The final word on the locker room orphanage

Hello Jeremy,   Thank you for your thoughtful response. I understand that traffic alone should not dictate whether a forum is "better advertised" on OH.com. On the other hand, I, and the majority of men who use the men's board, feel we need a better way to help "wayward WLS men" more easily find us.   You're correct in that there is a lot of support and information given to WLS men via the men's forum. This, afterall, should be the primary objective of OH.com, shouldn't it? At the same time, I also understand we can be somewhat vulgar at times, especially to the women who post to the men's board or the locker room as we refer to it.   Although personally disappointed with your decision, I appreciate your response.   Sincerely,   Terry Baldwin (aka boner) 

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From: jeremy@obesityhelp.com To: tlbaldwin@hotmail.com Subject: Men's Forum and Drop Down Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 12:56:10 -0400

Hello,

I am writing you in regards to your recent request to add the Men’s Forum to the drop down list of forums located in the header of ObesityHelp.com.

 

I understand that the Men’s Forum has come to mean a lot to many of you and that you would like the forum to have more exposure. I am pleased that it is doing so well and I to would like the Men’s Forum to get a more attention as the needs of men before and after weight loss surgery are often underrepresented. Unfortunately, adding the Men’s Forum to the drop down list is not an option now, and it will not be an option in the future. This is not due to the fact that it is difficult to add a link to the drop down list, but rather some of the issues discussed below.

 

You have pointed out that the Men’s Forum receives more traffic than the Revision Forum and therefore should be listed in the drop down list. You are correct about the Men’s Forum generating more traffic than the Revision Forum but “traffic” is not the reason we choose to list one forum there versus another. In fact, there are quite a few forums that are not listed in the drop down that do generate more traffic than both the Men’s Forum and several of the other forums listed in the drop down. Some of these forums include but are not limited to numerous State Forums, Post-Op Pregnancy Forum, Sex Before and After Weight Loss surgery Forum, Rants and Raves Forum and the Black American Forum. We would like to list all of these in the drop down list if we could but this does not make sense from an “ease of navigation perspective,” not to mention aesthetics and space constraints.  

 

The forums that we list in the drop down provide information directly related to weight loss surgery, non-surgical weight loss and/or plastic surgery. This is not to say that the Men’s Forum does not provide support for the aforementioned issues, but we are trying to address specific aspects of surgical and non-surgical weight loss with the drop down.  Again, the traffic each of these forums generate does not decide whether or not they are placed in the drop down.

 

The following are several current and upcoming options available to promote the Men’s Forum:

 

Current:

·         Placing a link in your signature line. Where being active in other forums or areas of the site will expose individuals to this resource.

·         You can use the PM feature and friend invite to let other men know.

·         Using your blog to promote the Men’s Forum.

 

Upcoming:

·         As you may very well know, one of the men who is active on the Men’s Forum also runs his own ObesityHelp support group which has an online component as well. OH Groups will be released to the general public in the coming months which will allow numerous individuals to start their own groups and link to the Men’s Forum if they wish.

·         Hopefully we can also redesign how forums are listed on the main forums list, to make navigation easier.

 

I appreciate your involvement and commitment to this community. I also encourage you to continue to provide input about the things we could improve and the things we are doing well.

 

Jeremy Gentles, CSCS

 eerrrr  OH calls it "BLACK American" forum  ???   &8- O)    May I suggest that be changed to "African American" forum, before we have a non-PC riot on here ..    &:-x)  

Why? how many people from Africa really post on OH ?