this site

Can I play Devils Advocate for a bit......what if and its purely hypothetical (Macmillan pay no attention to the next bit)

Macmillan just closed the site due to all the problems?

How would we feel then? Where would we go?

I don't use this site much anymore, I don't like it and I am competant in webdesign and computers but still have a lot of trouble navigating this one.  It's slow, I have to sign in each time I visit in a day even though I have checked, remember me!

But through all the bad stuff and stuff I don't like, here I can still find some wonderful friends and support, the likes of which I can't get or won't ask for with my family.  I too have lots of people from here on my facebook but when my own younger two children are not aware of the severity of my brain tumour....I have to be careful about who I trust on FB and what's said.  At the moment, people wish me luck with MRI's and we have a laugh, my whole family could be devastated long before they need to if someone slips up.......so here is the place where I air my fears and worries, away from family that I don't want hurt.

I agree the opening page is very misleading, I've clicked many a subject heading only to find it wasn't what I thought it was..........ok so I do the mature thing and don't reply but I would prefer an opening page where forums, groups and blogs were just listed in separate area's.....can still have 'latest post and by' that would be great, but I won't hold my breath.

I hope I didn't upset or anger anyone with my post - after all if it was out of order, I'll blame Buttercup my brain tumour, like I do for all the bad stuff in my life ;)

Love & Strength

Debs xx

Hello again everyone,

First of all can I apologise if my message came across as patronising in any way, I can assure you that was not my intention.

Also it was never my intention to censor complaints or criticism in any way - I was just pointing out that there are dedicated channels for doing so to ensure that they are read by admin. Of course you are free to post wherever you like, the only thing is they may just get missed by admin.

Please be assured that Emelia and I, and as a result our managers DO listen to your feedback. I have a spreadsheet on my desktop right now called 'user issues' on which the team and I log all of the complaints and suggestions you make to us about the site. We are using this spreadsheet in our upgrade process and we are fighting for as many of your suggestions as possible to be included.

Unfortunately I cannot give you an accurate timeline of when these changes will be take place, as I do not have one myself.  This involves a lengthy process with developers but please be assured it is something that is being worked on right now and the changes are scheduled to take place within the next 3 months

Emelia and I care very deeply about this Community and the members. It is not just a job to me, I want this to be the best site of its kind - and I'm working really hard to make that happen. The thought of any of you leaving or feeling that you need to leave because the navigation is so poor is upsetting, which is why we are changing the site to try and make it better for you. You are the reason there is a Community in the first place after all.

I have been in this job for 5 months now, so honestly, I don't know exactly how the old site worked. However what I can see though that many of you miss the structure which is something that we are working on with this site. Please be assured that we are listening and we do care.

Christine, please can you let me know which of your emails have not received a response as we aim to answer every query we receive. I will look into this for you.

Rebecca.

Rebecca said "If you would like to comment on the site, the staff, the content or the organisation as a whole then please use the 'Suggestions for Improvements' thread or contact a member of the admin team."

That's all very good Rebecca - but we've been hearing this since the old site disappeared, and all we see are tweaks round the edges. The whole design philospohy of the site is wrong. With the old sites, if there were dozens of posts (to take the example Graeme uses) on death and dying, you would only see one heading, and all the posts are under that. Now you see every thread - and you've still no idea in which forum it is posted.

Rebecca goes on:

"As I've stated several times before, we are addressing the issues with the site navigation. We understand that it is not ideal and we do not make any claims that it is. We again ask for your patience and understanding in this matter. Things simply cannot happen overnight."

Its not just the navigation - the whole of the Macmillan websites need a rethink - why isn't there a single sign on to all the Macmillan sites, instead of having to have users names and passwords for each site? Why have we gone for the multiple column approach, rather than a single easy-to-read page, like other fora have?

As for things happening overnight - how long is it since the old, perfectly acceptable, sites were removed? That's how long we've been waiting. All it needs it someone to click a button and roll back the change.

John

Hi again John,

Thank you for your response. At this moment there is a man called Kevin working on single sign on. It's just over a year since the old site was changed for this one, and we hope to have the upgraded version in place early next year. It has taken this long to ensure that we fully understand what we are changing so that we do not repeat our mistakes and to arrange development resource to do so.

We cannot 'click a button and roll back to the old site' - nor would many of our members want us to. We will however be making significant changes to this site, taking into consideration all that has been said over the last 13 months.

Rebecca.

There  are other cancer chat sites to go to if Mac close this down, juts search the web and you will find them.  Much better than this one too!  I only pop in to see how some people are and leave straight away.  So instead of all the moaning and groaning look for an alternative site if this one doesn't fi the bill.  They are going to run this site as they see fit and spend copious amounts of donation monies in this endeavour.  I think many would be surprised by the Year End Accounts for MacMillan as a non-profit making organisation!