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miehnesor
USA
430 Posts |
 Posted - 11/10/2006 : 09:59:19
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The latest thread "CFS in the news" got me thinking about effective ways to spread Dr. Sarno's work to the public. When I think about how I found this site it was only because I first found out about Dr Sarno. But suppose you are a CFS or RSI or Fibro sufferer and you don't know about Dr Sarno?
So I tried a few google searches without Dr. Sarno and TMS in the search and didn't find this site. So I'm wondering if there are many folks out there who would love to discover this site but don't because they don't know specifically about Dr. Sarno's work.
I noticed that the cover page of this forum does not have the catch phrases like CFS and RSI and so forth but just talks about Dr. Sarno's work. It seems like a good cover page but without these catch phrases it seems like a search might not easily find the site. So i'm wondering how newcomers find this site. Do they first find out about Dr. Sarno like I did or do they do better web searching than I do?
So I guess my question is- is that deliberately like that to limit the number of people visiting the forum? (I know Dave has expressed concern about the site already getting too big.)
I think if folks can easily find this forum- it would be a good start in fighting back against a medical community that is still in the dark on this stuff.
Inputs/Comments? |
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HilaryN
United Kingdom
879 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2006 : 12:47:41
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Yes, I agree. It took me a long time to find this site. Maybe Dave could get someone to help with moderating if it's too much work for one person?
Hilary N |
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drziggles
USA
292 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2006 : 14:43:20
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| Google-bombing a few terms like RSI, lower back pain, fibromyalgia to a TMS/Sarno related page (either this one or another) would seem to be doable for folks in the know (I am not including myself in this group...) |
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floorten
United Kingdom
120 Posts |
Posted - 11/11/2006 : 03:58:48
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I found this forum through Wikipedia.
The links to the Wikipedia TMS article aren't very many though. For instance CFS contains no mention of TMS at all.
Also the TMS article only addresses back pain and none of the equivalents.
Any wikipedia editors here at all? I really think getting the word out on Wikipedia would work wonders for TMS publicity (in the form of " Dr John Sarno MD claims that .... is a manifestation of TMS <link> " etc)
--
"What the Thinker thinks, the Prover proves."
Robert Anton Wilson |
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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2006 : 09:54:15
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Though I would love to do it, right now I do not have the time to spend on improving this forum or making it more accessible.
If anyone is technical and knows about setting up message board software and optimizing Google site indexing, I would welcome the help.
I plan to convert this forum to phpBB software at some point, which is nicer than the current format. |
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MikeJ
United Kingdom
75 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2006 : 10:18:29
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I've been thinking the same thing! I have a lot to say on this topic, but I don't have much time, so I'll just add a few words:
To answer your question, I first heard about TMS after desperatedly searching online for people cured from RSI. It took a long time to find anything remotely close to TMS, and I'm no stranger to the web! It's an issue close to my heart, because if it wasn't for a clever good search, I would still be in pain today. :-\
A few thoughts:
<geek warning>
- The forum could be more search engine (SE) friendly. Adding CFS, RSI, Fibro etc, and converting to SE friendly URls would be a good start.
- To boost its ranking, the best way are links from reputable health sites. But here's something anyone can do: create your own site, post your story, and link to the forum.
- Google-bombing: Bad. Will do more harm than good in the long-run. Not useful nor ethical, and sure way to be blacklisted. (or ignored). Google has filters against unnatural link acquisition, rate of link acquisition, age of link, reputation and sudden semantical changes of stable pages. It also has a good "memory" and often switches from older caches to more recent ones. They've also deployed a new algorithm this summer which is now looking at both inbound and outbound link quality, and refresh their database more regularly to optimise these filters.
- floorten: anybody can edit Wikipedia. Just click edit and make your changes. I sometime contribute to it.
- If Dave expressed concerns about scalability, I would be happy to donate money and servers in the near future. But my guess is he's more in need of moderators for now? I could help with PHPbb, I just installed one and backed up a few posts from this forum for my friend.
</geek warning>
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ralphyde
USA
307 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2006 : 11:09:50
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I have been editing Wikipedia over the past year or so with the goal of helping people in pain find Dr. Sarno and TMS when they put in their symptoms, such as back pain, low back pain, fibromyalgia, etc. You'll find various edits I have made to such subjects by clicking on my "contribs".
The problem is that they frequently get undone or "reverted" by conventional medical types and skeptics, who revert the modest changes I have made. I can't tell you how many times my link to http://www.healingbackpain.com/treatment.html has been removed as a "commercial website," which they don't allow. Also there is a need for better citations from accepted medical sites to document the changes made.
Anyone else who can help with this would be appreciated.
Ralph |
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Stryder
686 Posts |
Posted - 11/12/2006 : 19:07:06
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Interesting topic. My recommendation would be to improve the site through more moderation (possibly multiple moderators) in order to keep the quality at its highest. The goal here should not be quantity of visitors unless the goals of the site can be ensured. This is the only place on the web for TMS that is not a zoo and I hope it can stay that way.
The fastest way to tank a site is to drive a huge amount of traffic there before such safeguards are in place and working smoothly.
Just my 2 cents, -Stryder
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Redsandro
Netherlands
217 Posts |
Posted - 11/13/2006 : 07:36:52
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If the board is replaced by a phpBB2 one, I'd say it's very important to keep the current posts.
I could look into converting the database to phpBB format, but only if the current one is mySQL format.
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Do not base your joy upon the deeds of others, for what is given can be taken away. |
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Re: Finding this Forum
