New forum? Really?

Thank you Debbie. I have found it now. It had a number by it, so I didn't think of trying that.

Homebird said:

but I can't see how to find my profile, unless that is no longer possible. It used to be at the bottom of the page when I was signed in.

Via 'arrow' then avatar.

Sporadic Sparkly said:

I know it wouldn't have taken that much time and effort for the IT team to have removed features that have never served any purpose, while the community had been offline. I mean, it's not like we would suffer distress at the removal of features that have always been surplus to requirements.

Absolutely.

In the words of David Byrne, it is 'the same as it ever was'.

He/Talking Heads say it better than me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsSpAOD6K8

I have reset my password but not sure if my name remains, because they quoted a number, which I presume was the one I started with. I also can't see my name on my screen like I used to.

So sending this to see who it says I am. I have been looking and today was the first day I felt able to try to get signed back in. Thanks to those who tested it first and the technical team for sorting the signing in issues.

1. Just editing my comment as I can now see it is me, but I can't see how to find my profile, unless that is no longer possible. It used to be at the bottom of the page when I was signed in.

Yes me too. NAS sent me a change your password link but it changes the password to my new account now and I can't find my old one? I've given up and will stick with this one. I got too stressed about it.

Mummycat  Are you able to explain what it is that you don't have the ability to access? Would it help if we (the community) were to provide you with step-by-step visual instructions? I hope you won't feel offended by that suggestion, but I know some people can find visual instructions easier to follow than solely text-based ones.

Debbie said:

Is it just me that this is bothering?

No, it's not just you.

I had been expecting to see some rather drastic changes, but to me it just seems like the same forum with a few subtle changes.

However, maybe cintrodinara 's theory is right. Another thought is that because many autists can struggle with change, perhaps the NAS had felt it might be less overwhelming for the community if changes were made gradually. That said, surely this would have been made clear to us before the platform upgrade? 

Now that I've had an opportunity to have a good look around, it seems that things that served no purpose before the upgrade still remain. For example, our profile pages still include a 'Blog posts' tab. If one navigates to Settings → Notifications, there's a category called 'Calendar'.

Maybe I am being overly critical, but having previously completed a basic course in web design, I know it wouldn't have taken that much time and effort for the IT team to have removed features that have never served any purpose, while the community had been offline. I mean, it's not like we would suffer distress at the removal of features that have always been surplus to requirements.

My added trauma is that I still can't access my proper account only this one that I had to set up using my Mums email adress, a new name, pass word the lot. Ijust gone through all the suggested steps and they either don't work or I don't have the ability to access them so I'm probably going to be stuck with this now.

Thanks.  I'm not getting PMs at the moment so I didn't know that.

Good to know.

Debbie said:

remove private messages.

They did add a new 'leave' option as well as the previous 'hide'. Leaving does this:

As a reminder, this is what was said:

 Online Community Update 

• Detailed instructions to clearly explain how to use all the community functions.
• Increased moderation to ensure the community is a safe, welcoming, and supportive platform.
• Bookmarking threads of interest on your profile page.
• Enhanced accessibility options for better usability.
• Functions to hide users and remove private messages.
• Additional forums for broader discussions.
• Improved spam filtering system.

This is probably an alpha release the one they release to the public but it isn't the final polished version yet. I expect its gonna be a gradual transition upgrade where over time they will integrate these new features and fix the bugs. This to me seems like we’re on the alpha version where they are still testing it out, finding the bugs, what works, what doesn’t. Any surveys released are to gather data on what people want and if the platform is capable they can add these things at a later date.

... and the spam filter (used to be Akismet, I don't know if it still is) is worse than ever .... with some users (Roy ) unable to post much at all.

So far I've seen no improvements at all and in fact it just appears to be exactly the same (layout, settings, functions - everything) with some added trauma thrown in.