massage and bodywork professionals

a community of practitioners

What's Working Here? What Isn't? Seeking Feedback on the Site

Massageprofessionals.com is approaching its first anniversary. I'll be writing an article to this effect for the July/August issue of ABMP's member newsletter, Different Strokes, and as I'm sitting here in a coffee shop suffering writer's block, it occurred to me that I should actually use the site, like I'm always coaching others to do, and get feedback directly from the experts. That'd be you. Some insights I'm seeking:
  • Why did you join Massageprofessionals.com?
  • Are your expectations being met?
  • What do you love about this site?
  • What's not working?
  • What can we do to make it better/more relevant to practitioners?
  • What do you think would inspire others to join?
  • Other comments, thoughts, insights?

Thanks for your input! You guys rock!


Views: 461

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Hi Lara.

I like the site. I've found it useful and have connected with some very interesting people by using it.
Hi Lara,

I have enjoyed the site for both it's informative content as well as it's socialization. My only real issue is in the organization of the site. I would much rather see less individual groups being created where overlapping topics get discussed and missed but instead have more organization in the forum section. Here's a sample. This is the mountain bike club's forum I belong to. It's changed up a lot, especially as it's grown and this latest version works rather nicely. As you can see there are subheaders under the forum link and then subheaders under those. This allows the visitor to quickly and easily find the topics they are wanting to read or respond in. The "marketplace of ideas" is just their silly name for the general forum which is the one place where everyone can talk about anything. Once you click on any of these "topics" you then open up to all the individual threads and then posts within the threads.

If we took a look at all the groups to figure out all the topic headers best suited for the site, i think we could have more interaction. Right now, one has to sift through a lot of groups, haphazardly, to find the topics we want to chat about. by streamlining it all to be under one "forum" it would make it easier to participate in the various subjects. and the general forum where we can all post up non-massage banter would be a great way to fulfill the socialization needs we all have.

SAMPLE FORUM:

It'd be nice to log onto the forum and blog section without seeing all of the drug commercials. Really makes me check in less often.....
looks like spam has filtered through. hopefully there are moderators that can get to this quickly. if not that might be another thing the site could use...a few moderators.

Choice Kinchen said:
It'd be nice to log onto the forum and blog section without seeing all of the drug commercials. Really makes me check in less often.....
Hi Lara,
As always great job in caring for this site, this is a wonderful place to be, for MASSAGE THERAPIST. Peace Travis
Lisa, I really like this idea. It is getting more and more difficult to keep up with all the different groups. Merging the forum and groups would really simplify things. One stop to see and respond to the new posts for the day. I think it would also invite more people to join in the conversation which is the goal.

Another perspective is that groups sound rather cliquish, where as a forum seems more open and inviting. I am not saying that the groups here are that way at all, everyone has been very welcoming, but some newbies might be reluctant to join a group, whereas they would readily contribute to an open forum.

Lisa said:
Hi Lara,

I have enjoyed the site for both it's informative content as well as it's socialization. My only real issue is in the organization of the site. I would much rather see less individual groups being created where overlapping topics get discussed and missed but instead have more organization in the forum section. Here's a sample. This is the mountain bike club's forum I belong to. It's changed up a lot, especially as it's grown and this latest version works rather nicely. As you can see there are subheaders under the forum link and then subheaders under those. This allows the visitor to quickly and easily find the topics they are wanting to read or respond in. The "marketplace of ideas" is just their silly name for the general forum which is the one place where everyone can talk about anything. Once you click on any of these "topics" you then open up to all the individual threads and then posts within the threads.

If we took a look at all the groups to figure out all the topic headers best suited for the site, i think we could have more interaction. Right now, one has to sift through a lot of groups, haphazardly, to find the topics we want to chat about. by streamlining it all to be under one "forum" it would make it easier to participate in the various subjects. and the general forum where we can all post up non-massage banter would be a great way to fulfill the socialization needs we all have.

SAMPLE FORUM:

We've just implemented a new control that requires new members to fill out a "captcha" phrase--those warped "please type the following words into the field to prove your human an not a spam machine"--requirements that will hopefully weed out spammers. When you do see them please send me a report. These guys get banned from the network!

Lisa said:
looks like spam has filtered through. hopefully there are moderators that can get to this quickly. if not that might be another thing the site could use...a few moderators.

Choice Kinchen said:
It'd be nice to log onto the forum and blog section without seeing all of the drug commercials. Really makes me check in less often.....
Good point, Lisa. I think we need to do some redundancy control with the groups as well, as someone else also mentioned. I'll spend some time giving the organization a once-over and see what we can do to make it more efficient and user-friendly.

Lisa said:
Hi Lara,

I have enjoyed the site for both it's informative content as well as it's socialization. My only real issue is in the organization of the site. I would much rather see less individual groups being created where overlapping topics get discussed and missed but instead have more organization in the forum section. Here's a sample. This is the mountain bike club's forum I belong to. It's changed up a lot, especially as it's grown and this latest version works rather nicely. As you can see there are subheaders under the forum link and then subheaders under those. This allows the visitor to quickly and easily find the topics they are wanting to read or respond in. The "marketplace of ideas" is just their silly name for the general forum which is the one place where everyone can talk about anything. Once you click on any of these "topics" you then open up to all the individual threads and then posts within the threads.

If we took a look at all the groups to figure out all the topic headers best suited for the site, i think we could have more interaction. Right now, one has to sift through a lot of groups, haphazardly, to find the topics we want to chat about. by streamlining it all to be under one "forum" it would make it easier to participate in the various subjects. and the general forum where we can all post up non-massage banter would be a great way to fulfill the socialization needs we all have.

SAMPLE FORUM:

Well, I obviously don't visit the right groups because my take on this site is that it is a place for massage therapists to try to sell their book, workshop, technique, video or what have you to other massage therapists. Actually, I haven't been a regular visitor for quite some time because every time I do stop by it feels like I have just dropped in to the biggest commercial in the world.
Ellie, I'm not sure that your assessment is quite correct. I find quite a variety of topics, insights, points of views, discussions. Yes,you do have some people selling their stuff. I for one have bought a book from one of the therapists here and it has helped my biz a lot. I would say that,if you don't want to view the "commercials" go to another spot on the site and enjoy the rest of the wonderful therapists and info that goes on here.
I agree with Choice. I welcome the new ideas and products here. I met a terrific LMT , bought her DVD and got a valuable massage and training from her personally that I also use in my massage. If it weren't for the introduction here I would not have made the contact.It's all good and I learn from everyone I run into on this site. If you have something of value for the profession, what better place to show it off?

Choice Kinchen said:
Ellie, I'm not sure that your assessment is quite correct. I find quite a variety of topics, insights, points of views, discussions. Yes,you do have some people selling their stuff. I for one have bought a book from one of the therapists here and it has helped my biz a lot. I would say that,if you don't want to view the "commercials" go to another spot on the site and enjoy the rest of the wonderful therapists and info that goes on here.
I still say....if you don't like the channel, either change the station or turn it off. It really is that simple. It doesn't take a whole lot of time to get "to the good stuff."

Reply to Discussion

RSS

© 2024   Created by ABMP.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service