We’re thinking about merging this section, what do you think?

[MichaelMumsnet]

Hi all,
We’re doing some work on making the Talk boards more useful and user-friendly for both regular and new users. After looking at some stats for the site, we think we could boost activity on the whole by merging some of the lesser used sections.

We’re proposing to fold the topics in this section into the General health area.

This should increase the number of topics in the section - and hopefully lead to more posts and responses to members.

I think it's 50/50 TBH. On one hand, more traffic would be good. On the other, in General Health, you'd get less specialised advice from allergy parents and people living with allergy. Sadly, a lot of people out there still think we are fussy eaters.

I'm with potatoScallop. I don't come on this board regularly (not helping your stats on traffic) but at least I know I'll get responses from people who really understand allergies, not the masses.

I would also worry that if allergy threads remain few and far between they'll just slip down the pages of the general health board and not be easy to find. I guess the only way to then find them would be to do a search which may not bring back what you're looking for.

Having the threads altogether means you can filter out what you want/need to read with just a quick glance

Agree I'm not sure merging would be helpful. I look at this board periodically to see if I can help with the allergy I have experience of, I don't tend to go onto General Health much at all.

I agree with the comments below and also think the slipping down the board will be even more of a risk as the posts will get split between General Health and Children's Health (I hardly ever visit the latter much as DS is well out of that age range now).

I really like having a separate allergy board.

Could you look at other ways to boost activity?

Maybe as well as things like "popular threads" /trending you could have other categories where you highlight different threads to get traffic?

I'd also not bother scrawling through general health to search for allergy threads to (hopefully) try and help out on... I'm mostly on the didactic end these days . But I know when I was learning, the experienced people who responded made a real difference to me .

How about merging it with auto immune?

Please don't merge topics

It would be better to have clearer signposting to the page with all the topic names.
New users don't realize they exist

Bumpity bump

This is a really bad idea. Please don't merge them!!

One more bump...

Please don't merge, for all the reasons mentioned above!

Agree with others - general health too broad for allergy stuff which will get lost.

Would make more sense to merge the women's health (women's health, menopause, family planning) sections together since people seem to post questions about those things in each of those sections!

Thanks for the comments so far.
Would a dedicated 'allergies' thread help? Then those interested could bookmark it - and it would be more active (and would attract more posters and be easier to find via search).

I only tend to respond to the threads where I have experience, so an ongoing thread with lots of new commenters would be hard to use. Not great UX IMHO. People asking for help would feel massively frustrated I imagine.

Agreed. Not to mention that allergies and intolerances covers a diverse subject area...

What about merging 'Allergies' with 'Autoimmune diseases', since they are both immune system disorders?

I think it would be a shame to merge it into general health. There seem to be other health topics that are more cull-worthy, eg:

--Swine flu
--Women's health (why does women's health need its own ghetto on a women's talk board?)
--The 'weights room' (sports topic not a health topic)

In all honesty, I don't see an issue with this merge. I could see why people were getting upset about the teenagers board merge, but this one seems fine to me.

Oh, also: I'm not sure of the logic of having separate topics for 'mental health' and 'child mental health'. (Especially when there is a third topic 'Children's health').
It's all a bit random. At least 'Allergies' does correspond to a real-world disease category, which makes it more valid than some topics.

Allergies and autoimmune would work I think. Agree with women's health stuff as mentioned above - that could go in with menopause and family planning. I've seen people asking about contraception on the women's health board quite a few times!

Oh and exercise under health has always been a bit weird to me. Ok fine, I know there is overlap but most of the posters are actually chatting about training etc and i feel that would be better in a sports and hobbies section (likewise with the weights board)?

A single allergies thread wouldn't work. People would just end up posting in children's health or general health and then get lost as mentioned in earlier replies.
Unless there is a financial implication to mumsnet for reducing the number of boards then why not leave as is, or as others have said make a sensible merge? Auto immune would be a good partner.

Think it;s best left as a senate topic or merged with autoimmune.

A single thread will be too difficult to access/navigate for people newly diagnosed etc. There are lots of subtleties with allergies and intolerances that are very confusing at first and a single thread would just overwhelm people with information all at once.

A single thread doesn't seem a good idea. People tend to post with experience of their specific types of allergies (milk, nuts etc), being honest I'm not sure I would regularly check to see if a thread with loads of posts on had any questions on that I could help with.

We also get the occasional crank on here posting about things like Vega testing, applied kinesiology etc - when that happens on an individual thread they tend to get shut down pretty quickly and it should be clear to any posters that it's dangerous quackery. On a single thread it will just stay there for ever and get credibility that is potentially very dangerous. www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/man-died-an-hour-after-being-treated-for-peanut-allergy-26531233.html

I'm also not even sure how a single thread would work. You're relying on posters finding it by search whereas I suspect in reality people with a kid who has had an allergic reacion just start a new thread - that then brings you back to the point we've made about those threads getting lost in a general health board (never mind split between General health and children's health).

What's the reason why you are so keen to get rid of this board? @MichaelMumsnet There are 22 threads that have been posted on this month - yes a couple don't have responses but most do and a number have a good few helpful responses, it's not exactly a board that's dying on it's arse is it? I hope you're not underestimating the support that parents of allergic children can need - especially those who have a new diagnosis and have the threat of anaphylaxis hanging over them. It's really not just a case of a small patch of excema and feeling a bit sick - we're talking in many cases about parents who are terrified their children could die the next time they eat (and that is what it can feel like in the early days).

I agree @RockNRollNerd - anaphylaxis is life or death. Parents of kids with severe allergies must be supported. It's a terrifying prospect that food could kill your child. The support and lived experience shares on this board would be lost in a long thread.

allergies separate from general health but agree that it would go well with autoimmune topic.