So, Alex-Host, tell us a bit about your role in the message boards?
I work on everything message board related on the ChildLine website. Obviously you know about the hosting already but I also help people within ChildLine with any questions they have about the message boards.
I keep the message boards tidy - I close threads if users ask me to, remove duplicate messages and create the sticky threads you see at the top of some of the message boards.
I also pass on information from within ChildLine to the community and feedback from the community back to ChildLine.
For example, recently I have been working closely with ChildLine's participation team to help represent the views on the message boards to the Minister for Children and Families.
Oh, and I also get to do lots of testing on new versions of the site which is harder work than you might think!
What sorts of things are young people asking for?
I think the most popular request at the moment is for extra features within the locker area. Many users would like to see extra items here including a diary, a list of all the threads you have contributed to and more space for saving images. All exciting ideas!
What happens with the feedback and how does it help?
Well, it depends on what type of feedback it is. I pass all of the feedback on to the relevant areas of ChildLine where the teams will read and assess it.
Some technical issues are minor and can be fixed fairly quickly but others need more work and investigation and can take a while to put right.
It's the same with ideas for new features really.
For example, several users let me know that it was hard to know which post a failure message from the moderation team referred to. ChildLine were able to arrange for the moderation team to send out a copy of each rejected post with each message. This way you know which post was failed and you can make changes to it and repost it once you know why it failed the first time.
On the other hand, some ideas require big changes to the structure of the site and have to go through a development process before they can be made, and this can take some time. Many of the changes made during the last update were first suggested last year by users filling in the feedback survey at the bottom of the message board page.
Feedback is hugely important if the message boards are to improve in ways that the users would like to see. I know I sound a bit like a broken record sometimes thanking people for leaving feedback but it’s really useful and everyone on the team appreciates it. This way we know that any changes we make are what users would like to see.
Have you worked on any other boards in the past?
I have. I've been working on message boards and online communities since 2004 in one form or another. This is my first hosting experience but I have been a moderator and community admin on lots of communities. I worked on the BBC's Onion Street forums and the BBC Blast message boards which were great fun to be involved with and lots of others.
Most of my experience is with young peoples’ communities and charity sites so ChildLine was a great fit for me!
What do you like about the ChildLine community?
I love the way users on ChildLine are so supportive! It's very rare that a question goes unanswered and posters give up their own time to help support others. A lot of the time other members of the community answer questions before I see them and do a great job! The idea for the message boards was to provide a way for users to offer each other peer support and you all do a fantastic job.
If you could sum up the message board community in two words, what would they be?
Friendly and supportive!