Myapnea Forum is Dying

This forum is dying because the people tasked with managing it are content to do nothing while it slowly languishes.

It could be saved and revitalized to continue supporting the global CPAP community and to preserve the vast wealth of experiences and advice contained in its threads but only the forum management team can authorize and enable that process.

I started a similar thread a year or so back and afterward, along with others, tried to initiate some actions to revive the forum but our efforts were rejected by what seems to be an obstructive and inept management team.

Dwindling Health

The only reason this forum has not faded entirely is because of the steadfast efforts that Sierra has put into the forum. If anything should happen to Sierra it would pretty much finish this forum.

This thread is intended as a wake-up call. Time is running out and it seems that, still, nothing is being done.

Two ideas in your post from a year ago will make a big difference:

• don't lock old threads, encourage necroposting....I'm one of those "drive by" users looking for specific help at a specific point in my life and all the relevant topics are 1-3 years old. It would be great if I could post right on them and add to the knowledgebase in context.

• send email notifications to posters when there is a reply to their post or on a thread they created. I've been checking back twice a day to see if anyone had advice on what I posted over a week ago, it would be nice to know I'll get a notification.

I would also add the ability to opt-in to receive DMs/direct messages. I wish I could have reached out and directly ping the people who had the same issue as me to find out if/how they solved the problem even if it was several years ago. Most people keep their email addresses for decades now, and likely would respond even if it was a "blast from the past". If they choose to opt-out of DMs or ignore the email that's fine too but even with a 20-30% uptake on DMs you breathe life into the community.

On the upside, I had trouble creating an account because yahoo mail won't deliver messages from this forum, and got pretty much immediate help by emailing support@myapnea.org so someone is interested, listening, and helpful. You should reach out to them with your concerns. As for not being able to use yahoo mail, I had to use a backup hotmail account instead. This is likely a tech issue with the domain and if they properly configure SPF and DMARC for myapnea.org the email issue will go away.

I think the biggest issue is that posters do not get any email to remind them that there is a response to their question, and then they never come back. I suggested that to those that manage the site, and I guess they are not willing to do it. The second issue is that new posters post images and they seem to go into purgatory for days, and may or may not appear at a later date. I guess it has to do with the spam filter they used. There was a recent post on ASV machines and I put a lot of effort into it, and there was a few posts, and now it has disappeared completely...

The lack of email notifications has to be a bug they have just never fixed. Right at the bottom of this page it says: "You may <unsubscribe> to stop receiving updates for this topic"

I checked my notifications settings and they all indicate that I want to receive emails, but I didn't receive any for this thread that I replied to, or the other one I started.

As I noted above I had to use a backup email account because it wouldn't send to my yahoo mail. I think email for this myapnea.org domain is just configured incorrectly and it has been placed on a bunch of spam blacklists and that is compromising the site's ability to notify people. I mean BWH is part of Harvard, right? They must have at least one techie keener who could tidy it up in a hour or so!

EDIT: Well, that theory was incorrect - I just checked myapnea.org at MXToolbox.com/blacklists and it is fine, not blacklisted at all. So the issue with sending notifications must be somewhere else within the forum software or the mailserver.

There have been a number of discussions, both here and behind the scenes, culminating in some members of the board approaching those who are managing this forum.

I get the impression that the response that those board members received was essentially:

Who do you think you are? It's none of your business! We are the experts. We are in control. We will decide what needs doing. Go away and leave us alone!

Those might be the standard responses to preserve power and control and, despite lacking initiative and tact, it might have been understandable if there was some evidence, thereafter, of purpose and progress but it's hard to see any significant or meaningful changes in the intervening months despite the favourable circumstances and increased needs and benefits created by this pandemic.

The continuing decline of this forum is not a surprise nor an accident, it is the inevitable result of decisions being made or deferred by the present MyApnea forum management team.

Sincerest apologies-- we are carefully considering your excellent suggestions and have requested help from our programmer to implement some of the changes you suggested. Your input really is valued and we are working at ways to become more responsive--we all have alot on our plates--exacerbated by the pandemic. Many thanks for your patience as we try to focus more on ways to make the forum more useful for the community.

You have an incredible history with this forum SusanR, right from its very inception.

You invested many hours of attention and effort and initiative.

I am just a passing rabble-rouser.

This thread, which probably should have been deleted, was certainly not directed at you.

It was intended to rally support, acknowledgment, and a few basic tools, for Sierra.

I get the impression that a number of forum members would support your efforts to revitalize and enliven the forum but it won't be sustainable without changes in the functionality and even then it would probably need some inspiration and initiatives similar to what you applied in the early years of the forum.

If you can make things happen behind the scenes to create a more sustainable environment I'm sure there are forum members who are willing and able to initiate and support more lively, constructive, discussions.

I'm just here to post in support of the powers that be doing anything they can to keep this knowledgebase fresh and thriving. Many, many people will benefit as I have. I think I might be a very typical drive-by poster who has a specific issue for a short duration, but if you stack all the small bricks like mine you can build an impressive long-lasting pyramid for the ages.

A pyramid!

That's what this is all about?

I've been hauling rocks, like forever, with no clue as to what we were building.

No wonder it's taking so long to get to the point!

An abandoned, half-finished pyramid would be such a sad thing.

Seems like we need more minions.

thanks for all of the good feedback. Our programmer had de-commissioned the email notices a while back as there was concern about spam which resulted in black listing the site. He has re-engineered this. Please see directions:

To receive emails from the forum the user should: Under Settings -> Email, https://myapnea.org/settings/email, a user needs to have emails enabled.

Under Settings -> Notifications, https://myapnea.org/settings/notifications, a user has two options to auto-subscribe to forum topics

• Auto-subscribe when replying to a forum topic
• Auto-subscribe to new forum topics

Users can also manually subscribe and unsubscribe from forum topics.

Please let us know how this works!

Yes, to ReggieN's point above -

Two ideas in your post from a year ago will make a big difference:

don't lock old threads, encourage necroposting....I'm one of those "drive by" users looking for specific help at a specific point in my life and all the relevant topics are 1-3 years old. It would be great if I could post right on them and add to the knowledgebase in context.

send email notifications to posters when there is a reply to their post or on a thread they created. I've been checking back twice a day to see if anyone had advice on what I posted over a week ago, it would be nice to know I'll get a notification.

These changes - 1) no locked threads and 2) email notifications for new posts on subscribed topics - are now in place. Thanks to ReggieN, Biguglygremlin, Sierra, and others for raising (and reiterating) these issues. By default, a new user who signs up and makes a new topic will receive an email notification when someone (i.e. most likely Sierra!) has responded.

Thank you...great news!

Also - the email notifications work fine - I'm receiving them.

1,100 views of this thread. Rumours of the death of myapnea.org forums might have been premature!

But I heard it on the grapevine ...... those darned Muppets!

I've heard that starting rumours can be so much fun!

Especially if they are proven to be completely unfounded!

Otherwise, they could hardly be called rumours, could they?

I think, maybe the jury is still out on this one.

Joining the Forum on RBD - diagnosed in 2011 at age 54 with dream enactments starting slowly in 2007. A lot more information around than 15 years ago. Check out naps-rbd.org