Online community disastrous since the changes

Hi

I'm one of the online champs and I've passed your comments on to the admins. As I did with your last post about the site. You're far from alone and I have to agree that the results of the upgrade are as you say. It's disheartening to say the least. You have always been such a support to so many members and from one champ to one who is every inch a champ in spirit, I have always read your posts with warmth and gratitude.

LoobyLou x

I have only just found my way back in after giving up trying many times! This forum was invaluable to me when my husband was diagnosed  and still is a source of valuable experience and information for me. I’m sad to think that it may now not be as easy as before for people to access. 

Best wishes

L

Hi Frank,

Thank you for sharing your feelings about the new site. I’m Eliza from the Community team, I hope you don’t mind me responding here.

I’m so sorry to hear you’re feeling disappointed at the moment, Frank, as I can really appreciate how important the Online Community is to you and all of our members. Over the last few years, we have heard from our members that the site needed improving and this upgrade was aimed to deliver these much-needed improvements. The upgrade means the Community will be much more stable in the long term and it will deliver a better experience for everyone that uses it.

Macmillan is committed to providing the best possible platform for people affected by cancer to access support online. We know that sometimes site upgrades can cause temporary problems, but long term they will help to provide a more stable and better functioning site for everyone. We are by no means finished with improving the site, as making the site the best it can be is at the heart of everything we do.

We understand that change can sometimes be difficult to get used to, and a few members have experienced some frustration around technical problems. Here in the Community team, we’re committed to helping all our members as best we can. Our Help section includes step-by-step guides on navigating the new site, and a space to ask questions to the Community team. If you’re experiencing any trouble using the site or have any questions, please remember you can also email us at any time at community@macmillan.org.uk and we’ll do everything we can to help resolve any issues.

Thank you again for your feedback. Without you, the Community wouldn’t be what it is and so we really appreciate you taking the time to let us know how you feel about the site. If you would like to provide further feedback, have any questions or would like any further support, please consider filling in our survey here or email us at any time at community@macmillan.org.uk.

Take care,

Eliza

Macmillan Community team

Hi LilaG,

I'm Eliza from the Community team, I hope you don't mind me responding to your post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the Online Community. I'm sorry to hear you were having trouble accessing the site, although I'm glad to see you've now been able to log in. 

The Community is an important source of support for many members, and I hope you're continuing to find the site to be a place of comfort and kindness. 

We're doing everything we can to help all our members access support on the Online Community. If you're having any trouble using the new platform, please take a look at our Help section and get in touch with us at community@macmillan.org.uk if you have any questions or need any further support.

If you would feel comfortable doing so, it would be really helpful if you could email us to let us know a bit more information about why you were struggling to access the site. This would give us the best chance to do what we can to resolve any issues you were experiencing. 

I'm sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis, LilaG, and please remember the Support Line is also here for you if you need someone to talk to. You can contact the Support Line over email, live webchat or call 0808 808 00 00 7 days a week between 8am-8pm.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you need any further help, or have any questions at all. 

Best wishes,

Eliza

Macmillan Community team

I completely agree.  I found this site invaluable when I was diagnosed and through treatment but the changes have been disastrous.  The previous version was so much easier to use and you could follow posts from other groups.  It must be clear that usage has dropped dramatically and many of those who posted regularly have stopped. 
I do hope that the feedback is listened to and some changes made.  

Thanks for your reply, I'm not sure what the improvements are that you have mentioned. I have persevered and managed to find the oesophageal cancer community section. However it seems like most of the previous members of our community have not. As I mentioned if you compare site traffic and activity it must be obvious that it's fallen off a cliff. There's no new posts from familiar members,or new members joining. So I really don't know what the improvements are, they can't have been to the benefit of the online communities,or made it more user friendly otherwise we would have continued to see posts from current members and see new members joining. Hopefully you can press a reset button. Regards Frank.

Hi Frank and Jacquiw10,

Thank you for taking the time to respond to us. We can understand and are listening to your concerns about the new platform. We are taking on every piece of feedback we are receiving, and we are escalating all issues.

It can take time to fully push through improvements and to develop resolutions but please be assured that we are still driving these fixes behind the scenes. We are committed to supporting all of our members and making the site the best it can be for the people who need it the most.

If you would like to have a call or further discussion with the Community team about your concerns, we would really value the opportunity to be able to discuss some of this further. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at community@macmillan.org.uk if you would like to arrange this.

Take care,

Eliza

Macmillan Community team

Hi Eliza, perhaps someone can email me when the improvements that are mentioned actually resolve the issues. I would be surprised if the oesophageal cancer community is the only one affected by the changes. I haven't experienced anything that I would regard as an improvement. Maybe once existing members start posting and new members start joining someone could email me and let me know. Perhaps I'm finding it difficult to understand what the improvements are because I was involved in the complete change from one  computer operating system to a completely different system. We did several trial runs over a couple of months to iron out any problems. When we did go live with the new system we still fulfilled all our customers needs and resolved minor issues that cropped up. That was about 25 years ago when many of the workforce were not computer literate. There was a great deal of training done prior to the go live date which made the changeover go smoothly. Kind regards Frank.

We seem to have lost the ability to ‘like’ someone’s reply.

I haven't posted for ages as I either have problems signing in or I have to click on so many different bits just to get here, I preferred the old format, much easier and clearer. 

It's frustrating more than anything!