Is it my imagination or has interest here fallen off a cliff? I was having that thought recently when I tried to log on and saw everything updated. Now that I have updated myself I see almost no activity. Sad to see.
And it is not intuitive to think I had to hit “create new post” to publish it. Was “post” taken?
This forum is pretty much toast. Mostly a “Friday Fun” forum it seems like. Not that much about prostate cancer support. I’m guilty too! Hardly ever post.
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Forum posting has declined in recent years and tends to be slower in summer based on my observations. The topic has come up before so not a new item. Now it tends ebb and flow with prostate issues.
This forum change may or may not help with posting. The old forum was way behind the times but kept the talk focused and not a FB page. We shall see…
Yeah we can’t post our signature anymore
I took a quick look and I don’t see a true signature feature either. Nor do I see an editable field (like “About me”) in our Profile that could hold a history/signature that others could view with a click.
No signatures would be a major handicap. The only workaround I can see would be to keep one’s signature text handy and paste it at the bottom of (at least) those posts requesting feedback on decisions/treatment. Not good at all.
I know quite a few guys are also on the Malecare prostate cancer forum. Much more daily activity there. Sometimes a break is a good thing though. IMHO this is more than the summer slowdown. I’ll check back Friday for some laughs.
Yeah, things are quiet. This forum has been slowing for awhile. It remains to be seen whether the new owners will re-energize it. Re the signature, I agree that’s a major fault if we can’t do that. Maybe I’m just missing it but I have asked if there is a way. I’ll post what I learn.
Jim
I wonder if most online forums have seen a slowdown in traffic. Times are rapidly changing. I’m thinking that AI may be largely responsible, especially for something as critical as healthcare. Folks are probably doing their research for their health condition using AI, then they get their emotional support from the same AI. Some may even then open their secret AI girlfriend app. Who needs people anymore?
Or, maybe the slow is because we don’t fight on here like we used to. Lol
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Not to be a troglodyte here, but I sort of miss the former format.
I was even wondering whether “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” applied here.
One thing that I find a concern is how well the older format packed such a large amount of information into a small space.
For example, think of all the information available on the opening index page. I don’t see that in this new format. I’m afraid I may have to go from screen to screen in this new format to find what the old format presented on one.
And some of the terminology seems to have changed.
But then I said to myself, there must be a good reason for such an extensive change.
So I asked Copilot to supply information on the why-and-how of the Healingwell site reformat, and got the following in reply.
I think we were already told bits and piece about it, but below is pretty in-depth summary.
And it may be more than we really want to know, but here it is:
Q; recently the website www.healingwell.com changed its format for presenting information to users. Do you know any reasons why they did this?
A: The short answer: yes — there are clear, documented reasons why HealingWell changed its format, and they come directly from HealingWell’s own announcements and the community’s discussion. The change was driven by a major backend upgrade, a platform migration, and the site’s merger with eHealthcare Solutions. Source: health.healingwell.com. Exciting News - HealingWell’s New Chapter - Chronic Illness Support Groups & Resources - HealingWell.com
Why HealingWell changed its format:
The most authoritative reason is the platform transition announced in late 2023. HealingWell merged with its long‑time advertising partner, eHealthcare Solutions, and moved the forums to a more modern, secure, maintainable backend. The team stated that the old system had accumulated backend issues over 25 years and needed a full modernization. Source: health.healingwell.com. Exciting News - HealingWell’s New Chapter - Chronic Illness Support Groups & Resources - HealingWell.com
This modernization required:
New authentication and encryption, which is why users had to reset passwords and why old passwords could not be carried over.
A new forum engine, which changed how profiles, usernames, editing, and posting work. Users reported difficulty editing old posts, navigating the new interface, and understanding new profile fields — all consistent with a platform migration.
Improved maintainability, allowing staff to fix issues more easily and reduce downtime. The announcement explicitly said the new backend would make “maintenance and minor repairs” easier. health.healingwell.com.
Although HealingWell said the appearance would not change much, the forum experience did change significantly, because the underlying software was replaced.
The deeper reasons behind the redesign:
Putting the sources together, the redesign happened because:
The old forum software was outdated after nearly 25 years of continuous use.
Security requirements (modern encryption, account protection) made old passwords incompatible.
Technical debt made the old system hard to maintain.
The merger required integrating HealingWell’s infrastructure with eHealthcare Solutions’ systems.
A modern platform allows better long‑term stability for a large community with millions of posts.
These reasons are directly supported by HealingWell’s own announcement and by user reports during the transition.
What users experienced (and why it happened)
Password resets → required because old passwords couldn’t be migrated under new encryption.
Difficulty editing old posts → old posts were stored under the previous system’s permissions model.
Display names changing → new platform auto‑generated display names from email prefixes until users updated profiles.
Navigation confusion → typical of a migration to a new forum engine.
Some accounts not linking to old posts → caused by email changes over the years; the new system uses email identity more strictly.
All of these match what happens when a community forum moves to a new backend.
If you want, I can also help you explore:
how the new HealingWell platform works
how to navigate the updated forums
how to recover or locate old posts
Would you like a walkthrough of the new interface or help with any specific feature that changed?
Again, maybe the above is a bit more than we really needed to know, but apparently changes were inevitable.
Signature and “sticky notes” at the top before list of postings.
There are many “off the shelf” forum software packages that can be customized but that entails time and more importantly expense.
I was able to find a text size that I changed to smallest size and it fits on iPhone better. Seemed to carry over to iPad as well
I used to post a lot and derived a lot of helpful information and advice. Now, I check in very occasionally, and am often dismayed to find nothing but long, rambling editorials about subjects that have no relation to prostate cancer. Often by the same person, over and over..
" … and am often dismayed to find nothing but long, rambling editorials about subjects that have no relation to prostate cancer. Often by the same person, over and over."
Hmmmmm … I wonder who that could be! <grin!>
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Technically I own a small business Administering and Moderating online community forums.
Started in 1999 as just a member posting. The short version is that I originally started with 23 sites and am now down to 11. Fifteen years ago, any one of the sites would get more posts in a day then all eleven get in a week… The slow down started long before AI… The search engines like GOOGLE became more and more powerful… Here’s an example from one of my favorite sites:
There are currently 4628 users online. 1 members and 4627 guests
The GUESTS are “BOTS” that are crawling the sites and gathering info for the search engines etc.
Interesting observation. I have read too many AI responses that clearly draw a lot from online forums and treat it as being as valid as validated research study.
Seems to me alot of online forums when they update messages fall off.