Moving more threads to DFW Diaries

jo1972

fayjmck wrote: »

I think the feeling from some on the alcohol support thread is that debt and alcohol issues are often inter-related and newbies or anyone else looking for a bit of support with alcohol wouldnt necessarily wander over to a challenges/diary board.

RecoveringAlcoholic wrote: »

The vast majority of threads are merely chat threads.

Our thread has the power to save lives.

I'm with Fay and RA on this one. If you read the cutting down/quitting alcohol thread you will see that 90% of the newbies on there have started posting because they need to curb their spending in one way or another. For some (quite a few), cutting down alcohol units is not quite as easy as anticipated and the support is on the board for them.

I feel the same way about the quitting smoking thread which has also been moved. I started this thread a couple of years ago as I realised I could save over £5.00 a day and wanted people's support and people to join in and also save money. It has been a fantasically sucessful thread and saved a lot of people a lot of money (and their health!).

For both threads it would be such a shame if new posters are unaware that we are there. I for one think that the sub-boards are not obvious when you're a newbie until you have found your way round a bit, which some newbies won't do. Just my opinion

honeybear_2

I'm undecided on this one but one thing has struck me about separating further things off.

Newbies are often v.scared, worried, stressed etc etc when they first post. They often also have no idea about how to tackle their debt. To see a board or sub-board headed "Challenges" (or somethign similiar) might be too scary for them & they may never get to see all the great things that could help.

I'm not saying don't separate (still ambivalent!) but just have a think about what boards/sub-boards could be called

DarkConvict

I do agree with the posts above, that the chat threads do provide valuable support even if only to be read.

So i have another idea for names, again As before, only the Debt Board is a main board (no topics), all the others are sub boards.

Debt Board
- Coping with Debt (Support for debt, such as addictions)
- Debt Free Wannabe... (This board, for general debt questions)
- The Debt Diaries (Debt Diary board)
- Your Debt Piggy Bank (The challenges for saving money)
- Dispute the Debt (Fighting back with CCA/SAR requests)

Im not sure about Dispute the Debt as this is more money saving than direct action like the consumer action forums.

Finally a sticky on all 4 boards that point to each other.

In addition the 'coping with debt' forum could have a sticky with links to all the main support topics so far, such as alcohol, gambling, spending etc.

jo1972

I agree with DarkConvict, if all the threads need to be moved then this seems the most sensible solution so far, each 'category' of threads should be named appropriately and entice the noobs

DarkConvict

I do agree the word challenge, may put some people off although we do know them all as challenges. So after 10 minutes piggy bank was the best i could come up with.

ZTD

You'll have to excuse me, but I've only just seen this while I was on my once-daily search for the chat thread.

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi everyone

Just to give you a little forewarning, I'm going to be moving some more long-running, diary-type threads over to the diaries board. I'll put re-directs on them when I do it so anyone who's not seen this will know where they've gone.

You may not all feel they're diaries but they're close

So we finally have a definition of what a diary is then? So what is the definition?

Close can be anything, just as an elephant is a tree.

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

and the aim is so people, especially newbies, coming to the main debt-free wannabe board will have their questions seen and hopefully get answers.

How will their questions be seen, if you are directing the eyes elsewhere?

Tixy wrote: »

I can understand the logic behind moving some of the ongoing or long running challenges across

The logic is consistency with rules that have already been set.

Tixy wrote: »

I also wonder if by moving all these threads across it may exacerbate the issues Wol2 highlighted recently (on site feedback) with even more of the experienced posters spending all their time just on the subboard.

In short - yes.

Tixy wrote: »

Another problem is that if you look at the boards now (as I type) the diary board is actually now busier than DFW.

Yes. That was predicted beforehand. It's the diaries that bring the "eyes" in, and it's the people seeing the questions that answer them (obvious I know... )

Tixy wrote: »

On diaries there are 3.5pages on threads which have postings today but on DFW there are 2.5 (and excluding the moved threads which still show a link probably less than 2pages).

And that's *with* the challenges attracting people. Without, the newbie questions will wither on the vine even more.

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

I would like DFW diaries and challanges brought back all together:T

As in back to one board? Or to create a board "Newbie questions" and wall them off from the rest?

*Jellie* wrote: »

I think maybe it is better to have a challenges sub board.

Balkanisation of the DFW ethic proceeds afoot...

*Jellie* wrote: »

I think you at least need to rename the DFW diaries board so newbies know where it is where to find the challenges.

Yes, that shouldn't have needed to be said - but did.

*Jellie* wrote: »

I do think as a newbie I wouldn't realise the challenges were there. I wouldn't be on the board if it weren't for challenges and think they need to be very obvious e.g. PAD, Debt free birthday club, 1 debt 100 days etc

Possibly if we start naming stuff like "Challenge: Pay money today." "Diary: ZTD's multiple sarcasms" etc...

Of course that relies of some sort of definition of what the various genres are.

MrsTine wrote: »

I think one of the main reasons that the challenges have been moved with the diaries is that for example this morning when I checked the board there was 14 (14!!!!!) challenges, clubs or other similar threads - there was less than half a dozen threads from people asking for help....

There are 25 threads displayed on the main board. There were (at the time you observed) 5 stickies, 14 challenges/clubs and 6 from people asking for help. That adds up to 25. If only 5 people had asked for help, then there would have been 15 challenges/clubs.

It is the brutality of arithmetic.

If the challenges/clubs are moved, then there will be 20 threads from people asking for help on the first page - but Tixy's observation about how much "real estate" that today's posts cover would have to be reduced to "Less than one page".

MrsTine wrote: »

The main focus for DFW is to be here to offer help to people often feeling deeply desperate

Is it? Then why don't we rename the board to Debt Crisis?

I always thought that "wannabe" (and can we please get a consistent spelling of this on the board) implied a much longer-term process.

MrsTine wrote: »

but frankly they get drowned out by the running club, the book club, the £10 a day challenge, the challenge challenge, the No spend day challenge to mention but a handful...

Not drowned by, but floated by.

MrsTine wrote: »

A lot of regulars and old timers (I'd like to count myself as one although maybe without the old part...) have gradually left or drifted off because these threads become such a chore to work round in finding the threads where people have asked for help.

I think you can only speak for yourself there. Many have drifted off because the "attractions" are elsewhere - again Tixy's observation of how wide "today" is, is the proof of that.

MrsTine wrote: »

I don't think it will EVER be possible to please everyone all the time, but trying to keep the board as easy to keep up with as possible for the cries for help I think takes precendence over all the various clubs and challenges.

That's easy to solve - move the cries of help onto their own board. Then there will be nothing else for them to compete against.

It will end up like that by virtue of everything else being moved out. Unless there is an admission of having gotton it utterly and completely wrong.

MrsTine wrote: »

Anyway - why not give the change a chance?

It has been given a benefit of the doubt which is unprecedented. The change has been very poorly managed. What are the criteria for success? What are the criteria for failure? What is the definition of a diary?

Shocking really.

Lula-Hula wrote: »

I really dont have a problem with any of the diaries being on a sub board; it is clearly visible. I have had a diary on the main board for ages but in the last few days I have twice found an unanswered thread from a newbie on page 2 of DFW & would hate to think that my diary had caused a newbie to disappear into obscurity by being bumped off page 1

And how would you have felt if the person who answered that newbie was only on the board because they were reading your diary?

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

If I joined now , I don't think I would stay around

That's a real shame.

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

I agree you can't please everyone, :cool:
but for me the change didn't work:o
and the new change is making DFW a unhappy place:embarasse

But we're only hoi polloi and should remember our place...

gilligansyle wrote: »

The concern for me with moving the challenges etc. is the same as with the diaries. There are less 'old hands' around to give advice. A lot of the entries on posts are purely support, which while brilliant in itself may not be what is needed in all cases.

That was exactly my concern *before* the diaries were split. And now that concern has borne a bumper harvest. OK, it's a bitter harvest, but you can't have everything.

MrsTine wrote: »

But a lot of posters have gone away because they got so fed up with the challenges hogging the front page I for one rarely make it on to page 2 and occassionally skim page 3 and 4 for any obvious spam. With the challenges on their own sub board you may find a lot of regulars (myself included) return to give advice again... I just haven't the time or inclanation to try and locate individual posts amounts endless challenges and chat based threads...

Easy way: Click on the header "Replies" to sort by replies. Then click on the arrow next to "Replies" to sort in the reverse order. You now have a whole list of unanswered posts.

Incidently, can some friendly board guide do this to the diaries sub-board. Despite the absence of a definition, I don't think "Is a folding bike worth getting?" is in the ethos of a diary.

gfplux wrote: »

It is a simple fact that if a newby appeals for help at 8.00 am in the morning their post if not answered quickly will be on page 2 by 10.00am and page 3 by the evening of that day.
I am one of those who tries to offer help and/or encouragement and it is difficult to find those who are asking for help without trawling pages 2,3,4 and 5.

I don't offer any easy answer but those are the facts as I see them.

What's this difficulty that so many people have with going onto the next page? Does everyone know that threads with new replies on are featured in bold? And that if you click on the it takes you to the first unseen post?

Disclaimer: I don't take part in any challenges, so from a selfish personal point of view, I don't really care where they end up. But I have warned against this splitting in the past, and will continue to do so.

sophiesmum_2

Just wanted to post on here as I realised earlier that my way of navigating dfw has now changed. Whereas I used to read the dfw board including newbie posts, now that most of the threads I follow have been moved I now navigate by having the user cp as my starting point and just click on subscribed threads.
I won't be reading any more newbie posts by default, not sure what the best solution will be to please everyone but from my personal experience the main board is now losing it's friendliness and "human" touch which is what may encourage people to post in the first place.

BeautyandtheBeast_3

Hi,

when i first joined and posted i was over whelmed by the warmth and help i recieved from total strangers, but i enjoy the 'challenges' espcailly the PAD and NSD. I think these have a place on the main board as they are friendly andencouraging and not really 'challenging' in the scary sense of the word, but its something that when i get up in the morning i really want to post that i have had a NSD or that i have made a payment. It makes me feel encouraged and to keep striving to pay off the debts. I think that is something that a newbie needs.
Today i only put 72p to my PAD but it felt good and i felt happy telling everyone about it.

restore PAD and NSD to main board - It helps a newbie - it really does xxxxx

penelopedee_2

Actually I have to agree with Sophiesmum in the fact that I use my subscribed to list now rather than go through the main lists, just because I can't really find anything at the moment. I'm not a lot of of help to the newbies, other than offering a bit of moral support but I am concerned that those who are good at helping out might be doing the same. I've no perfect answer to help with this one but perhaps we did ought to give the issue some more thought.

Sorry if this upsets anyone - its not meant to.:o

And I'm also there with Beautyandthebeast - I'm keeping up with my debt busting by reporting back my payments on the pay a debt in 100 days challenge. These are really easy and helpful things that make the task slightly less daunting.

Wol2

ZTD...:T:T:T:T

Pragmatic (and eloquent).......as ever ........

xxxx