[DocJohn]

1. New forums will be created upon member request. You should be a member in good standing here, and have been a member for at least a month before making a request.

2. Requests should be largely based upon a perceived or real need for a new health or mental health topic. One way to determine need is to see that a subtopic keeps coming up time and time again in an existing forum. In such a situation, it would appear there would be a lot of interest in such a topic in its own forum (or subforum).

3. New forums will be given 45 days to show that activity and interest in the forum is sufficient to keep it.

4. Forums that don't have at least 30 posts after 45 days will be considered for moving to another forum as a sub-forum.

5. Forums that don't have at least 10 posts after 45 days will have their posts moved to another appropriate forum and the forum will be deleted.

6. Please post your new forum requests to the sticky "New Forum Requests" thread (no other thread, please!).

Thanks for your continued support!
DocJohn

[The Crystal Cave]

Originally Posted by DocJohn

5. Forums that don't have at least 10 posts after 45 days will have their posts moved to another appropriate forum and the forum will be deleted.

Thanks for your continued support!
DocJohn

Hi DocJohn!

I can see the merits of the ground rules you've posted. It will keep the list of forums uncluttered and easier to work with, and boy do I appreciate that. I have an additional thought that I hope you will consider:

I'm asking that you take into consideration the number of views before making the decision to delete a forum.

For example, the diabetes forum will likely fall off the list based on the guidelines here - there hasn't been a post in 11 days, and the number before then was paltry at best. But the thread I started about price-sensitive supplies gets read every single day by someone. Today, the total number is 71; yesterday it was 66. So I'm guessing the information is of some value, even if people don't reply to it. (Anyone who has ever priced blood-glucose test strips understands.)

I don't know if or how this can be accomplished, but I hope the number of views can somehow be one of the things consindered in the evaluation process.

I suppose we could just keep going back to bump a thread, which would keep the forum active, but I'd so much rather see the forum topic preserved and not at risk.

Thanks - and thanks for all you are doing.

TCC

Additional note: I'm not sure if and where diabetes could fit under the umbrella topic of another forum. If it's moved it will be lost. No one would think to look somewhere else for diabetes.

I realize diabetes doesn't jump out as a neuro or mental health disorder, but the secondary effects of it are very much linked to both: neuro damage (brain, peripheral neuropathy and others) ... the mental and emotional weight of dealing with a life-altering disorder, especially right after a diagnosis ... a disorder that adds exclamation points to many co-morbid disorders, etc. So I hope there's a way you might be able to keep it. Thanks.

[OneMoreTime]

John, at OBT, there was only one subforum for the near hundred forums, and I had no idea of how successful and useful they can be.

I am quite impressed with what you have done with the forums. Thanks for working to make this a highly navigable website.

Teri