login issue

[Marie]

It's not working for me either...... No idea what I could be doing wrong.

[Dorothy Saunders]

Please folks, can we stay calm and be patient?

Ron Rattie is a volunteer, as is Richard. The downside to Ron's free help is that he does it around his real job, when he can find the time. This requires patience on our part. Richard doesn't always know Ron's plans, so he CAN'T always forewarn us.

Richard, who also has a real fulltime job, has offered to help those of you who can't figure this out on your own.

Please respect the time constraints of these two awesome volunteers.

We've considered the editing option before. Our former administrator Erin maintained that allowing people to delete could open up a hornet's nest -- judgmental and critical comments could "disappear" after doing damage to the safety of this forum. The moderators will edit posts at your request when there is a valid reason for doing so.

[dave the rave]

Our former administrator Erin maintained that allowing people to delete could open up a hornet's nest -- judgmental and critical comments could "disappear" after doing damage to the safety of this forum.

Is it just me, or does that seem illogical? The only difference is the damaging comments will linger a little longer (until a moderator deletes the post or the whole thread). People who post here need to realize that attacks and such are not tolerated by the community (and most do). Those who post inflammatory remarks should be warned once. Then if it happens again, they should lose their posting privileges. This would allow the rest of us to edit our innocuous mistakes or communicate more clearly without needing to contact a moderator.

[tundra lodger]

Dave,

As illogical as that sounds, Erin had a point. I've seen more than my share of forums destroyed by exactly the phenomenon Dorothy speaks of.

Given the fact that most of us who post here are already under a bit of stress, this is by far the most forgiving forum environment I've experienced. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have the ability to edit my posts, but I find the inability to edit DOES encourage me to post much more thoughtfully.

Perhaps I'm feeling over-protective. You have to admit this is one place a little excessive caution is worth having. IMHO, of course.

tl

[dave the rave]

Interesting. But it still seems illogical to me.

I've seen a number (fortunately a low number) of posts and threads in recent months that should have been removed early on but weren't, resulting in just the situation that Erin said she was trying to avoid. I think removing inflammatory posts as soon as possible is a MUCH better strategy to use than disallowing all posters from editing their messages.

But I won't lose any sleep over it.

[ProudMommyDebbie]

Has this change happened already?

I thought my log in for WSA.org was the same as the WSForum, or at least I have had no problems, so maybe I made them both the same when i signed up?

I have WSA.org/forums saved on my toolbar, it directs me to sign in and when i do, it takes me to wsa.org home page, and has me signed in on the upper right margin, and lists, if i have new messages, or where i can view my posts on the forum.
It's a grey background box with red text and has my avatar picture, int op right, then all the WSA.prg homepage articles.

So I guess it has my account linked the way it should be?

I hope so.

[tundra lodger]

First of all, let me express my thanks to all the volunteers who help keep this forum up and running!


Does anyone else have no way of posting to the following thread? I would have liked to make a comment, but there is no 'post reply' button for me. I see others are posting there, so...????

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13319&view=unread#unread


Really, it's not that I love to read my own writing. Just wondering if there was a problem....

tl

[SunshineH]

Richard: If I had previously gotten to the members area and made that name the same as my Forum name, does that mean that I don't have to do anything now? I seem to be getting on OK but I haven't logged out at all.

[LarryB]

Tundra - I have no problem with that link.

PMD and Sunshine - YAY! You did right!

Thanks to all that offered support for the volunteers doing this work.

I wll add my comments below in a separate post concerning this issue.

[LarryB]

As posted in announcements (logging in and logging out etc)

Most of the problems seem to occur because a lot of forum users never start at the home page www.wellspouse.org/ Rather they have bookmarked the forums and start there. Further, a lot of people have just stayed signed-in and cannot even locate their password.

There has always been TWO log-ins for paid members, one for members areas and one for forums. If you never logged in to the home page you will need to start doing so. This will also be eliminated in the future.

Eventually there will be NO log in for the forums, there will only be a log-in on the home page and you will choose where you want to go, including the forums.

If you are a paying member you were issued an ID and wsf1988 as a sign in - you were also told that the first time you signed in you should change your sign-in ID.

I too had the same problem concerning my e-mail appearing when this change was originally made about 6 months ago. It was fixed overnight.

Our intent is to make everyone sign in from the home page.

Just so nobody says they were not advised of UPCOMING changes. Within the next year we will be making further changes to the forum and membership.

Currently forum access is free and open to all. The WSA Board of Directors has voted unanimously to allow free access to all for the first year. After that time you will have to register as a supporting member of WSA to continue forum access.

This should not pose a financial burden for anyone as WSA does accept 'harship' memberships for anyone that cannot pay full dues. In fact I am troubled by the fact that many forum users never join WSA. Joining is a simple matter requiring just an on-line application and, if you cannot afford full dues of $30, payment of as little as $5.

WHY ARE WE CHANGING MEMBERSHP?

1) The operation of an organization such as WSA is not free. We maintain an office, produce newsletters, establish respites, round-robin letter writing, mentor of those not near a support group, face-to-face support groups AND AN ON LINE FORUM. For the entire time we have had the Forums they were paid for by the supporting members of WSA and very limited donations. It is unfair to burden 1/3 of the users with paying the entire cost of maintaining our forums.

2) WSA is actively applying for GRANTS in an effort to eventually eliminate dues altogether, and to supplement our operating revenue which is NOT fully funded by our low dues structure. Grantors are very interested in the number of MEMBERS an organization has. > 2/3 of forum users never take the time to even make out the membership application and send $5 to WS to make them a valid 'member'. If we are successful in obtaining sufficient outside support we will be able to eliminate membership costs ENTIRELY some time down the road.

While we understand that change is always hard our forums were in desperate need of updating. Since we do not have the fiscal means to pay thousands of dollars to a web site design firm to drop everything and work on our web-site (if any of you want to donate $5,000 or more we will be happy to fix all these problems overnight!) we have been graciously offered the free services of a volunteer web site desinger Ron Rattie of Stillpixelstudios.

Ron truly is a web site 'genius' and has donated hundreds of hours to this project. HOURS OF HIS OWN TIME since he is not being paid and can only work on our project AFTER he performs his actual PAID job running his company. Additionally, WSA cannot afford the cost of maintaining TWO servers for the months it takes to develope our new site. Normally, when a site is under development the company must have two servers - one for the LIVE site and one for the site UNDER DEVELOPMENT. Therefore Ron has to work with the LIVE site only - so when a new item is added it goes live immediately, and the 'bugs' have to be worked out then.

Additionally, as you know all officers are volunteers. Most work, and most also care for ill spouses. Our past president, Richard donates COUNTLESS hours to acting as Web Site administrator. Coordinating with Ron, making changes to the stories and formats on the web site, granting permissions to the other officers and moderators and vetting all new members to keep us safe from spammers, bots and yes even IS (or other non WS).

So if you are experiencing a problem I assure you that it will eventually be corrected. If a problem simply cannot be worked out please email Forumadmin@wellspuse.org - we will get to it.

Sorry for the long explanation, but this is not an easy task - some appreciation for Richard and Ron is expected.

[dave the rave]

Tundra - I have no problem with that link.

That's probably because you have Moderator status, Larry. But the rest of us are unable to reply in that particular thread. When I looked at it last night, instead of "Post Reply," it said "Locked." Now, there's nothing there at all!

To address your other points (since I cannot reply in that particular thread!):

Our intent is to make everyone sign in from the home page.

I think this needs to be re-evaluated. Although it's a good idea to remind WSA members that there is other content on the main site (upcoming respites, new articles, different opportunities for support like actual face-to-face meetings, round-robin letters, and mentoring, etc.), I think we're mature and intelligent enough to seek this out on our own. Sometimes all we want to do is read or post on the forum. I think making the experience more -- rather than less -- user-friendly would be a better goal, especially since we have enough stress in our lives as it is. Reading some of the reactions to these changes, it's easy to see it doesn't take that much to upset many of us!

After that time you will have to register as a supporting member of WSA to continue forum access.

This should not pose a financial burden for anyone as WSA does accept 'harship' memberships for anyone that cannot pay full dues. In fact I am troubled by the fact that many forum users never join WSA. Joining is a simple matter requiring just an on-line application and, if you cannot afford full dues of $30, payment of as little as $5.

As a dues-paying member, I agree 100%. It is not fair to those of us who pay that others don't. And if there is a financial hardship, surely $5 is a fair fee.

That being said, I still don't like the idea of being forced to go to the main site if we would rather not do so at the time.

Regarding the web site and forum changes, they came out of the blue and were obviously very problematic (fortunately a number of the blunders have been addressed and fixed -- thank you). However, there are still issues. Since this is not a short post, often I am fighting against the cursor being scrolled up toward the top of the composing window (IE7 is my browser). In fact, if this issue isn't fixed, I will probably have to go to another browser for that reason to see if the problem gets resolved that way.

I wish you and the board and staff all the best in obtaining grants for our organization. I certainly appreciate all the effort, especially since so many of the people involved are active spousal caregivers. Not an easy task!!! So, again, thank you all very much from the bottom of my heart.

[LarryB]

Dave that thread is not locked, SCIwife, Sunshine and others have had no problem posting there. If you do have a problem please email forumadmin@wellspouse.com

Thank you for your comments and concerns. We do the best we can and make changes only after full discussion of all the facts involved.

The reason we want everyone to sign in from the home page is that even a number of PAID members did not realize we have things other than the forum. This is also another method to get non-supporting members (forum users only) to see that there is an actual organization - WSA - not just an on-line presence. They never see announcements, know about respites, conferences, etc.

I belong to a number of work-related sites. None allow you to enter discussion areas (such as the forum) directly. Every one requires that you log in from the home page. That gives the organization a chance to advertise their own issues. We already refrain from pop-up ads, outside solicitations and other things that would detract from our site. It is very user friendly and an additional single 'click' should be manageable.

I understand perfectly what you are saying about the 'scroll' in long posts. Perhpas after we work out all the kinks in the other areas we can fix that annoyance.

I am sorry that these changes have upset a few members. As you point out, we are all 'stressed' by the very life we lead -- including the volunteers that run WSA. Our aim is to keep WSA viable and move it into the future.

We are moving as fast as we can to maintain a great service. If we did not do this now we would have been in deeper trouble in the future. You cannot maintain (or even service) 'old' technology. (Ever try to get support from Microsoft for Windows 98? They no longer even provide it! Our web site had to be updated or it would simply have eventually crashed. Patch-work would no longer do.

Again, if there is a serious or continuing problem let the administrator know.

We appreciate your gratitude and hope the membership will be patient while we update/repair things.

By the way - since so much falls on the shoulders of so few - we could use HELP. We are always looking for Board of Director members to assist in making decisions for this organization.

Thanks again

[tundra lodger]

Dave that thread is not locked, SCIwife, Sunshine and others have had no problem posting there. If you do have a problem please email forumadmin@wellspouse.com

Larry,

Respectfully, and not to belabor the issue, for at least SOME of us, there is no way to post to the thread I mentioned. For me, there is no "REPLY" button anywhere on that thread. There is no "QUOTE" button anywhere on that thread, hence no way to reply. Period. It does not show a 'lock' in my view.

The reason why I mentioned this in the first place was because I could see that other non-mods had posted to a thread that I could not, and felt it was a 'glitch'. Dave replied that he was seeing the same issue, so apparently I am not the only one. Simply a matter of making the right folks aware of the problem, certainly not a complaint!

Email forthcoming. I just hate to bother those busy folks with such a low priority issue.

tl

[SCIwife]

Larry, I appreciate everything everyone is doing.There is no reason to be stamping our feet and pouting.

I never touched a computer until I was 40 and am embarrassed to say how illiterate I am about some things that are probably being clearly explained.

I'm also glad you explained how costly it is to operate WSA, the Forums etc.
When I first (desperately) stumbled on WS I did not even understand at first about memberships and quickly
paid my dues.
I don't have a problem logging into the main site and going to Forums now that you have explained the reason.
I have the Forum on my favorite and usually just pull it up that way.
I'm still a bit confused what else I need to do.
I log on to WS with the first part of email and wsf1988 and click on forum. I show up as SCIwife like I want.
Is there anything else I need to do besides just going to the main page first?
Please forgive my ignorance.

[SCIwife]

OK-I changed my password on the main site so is not the wsf1988, logged out and in and did a test which shows me a SCIwife which is not my email.(and what I want)
My email begining is my user ID when I log in.
Is that how I should continue?
I'll wait and see how it goes.

My 2 cents on the editing option is that as much as I'd like to go back and correct my spelling and grammer the edit option can cause a whole can of (smelly) worms to open.
I see it on the only other site I go on and gets ugly.