Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Feedback, feedback, feedback

There is a time-honored truism in real estate: Location, location, location. On the message boards, I would offer there is one called feedback, feedback, feedback.

At the risk of sounding obnoxious or arrogant, I have always been surprised at the small amount of feedback on these boards. Now, I am not suggesting that anyone reading a post in a thread should feel compelled to post in any given thread. But, I am suggesting that if threads which are about ideas or products which one has looked at or tried, your feedback would be more than appreciated.

I would like to give three examples. I apologize that these are all three threads of mine, but they are just the easiest to talk about.

There was a thread about Quick Messenger, an Instant Messenger for local area networks which sends messages over the network and not over the Internet like a Yahoo or MSN. For details, you can go to the thread.

http://tinyurl.com/ywre3c

There were 45 views and no replies. Out of 45 views with the link to the download site for a free product, did no one try it? I am not saying you had to try it, but if you did try it, what did you think of it. It REALLY helps other users to have other opinions on the product. You see this all the time on products on the Internet whether it is books on Amazon.com or external hard drives on Tiger Direct. There will be a number of reviews from people who have tried the product. If eight people out of 45 users downloaded the product and tried it, it definitely can sway other users to try it if six gave good feedback. Or maybe seven of eight found it to be too erratic or cumbersome.

Another was SyncToy at http://tinyurl.com/2dkex8
49 views 7 comments
Five of the comments were from me, and two were from two regulars. It's a free product made by Microsoft so I would have thought that out of 49 users, a few would have tried it.

Another one was QuickPaste at
http://tinyurl.com/yux6d7
This is an unbelievable product which has decreased our immunization documentation from approximately 30 seconds to three seconds. It is also free. This one was viewed 214 times! Only ten replies. The ten replies were posted by four users. Again, it would be so helpful if those who tried it gave either positive or negative feedback.

There have been many others. One user posted a software program which was very simple and did backups.

Not only do comments either way help with feedback, but they keep the thread at the top of the forum. So, more and more users view it and more and more feedback results.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

Great post, Bert.

I am unfortunately unqualified to comment on most of your posts, as they address problems I'm not having yet, or they're over my head, or else they're on my "to-do" list of things to try already and I haven't gotten around to them yet.

I tend not to post on subjects if I don't think I'm adding anything to the conversation.

I'm glad you reminded me of QuickPaste. I had forgotten you posted that, and I'm just starting to record my vaccinations in Amazing Charts.

This problem with "Lost Knowledge" is what I have been talking about lately. These great tips get posted, and if people don't have an immediate need for them, they scroll off the board and become exceedingly hard to find. We need to start filing them on the Amazing Wiki, so that when we have these problems later, we can find them easily. For instance, a copy of your post on QuickPaste, and a link, need to be posted on the Wiki under "Immunizations".

I downloaded SyncToy two nights ago, but my computer told me my ".NET" file was not up-to-date, and it took me a while to figure out which one I needed, and then I decided to finally go ahead and make a rescue disk for my PC before I installed, and discovered to my dismay that the guy who installed my server put a DVD player in it, instead of a burner. I got so disgusted and demoralized, I just said "heck with it" and tried the Amazing Synchronizer. I still may try SyncToy, though!

Sadly, Bert, you have supplied me with more leads, tips, programs, and good ideas than I have been able to wrap my brain around so far! (I mean that as a compliment.) Silence may mean no-one has yet grasped the brilliance of your idea!

Yeah, you are probably correct. But, I think you sell yourself short on your ability to pick up on these things. You tend to continue to move forward on your technology so your can do things more efficiently. When I am working on the PC and say there has to be a better way to do this, I either find a software program or workaround or ask my programmer to build a program for me. Too bad AC wasn't open source or my programmer would fix a few things for me.

I remember the day when my receptionist had to knock on my door five times during one visit to give me important messages. That night I reviewed over twenty LAN messengers before finding Quick Messenger. I mean you can NOT look at QM without using it. Instantly, your staff can message you HIPAA compliantly on any computer without getting up. Or I can IM them to get me so and so on the phone. Once a new patient was sitting in the room who had transferred from an outside office that day. The mother said it would be great if I had her immunization record. I IM'd my receptionist to obtain the record and continued to see the child. Five minutes later I had a message on Quick Messenger stating the immunization record was in File Assistant Pro since it was faxed digitally. I opened the pdf and nonchalantly asked them mother to review the shot record with me. She was floored! Ah technology!

But, maybe we should have an entire forum for posting links to cool software that is either on the net or available for beta testing. Again, I remember this need one that about five people looked at that was similar to SyncToy only it was SyncToy on steroids. And, I know you saw that PDF program by either Joseph2 or Vinny; I think the former. Roy saw it and loved it. That would be another one but, of course, his feedback and the others only strengthened the idea that the new and free PDF viewer was worth taking a look at. And, I know you shouldn't end your sentences with a preposition but, hey, it's Friday.

I love the links and tips I find here. Like everyone here, I work way too many hours. I tell myself I'll come back to it...but you know...there is never enough time in the day.

Some of the things that are posted, ARE over my head. I get all glossy eyed when you guys start talking about LAN's, VNP or is it VPN's(?) and the like.

I love the idea of having a forum section just for "tips, hints and tricks". I will often come here and search for something - but sometimes that's real time consuming, especially if I don't know the proper terms to search for.

I will tell you though...that I finally downloaded Short Keys and absolutely LOVE it! I know that several of you have suggested it...and even after just a few days it's making life easier. I'd love to see more hints on how people are using it. (Hmm, maybe I should start a separate thread so as not to hijack this one). So you see, a section for "Tips, Hints & Tricks" would be well used.

Barbara,

You are right, it is VPN. Unless you are using RWW to get to OWA after running CEICW.

No, I think we should talk to Vinny about setting up another forum. Maybe call it "Tips and Tricks."

Darn Bert...

NYGM A HA

Now you gave me a headache?

Like bcmd and rainy my IT knwoledge is very basic.
Time is another big factor.
However, I agree with you bert that as part of AC family we should try to give our 2 cent whenever posible.
I have learned all AC tips and trick in this forum.
I love AC. Afforabily with most of the features needed in a small office. Yes, there are issues for which we had looked for third parties softwares to complement AC.
Short Keys very helpfull.
I learned here that eprescribing is not quite yet in prime time, thus, we have been faxing our scripts to the pharmacies for about 6 months already, very very little problems with this. Doing so, we have update our Medication list and save staff time.
I gave a copy of the threat about networking to our IT guide who basically did everything suggeted here.
Bert, some of your comments about AC Imported Items have stopped me to actually start scanning our documents. In my to do list still is updoc or other documment management application, and of course the highly anticipated PMS.
I hope this will cheer you up a bit and will keep you interested on lightening the rest of us in this forum.

Romel,

Thanks for your comments on the feedback. It was hard to write it without coming across as though I wanted the feedback for my own accord.

I see you have 12 posts. In your post above, it appears as though you have read through many and applied some of the information.

What Roy and Paul and Brian and Barbara and Vinny and others (if I may speak for them) is to get many more posts from you so that we can have your perspective on AC. How is your scanning going, what are the logistics of it, how does Shortkeys work for you, etc. And, what have been your issues and what third party software have you looked at.

And, of course, even the mundane stuff that Paul and I and others throw up here about Jeeps and get togethers and griping about insurance.

Thanks for posting.

I like the idea of a "Tips & Tricks" forum, but it couldn't be comprehensive or encyclopedic, because many tips and tricks are offered up in response to a "Problem" or a "Wish" on the other forums.

Still, it would be a natural place to post new good ideas, and might help them stand apart from other threads in the "General Discussion" forum.

Also, it might help keep the tricks together in one spot, if we later decided to gather them into a Wiki entry.

Well that would be up to each user. If a tip or trick or workaround were used as a reply/answer to a Problem or Wish and the person posting it deemed it worthy of being in the Tips or Tricks forum, then he or she could post it.

I get confused with the Wikis, because I do not see a place to start a new area within the Wikis. I guess this would be up to Vinny or Jon to create. I kind of like having everything nice and tidy on the message boards. Five forums aren't that many when you compare our board with other user boards.

We have the ability to create new pages. For instance, I just started a page from scratch on "How to organize templates".

Here's a link:

http://www.amazingcharts.com/wiki/index.php?title=Organize_templates

The instructions are in the "help" section, and they are pretty straightforward.

Thanks Brian. A little over my head, though. I think I will stick to adding to topics when I get a chance.

Did you find that you need to create a different username and password for the Wikis?

I believe I did.

By the way, I don't see the Wiki as a replacement for the User Board by any means -- just as a "Hall of Fame", or a "Library at Alexandria".

The User Board should be the starting place for all these kinds of discussions and airing out of ideas; it is the most efficient way to go back and forth on topics, and hash things out. However, once a topic has been thoroughly hashed out, any useful tidbits would often be better posted on the Wiki.

For instance: the topic I put on the wiki is one which is helpful if you stumble across it, but you would never search for it on the Forum, because people may not realize they have a need for that kind of information until they run across it. There are many of those kinds of posts/threads here.

Also, threads seem to slide off the database after a year (at least that's as far back as you can search for a subject), and a link to their information may need to be preserved.

The thread I wiki'ed up took me less than an hour, and I had never wiki'ed before (of course, I do have a background in print media). You just have to fiddle around with it.

Hate to complain, but having to use a different username and password makes no sense. That would take me from 100 usernames and passwords to 101 <G>

That was a very good Wiki by the way. I did Wiki once on Wikipedia on Bjorn Borg.

Um.. look at the forum list..

V.

Brian,

The WIKI is supposed to eventually be a community-edited users manual, as opposed to the forum, that is a community sharing ideas. The Wiki would have a table of contents and possibly an index so people could find things, and each entry would be the final product to date of all of our contributions and edits.

I suggested the wiki to Jon, and he liked the idea. I don't have any say on how the wiki is run or what goes into it, and unfortunately the demands of running a practice has left me without time to contribute to it.

Regards,

V.

Vinny,

That's awesome. That will be a great help to everyone. You're the best!

Thanks, Vinny.

Hey, while you're spring cleaning, we need some more avatars!

Rainy and hockeyref both have the same avatar, and causing me to have gender confusion issues.

(Yeah, I know, never satisfied!)

You can't always get what you want, but if you try some time, you just might find.....

Rolling Stones 1969 -- Chosen the 100th best song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004.

So who's "running" the wiki? Everybody's saying the wiki needs the same password as the forum, and I heartily agree. Is that possible?


You said a mouthful there! I had two things pressing me to complete my entry:

1. I wanted to prove to Bert that it could be done.
2. I was supposed to be doing something else!!!

p.s. -- We need more avatars, or else custom avatars. I have just noticed the need for this, so it's now officially a crisis.

I think that Willy Wonka's Watching the Wiki. Where the hell did the term "wiki" come from?

And, you have nothing to prove to me, Brian. You are an AC message board genius. I vote you Watcher of the Wiki.

Bert:

(humbly)
It is your great genius which allows you to recognize the genius in me.

(waits for rotten fruit to fly in his direction)

Folks,
On the avitars I think it would be awesome if we could easily import pictures and avitars. I once brought this up before. On the Jeep sites I go to we can import pics to show off Jeeps, show repairs and custom mods and the like. Sometime a picture really is worth a thousand words. Diagram a flowsheet, a procedure or rash, post pictures of ourselves so we finally have a face to go with the name and posts.

Vinny,
What do you mean that you don't have time to help all of us anytime we need you to??? I thought you were a PCP, family doc which means I can demand as much time as I deem I need from you anytime I want, and for little or no money no less.... Sorry I could resist. It's OK, we certainly understand you issues... You've been too wonderful already. Thanks for whatever you can do and share with all of us... Its really nice to have your level of expertise around here; really.
Paul