Hello everyone,
I’m Steph from the Community team, I hope you don’t mind me posting here today. I’m hoping to gather your thoughts and opinions on developing the ‘living with incurable cancer group’.
We’d like to make it easier for new members to write that first post, whilst retaining a safe space for members to continue expressing their emotions and most difficult thoughts. We know that some of you also want a space to chat more generally and give and get support around everyday life.
Firstly, I’ll be explaining a little more about the changes we could make in the group and what those changes mean for you. Following this information, there will be a poll where you’ll have a chance to have your say. We’d also welcome any thoughts or comments in reply to this post below.
We have been developing some groups across the Community to have two or three separate sections, or forums, within each group. Many of our groups now look a little more like this:
Underneath the new sections, we still show ‘all discussions’ from the whole group in a combined feed, just like you see now.
When we add forums to a group, you can still start a discussion in the same way. The only real difference is the option of which forum to post in (see below). Everything else works exactly as it does now.
If you would like to take a look at this group structure, why not take a look at the breast cancer or bladder cancer groups, where you'll be able to see this group structure working.
We expect to see benefits to new members in providing a dedicated space for them to introduce themselves. Existing members should be able to more easily find discussions around diagnosis and treatment, whilst enjoying a space to continue longer chats and discuss everyday life, and give and get support.
We understand that change can be difficult, so we wanted to find out what you, the existing members of the group, thought about developing the group in a similar way.
We're constantly working on the user experience on the site, as making the Community the best place for peer-to-peer cancer support is at the heart of everything we do. We are continually listening to feedback and making changes to the site which will improve the experience for all our members and make sure everyone can access the right support for them, when they need it.
If you have any questions or comments about the new group structure, we would love to hear from you. You can vote in the poll, reply below or contact us by email at community@macmillan.org.uk
Thank you so much for your comments.
The proposed chat section would be a perfect place to have 'banter' away from other discussions. If you'd like a chat section in the group, please do vote in the poll above.
I’m concerned that you feel like you’re being censored as we want this to be a space where you can share uncomfortable thoughts and say how you feel.
Please know that we only ever moderate to the Community guidelines.
You also have the option of sending a private message, if you'd like to 'banter' with another member.
Do let us know if you have any questions, or if you need further help with anything at all.
Hi Remoh
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
We want you to feel like you can vent your frustrations here without judgement or censorship. We only ask that members are respectful of the guidelines and are not directly offensive to others on the Community.
As tvman says, we have a group called ‘the room’ here where you can vent. If you feel that it’s really important for you to have this kind of space within this group, then we could look at creating a ‘room’ space as one of the forums in the ‘living with incurable cancer’ group. What do you think?
Please note that this wouldn’t change how we moderate. All the forums on the Community are subject to the guidelines which are there to protect our members, many of whom may be feeling extremely vulnerable.
We only remove content which directly breaks our guidelines. In short, you can express how you feel, as long as you don't make offensive comments towards others on the Community. We always send an email to explain our moderation decisions and members are welcome to discuss the decision with us privately.
Certain words may activate a pop-up message, which offers details of 24 hr support, but this doesn’t mean your post has been moderated. You can click straight past the message if it's not helpful.
How does everyone feel about the idea of a 'room' for venting your emotions, as a separate forum within this group?
Hi tvman
Thanks for commenting.
In answer to your question, we wouldn't normally moderate posts containing swear words. You can use swear words and strong language to describe how you feel, we just ask that you don't direct offensive comments towards others, or make inappropriate jokes that could really upset other members.
In our guidelines, we ask that members are generally mindful of upsetting or offending other members. The focus of the Community is to give and get support. However, we understand that you may not always feel able to consider others when you're feeling particularly upset or angry. We accept that there may be times when you need to vent and use strong language.
We want this to be a safe space where you can express yourself without having to 'watch your language' so I hope we can work together to help promote a supportive environment for all our members.
Could I ask that if you haven't voted in the poll, then please do? We'd need the members of the group to vote unanimously in favour of separate forums on the Community before we could add a chat space or 'a room' here. We're open to ideas of how this might look, as we want the group to work best for you, the members.
Do let me know what you all think.
