The FastDay Forum

I LOVE how the tracker gives the BMI and I don't have to do the math!
The only thing I wish I could do was change the weight setting myself. I changed to a new scale early in my weight loss journey and the old scale number was off. So... I've really lost more weight than it indicates. It is just not important enough for me to go through notifications to get it changed.
Overall... I am loving the FastDay site. Easy place to come for fasting info. too. Thanks for all your hard work as you are helping many people all over the world get healthy.

I expect your planned tracker changes will probably address my wants. I would like to be able to spread the tracker out over more than one page or preferably to be able to look a different time scales as on the Libra tracker. At the moment because I have been fasting for so long any changes are not very apparent as the y axis is so cramped ( this is not always a bad thing when I have put on weight!)

Hi again Moogie, I've just lost another message into the ether, if you could do something to stop a whole page of typing from disappearing when we click on something by mistake then it would be marvelous.
Pretty please.

Dear@Moogie. Best wishes for a healthier 2015.
I can't remember what the old forum looked like, but I know that I preferred it. I hated the yellow at first, but have become acclimatised to it, although I'd welcome a change. I'm not keen on the cartoon figures either.

Thanks for all your hard work.
Bracken.

I have a comment/request for the mobile version. Within a thread, the title is repeated in each post. This is fine--it happens on the website, too. However, the font is so big, it means a lot of extra scrolling past repeated information to look at all the posts. Can that font be made smaller (I can't quite believe I'm requesting a smaller font, but there you have it)? I'm on an iPhone, in case that matters.

p.s. I don't mind the yellow at all, though if asked, I'd say I preferred the old site coloring. Remember the Xmas snow last year? that was so awesome!

Also, I've been trying to read all the information on the site that is separate from the forum. I think it's really good, but I wonder if there's a way to make it feel less separate from here. Maybe it just takes getting used to...

@Moogie. Wishing you all the very best for a much better health year next year. You do a great job with the site and have managed to keep things going despite your setbacks. I will keep my suggestions to look and feel as you say, but I do think that there is a functionality review required at some point as it is starting to feel quite clunky and the forums seem quieter than in the early days.

Look and feel suggestions:
*Keep the FastDay logo. It's great.
*View unread and active topics are also my frequently used tabs, so keep these to the fore.
*Stick to 3 colours only as a way of branding the site. This will give it a clean look and feel. Take a look at this as an example http://forum.bulletproofexec.com/index. ... roof-diet/ I'm counting 6 main colours at the moment plus tones which gives it a confused identity.
*Decide on one single colour as your principal brand and stick with it so we can create a stronger identity. Fingers crossed it is not yellow
*Match the other two colours to the principal colour (if I was being strict I would say that tones of the same colour count as one colour!). Don't forget white is a colour and it seems to me that white is a key colour in the FastDay identity colour palette.
*I'm in the I hate yellow camp. Principally because I spend alot of time jet lagged and on the site in the dark and the yellow blinds me to the point I'm straining to see content (and the bar gets in the way from a functionality point of view).
*Think carefully about too much blue. Too many forums use blue and they all look the same to me.
*Clean up the fonts. Just choose one and not more than three variations of size. I counted at least four fonts in play right now. This makes it look messy. You can have the FastDay logo in a different font so long as the two fonts complement one another.
*Please get rid of the cartoons. I don't want to offend anyone but it does not make the site look very cool at all.
*I know you need advertising but can these be placed more thoughtfully as they make the site feel quite fragmented.
*Can we make more use of the page. This might be a functionality issue, but some days I have the 'new' version on my machine where all of the space is used and on other days, the old version with the red menu on the left hand side and 25% of the real estate underneath unused.
*Display BMI as others have already suggested.
*Please give volunteers access to the beta site when you are ready. We will happily help you make it perfect before going live. I notice we have launched stuff before it was quite ready before and it will help save frustrations from members.

Tracker
I support anything you can do on the tracker. I thought it was fabulous in the early days but as you say, things have moved on. Also I hate the fact that I am not going to reach my target until 2026, so being able to re-set it myself would be great.
I'm not sure how fancy you are trying to be but if you are able to do a deal with Withings and/or MyFitnessPal (or others) to do a data synch up I think that would drive traffic to the site as you will have some unique functionality. It also means I don't have to record my weight in 2 places. Having said that MFP drives me mad when it tells me I have not eaten enough on fast days:-)

Functionality
Ok I said I would keep my functionality suggestions for another time, but I'm on a roll, so these are the two big deals for me right now.
*Please bring the blogs back to the fore. I'm sad that they don't get read more by community members and I think people forget they are there. Other people's stories are inspiring.
*Chat room. I'm sad that the intro of Google Hangouts has fragmented the community as it is not part of the main site and I suspect it has contributed to traffic going down on the main site. We need to get chat room functionality on here so there is always someone to talk to (especially on fast days when we get hangry!). This will make the site more dynamic.

Thanks for reading and thank you again for creating a great community.

Hi everyone!
I have felt that I haven't anything to add to this thread, but suddenly, over my morning coffee, I have though of this:

As fasting comes more to the fore, we now have an established forum, which has been proven to work. How do we know this?
Well, there is a nucleus of fasters who have
a) reached goal
b) are maintaining that
c) are still here.
Me, for one. And without too much trouble, I can name many more.
I know we are awarded 'faster for life', after so many forum posts, but could there be some way of recognising those of us who have achieved goal? Not just to pat ourselves on the back, but, hopefully, as proof that this really works?
I know I'm not as knowledgeable about nutrition as many here, but I have learned a lot and, what was daunting, is now second nature.
This is a community of extraordinary, ordinary people who are here to help and encourage and support. For someone, when they first arrive here, to see a welcome from someone and they can see a 'success' must be very motivating.
We need to shout 'success'!

Hi everyone!
I have felt that I haven't anything to add to this thread, but suddenly, over my morning coffee, I have though of this:

As fasting comes more to the fore, we now have an established forum, which has been proven to work. How do we know this?
Well, there is a nucleus of fasters who have
a) reached goal
b) are maintaining that
c) are still here.
Me, for one. And without too much trouble, I can name many more.
I know we are awarded 'faster for life', after so many forum posts, but could there be some way of recognising those of us who have achieved goal? Not just to pat ourselves on the back, but, hopefully, as proof that this really works?
I know I'm not as knowledgeable about nutrition as many here, but I have learned a lot and, what was daunting, is now second nature.
This is a community of extraordinary, ordinary people who are here to help and encourage and support. For someone, when they first arrive here, to see a welcome from someone and they can see a 'success' must be very motivating.
We need to shout 'success'!

Wow @PennyForthem, what a great idea, it put a smile on my face reading through that, it was so encouraging.

Smart thinking Batman! as usual, a brainwave from PennyForthem!

Some great ideas - especially by @PennyForthem
I am interested in how much quieter the forum is than when I started. There are now thousands of members, but few post here, even on the fasting today threads. I wonder why...

[Moogie]

Thanks everyone for all the great feedback!
I'd like to invite some of you to join me in a private forum (which I need to set up, lol) to discuss the revamp a bit more and run some ideas past you. Please don't be upset if you're not invited to join in, I've tried to focus on people whose comments were more design focussed as that's what we're looking to deal with initially. Don't think that the other ideas will go unnoticed though, and I especially like the idea of being able to mark more obviously who has reached goal etc. Lovely idea!

So, these are the folks I'd like to join me for some discussion about the new look:

@coffeetime
@juliebulie10
@wendyjane
@gillymary
@Wendy Darling
@Bracken
@MaryAnn
@rawkaren

In reality it is likely to be new year before we start work on anything now, though I'll get the forum set up on Thursday when I'm back at my desk (attempting another day out tomorrow, hope it doesn't knacker me!) and make an introductory topic. Meanwhile if you could let me know if you're happy to be involved (I know a few of you already said so) the I'll be able to get our group up and running soon too!

Thanks

Good, so glad my idea is lovely.

Hi again Moogie, I've just lost another message into the ether, if you could do something to stop a whole page of typing from disappearing when we click on something by mistake then it would be marvelous.
Pretty please.

I've noticed this many times myself and have come to believe that the problem is often caused by a combination of two rather subtle things:

(1) taking an extended amount of the time to compose a message,

(2) which allows another's post to superceed the site's acceptance of your post.

What isn't at all obvious is that the site does notify you of the occurance of the latter which, at a minimum, forces you to resend the post. But it's all to easy to miss this opportunity. So the frustrating result is that your post appears to have been lost.

One solution and two steps to protect your efforts are possible here:

(1) A change to existing code that makes a superceeded reply condition much more obvious. <--- Hint: Moogie

To protect yourself:

(1) Copy your post periodically by pressing Ctrl-a and Ctrl-c, and again immediately before pressing the post button. This creates a temporary backup of your efforts (which, if necessary. you can later paste back into the edit window by pressing Ctrl-v).

(2) Once you've realized the post was lost don't give up. Instead press the browsers Back button (possibly numerous times) to restore the edit window.

HTH

Dump the https:/ business - as I have pointed out before, and others including Manderley, it stops an Android screen from rolling up properly (because the operating system feels duty bound to point out that the posts are basically insecure and hence leaves the URL on show). Then you end up with a letterbox effect that the yellow banner exacerbates, so dump this as well. And the cutesy cartoon figures - sorry if anyone likes these but they really grate on me!
That should do it - thanks Moogie and Merry Christmas to you, husband & fish!

I'm happy to be involved in any discussions.

Bracken.