The feedback forum is only ever used when people want to voice a concern. Most people won't have even noticed the issue, of those who do, the majority won't care. The only people who will care, is the few here, voicing their concerns over specific forums.
I think there are probably some people who do care but are too shy to say anything about it.
I agree, but that likely goes both ways. But think about a customer support line, how many positive feedback messages do you think the average gets per day? People usually only take the time and effort to be vocal when they have an issue or are dissatisfied.
I just don't think it's right in this instance to use those for and against the changes as the deciding factor.
I may have a win win solution but I want to refine the idea slightly before I present it as a possibility.
The feedback forum is only ever used when people want to voice a concern. Most people won't have even noticed the issue, of those who do, the majority won't care. The only people who will care, is the few here, voicing their concerns over specific forums.
I vote thumb downs to this new format.
I can't find the old research forum or the old laser light forum.
So let me get this straight. With the previous structure, the multiple forums made it extremely easy for users to find specific posts containing specific information, but it inconvenienced the moderators. So the solution is to draconianly slash the number of forums all the way down to...... 22?
What the heck was it before? 25? All I see here is that you eliminated THE ONLY FORUMS I look at on this website: Severe acne, oily skin, and hypertrohic scars.
Sorry, but I am NOT going to waste my time sorting through the 500 posts from teenagers experiencing their first whitehead just to find the ones that MIGHT relate to severe acne... or that MIGHT relate to oily skin.
Sorry, but I am NOT going to search through every freaking hypertrophic scar thread to find the 3 with a new post.
The reason some posts got "buried" and not seen is because, believe it or not, some people have extremely unique skin issues that are more than those seen in ProActive commercials. They don't fit in the 'Normal, Average Acne' forums. If you people didn't like that some posts were getting buried, then maybe YOU should have responded to them. In the hypertrophic scar forum, I was one of the ONLY PEOPLE responding there consistently because of my experience with those scars. When I first joined these boards, I was a bit of an a**hole. But as I spent years trying to fight my scars, I decided that I WANTED to help others just like me on the hypertrophic scar forum. Congratulations, this new bullsh*t structure prevents me from doing that. I'm not going to waste my time searching for the few threads I want to see. If I want to 'search' for things, I use Google. Now, instead of acne.org, I'll find a different website for oily skin. No need to 'search' there. Maybe I'll find a new website for hypertrophic scars. And I just might find a new website for severe acne too.
Congratulations on giving me a reason NOT to post on acne.org. Please email me when the forums are user-friendly again.
So let me get this straight. With the previous structure, the multiple forums made it extremely easy for users to find specific posts containing specific information, but it inconvenienced the moderators. So the solution is to draconianly slash the number of forums all the way down to...... 22?
No. I guess you got the wrong end of the stick.
We've been listening to your feedback and you've all made great points.
What I propose, is that we have a new section to the forums called "acne specifics" or perhaps you can think of a better name? This is a place for those of you who want to discuss more specific issues relating to acne. This section will contain the following forums:
As you'll see, adult, body and hormonal have been moved to this section, as well as rosacea and oily skin has been added back.
Hopefully this addresses the issues of the missing forums, while still keeping a logical structure and doesn't confuse members when they want to make a post.
It's going to take me a while to move all of the posts back to their relevant sections, but I wanted to let you know we're listening and working on resolving the concerns you've had with the merge.
We also made a cool new oily skin page. It was long overdue! http://www.acne.org/oily-skin.html
We've been listening to your feedback and you've all made great points.
What I propose, is that we have a new section to the forums called "acne specifics" or perhaps you can think of a better name? This is a place for those of you who want to discuss more specific issues relating to acne. This section will contain the following forums:
As you'll see, adult, body and hormonal have been moved to this section, as well as rosacea and oily skin has been added back.
Hopefully this addresses the issues of the missing forums, while still keeping a logical structure and doesn't confuse members when they want to make a post.
It's going to take me a while to move all of the posts back to their relevant sections, but I wanted to let you know we're listening and working on resolving the concerns you've had with the merge.
We also made a cool new oily skin page. It was long overdue! http://www.acne.org/oily-skin.html
Very impressed Real Maverick. The "Acne Specifics" grouping looks good, and the oily skin page is well put together and quite accurate.
The last forum structure was confusing, but this one is much too generalized.
For example "hormonal issues" is a completely separate set of acne concerns than someone who's using prescription antibiotics or retin-A.
Unfortunately I can't see myself searching the entire prescription medications forum just to ferret out people who have hormonal concerns I can help with. Since I don't visit this site every day, I will miss many questions entirely as they are pushed back in the index. Frankly the first thing I do is log on, check the Hormonal forum and the Nutrition forum, and then I'm usually out. This new generalization of information removes any desire I have to be here.
I think rather than just mass cutting out all the sub-forums, some more thought should go into USEFUL categories. Categories would be more useful stemming from ROOT CAUSE rather than the treatment. Biggest gripe is obviously that "prescription" treatments doesn't mean anything. What is a prescription treatment and what is not is largely arbitrary. It does mean something, however, for someone who is looking to solve a hormonal problem, a nutrition problem, or a bacterial infection, to have a forum dedicated to that root cause.
Really by this new logic, The Regimen should only have one forum. I am amazed that you went ahead and cut out very specific root cause topics, then kept THREE forums for the same topic: different ways of using The Regimen and its supplies. That could have easily been merged into "The Regimen". Seems to me like the site is moving away from its community aspect of curing acne in all its forms, and honing in on the commercial product. If that is the case, people like me will stop visiting this site entirely.
Please at least give us a Hormonal sub-forum. The medical literature on hormonal problems + acne is astounding and it really is its own sub-set of SYSTEMICALLY and LONG-TERM curing acne through the ENDOCRINE system. It is NOT related to short-term antibiotics, retinoids, and Accutane, and this new layout makes it very hard for hormonal acne sufferers to get the information they need.
All inflammatory acne is hormonal in origin; acne is a hormonal disease. There are no special sub types of acne and there is still no defined root cause of acne but a sensitivity to androgen hormones seems to be universally agreed upon by all dermatologists as one of the main contributors in acne development.
Though many people probably didn't use the Acne Research page, it was very resourceful to some of us who prefer to take a more scientific approach to acne. Many of us have blindly tried many treatments based off anecdotes found on this site but haven't found success yet. I think an Acne Research page/forum is necessary. It doesn't have to be displayed on the forum front page but can it at least be a subcategory? I can't find any of the topics that I am looking for. Thank you.
Christ, why would you merge hyperpigmentation, scars and hypertrophic scars? They're three very different problems and each sub had their own group that was well versed in the treatment of each. You've unstickied the most important threads (yet kept a hyperpig sticky) and they're being pushed pages back. The whole place is a mess.
Yes, they are different, however they're not strictly acne. But I agree we do need a place to discuss scars and red marks, but I don't believe we need more than one forum to discuss.
Can you please link me to topics you believe should have remained sticky? Keep in mind, a sticky should be a topic that's so good, nobody should miss it.
I agree the scars and red marks forum should never have been merged. They are two completely different things and much confusion arises as people with red marks are posting topics about their "scars". As somebody with severe depressed acne scarring clicking onto multiple posts about peoples scars which turn out to be red marks is very frustrating. I am having to sift through multiple posts trying to find posts that are relevant to me. Red marks seem very trivial when you are dealing with permanent indented scarring that will not disappear over time.
The specified old forums will be back this week. However I then need to manually move all of the posts back to the relevant forums. That may take me some time.
They are two completely different things and much confusion arises as people with red marks are posting topics about their "scars".
The oily skin and hormonal acne forums are now back.
We've also introduced a new feature, to help accomodate those of you who were missing things like the severe acne forum etc. For example, you'll see new categories: Mild to moderate acne blackheads severe acne
These categories act as quick links, to find posts that are tagged with that phrase.
Thanks for all your feedback and input. I think the forums are better organised than ever now.
