Contingency planning
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Stuff happens. Being an ex-systems person I tend to think about what to do when problems arise. I had thought about this in the past but never did anything concrete to move forward with an actual plan for keeping people up to date if any forum issues arise.
I ended up using the groupee WTF as a place to communicate the status of Beta during yesterday's outage; I've since deleted that thread as it's no longer needed. I figured people might pop over there for info. People also have other channels they use to communicate with other WTFers outside the forums.
I mean, it's not like the forum is mission critical to anyone's life, but it might be nice to formalize an emergency channel.
Not sure who might be interested, but I could put together a list of email addresses for those people who would like to be updated directly about any forum issues. Most people registered with their email address when they set up their account on Beta. We started to require an email address when we implemented an account approval process to keep the spammers out; some people who registered early on before we locked the doors didn't have to specify an email address. There is a handful of those folks.
Most people checked "Hidden", so that email address is not visible to the forum at large. As an admin (that level of access was granted so I could clean up the hundreds of spam accounts that got registered before we locked down registration and to approve registrations for WTFers moving over here) I have access to the email addresses that are registered but that information is off-limits unless you give explicit permission for it to be used.
If you are interested, please let me know either in this thread or via Chat/DM and I'll add you to the list. If you don't have a registered email address here, I'll let you know.
Another note: If you want to check whether there's a technical problem with the forum, you can enter the URL for the forum, https://wtf.coffee-room.com/ , into the Is It Down Right Now website. It runs a test and tells you if everyone is having an issue with a website, or if it might just be a problem on the user's end.
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Thanks for doing this @wtg !
it's not like the forum is mission critical to anyone's life, but it might be nice to formalize an emergency channel.
I agree. Also, given the political situation in the US right now, and the number of people who have left FB in protest, I'm sort of feeling even more that these kinds of platforms and ways of sharing information are really crucial.
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@Big_Al - Yes, I checked your profile and there is an email address there that you registered with.
For people who use more than one email address for online communications, you can double check which one you registered with here by going to your profile. click on your avatar and your info should be there.
One nice feature of this software is that you can change your email address here on your own without affecting your screen name, and without any need for an administrator. Click on your avatar, then on Edit Settings, then Change Email. Instructions for what to do come up there.
If you do make a change to your email, it will not automatically change the (manual) emergency notification list that I'm assembling. You'd have to let me know that you've changed email addresses, and I'll update my list accordingly.
Btw, the email list will have BCCs, so that everyone's email remains private.
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Please check if you have my email address, wtg. (Unsure where to look for confirmation as I haven't mastered use of this site - i.e., for PMs - so just tell me here.
Hmm. Just realized you could only write (if true) "Yes, I have it", and I won't know whether it's the right one. Guess I need to figure out the site's mechanics a bit more.
Aha! Better late than never. Poking around a bit, I DID discover the icons upper right, and one led to wtg's much appreciated query about my health and indication that others wondered too. (Still don't know how to send messages via PM but at least I see I can get such things as email confirmations by clicking on the "A" topmost right! A for Amanda perhaps.)
And I will take this opportunity to reply to your inquiry, though perhaps it would have been less wordy to report on a separate thread.
I guess the concern (thank you) in reference to the breast cancer (my second in 10 years, FWIW - but different cell type, different breast.). The first one led to double mastectomy with reconstruction (guess this one was somehow seeded mostly in the axilla.). With this one, they're letting me "go flat" for six months til I heal from radiation.Not the most appealing, besides which I put on weight from stress eating (VERY disappointed not to lose weight with the radiation as I was told to expect!)
The self image change, reminds me of the handout they gave me after the second op: "How to prepare yourself for seeing yourself in the mirror after surgery." Black humor, but I found it amusing. (Samples: "Steam up the bathroom mirror first", "Look into a handheld mirror reflecting the mirror behind you", "Ask a friend to look first and give you a description". Who writes these things anyhow?)
Anyhow, the main thing is that the nasty little "invasive lobular" thingy (more fuzzy than solid ) is gone. It probably went undiagnosed for four years since I first THOUGHT I felt something, because this relatively rare variant of C is characterized as "sneaky". It remained uncertain to palpation and declared benign at all testing. All until the last ultrasound which led to the tissue biopsy which came back crummy. Alas, all the rest had been false negatives.
Shockeroo to me, gynecologist and ultrasound radiologist.
Many delays before eventual surgery as I wanted to get a second opinion about recommended treatment at first facility and that took a good while. (I downvote Anderson's scheduling department, among other things).
The first lumpectomy came back with bad margins so I needed another, which was declared "clean".
Having turned down endocrine therapy (based on research with software engineer son's AI program!) - I was only sent for radiation. Low-dose, short period. Word now is that I supposedly have only a 5% chance of recurrence - about as good as it gets with cancer. I am naturally greatly relieved.
I certainly learned the meaning of "gratitude" seeing (and sometimes getting to know) so many other patients. They had much more advanced disease and many had suffered the ravages of chemo. I know how lucky I am. (Think I was the only one with my own hair - for what that's worth! - in the waiting room for the three weeks of daily radiation.) Sadly, they were not only mostly younger than me, they were MUCH younger than me.
This is the little spoken of result of the (patriarchally decided) reg not to allow women under 50 to have mammograms covered by insurance. Hence, in due course, a great many victims were diagnosed in their twenties - and with very aggressive cancers. So sad - and maddening! (The insurance reg has been modified, but too late for too many.)
On the basis of my biopsy cell analysis, mine is characterized as "indolent" (good) and my Stage is now declared to be 1 Tc.
Main trauma was heartbreaking issue with one son, who let me down shockingly (and as yet unexplained) on commitment to be with me for surgery. Nothing at all hurt was except my feelings.
I'm now back to my formerly greatest cloud (thinking of Peanuts character), of having been diagnosed with wet macular degeneration. (For anyone who doesn't know, it's an incurable blinding eye disease though it seems to be delayable by newish treatment.)
Just had a relapse of that after reprieve of three years, so it's back to eye injections. (Not as bad as it sounds). Since thus far it's mostly the right eye, I can drive and g-d willing, somehow it will stay there. Whether it WILL spare the "fellow eye"(rare but it happens) seems to be based on certain patient characteristics as yet unidentified.
I hope I hope I'm one of them!Thanks very much for asking, after me wtg and whoever else wondered about my goings on!
Somehow or other, the cancer, eye, and deteriorating orthopedic/neuro conditions (increasingly limiting mobility), have done a number on me in terms of communication. However, I have been lurking at critical moments and feel present on the forum, even if I wasn't contributing. (Whenever something major happened or was in the offing re national/world events, I wanted to see what you all were saying.)
And there HAVE been so many events, mostly very undesirable - as we all know....
Longer than intended. Guess I'm the kind of person with whom one takes ones chances asking: "How are you"?
Warm greetings to all! And best wishes for a very happy, healthy New Year, Chinese and otherwise. So many uncertainties loom, don't they?
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W wtg pinned this topic on
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@Amanda - I'll send you an email to the address that is on file here. I'll put WTF in the subject line so you know it's not spam.
You can reply back to me via that email as to whether you want to use that address for the emergency list, or if you want to use something else.
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Also remember "coffee-room.com"
Whatever happens, if this site ever goes away and we reconvene elsewhere, I will leave info on "coffee-room.com" to point to our new cyber home, wherever that may be.
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@Axtremus said in Contingency planning:
Also remember "coffee-room.com"
Whatever happens, if this site ever goes away and we reconvene elsewhere, I will leave info on "coffee-room.com" to point to our new cyber home, wherever that may be.
coffee-room.com has a link pointing to Original WTF. Is it possible to add a link to Beta, too?
Thanks once again, @Axtremus !
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@wtg said in Contingency planning:
@Axtremus said in Contingency planning:
Also remember "coffee-room.com"
coffee-room.com has a link pointing to Original WTF. Is it possible to add a link to Beta, too?
Done.
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@Nina I love the new avatar! Big fan of owls here.
In fact we've had a great horned owl in the neighborhood for the last several days. Starts hooting around 10 pm and goes on for a few hours.
Link to videoWhen the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
