Community Chat Tips?

YourJuneInJan

Best way to utilize the community chat?

AnnPT77

Are you asking about tips for using the Community Forums as a whole? Not sure whether this is what you're looking for, but . . .

There's lots of really useful information in the "Most Helpful Posts" section of each forum topic - worth reading, as background.

When asking questions: I think it's helpful to be as specific and detailed as possible, answer follow-up questions and consider responses thoughtfully so people can really help you, and try not to take offense when it may be that someone is just not a very good writer but means well, or has a point but is not being hyper-diplomatic in phrasing it. Taking the high road when interpreting others' writing can be helpful for communication, IMO. Questioners who are easily offended (for example, who interpret follow-up questions as questioning their intelligence or integrity) often bail out early, and don't get helped.

When someone else has a question, it's helpful to offer opinions when you have solid knowledge. It's usually most effective to take an "in my experience, for me personally" tack on a lot of things vs. "this is how it is for all" unless one is an actual objective expert on some particular point. "I personally experienced X" gives the person who's asking the same input as "X is the way it works", and leaves pleasant conversational room for others' varying experiences (as well as saving face for oneself if it turns out that personal experience is not only not universal, but is contradictory to the scientific consensus on some point).

There are some people on here who have advanced degrees and jobs related to fitness/health topics, and it's legit for them to speak authoritatively because they're authorities. It's wise, IMO, to consider that one might be exchanging views with someone like that, because they don't typically attach their curriculum vitae to every post. Sometimes rather argumentative or opinionated new forum participants make themselves look foolish by having the wrong sort of exchange (say, pugnacious, insolent) with someone who's an actual expert on the point under discussion, and known to be such by other readers.

Absolutist assertions with no evidence (i.e., without research cites, or what-have-you), especially on controversial topics, don't go well, usually.

People who participate here regularly tend to build up a sort of personality or reputation around their screen names and avatars. I try to think about that when posting, to be conscious of what reputation I'm creating.

Or . . . one can also use the forums by searching groups to find their subject-matter tribe, visiting the Debate sub-forum to trade strong opinions, or just wander off over to the Chit Chat sub-forum and free-form socialize.

Have fun!

YourJuneInJan

@AnnPT77 great advice, thank you! This will help me become more aware.

YourJuneInJan

Do you have any more suggestions for navigating the community? I didn’t know about the “Most Helpful Forums”, but I’m making my way over there now!

Any hidden gems? What kind of challenges work best that you would recommend (for short-term goals or are they more oriented for discussion topic not daily posts)?

Thanks

AnnPT77

YourJuneInJan wrote: »

Do you have any more suggestions for navigating the community? I didn’t know about the “Most Helpful Forums”, but I’m making my way over there now!

Any hidden gems? What kind of challenges work best that you would recommend (for short-term goals or are they more oriented for discussion topic not daily posts)?

Thanks

Most of the gems are hidden in those "Most Helpful Posts" areas. Any others will tend to be linked by old-timers if you ask a question where they'd be relevant.

Another tip is to look at all of the forum major topic areas, and try to post in the one that's most appropriate. Almost anything may be posted in "General Health, Fitness and Diet", but might get more specific and knowlegeable responses if posted in "Recipes" or "Fitness and Exercise" or one of the others, if they're really about those things.

If you get discouraged, it can be useful to go over to the Success Stories area and read a bit. There are a few threads, if your goal is weight loss, that compile before and after pictures (like https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1167854/photo-only-success-stories) or non-scale positive aspects of weight loss (like https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1275030/whats-your-most-recent-nsv) that are good for a psychological boost. Or, if your goal is body composition, something like https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/977538/halp-heavy-lifting-made-me-supah-bulky may be good. (In general, any post with a high participation count will either be very, very good . . . or a complete train wreck with lots of gibes and jokes and cat gifs. ).

If by "challenges" you mean you're interested in setting up some friendly competitions or group-participation goals, then reading the "Challenges" topic area for a while would be a good way to understand what kinds of participant-led challenges are already available, and what types are most popular and useful. (I'm not very challenge-driven person, so I rarely go there, and don't know the best approach there, beyond what I already suggested about tone and such.)

In general, reading a topic area for a while before posting, and/or using the "search" function to find whether something's already been asked, discussed, or proposed, can be helpful. Watch out, though: The further back you search back into old posts, the more likely that the information could be out-dated, and among newer things it's good to see what gets a lot of "woo" reactions (that means "unscientific nonsense" not "Whoo Hoo Good Stuff"). The reaction clicks (woo, insightful, etc.), have just been an option for the last couple/few years, so they may not be a reliable guide for really old posts.

Things no one who's been around for long and been successful wants to talk pleasantly about include: Cleanses (pointless, possibly unhealthy), apple cider vinegar (useless for weight loss), most fad diets that arbitrarily eliminate random food groups (hard to stick with, sometimes unhealthy unless medically justified for particular conditions one has been medically diagnosed as having), the latest gee-whiz supplement that's in all the click-bait ads, and more. Using the search function can save you some grief on stuff like that.

Best wishes!

middlehaitch

Gee-whizz @AnnPT77.
Those 2 replies should be required reading for all who enter the forums.

Very well stated.

I spent my first few posts hobbling around with my foot in my mouth as I wasn't familiar enough with MFP forum's nuances and idiosyncrasies before I jumped in.

Cheers, h.

snickerscharlie

middlehaitch wrote: »

Gee-whizz @AnnPT77.
Those 2 replies should be required reading for all who enter the forums.

Very well stated.

I spent my first few posts hobbling around with my foot in my mouth as I wasn't familiar enough with MFP forum's nuances and idiosyncrasies before I jumped in.

Cheers, h.

^^THIS!!! Thank you, Ann. Well stated as always!