I don't understand why DS cannot simply return the site to the former format. This format sucks in every way, shape and form. For me, the worst part is seeing only one thing at a time instead of all things--your friends' list, your listing of groups, your journals, hugs, messages, photos. This encouraged navigation to different parts of the site, such as groups, reading of discussions in groups and participation in them, additions to journals, photos, etc. It encouraged interaction.

I literally could not believe my eyes when I first saw the new site. It's ridiculous. This is like having been at a party and seeing all the interaction taking place in the room, seeing people you know and planning to interact with them, seeing the food table, the drinks table, the flowers. Then boom! The room disappears. You are in the room, but you can't see the room. You can only see one thing in the room at a time. You can see one face, or one chair, or one glass of wine, or one cracker. You have the ability to change what one thing you wish to look at, but you only get to see one thing at a time. End of party.

I disagree that this site is now what WE make it. It is what DS made it. You don't see this kind of mass exodus from a site because, all of a sudden, thousands of members simultaneously stopped doing their part.

@kris - "LIKE"

Super analogy! It's like they don't want us at the party any more because they did this ON PURPOSE!!

ds was definitely going downhill way before this impotent site was dumped on us. But it still worked WAY better than this pos. And I think I know why. (If its true) The 1st link below says that HSW bought ds from Doug Hirsch in 2008. In 2009 it (HSW and ds) was "acquired" by mama* site owners. (*and they've been continuing to acquire health sites and businesses before and ever since!!)

Everything makes so much more sense when you add the 2nd link. And, it certainly gives credence to the old adage that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. It also lends a little validity to what I've been theorizing all along about ds being nothing more than a bridge to the mama site which is where all the $ is AND STAYS.

https://gigaom.com/2009/11/02/419-healthcare-qa-site-sharecare-launched-by-discovery-harpo-others-acquire/

imho, ds is just one more "healthcare" site/business that mama is adding to her "family" in order to create a giant monopoly. This is why I believe that ds is doomed to never be improved navigation/design-wise or that it will ever be the community support oriented site it started out to be. (notice the word "only" in the first sentence. And you can bet they are NOT referring to ds because they have their own app already.) And I quote:

"Our vision is we want to be the only health app on your phone. The same way you don’t have 12 apps to manage your money, you’re not going to have 12 apps to manage your health," Arnold* said. "We have made 10 acquisitions over the last several years putting together what we think the key pieces are that are going to enable you to manage all your health and wellness in one place." (*jeff arnold is the creator of webmd & notice the reference to all the acquisitions!)

http://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/sharecare-adds-1700-employees-acquisition-healthways-population-health-business (3rd paragraph)

I am NOT holding out ANY hope for any REAL concrete improvements or changes here. Nor do I hold out any hope for any kind of concern or compassion for ds users on the part of ds' owner's, designers, or the staff. Also not expecting that the mama site dr PTB involved, especially the all powerful/famous oz, to do anything to help us. (Wonder what happened to "first do no harm?")

Now that I found this, I feel that I can make an informed decision about how I will use and not use this site. I won't bother coming to this group any more because we aren't being considered or listened to by ds. And I certainly will never ever use the mama site's app.

*sigh*

RIP ds

MTC,

I have definitely had the sense that DS had to have screwed the site up on purpose. It would be next to impossible to mess a site up this badly by accident.

I had difficulty following your reasoning above, partly because I have concentration problems and I didn't read the links. ARE you suggesting they did it on purpose, and if so, why? Is it because they want to move people to the mother site which is where they make the most money?

kris, I can't say why they did what they did. I can only guess. And my guess is that they wanted to get rid of the biggest competition for their app which would be ds. What better way than to buy it and eventually strip it of its best features so their app would be more attractive? (of course I could be wrong)

MTC, That's what I thought you were saying. I think you are right.

Some "care" site. Ugh.

LOL dooo. If you check the 2nd link, you'll see photos of another app. I'm just speculating here, but I wouldn't be surprised if the stress app you're referring to is only part of the bigger app picture. It will be interesting to see how this all unfolds.

I also noticed something on another part of this site. If you go to a member created group, you will see ads for the mother site. And, depending on what the ad words it picks up on, the ads are different for each group. Speculating again, but I'm betting that they are being aimed specifically toward the "theme" of the group.

I am still hoping that sometime soon hugs may be open again!!!... wink

These are my own thoughts.... No one has stated this to me however from what I've read and listened to online.... the vision that Jeff Arnold has had is handheld devises and healthcare thus the new DS with scrolling etc.... I think that this is part of the vision IMHO ... I'm not sure this is so but it makes sense to me

I do think that a lot of things are up to us to make the effort and some of what I've read I don't have the same memory of.....

How active DS was back in the hay day was a nightmare at times... The trolling and fighting was terrible at times.... That doesn't go on anymore at least nothing in compared to the way it was years ago

There are things that I'd love to see return as well.... However I honestly don't think that DS is going to be going back to the old format

I tried writing to Share care and got nowhere. They forwarded my email to Ds. DS asked me to tell them the issues. I politely as possible, told them they weren't listening to the people crying out for help, so there was no point in me complaining

It is a shadow of what it was. Were we asked if we wanted any change, NO. So why did they ruin it? It was so easy to use. I have lost lots of friends and I rarely get any answers to my post. I wish they would put it back the way it was. We do not need fancy graphics. When someone is hurting and need to vent, they are not going to have time or of mind to navigate complex sites.

I have been on this site for several years. I, too, am disappointed with all the changes from the old to the new site. I, too, agree that there really is no comparison - the old site was, by far, much better in all the areas already mentioned here. I have accepted that things probably won't get better, but I choose to remain since DS is still a comfortable place to post and to be understood by other members in the groups that I am a part of - I figure if I can get a response from just one person who understands what I am feeling, I am good with that. Yes, I, too, yearn for the old site; but I know reality says, "it's gone, and it's not coming back." Roxanne

My understanding from discussions with DS was that the main driver was to increase the reliability of the site.

My impression is that the site hadn't really changed since 2006 and with the old code it was getting harder to maintain. I suspect the original DS platform hadn't been built for the nearly 2 million accounts it had.

I think another driver would be to freshen up the appearance and make it more compatible with phones, handhelds etc.

I personally think those were valid reasons, DS had indeed become very flaky and slow.

However how those changes were implemented is another matter.

I was a member years ago and recently came back. I see lots of changes both good and bad but from seeing other posts, I don't think it will go back to the DS that I remember. that may or may not be a good or bad thing. I also saw a post of easy counter. I've used several sites that do page counts. I used to like easy counter but after looking at reviews, while it does have an good reputation, it also had negative reviews and the traffic from the site looks to be mainly from China and India.

http://www.easycounter.com/report/easycounter.com

DS also has some very negative press - but what I saw was a group of disgruntled and banned members commenting on various sites so it's probably not something I would pay too much attention to.

Re most of the traffic going to easycounter being from China and India that's not the same thing as seeing the same things for DS. Easycounter's traffic is likely to be those people who are building websites and checking stats - and those who are working on manipulating page rankings etc.

The India and China traffic coming to DS is mainly to be spammers so if those figures are high then it's not such a good thing.