Hello everyone,

I am very happy to announce that starting today we have a new section on site called MarketPlace.

You can find the link to it at the top right bellow the search box and on the left menu (yehh – there is a menu there, I know many do not notice it…).The MarketPlace is powered by our partner www.HealthPricer.com, the leading price comparison engine for health products on the internet.

The MarketPlace is a huge search engine for health products that finds and compares the prices of hundreds of thousands of products (including RX) in real time and delivers the lowest price you can find for a specific product.

Using the MDJunction MarketPlace to buy your health products will serve two goals. The first – you will be able to save money on products you buy regularly. The second one is MDJunction. We will earn a small % of what you pay (about 4% - the seller pays, not you…. ;-) ) this will hopefully help us pay the bills and enable us to continue developing and maintaining the FREE MDJunction project, on its way to become the #1 source for support on the web!

We have some very cool stuff in the oven, I’ll let you know in a few weeks when we launch.

Keep healthy and happy ;-)

roy

 

and…..as always,  UV - three weeks away from her first birthday…

 

Hi Everyone,

A few quick notes.

First I'd like to tell you, that as you probably noticed the community continues to grow very fast. We have more than 300,000 monthly visitors and growing fast! A lot of the credit goes to you guys for the great help you are offering each other and the family warmth felt in every group. Thank you ;-)

I'm happy to announce that we've finally changed the ranking system of the site.Many of you contacted us regarding the old system and said it is hard to understand what comes before what and how it works. The new rankings algorithm calculates all the activity on site and generates 5 different rankings.

• New Comer - the first few days before you have enough posts, diary entries, article, hugs etc'
• Member - the majority of the people in MDJunction will get this rank after some time on site.
• Senior Member - this rank is for people who are heavily involved in group activity and helping others. Not many members in this rank right now. I hope more will join soon ;-)
• VIP Member - this rank is yet to be awarded (although some Senior Members are near by) and represents exceptional well doing on every aspect of the community.
• The last rank is Group Leader. It is not calculated by the algorithm. Group leaders are chosen by the site administrators.

* I would like to say again. The rankings are determined by the system automatically. We do not stop anyone from reaching a higher rank. You just need to keep active and nice....

The third (and last) is that we've opened up the articles section of every support group that everyone can now publish articles. The link is at the top of the article page or at the bottom of every article.

An article can be many things. An informational article (facts about the condition, common symptoms, leading clinics, famous people etc'), personal stories (personal experience, success stories, failures, family members, thoughts about what you experiencing....), it can also be helpful material (how to read test results, guide to the newly diagnosed, most common question about etc') and anything else you wrote and think is worth publishing (Poems, Goals...).

Have fun with it!

I hope we all have a great week.

roy

A lot of people ask me if/how they can help MDJunction grow and help more people.

Well… we do need your help!

Bellow is a small list of things I thoughtof it’s under 3 categories. On site, other places and people you know.I don’t expect everyone to start fulltime work on this, but when you do have some spare time please give this a thought ;-)

 

On Site

This is easy…

Be nice to everyone, join discussions and let people know your thoughts, hug people – everyone likes to be hugged, if you feel you can become a group leader – let us know, review your doctors (add them if no one did before), Invite your caretaker to help the group, write a diary (and comment others) and write articles related to your condition.

I know ‘Article’ is a big word, but what we really need is your opinion and point of view. You can write about your personal experiences, you can write some info about your condition (symptoms, treatments, and famous people), you can research a bit about clinics, associations, offline support groups – anything that might benefit others. That’s why we’re all here.

 

Other Places

The most important thing is Word-Of-Mouth. Tell people about MDJunction, about your experiences and what you gain. The more people know the better.

If you have a page on MySpace, FaceBook, friendster etc’ please link to your support group from there, make it easy for people to find it. If you write a blog – Please please please write about us ;-).

Many of our members participate in all sorts of forums. If you think it’s relevant, tell people in those forums about MDJunction. You can even link to it from your email signature (One of our members sent me an email and his signature said ‘I believe in People Helping People’. It was a link to MDJunction !!).

The help is not limited to the internet. You can tell your doctor, at the clinic or at a support group.

 

People you know (or can reach).

Fortunately (or not) humans still rule the earth. We all know people. They know people. And many of us know how to get to people…

All the people I describe bellow can be pros on a national level, but it’s just as good if they do it as amateurs in the basement.

So - Do you know?

Reporters, Bloggers, people who work in/with Organizations & Associations, website owners, Land base support group leaders and members ????? If you do, please tell them about MDJunction. they can help a lot in spreading the word around.

 

Thanks everyone!

roy

 

 

and a new pic…

Its been a long long time since I last posted here.

I guess Alon keeps you guys updated and I have nothing really smart to say ;-)

 

A few updates:

We created a new forum section for all the groups called: Group Lounge – Off topic discussions (like the introduction, support etc’).

Many of the members contacted us wanting a place to vent about things unrelated to the group topic – this is the place.

you can also take a look at the anyone awake- http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/bipolar-support-forums/general-support/50496-anyone-awake-feb-24-discussion-no-topic#51209  post that the bipolar group opens everyday – its an amazing ongoing idea.

 

We fixed the problems with adding an image to a post. It’s supposed to be OK now.

 

I hope I’ll be able to publish the new FAQ by the end of this week, or maybe early next week… (OOhhh ). Carmen did a great job with it – I’m sure it will make navigating the site much easier.

 

I wish you all a great week,

roy

 

 

(and – 2 new pics of UV, 7 months old yesterday)  

 

 

Over the last couple of weeks we had a few ‘incidents’ (in different support groups) in which people were offended by posts of other members and group leaders.

 

After reading those posts / threads I’ve come to the conclusion that ALL incidents could have been avoided if members were to respect each other and give their support group friends the benefit of the doubt.

 

We are all here because we have problems. Some have physical problems, others mental problems and an ‘elite group’ who shares both.

Those problems often make us ‘jumpy’ and see things only from our own perspective. But this is not the case. We are here as individuals but act as a group, and the unity of the group relies on the diversity of its members.

 

I haven’t met a single person in our community who’s intentions were to hurt others (aside from the occasional spammer which we delete and ban ;-) ). We are here to help ourselves and our friends. People helping people. Remember that!

 

It’s OK to have different opinions. It’s Ok to disagree with your friends and its even OK to get mad at something someone said, but please please please keep things in perspectives. We are here for each other.

 

Hope you all understand and forgive those who offended you.

 

Peace ;-)

 
roy   

I feel it’s a good to time to share with you our vision for MDJunction, the online support groups. Part of it we already address in the about us page.

 

I’m sure everybody remembers the second they got their diagnosis, or before when you know something is wrong but not sure what.

You feel Confused, Sad, Uninformed “I’m the only one in the world who has this”. You need support.

Later when you start fighting the illness you have your ‘ups and downs’, you’re on a mission – so many different experiences. And when your illness is stable or (even better ;-) ) cured you’re overwhelmed, Changed, full of Happiness and the joy of Success.

 

We believe that throughout these ‘experiences’ people would like to be around people who are (and were) in the same spot (they understand you best), ask a million questions, find out about websites and land base centers, get informed about what treatments and medicine are most common, Hear success stories (I love hearing those), feel the warmth of people, share successful treatments and those who failed, talk about your feelings and  progress, feel that others understand you.

There is no doubt that once you are in a better place you’d like to share your triumph and help others by spreading the wisdom you’ve collected along the path. Be there for others, like someone else was for you.

 

We call this the ‘giving cycle’ and it’s the reason this whole site started and our vision for the future (which is getting closer, at least statistically LOL).

 

At first you take, then you share and finally you get the chance to help!

 

People Helping People in online support groups.

Is it too much to ask? ;-)

 

Love to hear your thoughts on this.

 

 

And for the many people who asked: a new pic of my beautiful daughter (her nick is UV)

 

This actually happened 7 weeks ago, but I only got the chance to tell a few of you…

NO SLEEP FOR ME!

My diary description says I’ll let you know about new stuff we release, being this is my first post – I guess I should start with diaries.

So – we are officially launched the diaries (it was on for the last couple of days, but not officially announced). This is the place you can share your progress, experiences and knowledge you gain along the path. It can be related to the challenges you’re dealing with, a day-to-day log, a place to rant-off or anything else you think of.

As this is a first version many changes will be done later, if something doesn’t work right or you think can done better please let me know (comment on this post or PM me). This is also true for everything else in the community.

Enjoy writing your diaries! Wooooohoooooooo!