Older threads have been difficult to transfer over to the new site from the old site, I’m led to understand this is a pretty common problem when moving data on large, somewhat unwieldy sites like our old one. We have recovered as much as we can really at this stage so all I can suggest is that new threads are started in place of the old ones as they work perfectly well. If anyone has a strong attachment to an old thread and wants us to attempt to recover it they can e-mail in, but I would ask that they think long and hard before making this request as we are a small charity with limited resources and it can be very time consuming to respond to these kinds of queries.
With regards to the 15 minutes restriction on group entry. This is something we have been considering for a while. What had started to happen, before the group attendance reduced due to “lags” etc., was that people didn’t want to be the first person in a group so they would leave it a while before logging in….of course when lots of people do this it means there is no one there until five minutes before the group ends and not a lot of work can take place in five minutes I’m sure you’ll agree 🙂 We also had a think about how face to face groups work and the impact it can have on groups members when people come in and out at will. It can sometimes be a little disruptive if people in the group, disclosing pretty personal issues, feel like they are in a room with a revolving door and others can come and “poke their head in” then leave. I personally don’t think that’s particularly conducive to a safe and comforting environment. If people know who’s going to be in the room with them for the next forty five minutes they can make an informed decision on whether or not to share.
If we look at what goes in to attending a face to face support group we look at preparing emotionally and physically…we might consider what we’ll talk about, how we’re going to get there and what we’re going to do to make sure we arrive on time. All of these thoughts put us into the right frame of mind for accessing help and by the time we get there we’re ready to really work on recovery. With online support people drop in and out as they please, they take what they need from the support and then leave and that’s the beauty of it…….. but it does leave the groups open to being used like chat rooms. So, by asking our members to arrive within a fifteen minute window we hopefully create a little bit of structure and encourage people to plan their attendance and arrive with an idea of what they want to share during the session. Although we still don’t ask you to change out of your PJ’s if you don’t want to so you can still reap the rewards of accessing help online 🙂
The fifteen minute window is something we are trialling for a short time to see if it has an impact on groups, if it transpires that it’s not working in the way we had hoped we will either only apply it to certain groups, change the amount of time in which you can log in, or abolish it altogether. For the moment we ask you to try it out and see what you think and if you still don’t like it in a few weeks time, when there are more people accessing the site, drop us a mail and let us know. If you want to drop in and out of groups with a greater degree of flexibility you can still use the un moderated groups or helpline and you can also use the forums whenever you like.
I hope that makes things a little clearer
Janey
