The forum...do you like it?

Chunky Monkey

wheresthebeef wrote: »

The genre that i would feel most represents the content of the forum is "healthcare".

+1

Perhaps 'biology and healthcare' would sound better.

tallaght01 wrote: »

I've no idea how to get it into my sig, but I'm sure someone will be able to tell me!

Paste {URL="http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=392"}{IMG}http://omg.wthax.org/biomedtreefrog_1.gif{/IMG}{/URL} into your signature putting [] where I've put {}

r3nu4l

I've always liked the forum and have a lot of time for it. I tend to visit a lot of forums on boards so I appear and disappear for months at a time.

Anyway, I'd like to see more Biologists posting here, particularly those invovled in biomedical research.

Other than that, it's all good

sillymoo

As a first time visiter to this forum I am very impressed well done!

norrie rugger

For a sig i thnk something along the lines a Caduceus with DNA wrapping around instead.

googled my idea and hey presto




As a biologist, I find that this forum is completely weighted in terms of medicine.
I am not active in the field anymore but still involved on the periphery in the food science areas.

It would be great to have more biologists (especially genetic/molecular;))/food scientists discussing here but I think that, as it stands, it is not a very "biologist friendly" forum.

I know that this is in no way intentional but the sheer volume of medical topics would deter most other people. I know that it does me.

tallaght01

norrie rugger wrote: »

For a sig i thnk something along the lines a Caduceus with DNA wrapping around instead.

googled my idea and hey presto




As a biologist, I find that this forum is completely weighted in terms of medicine.
I am not active in the field anymore but still involved on the periphery in the food science areas.

It would be great to have more biologists (especially genetic/molecular;))/food scientists discussing here but I think that, as it stands, it is not a very "biologist friendly" forum.

I know that this is in no way intentional but the sheer volume of medical topics would deter most other people. I know that it does me.

Hi Norrie Rugger.

Thanks for yor input. The sig looks great. I'm crap with the teknikal stuff, though, so no idea how to put it in my sig. I quite like the idea that tree made our one with his (or her) own fair hand, though :P

As regards tot he foum not being "biologist friendly", I don't think anyone but biologists can change that. I have said on so many occasions that we need more biology input here. But we never get it, sadly.

norrie rugger

tallaght01 wrote: »

Hi Norrie Rugger.

Thanks for yor input. The sig looks great. I'm crap with the teknikal stuff, though, so no idea how to put it in my sig. I quite like the idea that tree made our one with his (or her) own fair hand, though :P

As regards tot he foum not being "biologist friendly", I don't think anyone but biologists can change that. I have said on so many occasions that we need more biology input here. But we never get it, sadly.

Sorry, never saw the post from Tree, can not see the pic though. I'll take a look when I get home as it is probably the PC here at work

missannik

*grumbles* At least the mods do their job well. Pfft! :P

tallaght01

Do people think one of those "off topic banter/general chat" threads would work in here?

Or do biologists/medics just do shop talk :P

Chunky Monkey

1,000,000th post thread ftw! Though perhaps leave that for a mod to start in case the powers that be don't approve

tallaght01

100000th post?

Are we near that?

Start any thread you want chunky. The forum is about the users. You guys own it. We try not to interfere unless we really have to.

Just don't go posting 100000th post porn or anything :P

DrIndy

tallaght01 wrote: »

Do people think one of those "off topic banter/general chat" threads would work in here?

Or do biologists/medics just do shop talk :P

I like the idea - what did you do today sort of thing. They have something like that in the TCD forum and it works very well for general community chat not directly related to the forum discussion

DrIndy

Restarting this thread - I'm wondering if people want to contribute further their ideas for how this forum could be better for you.

If you want to - PM me or Tallaght01 with your ideas, if you don't want to post publicly.

Do we do a good job as moderators? How do you want us to be better?

Also ideas for ethos for this forum, rather than rules as in the charter - I think discussing this would be helpful, many new entrants to forums read charters and then hover over forums for a while before posting. Should we publish a set of forum ethos in the charter?

All suggestions welcome.

mardybumbum

I think the forum is a great resource, and one that I frequent on a daily basis.
Its interesting to see the opinions of the health professionals on different topics.

Keep up the good work!

Dr Galen

i can't think of anything that I'd want changed or added. This forum has changed itself, organically over the past while. It's a different place now, than when I started with boards all those years ago.

No critiscims regarding the moderation lads. You do a difficult job well. Leeway is given when needed, but Indy you seem well able to crack out the thread closing stick when needed. I do feel bad though reporting so many posts, I know you are both busy, exp Indy, with the move and everything, but it's the only way to keep people safe really.

I've noticed that traffic has grown a lot over the past few months, and it's certainly a busier place than even a year or two ago. That's to be welcomed in the most part.

It would be great to have others posting here, other than the usual medical professionals, but really I don't think there is much we can do. It's been tried and tried, and I'd say that biologists etc will post if they want to, It will only take 1 or 2 different people to start and then it'll grow from there. Much like the forum has in general.

Keep it up lads!

darjeeling

Mystik Monkey wrote: »

I've noticed that traffic has grown a lot over the past few months, and it's certainly a busier place than even a year or two ago. That's to be welcomed in the most part.

It would be great to have others posting here, other than the usual medical professionals, but really I don't think there is much we can do. It's been tried and tried, and I'd say that biologists etc will post if they want to, It will only take 1 or 2 different people to start and then it'll grow from there.

Biology / Medicine is a busy forum with a lot of users, which is great. I think, though, that the users have quite different interests: people asking about particular medical conditions; healthcare workers discussing the healthcare system and medical treatments; people discussing non-medical biological topics.

As you indicate, most threads are medical, and this means slower-burning biology threads tend to get pushed off the front page quickly. People whose interest is in general biology, then, have to scroll past pages of mostly medical threads to find what they're after. I think this is likely to put them off posting new threads and replying to existing ones.

I think splitting the forum would keep a focused medical forum and also create a new space for threads reflecting the breadth and pace of developments in biology.

Dr Galen

you mean a separate Med forum and a separate Bio forum?

darjeeling

Mystik Monkey wrote: »

you mean a separate Med forum and a separate Bio forum?

Yes.

DrIndy

The way I see it is that this forum is for biology and medical scientific discussion. Medicine dominates which does make biology posts fall off the record, however, there is also much more traffic to medical posts over biology posts because there is a larger body of active posters.

Would splitting the forum make a big difference? Would biological sciences posts increase as a result? I don't know

But the second thing is that this forum has evolved into a niche community for all things socio-political regarding healthcare and health delivery - beyond the sphere of medicine and into paramedical sciences associated with the central tenets of the forum.

would nurses, radiographers and other specialists feel happy posting in a "medicine forum" where they are now comfortable in a bio/med open atmosphere sphere?

Tricky question - but turning this forum into the "healthcare" forum would then bring us away from our roots - which is scientific discussing of biology and medicine.

I have been seeking many ways to increase the biology component of this forum and in fact it has increased in recent years. If there is any clear way of redressing the balance without throwing the forum out of kilter by separating it, I would appreciate contribution.

darjeeling

DrIndy wrote: »

Would splitting the forum make a big difference? Would biological sciences posts increase as a result? I don't know

One thing that makes me think there might be more biology posting in a dedicated bio forum is the growing success of the Palaeontology forum.

Before Palaeontology was set up, I guess palaeo stuff would have fallen within this forum's remit, but a quick search finds very few threads. Since the creation of a separate forum, there's been a lot more posting. Palaeontology is only a small part of biology, so a bio forum would have much broader scope, and - I guess - higher activity.

DrIndy

darjeeling wrote: »

One thing that makes me think there might be more biology posting in a dedicated bio forum is the growing success of the Palaeontology forum.

Before Palaeontology was set up, I guess palaeo stuff would have fallen within this forum's remit, but a quick search finds very few threads. Since the creation of a separate forum, there's been a lot more posting. Palaeontology is only a small part of biology, so a bio forum would have much broader scope, and - I guess - higher activity.

The success may also be because it is a much narrower scope, drawing specialist posters and interested boards members. I have often said here that the difficulty is the scope of "biology" is too wide and it takes about 5 posters to find the thread to keep it going unlike medicine which is in fact a sub-speciality of biology which does attract critical mass and hence perpetuates.

Perhaps the focus may be in fact to created other biology forums? (genetics, botany, zoology etc.....???)

darjeeling

DrIndy wrote: »

The success may also be because it is a much narrower scope, drawing specialist posters and interested boards members. I have often said here that the difficulty is the scope of "biology" is too wide and it takes about 5 posters to find the thread to keep it going unlike medicine which is in fact a sub-speciality of biology which does attract critical mass and hence perpetuates.

Perhaps the focus may be in fact to created other biology forums? (genetics, botany, zoology etc.....???)

That might work well too. I don't know which if either would be a better option, but I do think it's worth thinking about. Maybe other users will chime in with their thoughts too.

Dr Galen

DrIndy wrote: »

Perhaps the focus may be in fact to created other biology forums? (genetics, botany, zoology etc.....???)

i'd agree that if a split were to happen then this would be the line I'd follow if it was up to me. Personally though, eventhough I have no professional interest in Biology, I've found some of the Bio based threads really interesting and informative (such as the Dolphin Brains thread) and as such would not like to have them sidelined off to another forum that i wouldn't frequent as much

nesf

DrIndy wrote: »

Perhaps the focus may be in fact to created other biology forums? (genetics, botany, zoology etc.....???)

A genetics forum would interest me anyway, as a "lay person". I do find some parts of zoology, botany etc interesting but I can't envision me wanting to discuss it per se. You need a critical mass of specialists and ideally interested but "scientifically literate" non-specialists to make a good go out of any science sub-forum. The non-specialists are useful because they ask good questions rather than because they give good answers, which start discussions and end up being read by lurkers who eventually start asking sub-questions etc.

In my opinion anyway.

tallaght01

I've actually come round to the idea of separating biology and medicine. Change can be slow, though. But I've started a thread on the forums forum, to see if the owners have any interest. They may not. So, what else can we do to attract biology posters?

Chunky Monkey

Would it be a bit cheeky to ask for a med student sub forum? Just a place where we can discuss things we're learning that we find a bit confusing etc. Would be better than a thread as well I think cos we could search for specific topics rather than trawling through one thread. It's not you guy's (sorry bad grammar I know ) fault but just feel a bit shy posting things like that among all the doctors here. Not sure if there would be much interest but just thought I'd throw that out there

tallaght01

Chunky Monkey wrote: »

Would it be a bit cheeky to ask for a med student sub forum? Just a place where we can discuss things we're learning that we find a bit confusing etc. Would be better than a thread as well I think cos we could search for specific topics rather than trawling through one thread. It's not you guy's (sorry bad grammar I know ) fault but just feel a bit shy posting things like that among all the doctors here. Not sure if there would be much interest but just thought I'd throw that out there

A) I don't have the ability to do those kinds of things.

You should never feel shy posting basic questions. The med students should be an important part of the forum. You guys are the next generation, and everyone took the hippocratic oath to train new docs. If anyone was nasty to our med students, it would be one of the few things that would make me start banning!

I was thinking about starting a med students scenarios thread. Where we give you a clinical scenario and ask med students to come up with a differential diagnosis and management plan. If some of the others were into it, I'd do some paeds/public health stuff.

But I agree a med student sub forum would be cool. new media medicine is huge. There's a market for it.

Chunky Monkey

Ooh I like the scenario thread idea, that would be amazing AMK prep!

Vorsprung

tallaght01 wrote: »

I was thinking about starting a med students scenarios thread. Where we give you a clinical scenario and ask med students to come up with a differential diagnosis and management plan. If some of the others were into it, I'd do some paeds/public health stuff.

That would be a great idea.

DrIndy

I think a healthcare student forum would be a good idea - nested in Bio/Med.

Clinical scenarios would certainly be good - and it would also tax the minds of everyone - including us qualified people.

There could also be scope for people to post threads on postgraduate exams too like MRCS and MRCPI - I don't think there is any online irish forum for this sort of stuff - would be very helpful.

charlieroot

Yeah it would be great to get an ECG of the week kind of thing going or image of the week like the NEJM. Or something similar.