Youreable disability forum down?

Newcad

Are you talking about this forum update here?

Your previous twitter image is pretty large on this laptop.

(I see the line spacing bug is still an issue in the editor though).

TimeLord1

Hi Nuke, when I looked at the image I uploaded off my phone origllinally it was full size, when I looked a week later all tiny stamps click on to view once I put seems they shrink your images. All went full size again maybe it's a data sleep 😴 mode inactive activity. 

Newcad

The way thing are here at the moment I would not be surprised at anything.

And we no doubt will have similar to come on Youreable when it does eventually reopen.
At least they will have had almost a year to test it there .

Newcad

Although they say they want forum mods their comments about training indicate they actually want something else.

Probably content moderator(s) with training in safeguarding for spotting potential suicides, etc. More the sort of moderation role required for Social Media than a forum, but being a charity I suppose that they have to consider such things.
(And I'm wondering if some new online safeguarding law might say that they have to have one? But if so then that should probably be a paid employee not a volunteer).

You see it in job adverts, the advert is for a 'Website/Forum Moderator' but when you look at the details what they actually want is sometimng else, it's usually promotion/sales/marketing as the main part of the role, with forum modeartion as an extra duty.

TimeLord1

Surely they would expand on the needs if they wanted someone with experience in certain criteria that it would say' so, rather than moderators needed. I will see if there is anything on DLF page but I doubt it. As for the email it took months to get a response to my request. "what's happening to the forum" I'll have a look at all their links to see if they are saying anything new. I've now bookmarked this because I can never find it easily. 

TimeLord1

Just that so far Nuke posted 12th June 

TimeLord1

And link to this

 https://livingmadeeasy.org.uk/about-us/news-and-events/youreable-forum-update

scottleag

I see July 15th was the last post here. Does anyone have any more news or should everyone just accept this forum has been permanently shut down? I wasn't aware there had been any discussion at all before finding this on MSE this morning., Like 'Newcad' I've had to slightly amend my Youreable handle (had registered here previously under an old email address).

Like many here I've been occasionally looking to see if the youreable forum was going to re-open and have seem the same messages. Given the 'excited to be re-opening' message has been up for around three months and the forum itself down for close to ten months it strikes me that not only is it not going to re-open but it never was going to. 

I'm astonished by the open contempt displayed here. The forum was shut 'for maintenance' at a couple of hours notice. Newcad had the foresight to have everything relevant backed up but I'll warrant few others did. Certainly not me. Even as little as 24 hours notice of intent to close would have given people the opportunity to save whatever was relevant to them to their hard drives. So much valuable information and assistance has been lost, seemingly permanently, and with no good reason. What harm would a day's notice of closure done?

I've lost count of the number of times I've emailed asking for information and I suspect I'm far from alone. I've had three responses in nine months, each promising an imminent re-opening. Last one was a couple of months ago, a response to my interest in moderating, a 'holding' message promising to get back to me. Either the person sending these emails has no idea what's going on or they're sending out disinformation. Either way I wish they'd at least been honest.

It's not just likes of me and the familiar names I recognise posting here who've been affected by this. There must be hundreds (maybe thousands) of people who never - or rarely - posted on the forum who relied on the information and assistance they obtained there.

I've no idea if there's any appropriate alternative available. I guess from looking at posts here there isn't. I used to go on the Scope forum a few years ago but unlike Youreable which was open and tolerant Scope seemed (to me at least) to be dominated by a clique who'd pile on at the slightest deviation from the nomenklatura as soon as they got the chance. From lurking on there occasionally I can see it hasn't changed. 

Finally, a comparison. The local Costa closed where I live around the same time as the Youreable forum. Ever since there's been a sign there saying 'your new-look Costa is coming soon.' Well, this is a tourist town and if they'd any intention of re-opening it'd have been during the height of the tourist season. They're hardly likely to do it now we're heading towards autumn then winter. 

I think the forum is the same. There has never been any intention to re-open. There's no website anywhere in the world that closes 'temporarily' for this length of time. Sad but I believe true. 

Best wishes to all forum users and good to see the names on here that have come through the worst (at least I hope it's the worst) of Covid.

Scotleag - with one 't.'

TimeLord1

It's coming up to a year now it's been closed down but I gave up messaging them because they either didn't reply or gave false information regarding when it would be back. I don't think they're too bothered to be honest that you can tell by how they just closed it with no notice period. Badly run but a good crowd on their most people are turning up on sites like this. I will check but haven't seen anything in months. 

TimeLord1

https://twitter.com/DLFShawTrust/status/1676253127706542080?t=qs7WNmWatHSWLwYuo_EssA&s=19  last response to the forum was July  that's via Twitter they Tweet or X regularly but avoid any contact about the forum because they have been made to look a bit clueless with fake promises.