# PsychSupport Feedback



## Drew

I assume most of you have seen the notice I put up about PsychSupport:


> We've started a new Q&A site called PsychSupport. It's different from SAS in that it's a very structured Q&A website that focuses more on concrete answers instead of discussion. Answers are voted on and ranked by the community. You can report problems or ask questions about PsychSupport itself on Meta PsychSupport.


The idea came to me after I was considering introducing a Vote Posts Up/Down feature on SAS. In a lot of threads, you want to read all or most of the posts, but in others you may just want to see one or two of the best answers. After getting feedback from the SAS community, I thought about it for a while and ultimately decided that the feature could make a lot people uncomfortable, anywhere from posting less to changing the way they post to not even posting at all. I didn't want to risk changing SAS into a potentially less welcoming place, even if it was just a few of the forums like Medication.

PsychSupport was born out of this idea. I see it as a sister site to SAS and not a replacement. Of course there will be overlap, but there are aspects of both sites that are unique and will stay that way. For example, general discussion and support type threads are not going to be allowed on PsychSupport (we'll send 'em over to SAS!) This isn't just an arbitrary rule to scare people off. The Q&A structure of the site just isn't conducive to general discussion. Additionally, PsychSupport isn't a social anxiety focused site, so it'll have visitors who might not end up at SAS.

I wanted to take a moment to get everyone's feedback on the site.

Would you be willing to share what you think of the site?

Better yet, would you be willing to register an account (it takes seconds), ask/answer a question and let me know if you have any problems? 

It's totally fine if you don't like it, think it's redundant, don't plan on using it, or whatever, but I'd still really like to hear your reasons, positive or negative, general or specific.

Thanks!
Drew


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## NeonSloaney

I like it. It seems like it breeds a culture of tolerance and generally receptive attitude towards others. With the right moderators, it could be a success on the terms that it helps people who need positive support to get it. I think that it could improve a bit however, a couple of features that could be great is things like writing articles based on subjects for karma based on votes, maybe a wiki where people can edit on articles based on certain aspects of psychology (admittedly might not be feasible) and some way of rewarding people who put the time and effort into helping others, maybe allowing members to shower walls with love, or having a rank system.

Edit: The karma system deals with rewards well, messaging others will help breed an extra reward system. The Karma system also makes de-facto moderators, I like this too.
I still like the idea of being able to write articles on pretty much any non conflicting subject.
Future issues I can see: eventually you will have to find a way of splitting traffic so questions don't quickly bury other questions, but I'm sure you have this covered.
There might be a few 'rogue' editers, have you got a system where actions of people are extremely transparent to others?


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## rainbowOne

Don't really have much feedback on it ye - it seems alright to me, will probably gain more opinions in a while.

but, just fyi, the link in the OP doesn't work, you've put an extra p in the url. (sorry, was bugging me)


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## veron

Link doesn't work for me


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## Ventura

I'll give real feedback in like a few weeks Drew! 

My feedback now is the site looks great starting off!! Good work!


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## Drew

Thanks for your thoughts!



NeonSloaney said:


> I think that it could improve a bit however, a couple of features that could be great is things like writing articles based on subjects for karma based on votes, maybe a wiki where people can edit on articles based on certain aspects of psychology (admittedly might not be feasible)


Those are good ideas. What is up now is definitely just the start of the site. I have future plans and I'll add the articles idea to the list.

Currently when you post a question or an answer, you can check the "community wiki" checkbox and it'll let anyone who has a certain amount of karma edit the question or answer.



NeonSloaney said:


> Future issues I can see: eventually you will have to find a way of splitting traffic so questions don't quickly bury other questions, but I'm sure you have this covered.


The "Interesting Tags" and "Ignored Tags" features on the right side of the front page are supposed to help with this, but it definitely needs some improvement. For example, I'd like to have a page in the future where you only see questions marked with tags that you've marked interesting. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to change "Interesting Tags" to "Favorite Tags".



NeonSloaney said:


> There might be a few 'rogue' editers, have you got a system where actions of people are extremely transparent to others?


There's a revision history for every question and answer. For example:
http://www.psychsupport.com/revisions/84/



rainbowOne said:


> Don't really have much feedback on it ye - it seems alright to me, will probably gain more opinions in a while.
> 
> but, just fyi, the link in the OP doesn't work, you've put an extra p in the url. (sorry, was bugging me)





veron said:


> Link doesn't work for me


Fixed the link! 



NES said:


> I'll give real feedback in like a few weeks Drew!
> 
> My feedback now is the site looks great starting off!! Good work!


Great, I'm looking forward to it.


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## Ventura

Can you explain the point thingys ?

karma. badges. badges im confused by it :lol


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## Drew

I hope to add better explanations in the future, but if you take a look at the badges page, you can see a brief description at the top of the page and then a description of how you get each badge:
http://www.psychsupport.com/badges/

You also earn karma by doing certain things on the site and with more karma, comes more privileges. *You can earn a position where you have certain moderator powers*. A brief description of karma is here:
http://www.psychsupport.com/faq/#q6

A detailed list of the specific ways to earn/lose karma and what karma is required for certain privileges can be found here:
http://www.psychsupport.com/karma/


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## Ventura

^ Cool Thanks drew


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## sherbert

I like how structured it all is, it makes accessing that information much easier. There also seems to be less 'wallowing', which can definitely be an issue on this site. The logo is really awesome and the site itself is attractive. Even though I have ispellcheck downloaded, I don't understand why there isn't a spellchecker app embedded. 


Another thing that I don't care for and it could very well be a perceptual thing, is that I feel like a have to be a mental health expert when posting. It's kept me from being truly honest and supportive b/c I feared that my answers would sound uneducated in comparison. Ironically, I know that I have been helped by a lot of lay men in the past.


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## Drew

sherbert said:


> Another thing that I don't care for and it could very well be a perceptual thing, is that I feel like a have to be a mental health expert when posting. It's kept me from being truly honest and supportive b/c I feared that my answers would sound uneducated in comparison. Ironically, I know that I have been helped by a lot of lay men in the past.


Thanks for bringing this point up. I've been thinking about ways to help people be more comfortable asking and answering questions.


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## Ventura

The site needs to be more advertised for more people to join.


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## Drew

Ventura said:


> The site needs to be more advertised for more people to join.


Yeah, I agree. Can I send you a PsychSupport temporary tattoo to stick on your forehead? Or maybe you a few you can wear one after another  :lol

I'll take some of it down with time...


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## Ventura

Drew said:


> Yeah, I agree. Can I send you a PsychSupport temporary tattoo to stick on your forehead? Or maybe you a few you can wear one after another  :lol
> 
> I'll take some of it down with time...


Oh yes please!! I'll wait for it! 

:idea
I was thinking about a lower back tat would most likely get more notice there 

:tiptoe


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## Ventura

_This _ question was not spam :cry you took 2 points away from me ... What is up with that ? :wife !! Explain yourself


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## Drew

Ventura said:


> _This _ question was not spam :cry you took 2 points away from me ... What is up with that ? :wife !! Explain yourself


Haha, just noticed this. I was playing around with the settings for the Flag feature and I couldn't flag myself (I secretly don't want you to have more karma than me)


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## Ventura

Drew said:


> Haha, just noticed this. I was playing around with the settings for the Flag feature and I couldn't flag myself (I secretly don't want you to have more karma than me)


Oh oh oh this my dear is war !


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## Drew

I don't expect to win. As the site grows, like SAS has, I'll have to spend more and more time keeping things in the background running smoothly.

That said, I'm not giving up yet


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## Ventura

500 Server Error
A system error log has been recorded. We will attempt to fix the error as soon as possible.

If you continue to see the error, please report the problem to the site administrators.

Return to previous page
View the latest questions
View a list of popular tags


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## Drew

What page?


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## Ventura

When trying to 're-tag' someone else's tag .. at 150 + post it says I _should _ have that mod control and I was just testing it out.


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## Drew

First, can you try doing the same thing again and see if you get the same error?

Second, can you PM me the question and the specific tag you were trying to change?

Thanks


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## Ventura

It's all of them I tested 5 random ones now ... as soon as I hit ' retag' it blocks me and errors.... but I sent the pm erm with the link .


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## Drew

Give it a try now


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## Ventura

Now that It's been a few months I'd like to put m 2cents into it (haha) 

First I like to say, I love the site!! It's an awesome Psych-Support site! You get a









I like the format of the site, and how supportive answers to questions can be. I hope more users join from SAS though and put an input into the site though. That goes along with the next part -

Just a few things I have noticed:

* We need more users involved, anyway of advertising the site on other places? I know that cost money, and it is hard to advertise. Can we make it so when you google search, 'mental health help' it comes up.. on my forums I made, I was able to have google catch certain words that weren't in the url.

* Images, I had a few images I wanted to put in on some pots I made, and notice I could not, the image icon was unable to click on it.

* I think their is a setting on their system, if a user does not hit *"accept this answer in XX amount of days' * , the highest voted 'up'' user gets the best answer.

Well now that I am on the roll of complaining (haha!) I want to change my username on their you where able to have those cool diamond thingys on your name I could not add any to mine.  How did you do that ???

:yay :yay :yay <---- I love the site though awesome that you put so much time in it, thank you 

PS......


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## Drew

Hahah, I like the image! With all the bugs and speed issues I'm trying to fix on PsychSupport, I don't think I'll ever catch up to you now. 

In all seriousness, thanks for your contribution to PsychSupport and your feedback. I really appreciate it.

As for your points:
1) A community site always starts off slow. I've advertised it on the top of SAS for a while and I'm sure there are plenty of people here irritated about that. I'll phase this out at some point. I've promoted it on other websites and Google as well. It would be great if it came up for a search for "mental health help" in Google (not as an ad), but ranking for general keywords like that generally takes a long time. I'm working on new ideas! And if you have anymore, feel free to share.

2) I agree. Images will be enabled at some point in the future, but the change is dependent on some functionality in the software being updated.

3) I've worked to make it clearer to users that they should accept an answer if they feel it has answer their question. Right now, a message comes up at the top of your question to alert you to do this.As the community grows, I hope it becomes something more commonly done. I don't think I'd ever make it automatic because ultimately, it's not about the best voted answer. The best voted answer may not be the one that the user who posted the question found most helpful. It's a great suggestion though and maybe could instead be an *email that is sent to the user XX days after asking a question that let's them know they should "Accept an Answer" (if there is one they found helpful).

The diamonds are there because I am an administrator and can't be added, but you can change your username whenever you want on your profile page, under User Tools.

You should notice that you've gained new privileges with your karma!

Thanks again for your feedback! *


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## Ventura

Still worried that might worry other users!


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## Drew

Ventura said:


> Still worried that might worry other users!


It could, but if you think about it, 0 means it's not doing anything at all.

Unfortunately, there are bigger bugs with OSQA that need to be addressed. We'll likely start working on the open source code base ourselves soon to start fixing the bugs.


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