Ah Geeze...

[Bad Balance]

David just cannot help himself.....

Now we are tweeting. This makes me even more hesitant to include personnal feeling within my posts.

I guess at some point; who cares anymore?

I would be nice, however, that changes that affect a forum this large could be discussed prior to incorportion.

Or did I miss something?

- Jerry

 

[Bad Balance]

David just cannot help himself.....

Now we are tweeting. This makes me even more hesitant to include personal feeling within my posts.

I guess at some point; who cares anymore?

I would be nice, however, that changes that affect a forum this large could be discussed prior to incorportion.

Or did I miss something?

- Jerry

 

[trfogey]

I would be nice, however, that changes that affect a forum this large could be discussed prior to incorportion.

Or did I miss something?

- Jerry

If you missed any notification about the "tweeting", I did as well.

I do all my posting on this site under the assumption that site traffic statistics are the prime mission here. Accuracy and quality of information imparted here finish far behind the number of eyeballs when it comes to priority.

 

[TedH5]

I too would prefer what we share here would not be subjected to being tweeted.

 

[StillSteve]

This is the best source of information for living with ALS on the Internet. I am very appreciative for what Al, David, and others do to make it available.

However, I agree with those who are uncomfortable with the intrusion of Facebook and Twitter on it. When we visit here, Facebook writes a "cookie" to our hard disks. Later, when we visit Facebook (if we do), this cookie is read by FB to determine that we have visited alsforums. This is used to target us with advertising (anyone else get BiPap ads in FB?), and FB can and does sell this information to its "partners" (anyone willing to pay for the info and to agree not to "misuse" it). This all happens whether or not we ever click on the "Like this post" icons.

The fact that there are no "closed" forums on this site--viewable only by logged-in users and not indexed by search engines--is another thing that I would love to see changed. I'm not trying to hide my diagnosis from anyone (I even write about it on my public blog), but I can forsee times when I may not be willing to ask questions about/share information about topics of a very personal nature to me or my family. Things that I would be OK with any registered user reading, but just wouldn't want indexed on G00gle.

I can understand why those who run this site add these links in an effort to drive traffic here and thereby increase ad revenue. It is a shame that this site cannot get enough support from donors (the MDA, ALSA, us) to go ad-free. I would be willing to donate annually to this site if it were ad-free. As it is, I am reluctant to do so even though this is *the best source of information for living with ALS* that I can find.

- S

 

[LornaDoone]

What is being tweeted? HA HA. Our posts are being tweeted now?

 

[Ladyinn]

FB and now Tweeting .... I was under the impression this was a Support Forum and what happens here stays here just as it does in support groups for grief, AA etc. I don't like the idea of postings from here going public.

 

[Jellycat]

Yeah. I'm with you. I guess it's just a rearrangement of what was on the site already. I can keep away from the tweet button, but I hate how the number of likes is now in my face and pops up on top of my favorite threads. I guess I'll get used to it but here's a plea for the site creator(s)....please think about those whose dexterity/motor skills are not as fine as yours. Bumping into one of these buttons by accident could be very frustrating.

 

[KeeKer]

The tweets button just shows tweets about the site on the fb page.

 

[LornaDoone]

Clearly this issue is not important to them. We have not gotten any explanation or response regarding these concerns from David. Poor Al is just trying to keep people happy. Unfortunately, they have us right where we can't really do much. These forums are too valuable to many of us to just up and leave. We are provided with a place to go and lots of wonderful people and informaiton. Management of the site is nowhere near where I'd like it. But it's worth putting up with as there is no other community that fits this need. It's just too bad really that we are taken advantage of like this.

 

[laurel]

Whoa there! I don't think anyone is taking advantage of us. Yes, there are changes happening but David has his reasons for this and he did discuss facebook awhile back. He shoulders total responsibility financially for keeping the forum going. There aren't many individuals out there that would take on this kind of responsibility. I don't know anything about tweeting or facebook, but nothing anyone posts anywhere on the internet is private in the least.
Laurel

 

[John1]

Thanks Steve for an explanation of the implications of the new connections to Twitter and FB. I will be more circumspect in the future as to what I say.

David, it would be helpful to many of us if you could explain the additions to the Forums. Is it for financial reasons that you felt this step was necessary to keep us afloat or did you feel the dissemination of information to the outside was a good thing?

Also, as many have mentioned, the forum seems burdened by lack of moderators with too much responsibility falling on your shoulders. As a result, links by veterans of many years standing now have to be vetted by you and often modified by you when they are all within the normal bounds of forum information as I understand them. In the "old" days, members with a certain status were allowed to post links without moderation. I have never seen a problem with that and am wondering what has changed.

Hoping to hear from you and I remain very appreciative of the excellent website you oversee,

John