Feedback on new layout

My post has disappeared? 
I’m worried!

Admin, I write in real concern; Macmillan has stated (see BBC) that around 50,000 cancer diagnoses have been missed/slipped/not made. This was a direct result of the first lockdown.

Therefore we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg as since then cancer diagnosis has not picked up and there’s no knowing how many have been missed in the second lockdown. 

So, Community, we need to have a MUCH more streamlined group, not one with lots of places for panic-stricken folk to be faced with before they decide to post! It’s confusing. We need a straightforward, one feed-fits-all type of group. I had counted 9, yes, NINE places that a newcomer could legitimately post their first cry for help. It therefore needs people to search, search, search, to be able to offer that loving, caring, virtual hand of support. 

When I joined (many a long year ago, as our daughter had a VERY long illness - see my profile!) there were two major sides to the site; ‘general discussions’ and ‘chat’ and that was intimidating enough for the mum of a lass whose treatment was failing again. 

Please, Admin, you’ve been given a number of examples (see previous posts today) of our needing to search out those newcomers, REMOVE the sub-groups and let us search in more ease!

I hope to see FAR more logic and less of the worried new folk in a panic as they don’t know how to navigate!

Hard work on iPad ,  took me about 10 attempts

moomy, they are just not listening to us. There are a lot if distressed people here and they have their own agenda and are not addressing our feelings. I feel upset that a lot of our posts are being edited or deketed. It seems to me that they wish to continue pushing  their agenda despite our obvious difficulties. Xx

HI moomy, has the thread you said disappeared, reappeared? I just read it and if it is the one there was nothing in it that should of offended anyone!! So I wonder why someone reported it? It's like someone doesn't want us to have an opinion and yet a day or two later they reappear, so why is someone wasting Admins time by reporting threads! It's very strange!

I feel a bit disappointed that admin hasn't taken the time to reply to the messages that we have written, explaining why we think things should revert back to a system with less groups! 

I know they must be very busy with new members joining in all different groups but it would be nice for someone to acknowledge our messages. As they have been up till now. Sal

Hi Sal, 

yes it has reappeared, twice(!) but there is no answer in spite of the deep concern I expressed. 

Strange, perhaps Admin has spent a day in worried meetings, with Macmillan telling them exactly what I wrote about? 

I’ve been answering newcomers anyway?! 

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your continued feedback.

We understand that everyone wants this group to work as well as possible for those who need it. We wanted to test this new layout as we had a lot feedback from users, new and old, telling us that finding posts was really difficult and they struggled to see where they could go to post.

Amongst other developments, which we posted about in our Community News Blog, we wanted to test this layout. This helps new users find their feet, as well as helping keep the groups on the site clear and easy to use.

We understand there are still some issues with the layout, such as the latest activity feed and not being able to move the larger threads. We are working on these and we are hopeful this will be resolved soon.

We will continue to take on board all feedback and use data from across the site to help us improve the Community. We decided to set up a feedback thread in this group as we understood that some members preferred this. However, as a team it can be difficult to ensure we’re capturing all feedback so we would encourage you to send any feedback we might not have addressed here to us by filling in this form or emailing the community team on community@macmillan.org.uk.  

Best wishes,

Ellen
Macmillan Community Team

Hi Ellen just reading your reply, you do not mention why we are the only cancer group that has changed, I have just been on Breast Cancer secondaries and it the old format, so much easier. Why have we been singled surely if other groups are the old format couldn’t we be the same.

Hi ,

We will be looking to use this layout in the other groups soon, likely in the first week of January.

We asked this group if they'd like to be the first to test this new format, and it was agreed that the members here would like to do so.

Best wishes,

Ellen
Macmillan Community Team 

Hi Ellen, does this mean you have read the posts that have already been posted here and are not commenting on them? Or do we need to email them on to you so they can be taken further? 
It seems very strange to me that a format that has been very unpopular should be rolled out into the other groups! I think it’s a shame that Macmillan isn’t listening to the people that use the thread! 
I just hope that new members don’t decide to move to another site which is a little more user friendly! Sal

Hi Ellen,

as others have said; this has been tested, we were happy to help do so, but for those of us who do try to help newcomers, the task of finding them has become inherently harder. I therefore (particularly in view of the potential swamping of the site with those 50,000 and climbing cases that Macmillan have said have not been diagnosed - yet) feel I’m going to be fighting a losing battle with the time I can spare. 
I feel the increased sub-groups has made the site clumsier, in particular the current feed which is truly awful.  I did worry about the large number of sub-groups at the time. 
I feel many will be looking at the site and finding it too complex to stick with, and will simply go elsewhere. I would certainly have thought that, in looking back at how anxious I was when I first joined, and had a choice of just two places to post! I’m very disappointed.