Where did the oily skin and acne research boards go? I can't seem to find them anymore...

Hey Paigems, they are both now in General acne. Oily skin is of course an issue that almost all of us with acne suffer from, I think it can definitely be considered a general acne issue.

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.

I think with hormonal in particular, you have a good point.

We have added a hormonal acne sub forum but now need to move all of the hormonal posts to this new section.

I don't think it would be appropriate to have added hormonal as a sub forum of prescription, because it's likely non prescription stuff is going to be discussed, i.e issues relating to hormonal acne.

I feel that if somebody were to discuss Diane-35 for example, it would probably belong on the prescription treatments vs hormonal acne? Hmmm

Please let me know your thoughts.

I agree with green gables. I'm also going to miss the research and oily skin being separate. Now the posts particular to those will be more difficult to find. Research also doesn't seem to fit into the "general" board. Oily skin doesn't either. I always got the impression the people on the oily skin board were not those with typical oily skin.

I hate to criticize changes when I know the Acne.org team puts a lot of time and effort into improving this site, but I have to agree that some of the previous sub forums made things more convenient. The Oily Skin board in particular was useful because it focused discussions on the problem of oily skin specifically, which is not always related to acne. I deal with oil but not acne, for instance.

dude, this new layout is so confusing and not user friendly at all. I totally agree with green gables. Everything is way too generalized and for future new members, it would be hard for them to search for specific topics.

I don't see the problem with the old layout. If anything, it made it much more convenient instead of having to search crazily for certain forum topics.

just saying

The new structure might not be to your specific taste but it's definitely not confusing. The sections are much more logical.

The only possible downside, is that you have to search "oily skin" to see topics specific to oily skin, vs clicking on a specific forum. But all the specific forums made the forums overwhelming. Even as an admin, I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of different forums to check.

Overall, I agree there are some downsides but searching IMO isn't an inconvenience.

Sorry, but i prefer the old site. This is way to generalized. And what happened to the acne research and oily skin section?

I actually prefer this structure. I think forums regarding a certain topic (acne in this case) need to be generalised rather than being overly complicated. If people name their threads appropriately, I see no reason why they'd need a sub-forum for every single form of acne out there.

A thread discussing a research article is so different when compared to a thread where someone is talking about some acne they have from that time of the month. I don't see how those can be put together under general acne. I agree that the new structure is way too general. Oily skin and acne research were two of my favorite forums and now they're gone.

Is there a place for logs pertaining to topicals? Having only 2 sub folders: the regimen and accutane seems to leave people who use other acne medications out in the cold.

Is there a place for logs pertaining to topicals? Having only 2 sub folders: the regimen and accutane seems to leave people who use other acne medications out in the cold.

I thought you were on Accutane unless I'm confusing you with someone else. Did you stop?

I can see that some people are frustrated with the changes and that's perfectly understandable when you frequent certain forums, but with any change there are always certain things that are personally annoying but as a whole may not be annoying to the majority.

I feel that having too many subsections can literally bury posts from people asking for help which means that they are not responded to. There is such a collective wealth of information and knowledge from members on this forum, and I personally think that having less subsections will mean that people will see more posts and be able to pass comment and advice.

Is there a place for logs pertaining to topicals? Having only 2 sub folders: the regimen and accutane seems to leave people who use other acne medications out in the cold.

Yes, you'd post the log in the main logs forum. Accutane and The Regimen have their own sub forum, because they were both huge sections. However, you've bought up a very good point and I can see how it would appear there isn't a place for topicals. I'll bring this up with the team.

I don't understand why there's no hormonal section anymore but there's still a shaving forum? If anything, people could easily search shaving. I usually come on here and go directly to hormonal acne and then log out unless I stop in other forums too for some reason.

I agree with green gables about keeping all three regimen forums. It seems unnecessary and sort of biased.

LoveGreenSmoothies, I replied above.

We have added a hormonal acne sub forum but now need to move all of the hormonal posts to this new section.

I agree that there were previously too many forums. In fact, I was thinking that just last week when I noticed that there was a Vitamins forum within the Nutrition forum. But I do think that certain forums served a useful purpose as their own distinct discussion areas, while some of the remaining forums still seem superfluous like the "Shaving" and "Other acne treatments" forums.

In the case of the Oily Skin forum, oily skin is largely a problem all its own separate from acne. Searching for oily skin topics is an inconvenience because threads relating specifically to oil might have titles that don't contain the phrase (or tag) "oily skin." It could be "oil," "sebum," or something else entirely like, "New diet is working for me!" We have to rely on people to use categorically useful tags and keywords in their threads. Not to mention that those keywords are often attached to threads about general acne simply because the poster has oily skin in addition to acne.

Is there a place for logs pertaining to topicals? Having only 2 sub folders: the regimen and accutane seems to leave people who use other acne medications out in the cold.

I thought you were on Accutane unless I'm confusing you with someone else. Did you stop?

I am but i also plan to transition back unto a topical soon as accutane is not doing it for me so it would be great to have some place to do it.

Is there a place for logs pertaining to topicals? Having only 2 sub folders: the regimen and accutane seems to leave people who use other acne medications out in the cold.

I thought you were on Accutane unless I'm confusing you with someone else. Did you stop?

I am but i also plan to transition back unto a topical soon as accutane is not doing it for me so it would be great to have some place to do it.

Accutane is not doing it for you? Give it time. It will work. I can guarantee you by month six you will be clear with no active inflammatory or non-inflammatory acne. You should definitely give it at least six months.

You might want to use retin-a or tazorac anyway though because they are good for anti-aging and give the skin a glow. I use Tazorac .1% gel.

I am at the end of month 5 so i am highly doubtful it will work for me. Thanks for the suggestion anyway

Nah it will work. Do a Google search and you'll see that a lot of people still break out into month 5. You just got to keep taking it until you're clear. It will happen eventually. There's no harm in taking Accutane for seven months or even forever as long as you lower the dosage to something like 10 mg (what I take daily and I'm 100% clear). Topicals don't do anything. The only things that fundamentally alter the skin and attack acne at the root are spironolactone (and its equivalents, but it's unusable for men) and accutane.

You say the change bothered the minority and helped the majority, but all I see are people who don't like that you deleted some of the forums. In the 3 threads about this, I counted 11 people who disliked the change, and 1 person who liked it. And I know, people who are upset are more likely to post something about it, but still, I think more people prefer the old style over the new one. Why did you think the majority would prefer the new style?

You say the change bothered the minority and helped the majority, but all I see are people who don't like that you deleted some of the forums. In the 3 threads about this, I counted 11 people who disliked the change, and 1 person who liked it. And I know, people who are upset are more likely to post something about it, but still, I think more people prefer the old style over the new one. Why did you think the majority would prefer the new style?

Also, they unpinned many threads.