Potential issues with this type of format

[Kathy Meade]

What are the confidentiality issues of prostate cancer issues being discussed on this forum? Are people comfortable about asking questions in such a public forum? Do people understand how to use the private email feature? Are there other privacy concerns that people have?

Do you find it easy to find the information that you need/want?

I have had problems with the stability of the software. I try to go to page and it may take several attempts because I keep going back to the Main page before I can read what I want to read. Am I the the only person having this problem?

What other issues do you have?

How can we solve these issues?

[PaulC]

There are a bunch of confidentiality issues, but they are mostly related to the fact of communicating online, not to this specific type of forum.

And some of the non-online issues are inherent to the subject matter. Reminds me of a support group meeting where the facilitator asked, "Paul, did you want to get you the details on the upcoming seminar on erectile dysfunction?" Well, yes I did, but I had been planning to ask for them discreetly after the group had ended.

Let's face it, most of us on this forum are, or are talking about, elderly men with wiener problems. Unless we can somehow hold the discussion with immense dignity and empathy, and sometimes even then, it's easy to imagine it as a vulnerability easily exploited. But unless some of us are willing to come out of the closet and share, we all huddle in isolation that's bleaker than it needs to be.


Addressing a different kind of software (ahem): I've had no problems at all with this site. I can think of enhancements I'd like to see, such as a way of collapsing threads in a labyrinthine discussion, or documentation on the less-intuitive features, but I'm quite happy. OTOH, my familiarity with software in general may blind me to some user-interface difficulties, so I'm not the best person to ask.

[Mike]

Kathy:

There do appear to be some stabilty issues with the Ning platform. (I don't think it's the software per se. I think it's the volume of traffic on their servers. At certain times of day I think the servers just get very crowded.)

Sadly, they do not appear to be interested in licensing use of their software for application on other's servers, which is what Arnon and I would like to be able to do. This would allow us to better integrate the main web site and the social networking site. However, having looked at several other currently available "social networking" software options, Ning appears to be the best at present.

If anyone is aware of better social networking software that can be licensed (for less than 2 arms and 2 legs) please do let us know.

With respect to the confidentiality issues ... We're adults. We need to learn how to live with some of this stuff. That's why my surname isn't "evident" on this site. Can you find it? Yes. Am I making it easy to find? No.

[Lenny Hirsch]

I have also experienced similar problems. A few weeks ago my cursor froze when trying to open various pages. This has now been corrected. I do not have faintest idea how to use the private email. Can some one explain it to me?

[PaulC]

After you've logged in, your name appears at the top left of each page. Just to the right of it is an icon in the shape of an envelope. Clicking this icon toggles the display of the e-mail facility.

When e-mail displayed is turned on, the four most useful commands are displayed in the left margin:

• Compose: to start a new e-mail message
• Inbox: to view messages that have been sent to you
• Saved: to view incoming messages you have chosen to retain
• Sent: to view outbound messages you have sent (if you saved a copy)

[Lenny Hirsch]

Thanks Paul

[PaulC]

Here's a user-interface enhancement I'd like to see: Allow members to send private e-mail messages to nonfriend members based on membername alone. A reasonable restriction to guard against spam would be to restrict each such e-mail message to only one addressee.

[Terry Herbert]

PaulC and Mike may understand a bit more about how the Internet works than many of the men who log on - possibly for the first time - in an effort to find the information they should be getting from their medical advisors. For example despite very large warnings in the area of my site where men enter the detauls of their PCa experience and are warned about the public exposure such an entry has, being encouraged to use a nom de plume, time and again I get frantic mails asking me to change their name as they have been "googled" by colleagues, family for friends.

I don't think there is much that can be done about this issue, but it is there nonetheless.

As to this Forum, well, I find it difficult to navigate. Maybe it is my cock-eyed way of looking at Life, but I have on a number of occasions just given up trying to find a thread that I had been reading previously to see how it progressed or, having found the thread, it seems to be incomplete. Is the site moderated? Are posts removed?