The forum...do you like it?

tallaght01

Hi guys.

Myself and DrIndy have been having a chat about the forum, and the problems with getting feedback. It's very hard to tell what people like and don't like about it.

So, we've decided to start this thread, where you can tell us what you think. Maybe it's fine, and we don't need to change anything, or maybe we need to change lots. I think it's a good idea to have a thread like this every so often, just to gie you guys the opportunity to tell us what you think.

So, if you have any views on the moderation, the charter, or anything else , just post it here. Feel free to say what you like, no matter how unpalatable. We run a pretty relaxed ship here, so we won't be offended by criticism.

It's your forum, so if there are any changes you'd like us to make, let us know. If you would like to feedback to us in private, you're always welcome to PM me or DrIndy about the forum any time.

Kind regards,

Tallaght01

Chunky Monkey

We need more HCAs to contribute. I feel a bit thick among the nurse and docs here.

But to answer your question, I usually visit whenever I'm on the internet, so I guess I do like it.

Syke

As the forum founder, I can only say that the forum has turned into more than I ever imagined it would be.

It is busy, intelligent and well moderated and it is in a far better state than when I modded it.

My only gripe (and its not a gripe, so much as a wish) would be I'd like to see more scientists, especially students in research post here.

It would be a great place to get anonymous critical review of writing style, hypothesis generation and overal scientific dissection.

Serious kudos to Dr. Indy and tallaght01 though.

Tree

i really like it here. read most interesting stuff and post where i think i have info or questions. anything science related rocks!

the only thing that really annoys me is the amount of duplicated "how can i become a doctor" threads. perhaps some sort of sticky/faq might help?

tallaght01

Cheers guys. I appreciate you taking the time to feed back. Thank you also for the kind words.

Chunky...you make a good point. I suspect there are people who do think that this is a place for doctors and nurses and radiographers etc, but it's not true. I'm sure it can be intimidating for people to post their opinions if they don't feel that they would be valued by the others. But personally, I welcome opinions on health and medicine from any employee of the health service, any user of the health service, or anyone with so much as a passing interest.

So any HCAs/cleaners/porters/admin staff feel free to have your say. Yours is an important voice.

Syke...it was particularly pleasant to hear positive feedback from you. I have wondered on several occasions who proposed the forum, or who ran it in the early days. How old is it now? Feel free to stick around and give us the benefit of your experience. I agree with you about needing to encourage those from a lab-based science medicine background to post here. I wonder do people think the focus is too much on the clinical side of medicine here. I would definitely welcome people who wish to discover the more basic science aspects of medicine and biology.

Tree, I hadn't noticed a lot of "how do I become a doctor posts". I have a problem with joined up thinking like that I'm sure my brain processed them all as one thread. But I'll have a look through the old threads, and sticky them up later if there's a few. Thanks for pointing that out.

Thanks again guys. If there are any more comments or criticisms, keep posting them.

kelle

Like Chunky Monkey I always visit this forum everytime I'm logged on.
I've had my own queries too, which have been answered - for which I am very grateful!
Keep up the good work.

newestUser

The forum gets a thumbs-up from me. I'm a lurker, have never posted here before, and don't work in an area related to health-care. However, healthcare in general is of some interest to me, and I'm investigating making moves with my career towards that sector, so it's always interesting to hear stories about working as a doctor/nurse/whatever straight from the horses mouth.

It's a pity there isn't a bit more traffic on the forum, but generally what is posted there is informative and intelligent.

PoleStar

Hi

As a doctor I do think its a good forum.

However I think medical advice is given by people which I think is wrong.

I think its great that if someone posts with for example migraine, that its great that other people in the same position share their experiences with them. However, while the mods do cut out most, it still doesnt stop unqualified medical advice sneaking in and I think that this is wrong, whether its from healthcare professionals or just ordinary people in the same boat.

As anyone knows, be it nurse, doctor, physio, health care assistant, everyone is different and what might appear on the surface to be a similar complaint, when delving even a tiny bit more into the patients history, you figure out its not what it seems.

Thus it must be more emphasised that no form of medical advice be given.

And this isnt because of what might be legal repercussions, but more from the point of view the patient who has received a disservice.

Thanks for reading my rant!

N8

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=55592743&postcount=31

N8 wrote: »

Personally this forum is too much work and I find myself justifying my posts at every turn with people who in the main are here for one of two reasons; to have their backs clapped or their egos masturbated.

It’s a pity since open dialogue is lacking, both interprofessionally and intraprofessionally, and now it appears clear why.

There is a lack of respectful patient centred communication, even amongst our brightest of prospects.

Any one with alternate views to the mainstream approach of "drug them, drug them, and if that doesn't work then cut them" approach is not well tolerated.

I for one am not interested in posting anymore given the attitude that prevails when I bother adding in a view not of that mainstream.

Personally from your posts Tallaght01, I have found you to be pretentious, pejorative, biased, self important and arrogant but have found DrIndys moderating on the ball.

The forum otherwise is good, informative and pharma-medic friendly.

PoleStar wrote: »

However, while the mods do cut out most, it still doesnt stop unqualified medical advice sneaking in and I think that this is wrong, whether its from healthcare professionals or just ordinary people in the same boat.

As anyone knows, be it nurse, doctor, physio, health care assistant, everyone is different and what might appear on the surface to be a similar complaint, when delving even a tiny bit more into the patients history, you figure out its not what it seems.

Thus it must be more emphasised that no form of medical advice be given.

And this isnt because of what might be legal repercussions, but more from the point of view the patient who has received a disservice.

Agreed.

tallaght01

Kelle, newestuser, many thanks for the kind words.

Polestar, I agree. I do sometimes think I give the benefit of the doubt to too many of those "are they or are they not looking for medical advice" posts. We'll keep an eye on it. Remember to report a post if you think it crosses that line, too.

N8, I'm not sure there's a lot I can do. I know you don't like me, and that's fine. But it's not really an issue of forum modertion, so I don't know what we can do. In terms of moderation, I've allowed you to call me ever name under the sun, without issuing as much as a warning. If you had called any other user an asshole, you'de have been banned immediately.
In terms of alternate views not being tolerated, I think that the opposite is the case. You are certainly given a lot of leeway, in terms of your rudeness. You've also been allowed to consistently post claims, while offering dodgy website links as your "evidence". It's tolerated because it is likely that you're not scientifically trained, so I appreciate that it's difficult to differentiate genuine research from the rubbish that appears on the net.

Alternate views are always tolerated here. I usually ignore gordon gekko as he makes the same anti-doctor points for the umpteenth time, but we've never had a go at him.

Again, many thanks to all of you for the feedback. Please keep it coming.

Dr Galen

Generally yeah I like this forum. I'll always swing by when I'm online.

I'd agree Tallaght01 that injecting some new blood into things would be great. Presently there seems to be a cohort of regulars who will post nearly everyday on a range of differing subjects, then a second group of fairly regulars and then a fair bit of passing traffic plus the "am i dying? should i see the doctor?" posters.

Maybe we could look into having some small sigs done for those of us regular enough to want to promote the thread? I'd say that there would be a fairly decent number of healthcare + scientific people on boards.ie that don't know much about this forum. Might bring in a few new heads, bring up a few new topics and broaden the scope of the threads a bit, away from the pure hospital/illness slant its been taking recently.

I have to say that the posts requesting medical advice do wreck my head. People do seem to not be bothered to read the charter. Maybe a stickie could be written up and stuck up there in big bold letters....." BEFORE ASKING FOR ADVICE ON A MEDICAL MATTER READ THIS"

From a moderation point of view I think its fairly spot on. N8 has gotten away with a lot recently, on other fora/threads he would have gotten a ban. I understand he/she has points to get across and also seems to have taken issue with Tallaght01, but thats not really an excuse. Maybe being a bit tougher and a bit less hands off might stop this in future?

Other than that though I think this forum is very lucky to have 2 mods with their heads screwed on, who most definitely aren't full of a false sense of importance at being mods on an internet forum.

GuanYin

Typically, if you have a problem with a mod in the Sci Cat, you contact me.

I've yet to be addressed by N8 nor have I seen evidence of the accusations here. If there is something further you have to add, please let me know.


My take, Biology/Med is a good forum with a fairly diverse audience.

Dr Galen

sorry PSI i said the forum was lucky to have 2 mods...........obviously your included in that too.

GuanYin

Mystik Monkey wrote: »

sorry PSI i said the forum was lucky to have 2 mods...........obviously your included in that too.

No, No.... no mistake.

I'm just the corporate representitive The running of affairs is all down to Dr. Indy and Tallaght01, its their show and they deserve all credit.

Syke

tallaght01 wrote: »

Syke...it was particularly pleasant to hear positive feedback from you. I have wondered on several occasions who proposed the forum, or who ran it in the early days. How old is it now? Feel free to stick around and give us the benefit of your experience. I agree with you about needing to encourage those from a lab-based science medicine background to post here. I wonder do people think the focus is too much on the clinical side of medicine here. I would definitely welcome people who wish to discover the more basic science aspects of medicine and biology.

Originally Science was just a forum modded by "Bob the Unlucky Octopus". Bob disappeared from boards and I took over as Science mod.

The Biology/Medicine forum was born in September 2003 and was a result of me convincing ecksor and Cloud that splitting the science forum would bring in more students and professionals. There were originally 5 fora in the Sci Category and I was the sole mod of Biology/Med (other people modded math, chem and physics). Traffic was light, alot of PI cast offs and the odd discussion on evolution. There were always spikes of traffic around LC and JC times

I had discussed with the admins about setting up a portal site for Irish Science News and linking the Sci Cat... something akin to bio-forums/protocolonline.org. The portal idea was liked, I believe, but never came to fruition with Science. I still think some techie person could do a job, I'm not in Ireland anymore so I'm not in a position to pursue.

Eventually I started my fellowship and had no time to do anything so simu took over. I believe that Regi, Cloud and ecksor had preferred that a medical person mod the forum, just from a knowing what should and shouldn't be allowed point of view, and thats where Dr. Indy came in.

My experience is pretty much void, because the forum is FAR more busy than when I was around. Its pretty gratifying that what I'd hoped came true, even if I had nothing to do with the actual success

Lil' Smiler

I have to say, I enjoy this forum and enjoying to be able to contribute what I can to it. It'd be great if more people contributed a bit more too.

I have no problems with the way it's ran or moderated or anything nor do i have any suggestions as to how to make it better.

Keep up the good work!!

tallaght01

Mystik, thanks for your input. I'd love to sort a biology+medicine sig, but I wouldn't have a clue how. I mean, honestly, the blog was an IT milestone for me. I can just about use email

Hey syke. Thanks for the info. How interesting. It's good to have some idea about the history of the forum. I'd also argue that setting up the forum was pretty essential in making it successful!!!

Thanks to you, too, lil smiler. It's nice to hear kind words.

I guess the main thing people want is for us to be a bit tougher on people who seem to be asking for medical advice. I think that's fair enough.

I'll also have a look to see if I can merge a few of the "how do I become a doc" kind of threads.

Does anyone know how to make a sig for the forum?

If I was feedbacking....I would say that the forum is too much medicine and not enough biology. I guess the question is how do we encourage more pure biology or biomedical type posts/posters?

If there's anything else, guys, just let me know.

EDIT: What i would love is if, every so often, people posted a paper relevent to their specialty (whether that is pure science, or medical/nursing/pharmacy/radiography etc), or just a paper they found interesting and talked a bit about it and why it's interesting/important. But that would be wayyy to geeky to work, wouldn't it :P

seraphimvc

since i am just an undergrauate student in drugs related course :D2 cents from me:

biochem,medicinal chem,pharmacology for instance are highly related to drugs,eventho they are not health care based courses.i mean there are lots professionals out there in different area of study related to medicine/health care aspects,like genetics,stem cells ,immunology research etc.

i mean the forum title of biology and med would be not that appropriate for the above stuffs i said right?is it completely up to mods decision:would changes needed to build a more appropriate place for broader discussion (like the info i said above)or the current situation is satisfying?i believe you guys get what i mean:D

DrIndy

Have to say I appreciate the comments too and it is encouraging to know that we have the support of the members. You guys are the forum, me and tallaght look in to keep an eye on things.

we'll see what can be done.

Regarding the scientific discussions - the difficulty often is that there are so many different disciplines represented here that it is hard to get 3-4 people who are from the same field to get cracking on each other. Would be very interesting to get that going and would really complement the forum.

Mr Magnolia

tallaght01 wrote: »

Does anyone know how to make a sig for the forum?

You can request a sig here. The guys are excellent, just give them an idea of what you want, if you've a couple of pictures in mind then link them in your request too.

I like what I've seen in the forum.

Dr Galen

i've put out a few feelers about creating a bio/med sig.

anyone have any images that they could suggest to be included?

Dr Galen

and what about a snappy punchline that could be included??

faceman

As someone who doesnt work in the medical or scientific field and who's experience is limited to being patient, i do enjoy reading the threads in the forum as there can be some great discussion, although i rarely post.

I also agree that the moderating and pro active nature of the mods of top class.

tallaght01

Tree wrote: »

the only thing that really annoys me is the amount of duplicated "how can i become a doctor" threads. perhaps some sort of sticky/faq might help?

Latest medical careers post has been stickied. Hopefully we can use that to answer questions in the future.

If anyone wants to do a "how do I become (insert medical/biology career)" type thread, I'll be happy to stickie that too.

Thanks for the idea, Tree.

Mystik, I'll have a look for images. Important thing would be to try and emcompass somehting to represent the "biology" part of biology and medicine. Would be very easy to have a pic of a group of docs/nurses/radiographers doing their thing at a resus, say. If anyone has any idea for a "biology/medicine" sig image, or a tagline, post them up. It's not about what the mods want, it's about what you guys want.

But we need to include the eggheads, too

Thanks for your feedback, too, faceman.

I'll sticky this thread, too, to allow for ongoing feedback.

Next feedback post....*Tallaght01 stickies too many threads*

Dr Galen

well I got an image of a tree frog........and of a medic.........how about that?

Chunky Monkey

A venus fly trap on one side, a heart in the middle with the middle of it faded and the molecular structure of something on top (too chemistry perhaps? though I'm thinkin about what hunnymonster said) and...a tree frog on the right? Though I don't know the first thing about graphic design.

Speaking of stickies, I just asked Piste on another thread, would anyone be interested in a thread going though the UCAS application for medicine?

Dr Galen

ok someone is working on a provisional first sig for the forum. Give it a few days and we'll see what they come up with.
I'l keep u posted

Tree

low quality sig, as half promised

image is anseo: http://omg.wthax.org/biomedtreefrog_1.gif

Chunky Monkey

I like his smile

wheresthebeef

can i just make an observation that i dont think the forum title represents the content anymore. The genre that i would feel most represents the content of the forum is "healthcare". The word medicine is not all emcompassing and only refers to the area of healthcare provided by medics i.e doctors and not the many other disciplines of health care which feature here including dentistry, opthamology, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, occ therapy, ther. radiation etc.... I don't think the current title indicates this trend. For example, many threads on here discuss political or social problems with healthcare that neither relate to biology or medicine as a science. Thats just my feeling.
So i think the forum does encompass all of these things, as do the sub-forums, but the name doesnt seem to match up. I know it seems like nit picking but meh!

tallaght01

Tree wrote: »

low quality sig, as half promised

image is anseo: http://omg.wthax.org/biomedtreefrog_1.gif

Tree, I've just seen this, and you did it ages ago. Thank you very much. I've no idea how to get it into my sig, but I'm sure someone will be able to tell me!

wheresthebeef wrote: »

can i just make an observation that i dont think the forum title represents the content anymore. The genre that i would feel most represents the content of the forum is "healthcare". The word medicine is not all emcompassing and only refers to the area of healthcare provided by medics i.e doctors and not the many other disciplines of health care which feature here including dentistry, opthamology, pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, occ therapy, ther. radiation etc.... I don't think the current title indicates this trend. For example, many threads on here discuss political or social problems with healthcare that neither relate to biology or medicine as a science. Thats just my feeling.
So i think the forum does encompass all of these things, as do the sub-forums, but the name doesnt seem to match up. I know it seems like nit picking but meh!

I agree to an extent, WTB. But, while the name may not be representative, the ethos of the forum is certainly that those from all dosciplines are welcome. I've said that ad nauseum. A name change wouldn't bother me at all, but they haven't given me those kinda powahs yet.