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Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 15:09
by Moogie
Hi all :)

My apologies for going quiet a while there, it's been a busy few weeks and I needed a little bit of time off to catch up on my rest & recovery.

I trust that the rest of the FastDay team has taken good care of you in my absence and that @fast_paul and @fast_jason have taken care of any issues that have arisen!

From what we can tell, the login related issues are now all resolved and the vast majority of tech issues are also sorted. Now we can finish off a bit of tidying-up work and sort out bringing back a mobile skin for the forum, probably something very similar to the one we used to have. Sorry that the responsive design we have in place currently hasn't suited everyone's mobile devices and thank you for bearing with us for so long while everything else has been worked out. The mobile skin should be with us very soon indeed.

So, things are running pretty smoothly now and although there are a few relatively minor cosmetic tweaks to attend to we can at last start to plan for the future of the site! Exciting times :D

To that end, we are looking to put together a couple of small 'working groups' of members (or as I like to call them, FastDay Brainstormers) to assist us in planning & developing some new features and content for the site. As always it's so important that we consider what users need and want so getting a team of members together to help us brainstorm and to discuss our ideas with is something we really want to do.


What are the FastDay Brainstormers going to do?
We're looking for two groups of about a dozen members each, one group who are currently aiming to lose weight and another group who are aiming to maintain. All we ask is for a little of your time to read about the ideas we have and offer your feedback to help us improve and reshape them! We'll probably be setting up a couple of private discussion forums here for the groups so we can share ideas freely, rather than trying to do it by email or other less group oriented means, which of course means we can involve users from other timezones too.


What do I need in order to become a FastDay Brainstormer?
If you'd be interested in getting involved all you need is a little free time you don't mind using to help us out :) It would be helpful if you've been using the Progress Tracker (or were using, but stopped) as this is likely to be an area we'll discuss in terms of improvements and updates. You need to be willing to be honest and tell us if you like our ideas or not, but please be prepared to be constructive in your feedback.


How can I volunteer?
We'd like to take on volunteers for these groups ,but in the interest of fairness we won't use a 'first-come-first-served' approach so as not to rule out those who may be sleeping on the other side of the globe when this announcement is posted. Instead we'll get together a list of volunteers over the course of a few days and use random selection to choose those who will be included.

We may also approach a few specific users to get involved, based on our knowledge of who has been keen to troubleshoot or offer up suggestions in the past - but of course there will be no obligation to these users to join in.

If you'd like to volunteer, please reply to this topic stating which group you're volunteering for - 'Brainstorming Losers' or 'Brainstorming Maintainers'!


Why can't we all brainstorm together?
I don't want any of you to be upset if you're not chosen by the random selection or by being approached individually! There are just so many wonderful, helpful souls here but in order to get the ball rolling and to keep things organised we just need a couple of little groups for now.

At some point in the future we may need to form new groups for discussing features or add to the existing groups, so don't think that you'll never have the chance to be involved if you're not chosen this time. We're always keen to involve the community in developments as much as possible. It's not a popularity contest, we love you all equally! :)

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 15:12
by rawkaren
Hi Moogie. If this is about functionality/useability & content development of the site, I'm happy to raise my hand.

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 15:38
by barbarita
Hi, I volunteer. Not sure which group though as I may not be a loser for much longer. Then again on this wonderful, crazy WOE I may be a loser for ages yet.

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 16:22
by cblasz
Hi, I'd be happy to help out! I am definitely in the "still losing" category and probably will be there for a while!

Thanks!

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 18:00
by radleykitten
I'm happy to be a Brainstorming Maintainer :)

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 18:13
by Sue.Q
Not sure I'd be any use storming anyone's brain but would love to offer my services ( limited that they are) obviously in in the "still losing" category, would love to help this forum now or in the future.

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 18:17
by callyanna
I would also like to offer my experience of maintaining, such as it is, if you think my contribution would be of any use.

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 19:05
by Merlin
Not sure I have been maintaining long enough to be of use, but you can have my brain if you want it!

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 19:40
by Karenm
I'd like to volunteer. I've currently got less than a stone to lose and I'm very interested into how to maintain once I'm there! :smile:

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 20:05
by Minsmum
Happy to help if needed x

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 20:07
by loversghost
Happy to volunteer for the 'Losers' group - though I'm sure that came out wrong :-)

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 20:08
by Romany05
Hi
I would really like to take part in the lose weight section, I am British but living in Europe.
If I am not selected I would like to point out a problem I have with the Progress Tracker that can make me a bit despondent.
The quick story is that I joined Mar 2013 then due to family illness last May I had to put everything on hold. I restarted the fasting last April and rejoined this site beginning June when I returned home.
Unfortunately the tracker does not recognise this and although I have lost 11 Kilo since the beginning of April, my current target is to lose 6 kilo and the tracker calculates this will take 35 weeks! which is rather depressing and so I tend to now avoid the tracker except for my weekly weigh in, rather than every day as I did last year.
Good luck with this project as I can see it will really help the people on this site.

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 20:21
by Karenm
Romany05 wrote: Hi
I would really like to take part in the lose weight section, I am British but living in Europe.
If I am not selected I would like to point out a problem I have with the Progress Tracker that can make me a bit despondent.
The quick story is that I joined Mar 2013 then due to family illness last May I had to put everything on hold. I restarted the fasting last April and rejoined this site beginning June when I returned home.
Unfortunately the tracker does not recognise this and although I have lost 11 Kilo since the beginning of April, my current target is to lose 6 kilo and the tracker calculates this will take 35 weeks! which is rather depressing and so I tend to now avoid the tracker except for my weekly weigh in, rather than every day as I did last year.
Good luck with this project as I can see it will really help the people on this site.


I've got the same problem, it reckons. It'll be may 2017 until I lose less than a stone :shock:

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 21:56
by Lizbean
Thanks Moogie. I throw my hat in! I'm on the cusp of joining the maintainers after 3 more lbs, Quite a scary challenge/journey from what I read. I'm up for it though. Good luck, Lizbean

Re: Brainstormers Needed!

PostPosted: 03 Jul 2014, 22:19
by croftmaclean
Hi - I'll put my name in the hat for Brainstorming losers. Hope it goes well :)