My company, LivingAfterWLS, needs to decide by Tuesday if we bring the LivingAfterWLS Neighborhood back or say goodbye our Safe Haven Circle of Friends online community forever. Please respond to this post "Like" if you would like to see it back and if you would participate in the community.
Just a point of history - the Neighborhood was started in 2006 and thrived for many years. The Neighborhood is an Invision Power Board powered online support community for weight loss surgery support and empowerment and membership requires registration. The Neighborhood was a safe place to separate WLS discussions from the "Full Monty" of our life so often displayed on bigger social sites. Lasting friendships were established in the Neighborhood. In fact - many of you who connect here on FB met and made friendships in the Neighborhood. We enjoyed an active and supportive 5 Day Pouch Test forum as well as forums for all procedures, surgeries, and a multitude of interests. Membership exceeded 10,000 from around the world.However we lost participation during the early wave of bigger social media destinations like FB and Twitter. We also noticed a remarkable trend that people tend to move on from WLS networking at about 3 years post-op, weary of the topic or frustrated with the hard work of losing weight "the easy way". I am fully aware some people left the Neighborhood as they took exception to me personally or my administrative decisions. I also know there were clicks forming and negativity festered in many threads. Please don't post or message me on these issues: I will not respond.
Our community has been offline for myriad technical difficulties including spammer registrations and hostile attacks by hackers earlier this year. I have struggled with my own indecision. It is personally exhausting to manage an online community from a tech standpoint, an interpersonal communication management standpoint, and weariness of the WLS topic. Job burnout, don't ya know? But I also know the valid and vital role it played in so many lives and I know it was a good and worthy online meeting place for like-minded people wanting healthier lives empowered by WLS and the strength and support of one another.
So what do you think? Bring back the Neighborhood or say goodbye forever?
4 comments:
I'd like to have it back...and I can help with the group, if you need any. :)
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Like. I just found out about your site. Please don't close now. My suggestion is to let doctors know who you are so they can let their patients learn about you.
When I read about your site I thought I felt hopeful for once in a long time. My intentions is to purchase products from you but I can't until I get paid on October 15. Please advise I you will still be available.
I would like a neighborhood of some kind. If not a regular chat forum then something on Facebook maybe. Just somewhere to get support and encouragement.
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