[advocatemom]

Just my 2 cents here - I did not have a chance to ready any of the daily threads on Monday or Tuesday. I had a really B-A-D yesterday and this morning I wanted to see if there was anything I could relate too. I did not want to go thru 10 pages of daily chat to find it but I did find a stand-alone thread indicating problems at Day 8 -- perfect place for me to jump in and see if I could find a reason for my feeling cruddy too.

The benefit of stand-alone threads is that they are easier to identify and get info to/from. I like the idea of having some standing categories - it breaks up the FAQs into sections and might make it easier to digest. For those of us who don't get to check in each day and keep up with the daily thread of topics, it is much easier to look thru categories to try and find the topic we are searching for.

[Marionm]

What would you think about having a weekly thread that is for all the general stuff like weigh ins, announcements, or that sort of thing and then having the threads like I'm Svelting mentioned? I agree the daily is very choppy but I was also overwhelmed by trying to actually see questions answered there because seeing 25 pages of posts is just too much on day your are busy.---not to mention it's hard to follow an individual conversation.

[Rocky Monarch]

Originally Posted by Marionm

I was also overwhelmed by trying to actually see questions answered there because seeing 25 pages of posts is just too much on day your are busy.---not to mention it's hard to follow an individual conversation.

I used to have this same problem, but someone (Ruth?) posted a tip the other day where you can reset your preferences and get 40 posts per page. So now the threads are only a page or 2 long. Even the recipes thread (with 535 posts) is only 14 pages long. This has made it a lot easier to read the posts on my phone and is probably a big help to people with slower internet connections.

[showgirlaz]

Originally Posted by showgirlaz

I see today we have lots of creative ideas going around about how to continue our desires to better organize the forum and threads.

I think it is a GREAT idea. I love that people want to take part in making something more usable for any of us now and for anyone who follows later.

Here is a link to some ideas that were generated at the time we were granted our own forum, just in June of this year! Also, some of those ideas were acted upon already. http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...b-forum-2.html

Originally Posted by I'm svelting!

Okay the re-route to daily thread isn't working for everyone. What about creating threads for common discussion topics, like the Exercise Thread? Some ideas:

• Thyroid questions
• Diabetic, pre-diabetic, hypoglycemic questions
• Men on IP
• Deciding on a goal weight (already exists)
• Weeks 1 & 2 ... I'm hungry, tired, have a headache
• Fun with Packets
• Can I have ....... on IP?
• Skin, Hair and Nails
• Food allergies and concerns -- soy, gluten
• Vegetarians on IP
• Sweeteners - natural and artificial
• Help! I'm not losing weight and it's been ....
• Birth control and IP (already exists)
• Lower digestive tract issues - The C & D thread

Questions about vegetables and Lettuce, salt, water and oil come up fairly frequently too.

That's what I noticed looking at the 15 pages of archives. What else could be covered this way?

Edit: I should have read the thread linked by Carla, in the first post of this thread. There's a great list of ideas there, including mine.

Originally Posted by Marionm

I like this idea a lot. I might also have a "Weigh in" thread where we could share our progress and an "Introduction" thread. From past experience on boards it is nice to be able to pop over to an intro thread and refresh my aging memory about a person who is posting.

But honestly, I'm pretty easy going. I've been around more this week because I've been stuck in my desk seat working on school and I need the distraction. I have no idea how things will go from here other than I have about 2.5 years left of school. I think I'll be goal weight before then though...

Hi Everyone!

I have been thinking about something I started back in June and can see a reason to finish.

I have been reading all the posts in the past 2 or so weeks (some of them I had to play catch up on ) and it seems a common theme which, is settling down a bit, is the confusion about what posts go in what thread category, how do I find something, when should I be creating a new thread.

I would like to try and clean up the forum. I have been with it, first as a lurker since last fall, then an active poster around New Years. I have a strong knowledge of what those threads were intended to offer originally and what has repeatedly come up for each new group of people to join IP and to join us.

With that said, I am intending to pick up where this left off and slowly put some of the points, discussed above and in the new subforum link, in place. I greatly appreciate any feedback you might have along the way. If you are shy about posting in this or other threads related to the changes, please PM me.

Also, if it isn't to late, I wanted to add my "two cents" about the daily thread closing time, assuming it is not too late.

Like others, I do wish the daily thread was open a bit longer, even an extra 24 hours would be nice. This would be really nice for those of on the west coast who can not get on as easily during the day and feel somewhat "obsolete" in answering other posters or, posting our own daily inputs by coming in at a point when the thread is about to close and we realize many may not even look back to the previous day to see what we said or accomplished. Is this something that can be coordinated without it becoming something too challenging to maneuver for others? I only ask because I was trying to post my reponses to Saturdays posts this weekend during the same time frame that the thread was closed out. Kind of left me feeling deflated after having taken the time to catch up on and read about everyone else's great day or, challenges and questions and then left unable to participate without doing a giant cut and paste process to the next day.

[I'm svelting!]

Point of personal privilege: I am not the one closing the daily chat thread. I slammed the door once on Novak's fingers and learned my lesson -- QUICKLY! I usually close it by 9:30 AM EDT. One day I forgot and closed it at 9 pm; fortunately no one had posted in it after about 10 am.

As far as I can tell the only people who can close a thread are the user with the first post (started the thread, usually), and a moderator. Since Ruth was on vacation for a couple of weeks during my variable thread closing routine, my best guess is that she is the earlybird moderator thread closing the thread. If I'm wrong, forgive me Ruth! Gotta be nice to the moderators

Carla, did you want to ask about the daily thread closing or should I?

[showgirlaz]

Originally Posted by I'm svelting!

Point of personal privilege: I am not the one closing the daily chat thread. I slammed the door once on Novak's fingers and learned my lesson -- QUICKLY! I usually close it by 9:30 AM EDT. One day I forgot and closed it at 9 pm; fortunately no one had posted in it after about 10 am.

As far as I can tell the only people who can close a thread are the user with the first post (started the thread, usually), and a moderator. Since Ruth was on vacation for a couple of weeks during my variable thread closing routine, my best guess is that she is the earlybird moderator thread closing the thread. If I'm wrong, forgive me Ruth! Gotta be nice to the moderators

Carla, did you want to ask about the daily thread closing or should I?

OOPS! Sorry Svelting.. didn't mean to make it seem like I was directing that at you. I am unsure who is closing the daily thread or how that time was designed.

I will message Ruth right now and see if she can help all us west coast people out.

Thank you for all you do. I want to let it be known, I LOVE how much you have brought to the board in your two months. You are very enthusiastic and your contributions and tech skills are wonderful! Thanks for taking on opening the daily thread and ensuring an organized recap. It is so appreciated by many and, me included.

[I'm svelting!]

Originally Posted by showgirlaz

OOPS! Sorry Svelting.. didn't mean to make it seem like I was directing that at you. I am unsure who is closing the daily thread or how that time was designed.

Thanks for your kind words of acknowledgement and appreciation. Back at you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and time with such depth and compassion.

Carla, I know that you were speaking generally about your frustration and that it wasn't directed to me or anyone else. The light tone with which I wrote that post clearly didn't make it past my brain and onto the page. at self.

My life works better when I take very few things personally, so I aim for that -- even if the speaker/writer wanted to "get my goat."

[showgirlaz]

Originally Posted by I'm svelting!

Thanks for your kind words of acknowledgement and appreciation. Back at you for your generosity in sharing your knowledge and time with such depth and compassion.

Carla, I know that you were speaking generally about your frustration and that it wasn't directed to me or anyone else. The light tone with which I wrote that post clearly didn't make it past my brain and onto the page. at self.

My life works better when I take very few things personally, so I aim for that -- even if the speaker/writer wanted to "get my goat."

gotcha