We Need You!

Are you looking for a place to discuss diabetes and the related diabetes complications? Are you also looking for a place if you are outside the English speaking community and would like to increase you knowledge and usage of the English language?

If so, why not join MyDiaBlog.com (the site is no longer on the internet) and participate in the discussions. We have room for you. We do not allow automatic membership because we try to protect the site from those who would misuse it and spread misinformation. We also do not want advertising or spam messages. We try to prevent them from joining and if they do find a way in and then misuse our trust, they will be deleted.

We try to limit our discussions to the topics at hand and already part of the site, but if you do not see something that you would like to discuss, ask an active moderator to set it up for you. We may be able to direct you to something already established. Try to complete as much of the information as possible as this helps us determine who you are.

If you are unsure at the start, do not be afraid to look around and become acquainted with the site. Do not worry about your English, as we will ask questions if we do not understand. As far as diabetes is concerned, we have people that have most types of diabetes or they would not be on the site. We have been through the full range of problems and someone should be able to help you, or get help for you.

We are not doctors so we can only use our personal experiences and give you support and encouragement in a positive manner. We make suggestions and urge you to consult with your medical people if you have a problem that needs solving quickly.

Many of us are Americans or from other countries that speak the English language from around the world, so much of the advice will be from these countries, but we may have members from your country that can assist as well. Do not let the fact that Americans only have one system of measurements and the rest uses a different system. There are conversion charts and programs to help and all you need is to ask.

If you have questions, I can also be reached at the email address on my profile page by clicking on “View my complete profile”. I will do my best to answer questions by return email. On the site, we do have a few languages that the site can be translated into, but they are European languages.

We would like to have you (my readers) as an active member of MyDiablog, so please consider this.

More About The Social Networking Site

I am happy to report that the site is still up and active and we are recruiting new members.  Thank you.  Check out my blog here if you would please.

I am happy to report that work on the site in my last blog in ongoing and some areas are much more intuitive or I should say easier to find your way around. Some files were unfortunately lost in the process, but if people don't realize this, then they would be wise to accept it and realize that information can be accidentally lost in a beta version.

I may be hasty in writing this, but if something changes, so be it. I want to say a few things about the orange column on the right side of the page – the orange vertical tool bar. This is an interesting column as it starts with a search box at the top and as of now there is not much to search for, but may be just what you need six months or longer as more and more people join and more information is put up on the sight.

The next item down the column is for connecting to Twitter. Since I have a twitter account, but don't use it, I checked the no button. This closed the area, but tells you to click in the twitter icon if you wish to change. The very small Twitter icon does appear after you move away from the page you are on (I was on the home page) and I would think it would be the same for answering yes, but I am not sure. I did click on the icon and it asked me to log into Twitter. And that same log in page it does have a warning for you to read. The icon did disappear altogether after I rejected logging into Twitter, and it did reappear later as I experimented with other buttons.

The next item is your photo and a place for help and logout. I know that some do not use a photo which may be okay, but I would encourage you to use one or a symbol that is unique to you. I could put a picture of a toy semi-truck since I retired out of the transportation field, but since I use a photo on my blogs , I prefer my photo.

Next down the column is the Manage Account rectangle with when clicked on has the following: change profile photo, edit profile, edit location, edit account and finally edit privacy and settings. Each takes you to that section in your profile. This is followed by the Invite Contacts. Here you can do several things to invite your email contacts to join you on this site. I may explore this more later and invite a few more people as I have been emailing individually some of my contacts.

Then we come to Your Status. Basically this is a short (suggested three words) statement for anything you wish to state. It accepted my six words “I'm not ready for daylight savings”. Look around at the different members and see what they are saying. Next is the important items, Messages, Requests, and Notifications.

Messages are private messages (PM's) that you receive from other members. These are just that – private so keep them that way. If someone insults you and uses this for advertising, I suggest that you let the owner David Wolf or one of the moderators know immediately and let them handle the matter.

The requests are just that, a friend request that you may accept or deny. Notifications are notices you will receive from others that they will issue as bulletins to their friends to invite them to join a group, or take part in an event or possibly enter a chat room at a certain time.

Then there is a section with icons for adding Video, Photo, Music, Event, Groups, Blog, Bulletin, or Files. The last two were not what I expected and when I clicked on them I was given an answer. Bulletins are notifications you send. Files are public files you put in the library to store or use later.

Next is a list of who is online. It does not seem to be auto-updating and the number in the tab on the lower bar directly under it will seldom agree in number with the list of people on line. Then there is a View All which should (I thought) make the two areas agree, but even that seldom does.

The orange toolbar is one of the more creative parts of this sight. I had not explored it until recently and while I had looked at it before, I have not clicked on many of the buttons and investigated what was happening under the hood. Now that I have, some of it is not the most intuitive, but once you actually click on them, you will know what the icon or button is for and its purpose.

Are You Tired of Today's Diabetes Forums?

Well, it came to an end.  Not the way many of us desired, but participation waned and March 23, 2012 the site will disappear.
 
If you are looking for something a lot more social and possibly a bit more informing than many of the diabetes forums that exist today, you might want to stop by MyDiaBlog. This is different and while it is online now and you are able to join, it is still in the final stage and some areas are not yet as intuitive as some would like.

You will need to be an explorer of sorts, but the learning curve is not steep and actually is rather fun. I had some doubts about the site after reading David Mendosa's blog about it, but after a few days I did explore the site and a couple of days later joined. You are welcome to read David's blog here and I wish you would.

This site is the creation of David Wolf and do not be surprised after joining. You may have one of the moderators welcoming you. The first time this happened, I thought what the heck and answered back. We had a short conversation and I am happy that I did. This puts the social in social media networking. Be sure to check out the bar at the bottom. It has the status for chat on the right side, along with who in on line. On the left side there is access to chat rooms.

I am still lurking on the site and exploring the features – and there are many. The second time another moderator started to chat, I was deep into exploring and closed the chat box which is very similar to the one found on Google Chat. I probably should have said hello and exchanged pleasantries as I had already been interrupted, but I was deep into learning and wanted to finish what I was exploring.

These are a few of the features, Members, Forum, Blog posts, Events, Library, Photos, Videos, and Games. There are others but I have not explored them all. I have not checked all this, but under many of the areas, there is a menu when it opens. It has been exciting to watch the changes over the last few days as some have been expanded and some have been clarified.

Under Forum for example are Home, New Posts, My Groups, My Watched Topics, and My Topics. Again, I have not explored all of these, but New Posts is where you may start a new topic. Blog Posts is still being worked on, but there are lots of blogs at this point. Anyone can create a group so that people with like interests can join and compare ideas and interests.

There is still much to explore, and I look forward to finding out more of this developing social networking site which is different from forums and other sites and is more like a social network site than I have seen previously. Privacy is very much in the forefront, but there are some areas that may be weak at this point. The profile section is excellent, but the listing of activities by members is a little disconcerting, but this may need to be open so that you can see who is doing what. Security is so much better than facebook that there is no comparison. Facebook is so bad it hurts and this is on the other end of the spectrum.

So check out the site and see if it fits your needs. Once you have joined, do not get surprised by the moderators extending a welcome. When the box appears, be ready to chat if so desired.