Thoughts on the October 2024 upgrade

I'll be banging my own drum in this regard (ie the points that you raise above) very shortly.  I am starting to detect real harm and damage within our community Sparkly.  This is NOT cool.  Thank you for re-assuring me that my impending post is "not too much!"  Us autistic folk, know how hard that self-judgement can be.  You have helped me - so thank you - but please do not feel obliged to reaction to my post, merely based on this response to yours.  If you think I am not "on-the-mark" just let my post float away - OR - "tear-me-a-new-one."!

FKH - Life is complex Sparkly !!  With warm, long established, trusted, safe, comfortable assurances -  Number.

When I wrote my original post, it hadn't been my intention to spend too much time dwelling on the (currently ongoing) technical issues, mainly because I had hoped they would have all been sorted out by now. However, it's now been a week since the 'upgraded' platform opened its doors and welcomed us in, so to speak. I use the word 'welcomed' loosely, as I think many of us would agree that the technical issues have made this platform feel far from welcoming.

I do not claim to be an IT expert, but if I was an employee of the 'IT partners' that had been contracted to undertake the upgrade, one of the first things I would have done would have been to create a handful of online community accounts, which could then be used to check that everything was functioning as it should be after the upgrade.

Now, if I was a NAS employee and the IT partners had reported back that there were technical issues likely to affect the mental health and wellbeing of site users, I think I personally would have been inclined not to let the online community area of the site 'go live' until the issues had been sorted. Based on my observations, the way things have played out so far has resulted in a lot of angst for community users. As for the moderation team, I imagine they have been feeling super-stressed too.

With the benefit of hindsight, I cannot help but feel that the upgrade was rushed. Had it been properly tested, and if time had been factored in to rectify any unexpected technical problems, all the confusion, frustration, and anger being experienced by users (and possibly the moderation team too) could have been avoided.

I have a profile page???? Where? I think all I've ever had on mine was my user name, I don't remember being asked about anything else.

Maybe it's just me being crap again?

I'm disappointed with the same things most people here are, especially the fact that the layout has remained the same in threads ie this:

Sporadic Sparkly said:

Before the upgrade, I'm aware that some members had found it confusing when the replies to discussions consisted of replies to replies - what some members refer to as sub-threads, I think. Based on my observations so far, no changes (improvements) seem to have been made to how those sub-threads appear.

However, NAS aren't under an obligation to provide a forum, as a charity.

If they do though it should of course function well otherwise it just adds to the daily stresses of autists.

The mods aren't in any way responsible for the problems here and they have clearly been trying to help (so thanks).

I'd like for whoever has full paid responsibility for the forum upgrade to post here, personally.

There is a solution here for those still unable to log into their original accounts, posted recently by Sharon mod:

 Password problems 

My thoughts are that it’s causing a lot of upset - and I’m writing this mainly to see if my account is even functioning! 

Email notifications are working again.  I haven't had an email from Nas since signing up. I received one suddenly from the 3 good things thread and then I remembered this place. Logging in has been near impossible, I used the password reset link and that allowed me access to my FJM account.

On first glance the community is definitely faster. Emoji doesn't glitch through the whole wall of text so far. I'm able to edit my post without it going in to the spam quarantine. So far the only issue for me has been the singing in. I created a new temporary account initially but everything I typed the system thought was spam even editing my profile page then I decided to wait it out until I could access this one again. 

I was told that if you haven't got anything nice to say, then it is better to say nothing.

According, I comment on the changeover process (and resultant "New" forum functionality) as follows;

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I hope that explains my feelings..

The one I put there that starts with "community.autism..."

What link?

It's your profile page - no, it's not private.

Remember how new users would have them as their username?

There is no reason for it to be private - it is just the default username.

Click on the link - you typed all that - definately not meant to be private.

How did you finbd this information, shouldn't this be private and not accessible to other memembers?

Now I'm having problems getting the whole conversation, I get the OP but not the body of the thread.

The site also seems to have gone to dial up speed and I keep getting timed out, I know it's this site as others load instantly.

Mummycat - if it helps, your NAS number is at the end of your (original) profile page

community.autism.org.uk/.../nas92378

So, in your case it is NAS92378

These aren't private info - it's just what you were given before renaming yourself to TheCatWoman

I think it's an utter shambles, I still can't access my original account, I'm not keen on the new lay out, it's taken ages or to turn of notification and for them stay switched off.

Old threads are still being disintered and commented on, the one I noticed earlier was year and years old.

Am I the only one who dosen't have my original account number? It never occured to me that it was something I would ever need, when I created my account my number was replaced by the name I'd chosen.

There are things I'd like to do, but I daren't in case I start the whole sorry process of being accuse of abuse or of being a spam account.

That’s great advice guys

Thank you 

Hi Eunice

Thank you for your reply and I’m sorry that I have perhaps added to your heavy workload.

Really appreciate your speedy response 

I have managed to get into mine for me. I was wondering if this might be helpful. 

I didnt need to send them a Nas number all I needed to do was say I cant log in at the weekend then today they came back with a link to reset my password with my NAS number on the email  today.

 after doing that I  had an email saying i hope you got it after. I clicked reset password then it came up with bars with reset password password abouve.  you dont need to put your email adress in. just type your password in then you sign in and put your email and password after that then it signs you in. this is only in my case though. i dont know if people have tryed it this way or not aswell yet but thought it might be helpful

Dear Take5, 

Yes - as Sporadic Sparkly says, make it clear to them which account you want re-activating by providing that NAS number. If you find an old post of yours, click on yourself to take you to the profile and your NAS number is at the end of the URL in your browser.