirational stories stuff.

It seems good timing to get the changes in - the 5:2 diet suddenly seems to be everywhere at the moment! You might get hoards more members!

Thanks Moogie - it's great what you've achieved here with the forum. I for one will be staying - it's a godsend for people like me who want support from the safety of their own home! x

[carorees]

It seems that a lot of people (including me) primarily use the 'view unread posts' button. The forum subdivisions are, though, really useful for me when I am looking for a previous thread to link to when answering a query on something that has been touched on before. I would imagine that for someone coming to the forum new (or after a break), having the divisions would also be useful. So, um, perhaps it is the views of the new people that should be listened to most closely in the redesign? (no offence to all the regulars intended). Fresh eyes needed perhaps?

[Moogie]

Perhaps I'll hold fire on the reshuffle for today and save it for near the end of the week when more folks have had a chance to reply

[janeg]

Good point Caroline. I think new eyes and how easy they find the forum is a good approach. However, the longer users are used to the format and I would hate to lose folk. 'Tis a hard one - can;t please all of the people all of the time...
not very helpful - sorry.

I like this a lot! It's going to make browsing more fun and easy.

[carorees]

Perhaps we should make a point of welcoming all newcomers to the forum with a request to post here about their first impressions of the structure once they've had a look around?