Thought on VSG boards and its lack of "stickies"

I have bookmarked 2 of my posts that I think might be helpful to folks, the one about feeling bingey and the one about cooking in bulk.  I am going to every couple of weeks, or once a month ( I am not sure about the timing, we have new folks all the time! so yaay for that) and bump it to the top.

I wonder if other folks might want to do that too - it does not have to be a post of yours necessarily, just a post that was helpful - maybe a carb war :} or the reason behind stalls, or MzChelle's post about not being a normie!  Whatever was helpful for you, maybe every once in a while you could bump it to the top so folks could read it?

Granted, just because there are stickies by no means means they will be read by all the folks who need it, but its a thought.

And it does not have to be a scheduled regimented sort of a thing, but just a cyclical reminder?  Like the lightweight board posts their creed once a week?  once a month, I think whenever somebody remembers it has not been up for a while.

It *might* be helpful, who can know? 

that's a really good idea.  when folks are new it's kind of hit or miss if they are going to see something they maybe really need.

Helpful!

And too, sometimes, they can READ it but then when it happens to them (my hair fell out!) they insist nobody ever told them!  :}

So, there will always be somebody with amnesia, but maybe it will keep somebody from having to repeat themselves, oh, once a day?  *chuckle*

I've been a member of boards for a long time and I've seen the "newbie" problem many times.  There is one easy thing that we can do to help newbies.  We can create an FAQ for them and post it daily.

The FAQ can be a list of links to posts that discuss things like mushies, carbs, and other newbie questions, with descriptive titles.  You start off with a title and intro (maybe have the title have some flashy icons to draw attention to make it more likely for people to read).  Here's kind of an example:

Frequently Asked Questions for Newbies

Welcome to the VSG board!  The veterans of this board want to share a few links with you that will answer common questions and get you started on the way!

The inevitable 3 week stall
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/4250054/Depressed-No-weight-loss-2wks-after-surgery/

Mushy Recipes:
http://www.obesityhelp.com/forums/vsg/4260294/Share-Your-Pureed-Mushies-Recipes-Here/

The links above are just links I pulled up on the fly, to give you an idea.  Once we have developed a good list of links for common questions (which you all would have to help me come up with), several of us can then make a copy of the FAQ offline.

Then we can all take turns to copy and paste the FAQ to the board daily.  When we see posts that are answered in the FAQ, we can answer politely with something like this:

That's a great question and one that is commonly asked around here and is covered on our FAQ.  Please check out the FAQ which is posted daily on the message board.

Then we will all have to take turns posting the copy/paste FAQ daily.  I've done this in the past and it seems to work well..

What do you all think?

I think it's a great idea. I would love to help but I don't  have any posts bookmarked. How do you find the posts to make the links?

yep, this is a very good idea. There are many basic questions that get answered again and again. Another thing I found useful as a newbie was to find the blogs of people who had written very detailed accounts of their experiences. These are hard to find except by hit and miss. In my case, I looked for people who had my same surgeon and checked them but got a lot of dead ends. Some people have well written and very inspriational stories set forth while others prefer not to write. Maybe there is some way to do something similar listing memebers who have a detailed blog. I know I found McMadame's account invaluable and Rana and others. I was just telling my brother to read these as he is contemplating vsg (yay). But I am a computer dolt and don't know how to do this other than to paste in a file as a message topic from time to time. D

I think that is beautiful!

What anexcellent idea!  Invariably I have pre-surg people write to ask about my hospital experience and I have almost a form letter that I copy and paste to them about NG tubes, swallow test, taking the drain out, etc. It's funny how I'll get 2 or 3 on one day asking questions and then a week goes by with nothing and then 1 or 2 requests for info. But not knowing is the scariest part I think.

I can help people figure out how to cut/paste into your own personal file, if folks can help me find some links.  I can also have others in the main group contribute links, but maybe we can get a few going here first.

To search OH specifically in the VSG forum, go to yahoo or google search and type the following, followed by your search words (i.e. mushies, stall, etc.)

site:obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/

 For example if I wanted to find posts on mushies I'd go to google or yahoo search and type:

 site:obesityhelp.com/forums/VSG/ mushies

Let me know if that is clear!

hi guys!  it's your lurking pre-op friend, ann!  i think this sounds like a fabby idea (for the main site, i hope!)  even though i've only been a member since july, even i have seen things over and over again.  i think an faq would be a big help.  it is also nice to get responses too though!  if you'd like, i can explore my little brain and see if i can come up with anything -- you guys probably know them all by heart though!