Website feedback

I would like to see a chat room available at all times, this would be a great attraction for those seeking a bit of support and not having to wait until the scheduled times. This all would depend on the sites policies on chat rooms as we cant expect staff to be present at all times.... but I feel could be pivotal in preventing relapse etc etc

Hi - I used to use this forum a while ago; not now for a long time. I think though that investing in proper forum software would be good. A vbulletin license wouldn't cost that much and would clean up a lot of the problems I've found with the bespoke script currently running. For example, if a new poster refreshes to see replies, they end up reposting over and over. Similarly, the functions of proper software (e.g. the ability to send private messages) would be good.

I'd also like the forum to show "unread" messages when you log in. At the moment a thread with a new reply goes back to the top of the list, but it would be helpful to show them in bold, as well as new threads in bold (so that I don't keep clicking on threads I've already read to the end). That way, you can log in and quickly see what new activity there is. Hope this makes sense.

I would also like a better search feature - at the moment you can search "topics" and "authors" but there's apparently no search for keywords within threads as a whole, as opposed to their Topic titles.

Hi Rebecca/Gamcare

Firstly, may I thank you for providing us with the forum and the opportunities it presents us with to share, vent, advise and support each other with recovery.

My huge ask re the website upgrade has nothing to do with functionality, aesthetics or feel, it has to do with stability.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty rough by way of reliability and there's been nothing to let the users know what is going on. I never know from one minute to the next whether the site is down, going to go down, whether it's maintenance or just a fault with the server or something. Can there be something on the front page of sections as stickys that tells us planned maintenance times or the like?

The stability of the site and managing users expectations on downtime is key - I just wonder whether the outage last Sunday May have come at a time that someone really needed the site and then fell?

Thanks so much for listening,

Mr Brightside

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Hi. Given that so many people have found the site due to the dreaded FOBTs how about a section dedicated to these?

That's great Rebecca - thanks for the honesty and for coming back to me on that.

Kind regards,

Mr Brightside

Hi guys. A couple of functionality improvements that could maybe be made:

1. A profile page. Currently, when I click on a user's name, I'm just redirected back to the homepage. I'm not sure if this is the same for everyone? It would be good if each user had a profile page where they could write a little about themselves, maybe have their intro post on the main page giving other user's an idea of what's led the person here to the forums. There might also be a sidebar with information like user's threads that they've created and the posts they've had in other diaries.

2. A little alert saying you've received a reply to a post you've made. This could be in the form of an envelope (like Reddit) or maybe just a little notification somewhere on your home page.

3. Amber lights. This could be put beside a user's diary or maybe beside their post. Green meaning they're in a good place with their addiction, amber meaning they're a little up and down (could maybe be doing with a little bit of support) and red, when a user feels they're in trouble (maybe they've just recently relapsed and crying out for some help). Some people's posts go by the wayside and I think this is often down to a lack of replies. If you used this amber system and some of the regulars maybe seen that a new user was crying out for some support, it would encourage people to post there and help them out.

4. A preview button before posting so that you can see how your post is going to look.

I don't know.....these are just little things that I think could add to how the site runs. Keep up the good work.

Hi Rebecca/Gamcare

Firstly, may I thank you for providing us with the forum and the opportunities it presents us with to share, vent, advice and support to each other with recovery.

I would like to see more

1. chat room times,

2. Maybe calendar page for users,

3, more face to face counselling center in the south east area.

4. On profile page be able to add member how we normally chat to most.