Upgrade Insight

Skiffin16
Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
edited December 2012 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
As I know it...

I'm not totally sure of the upgrade reasoning other than an old platform, hardware, etc....

There were some discussions on what would be nice as add ons to the existing forum. Mostly all functionality enhancements I had thought.

But just to clear some mystery a little (again, as I know it)...

Greta is the Moderator for CSN Forums, not sure of what all of her responsibilities are, but she has been the foundation of this forum since I've known her and long before I believe.

She is not the IT person, nor over any of this upgrade, hardware/software issues....

I'm sure she is very upset with how things are at the moment as well...this has been her baby for years.

CSN is a very small part of the American Cancer Society's main website. There are tons of other support sites on their main site. Actually it's kind of hard to find this site from their main site, that was something that has been talked about in the past also.

How many of you actually found CSN through the ACS site? Not many I presume, the majority did a Google search or similar, and happened on a topic on CSN. Like myself, and many liked the format, the people, the honest responses and a sense of belonging...

That is why you stayed, that is why you are still here...

Ultimately it is an ACS sub-site and we have little control other than participation, thoughts, opinions, and wishes. I too loved the old format, other than it was getting hard to get on and very slow.

Even though I do add off topic posts, photos, HTML, etc... My main focus and intent is to participate, help others if I can, and share my expereinces as well as share from all of you.

Hopefully the site will get back to something similar to the old site, only with some needed speed and architectural upgrades..., I have no problem with the old format at all.

Anyways, each day we are seeing improvement, hopefully it'll be followed through and once again be the site that we all have grown to feel is part of us.

I'm not sure how all of the ACS websites are administered, built, maintained, etc.... But I'm pretty sure they know how to do them, or get them functioning the way that they want.

I believe that this small sub-site will be fixed., given some time and feedback.

Best,
John

Comments

  • fisrpotpe
    fisrpotpe Member Posts: 1,349 Member
    #2
    waiting
    we all know the waiting game.... :-) this one should be easier than the other

    thanks John again for keeping everyone connected.

    john
  • katenorwood
    katenorwood Member Posts: 1,912
    #3
    small subsite
    John,
    First of all thank you for keeping us updated on why and how things are being handled. I am so impressed with this our own H/N site and never want to lose it. I feel once all the kinks are fixed, we'll all feel so much less frustrated. I am amazed at the amount of traffic we get here day in, through the night. Other sites don't....others more. Thanks again John ! Katie
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #4
    Small...
    Small is always relative...

    If you look at all of ACS, CSN, and then further down H&N Forum, the site is small. To us it is HUGE, and overall, CSN in general probably gets more daily hits, than a good chunk of all of ACS. Of course that is just my thinking...

    There are some other logistics, of ACS and CSN that I'm not privey, but there is a certain amount of anonymity involved I presume.

    Anyways, I peaked at the other forums, and their not happy either...., so I presume things will continue in a positive direction.

    In reading some of Greta's comments, it seems the test version worked very well in that setting.

    But as we see, somewhere between there and here, something definitely got hosed.

    Anyways, keep the faith...

    John
  • blackswampboy
    blackswampboy Member Posts: 341
    #5
    Skiffin16 said:

    Small...
    Small is always relative...

    If you look at all of ACS, CSN, and then further down H&N Forum, the site is small. To us it is HUGE, and overall, CSN in general probably gets more daily hits, than a good chunk of all of ACS. Of course that is just my thinking...

    There are some other logistics, of ACS and CSN that I'm not privey, but there is a certain amount of anonymity involved I presume.

    Anyways, I peaked at the other forums, and their not happy either...., so I presume things will continue in a positive direction.

    In reading some of Greta's comments, it seems the test version worked very well in that setting.

    But as we see, somewhere between there and here, something definitely got hosed.

    Anyways, keep the faith...

    John

    hard to believe they did
    hard to believe they did much/any testing. it just isn't that complicated.
    I could maybe understand if they were rolling out a whole new site. but they changed very little--a few minor cosmetic tweaks. virtually no design/function improvement, and performance didn't change at all.

    anyway, according to Alexa...the main site (cancer.org) gets 80% of domain visitors. the CSN subdomain gets 18%. that's good for second place in their subdomain traffic.

    cancer.org is hosted at rackspace--which is in texas, I believe. as we know, CSN is hosted at liquidweb, in michigan.
    so they're farming out all their server management to hosting companies.
    wonder how much internal IT staff they even have.
  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #6
    blackswampboy said:

    hard to believe they did
    hard to believe they did much/any testing. it just isn't that complicated.
    I could maybe understand if they were rolling out a whole new site. but they changed very little--a few minor cosmetic tweaks. virtually no design/function improvement, and performance didn't change at all.

    anyway, according to Alexa...the main site (cancer.org) gets 80% of domain visitors. the CSN subdomain gets 18%. that's good for second place in their subdomain traffic.

    cancer.org is hosted at rackspace--which is in texas, I believe. as we know, CSN is hosted at liquidweb, in michigan.
    so they're farming out all their server management to hosting companies.
    wonder how much internal IT staff they even have.

    Separate..

    I do know (or from my understanding), that CSN has always been completely segregated from the ACS site... Hardware, everything, and on purpose, or for the reasons I mentioned before.

    Personally, with the ACS promoting "WhatsNext", and the difficulty of finding CSN on the main site. SOmetimes I feel that ACS is more interested in that site than CSN...., just my take.

    While CSN is located and completely ACS, it seems to get little attention and pretty small support in many ways it seems

    I just wanted to convey that the upgrade has nothing to do with Greta, as for the complications and problems.

    On a more positive note, I do see improvements each day. The site is usable (with a few quirks), but I also see improvements each days....

    So for now, I'm done complaining... It's being worked on and I accept that as a move forward and positive.

    Best ~ John

     

  • luv4lacrosse
    luv4lacrosse Member Posts: 1,410 Member
    #7
    WORKING OUT THE KINKS

    John, I agree that the new format is a little frustrating to use, and like any other system upgrade, time and feedback from the group will most likely lead to useful changes going forward. Just knowing I can still comunicate with my CSN family is good enough for now.

     

    Mike

  • Skiffin16
    Skiffin16 Member Posts: 8,305 Member
    #8
    Mo Better....
    Getting there, little by little... I see more features starting to fall into place, some old that are being fixed, some new and not available before.

    Chronological order of posting and replies seems to be fixed. Let me know what else chaps you, and I'll pass the word. I mentioned a spell checker, as I seem to edit a lot due to that, LOL.

    Happy Holidays,
    John
  • Kent Cass
    Kent Cass Member Posts: 1,898 Member
    #9
    Skiffin16 said:

    Mo Better....
    Getting there, little by little... I see more features starting to fall into place, some old that are being fixed, some new and not available before.

    Chronological order of posting and replies seems to be fixed. Let me know what else chaps you, and I'll pass the word. I mentioned a spell checker, as I seem to edit a lot due to that, LOL.

    Happy Holidays,
    John

    Update

    Innocent 2012-12-26.   Hmmmm...Cool Been away awhile, and then I come back to this... Gotta like the fact Greta (you rule, Greta) and company are doing this for us. 

    kcass

  • Pam M
    Pam M Member Posts: 2,196
    #10
    Kent Cass said:

    Update

    Innocent 2012-12-26.   Hmmmm...Cool Been away awhile, and then I come back to this... Gotta like the fact Greta (you rule, Greta) and company are doing this for us. 

    kcass

    Good to See Ya, Kent

    In more ways than one

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