Important Help Us Help The Cats!

KatKnapper

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I love this, as I've posted quite a few threads that have gone unanswered for a day or more. The worst part was seeing how many people were online and thinking, geez, I feel awfully silly out here in the cold!
Imma see what you posted...after I find the cat, check on the stray in the back room, feed & med the ill stray cat down the street, "Oh wait...where my beloved TNR, she has to be starving!" Forgot her breakfast and lunch.

Don't you worry...I'll be back! Need help on something myself. BBL
 

Mamanyt1953

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THANK YOU! I just bookmarked the page so that I can find it quickly and give people the links!
 

KatKnapper

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Imma see what you posted...after I find the cat, check on the stray in the back room, feed & med the ill stray cat down the street, "Oh wait...where my beloved TNR, she has to be starving!" Forgot her breakfast and lunch.

Don't you worry...I'll be back! Need help on something myself. BBL
@mfena0720 Seems all the threads you initiated have replies now. I doubt I would have been able to answer any of them.
 

arouetta

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If an ordinary member can step into the moderator's chair for a moment, I just have to say that the last couple of posts are quickly headed towards an argument and the last thing I want to see is a thread about helping others devolve into a flame war. (Is "flame war" still part of internet lingo, or am I showing my age?) So let's have everyone take a deep breath, step away from the keyboard, engage in eating chocolate or listening to classical music (except Chopin, his stuff revs a person up) or primal scream therapy or whatever calms you down, and only then come back to the keyboard.

I'll admit all this stuff about tagging and advisors is well beyond my knowledge range, but what I have gleaned from this thread, I have to agree with the admin/moderators. People have lives beyond this forum, people cannot allocate all their free time here, and all it takes are a few hyper people to fill up an inbox to the point that deleting unseen is the only way to stay in that time allocation. But when someone can't wade through the couple hundred messages caused by a few hyper people, then the ones that really need attention are every bit as missed as if there is no alert function. I would think even worse, because without an alert function that fills up a box then that time allocated to this forum can be spent on both posting for fun and on looking for the urgent stuff.

Same thing with an "Urgent" thread. Everyone always thinks their stuff is urgent. Always. Because it involves their cat and no cat in this world is anywhere near as precious as your own. On top of that, most urgent stuff really needs medical care, which no one here is really able to give. Even people claiming to be vets can either be lying or be not that good with cat care. And the urgent behavioral stuff is far more likely to be addressed in the appropriate behavior sub-forum rather than stuck between symptoms of jaundice and high fever+puking and diarrhea.

We all want to help cats. We do. And there will be disagreements from time to time as to the best care. It's kinda like the Mommy Wars taking place at a furry convention. Intervene in squabbles vs letting them work it out. Clumping litter vs pine or paper. Soft Paws vs accepting that a $1000 couch has no place in your home. It's all like stay at home vs socialization at daycare and formula vs breast. But in the rush of wanting to help cats, we can't forget that there's a real person on the other side of that monitor, a real person with feelings, and we need to play nice because it's the ethical thing to do. And we also need to realize that life situations are different for everyone and therefore each person has only so much time to be here, and your time might be more than another person can give. That's the other part of remembering there's a real person behind the monitor, you must keep in mind everyone is unique.
 
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Anne

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Thanks for the feedback. Let's stay focused on the topic of the thread though.

As always, if anyone wants to discuss site policies, please send me a private conversation to me or to one of our moderators (they will pass it along to me). Also, if you see any problem with a post - anything at all - there's the little flag option underneath it. In our experience, it's always better to flag and move away. Thank you! :)
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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May I contribute something on topic, to help steer people who use the "Quick Navigation Menu" towards the "Articles" section? :)

Could a link for "Articles" be put into the "Quick Navigation Menu" under its "General Links"?

Right now the "General Links" there looks like this:
quicknavmenu3.png
 
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  • #67

Anne

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May I contribute something on topic, to help steer people who use the "Quick Navigation Menu" towards the "Articles" section? :)

Could a link for "Articles" be put into the "Quick Navigation Menu" under its "General Links"?

Right now the "General Links" there looks like this:
View attachment 185810
I love the idea! Unfortunately implementation won't be simple. I'll pass this along to our developer and see when he'll be able to look into this. I know he's very busy these days with a couple of other projects. Thanks for the suggestion!
 

IndyJones

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Where do you think?
I will add there are people without an advisor tag who seem to be just as knowledgeable if not more so than the people with the tag. Myself I have experience with kidney disease and am very happy to help people who have a ckd kitty. For me passing my knowledge to help another on makes it feel like Hector is still with me.

As for flagging posts I try not to do this unless a rule is broken. Most sites ban people for abusing the report system so I just err on the side of caution.
 

ignited-red

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Our cat care forums are busy this time of year with new - and not so new - members asking questions about cat behavior, health, nutrition and general care.

Unfortunately, we have people posting their cat questions and getting no replies for days on end... And that means cats that get no help. :frown:


YOU can help!


"What? Me? But I'm not a cat expert!"

That's fine, you absolutely don't need to be. Everyone can help others by welcoming them, showing support and helping them find answers here on the site. Anything is better than no replies, right?

Here's how YOU can help

1. Look for threads with no or few replies.

Visit the cat care forums and sort the threads by number of replies so that zero replies come up first (You can do that by clicking twice on the header "Replies" at the top of any thread list). Here are some direct links where I've done that already.
Cat Health Forum
Cat Nutrition Forum
Cat Behavior Forum
Grooming & General Cat Care Forum
Pregnant Cats & Kitten Care Forum (Please read this before posting there!)
Caring for Strays and Ferals Forum

2. See a thread with two replies or less? Give it a click and take a look.

Can you offer advice? Awesome! Share from your own experience and knowledge!

No clue what the solution is? Check our articles and see if you can link to one or two on-topic articles. Here's how to do that -
  • Visit the article section here.
  • Look for the article categories in the sidebar and click on the most relevant one.
  • Now use the search function to search that particular category for the topic you're looking for.
View attachment 183742
Take a quick look to see that the article is indeed relevant. No point in sending a new member on a wild goose chase.

Can't find anything? Just say hi, show some empathy and be nice to a new member. That goes a long way in helping them feel at home.


Found a thread that's older than 2 days and dropping down the page with no answers? Please flag that thread so the team can take a look.

As a member of our community, you can help cats by helping their owners! You can make a huge difference and literally save the life of a cat, just by replying to one or two threads a day.

After all, isn't this what TCS is all about?

THANK YOU! :grouphug:
Thanks Anne for letting us know! I found this site were so helpful for a lost soul who find answer or some lights for what to do. I learn a lot from here and so happy that I could be part of helping others in the forum. :)
 

Mamanyt1953

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I will add there are people without an advisor tag who seem to be just as knowledgeable if not more so than the people with the tag. Myself I have experience with kidney disease and am very happy to help people who have a ckd kitty. For me passing my knowledge to help another on makes it feel like Hector is still with me.

As for flagging posts I try not to do this unless a rule is broken. Most sites ban people for abusing the report system so I just err on the side of caution.
I just made a note of that. I keep a little notebook with the names of folks here who know a lot about various things.
 

ahunter

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Our cat care forums are busy this time of year with new - and not so new - members asking questions about cat behavior, health, nutrition and general care.

Unfortunately, we have people posting their cat questions and getting no replies for days on end... And that means cats that get no help. :frown:
I'm a relatively new member but I'm up for the challenge. Today I responded to two posts that had no replies. We'll see if I know anything or help anyone. ;-)

Oh! I just had another idea. A few of my fellow-cat lovers and I have recently formed a local cat group. When we meet next, I'll propose to them that at each meeting we pick an unanswered question from the forum and brainstorm answers.
 
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  • #72

Anne

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Bump for this month! Have you helped a member with a cat problem today? A little bird told me we have some threads in the Cat Behavior forum that need more answers (and then it flew right away, because, well, you know, a bird in a cat forum?)
 

Mamanyt1953

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I'll take a peek, although I don't know what I can do in the Behavior forum, other than "seed" a thread. Isn't it funny how often that first response triggers more?
 

Loki_Lily

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Our cat care forums are busy this time of year with new - and not so new - members asking questions about cat behavior, health, nutrition and general care.

Unfortunately, we have people posting their cat questions and getting no replies for days on end... And that means cats that get no help. :frown:


YOU can help!


"What? Me? But I'm not a cat expert!"

That's fine, you absolutely don't need to be. Everyone can help others by welcoming them, showing support and helping them find answers here on the site. Anything is better than no replies, right?

Here's how YOU can help

1. Look for threads with no or few replies.

Visit the cat care forums and sort the threads by number of replies so that zero replies come up first (You can do that by clicking twice on the header "Replies" at the top of any thread list). Here are some direct links where I've done that already.
Cat Health Forum
Cat Nutrition Forum
Cat Behavior Forum
Grooming & General Cat Care Forum
Pregnant Cats & Kitten Care Forum (Please read this before posting there!)
Caring for Strays and Ferals Forum

2. See a thread with two replies or less? Give it a click and take a look.

Can you offer advice? Awesome! Share from your own experience and knowledge!

No clue what the solution is? Check our articles and see if you can link to one or two on-topic articles. Here's how to do that -
  • Visit the article section here.
  • Look for the article categories in the sidebar and click on the most relevant one.
  • Now use the search function to search that particular category for the topic you're looking for.
View attachment 183742
Take a quick look to see that the article is indeed relevant. No point in sending a new member on a wild goose chase.

Can't find anything? Just say hi, show some empathy and be nice to a new member. That goes a long way in helping them feel at home.


Found a thread that's older than 2 days and dropping down the page with no answers? Please flag that thread so the team can take a look.

As a member of our community, you can help cats by helping their owners! You can make a huge difference and literally save the life of a cat, just by replying to one or two threads a day.

After all, isn't this what TCS is all about?

THANK YOU! :grouphug:

I just joined today and trying to answer some in between work. I know I am definitely no expert, in fact, my question is out there as well, but these online threads and different suggestions from different cat parents helped me a lot in the past. I hope to continue helping others whenever I have some time.
 

daisyd

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I still can't work out how to add a link to relevant articles ! I'm always viewing this site from my phone so is that it ? Or maybe I'm a little dumb ...
 
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  • #76

Anne

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I still can't work out how to add a link to relevant articles ! I'm always viewing this site from my phone so is that it ? Or maybe I'm a little dumb ...
Usually it's just a matter of copying the web address and pasting it into your post is this not working for you?
 

daisyd

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I'll try that ! I'm always on my iPhone so hopefully just as easy
 
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  • #78

Anne

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Bumping with a reminder about the "Unanswered threads" feature in the menu -
not-answered.jpg


Please spend a few minutes a day to help out a TCS member!
 

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cheeser

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My page doesn't look like this. I have ads across the top. I can't see anything that says unanswered posts.
Try hovering your cursor over the Forums option on the navigation bar at the top of the page, but don't actually click it. That brought up a drop-down menu for me that looks like the pic Anne Anne included in her post.
 
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