Dropped On Our Heads

meyati

Molly, it doesn't help that all smart phones don't work exactly the same. My Revvl has a frustrating method to delete individual phone calls, another way to delete those paid news clips on Google--- butterflies in Latvia like fertilizer----Pork is good for infants. articles from the Architects Journal---Trucking in the Yukon---I had a Samsung that worked completely different.

Molly- what is your biggest problem with your phone? Maybe we can help you with that method-and I still haven't figured out "tagging" someone. but I'm halfways decent with other functions.

Carool

I learned how to use my iPhone 6 (old model) by playing around with it. I’d find it very hard to live without it. My Mac is ancient and can’t get internet; all I can do with it is use Photoshop to draw. So everything else I need to do digitally is through my iPhone.

meyati

Yes, playing around with the phone. My alarm is Sweet Home Alabama, my notifications are Bad to the Bone, the ring tone is The House of The Rising Sun. My screen saver is a dilapidated backwoods jetty. When I did take it in, the agents look at those and fix the problem. It was hacked, and I took it in. The on button sticks, and they taught me how to work it.

Molly72

As mentioned above, I returned the Verizon a few days after I got it, as it was useless to me.
Maybe I will try again in the future. The Verizon people were snide & acted sooo superior! And yes, I did ask for the easiest phone. Verizon is the only phone store around here.

I really don't understand what some of you mean by certain terms you mention. Alarms? Tagging? All I want is simplicity, guess that is a thing of the past.
Thanks anyway!!!

Carool

Molly72, I assume that Meyati was referring to the alarm clock sound you can choose if you want to use your phone as an alarm clock. Tagging has nothing to do with smart phones, I think. It’s used on Facebook. From Google: “When you tag someone, you create a link to their profile. This means that: The post you tag the person in may also be added to that person's timeline. For example, you can tag a photo to show who's in the photo or post a status update and say who you're with.”

Obviously, no one in any store should be condescending to a customer. We who aren’t very young weren’t born knowing this technology. And if the Verizon staff wants customers, the staff should stop acting superior and start having patience with the customers whose business keeps the staff employed.

meyati

I don't Tag, which is mostly a photo thing.
Phones do have clocks--alarms, and I enjoy writing what the alarm is for. ex-2PM every Monday, take dumpsters out. One thing I noticed-when I set my dumpsters on the curb, most of the neighbors set theirs out-. Trash pickup is very early on Tues.

Next-because of radiation burning out my tear ducts, I need to use hot compresses on my eyes for 15 minutes 4 times a day. My phone timer is excellent for that, as the timer goes with me and doesn't need electric--The Old Spice Whistle is the timer alert. I always know what time it is, wherever I am. I like the World clock so I know when to call people elsewhere in the world and time zones. When I taught, I used my phone's timer for timed tests-quizzes. I set the stopwatch feature to see how long I was on hold-- My clock is very meaningful to me in many ways. I can set alarms to remind me to give a sick dog its meds on time.

meyati

I'll tell you a funny one. When I had to get my new phone, the regular T-Mobile store was closed because of COVID. We went to another T-M, and they wouldn't let me a touch any phone at all. The displays were locked on the wall for looking only. The clerk said-this is the phone you want. She had a flunky get that, and she said-I need your credit card. I said-I need to go home. She said--You can't leave. You have to pay for the phone. I said- I'm not buying it and left. I looked on the map and saw other T-M stores. They let me look with my eyes. They undid they display phones and let me hold them for comfort, and showed me the turn on buttons. They brought out what I was interested in. I held it, turned it on-then I bought it.

How rude is it to sell a pig in a poke, and not even let the customer look or touch to see if the pig is really there, alive-maybe healthy?

Molly72

All I want is a device to receive & make calls-- no "TAGS", no whistle thingys, no stopwatches, timers, no photos, (I have a device called a camera!), no alarm clocks--ect., ect. Those are not what I find necessary in my lifestyle. LOL
Maybe I should join the Amish!
Meyati, that is just too strange-- sounds like that store was in an alternate universe-- sort of like an Apple store at the mall! Those stores really freak me out.

legaljen1969

It is astounding to me how poorly some of you are treated in cell phone stores in your areas. As I said before, maybe it is because we have a lot of people with a lot of life experience in our area, most cell phone clerks are quite patient. At least, they appear to be quite patient. I had to get something replaced and I spent almost 2.5 hours in the store with only three couples in front of me. I am not begrudging the couples. They were getting great explanations. I had tried to handle my transaction on my own or online, but I was finally advised that someone needed to actually "hands on" diagnose my phone and then we could determine what to do.
Anyhow, those couples had relatively simple phones and the clerks were going over every feature with them in detail. Yes they had to set up two phones per couple, so it took a bit of time. But the clerks around here will spend however long they need to make it right.

Carool

legaljen, same here with my experiences at Verizon.

Molly72, as you said, you don’t need a smart phone to do what you want. You have a computer to do a lot of what cellphones do.

In my case, I’m spending way too much on my Verizon plan for my iPhone. May switch to Spectrum, where we have our “landline” phone and TV service.

meyati

I was checking-- there's Consumer Cellular and Jitterbug--2 basic phones that could meet your needs.

Consumercellular (dot) com ph( 888) 806-0541. plans start at $20. It's associated with AARP. actual phone is $35.

The other one is Jitterbug (dot) com ph 800-650-5918 plans start $20. The actual phone is $99.

Consumer Cellular starts of with a smart phone- but their basic has Amazon Lexi, magnifier, and so on. My son used the Jitterbug for years. Anyway good luck

meyati

My son ordered the JitterBug by phone. I don't think that they have any stores, and they shipped the phone to him, and it worked for years. The main customers are X and retired Marines, Navy and Coast Guard. he used that for over 8 years. Then my son joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and he had to text, make phone video and zoom conference calls, look at the Flotilla pages on FB and Instagram. He does pretty good with that. It's hardy and simple, with excellent phone service-- Well made things don't need stores.

Molly72

I think I will try Consumer Cellular, they sound easiest & cheap. They also have customer service people who speak English & are based in the U.S.
Thanks for the help everyone, this is difficult for someone who is a complete idiot with tech stuff.
Will no doubt have questions later.

meyati

Molly, don't put yourself down. With this last phone, I'd call, and a tech didn't know, and we'd play with the phone-tech saying what about this--it was on T-Mobile tip page, and I'd play around the with the phone, press this and that to see if the problem was solved. Sometimes an agent asked if something else bothered me, and I said-NO IT'S EASY PEASY---and the rep asked me how I did that function, and they said--IT WORKS-- and they entered how to do the odd function and get credit with the company. Nobody knows everything.

Anyway, when you get a phone-and it doesn't work out right, you can post it here- and maybe somebody can help you. Good luck---

MarcieB

Hello everybody who has responded to this post. I am writing this here because our individual questions do not seem to end up here anymore? The last two questions I posted ended up on my own wall. What good is that?? Please, if you have time, check out the question I posted (that is currently on my wall) and give me an answer if you can? It is about after effects of the vaccine and it is important to me.

Carool

MarcieB, now I see that our questions aren’t showing up here. I did get a notice that someone had replied to your question and to mine, and when I replied to yours it seemed that your question re the vaccines and my silly test question had appeared where they should’ve been (I don’t know where I saw them!).

The mod’s lack of attention to this site is bad. We need more moderators.

meyati

I don't think Colby wants another or more moderators, and he doesn't want to do the job. The dog in the manager-- can't eat the hay and won't let the horse eat. It doesn't help that Disquis is closed--no communication---they do have over 12,000 sites.

Teachertina

I’m not getting any notifications now at all! What a shame this isn’t working like it did when Greg was here! He would be so disappointed, I’m sure. So with that being said, goodbye and wishing you all well.

Molly72

I think WE have sure tried to keep this site active, and the mysterious Colby really does not care what happens.
Shame on him!
Why won't you at least try Colby?
Meyati-- What is "Disquis"?

meyati

Disquis is the host for Washington Post, Country Doctor, Dear Abby, Kevin MD (medical blog. Drs, nurses, mostly medical students, caretakers, medical writers) write on experiences-think they have a solution, and so forth.

Greg and I had at least one conversation about what features WHatNext PAID for. Greg or whomever paid for DAILY notices for members, questions and comments to be posted-Just like Dear Abby and others. I never asked where the money came from to run the site. That might be Colby's problem. I'm pretty sure that Disquis sent me a message about my membership- and I was highly addicted to Benedryl and I probably ended my membership. I'm still with Dear Abby, the Country Doctor, Kevin, Washington Post, and here.

Anyway-someone buys the services and gets a Disquis Website, and Disquis provides the services. They sign a contract with specified services---Perhaps Colby doesn't understand how to deal with a contract. Perhaps Greg paid for much of this himself. With COVID grant money might have dried up.

It would be in favor if Colby would be transparent with us. If WhatNext withers away, it won't look good for Colby, but he's probably already spun his defense that we are a community of cancer, chemo brained people that has drug addicted caretakers that just can't cooperate, be responsible that is unable to be realistic. Of course, he'd get the sympathy and help from Disquis.

meyati

I forgot to add, I'll try to get into Disquis-I need to find my password, and see what happens. If I can do that, I can see if I can find anything out about contracts---what happens when the head moderator passes. If I do anything, I'll need for all of you to say---yes we don't get updates or questions posted--I need to ask Disquis about transparency to members on a site.

MarcieB

Meyati, I think you mean Disqus, right? It is something like a power engine for interactive sites like ours? I sometimes comment on articles on entertainment weekly, and the comment section says; Powered by Disqus. I haven't seen anything here that makes me think they are involved, (?) but I honestly wouldn't be one who would know!

It is interesting to think that this site may need funding? And that possibly Greg took care of that on his own? I just doubt it because I think we would have also been approached to contribute (not by Greg, but by whoever runs the service). Caring Bridge is a site for cancer patients and I know anyone who leaves a comment is notified of an opportunity to *support* the site with a donation.

There was a member here that went by Gabba, remember her? Shortly after Greg passed she wrote in and said Greg had asked her to help monitor, but she was getting so much spam she couldn't do it any longer. I wish we had questioned her about how things work. Is anyone in contact with her?

Carool

MarcieB, I remember her. But I’m not in contact with her.

MarcieB

I just found her bio and posted a question to her wall. She may not be getting notifications anymore, but if you type her name into the search box, her home page still comes up. I am reaching out to her, but I have no idea if she will ever see it. It's worth a try.

Carool

Thanks, Marcie!

MarcieB

Hi everyone! Obviously, the PTB have not fixed our site and questions are still being posted to our wall. This morning I got a *new* match, so I went to her site to welcome her only to discover she began here 6 years ago and hasn't posted in 4 - AND she does not even have the same diagnosis as me. This is getting pathetic. But, I would appreciate it if you would go to my wall and answer my question if you have any information? And, if you have any book reviews, please go to Carool's wall. (this is crazy!)

Carool

MarcieB, thanks!

I just sent the following PM to the Facebook WhiteNext site: “Hi, ColbyR! I hope you’re doing well. I’m an active WN member. As you know, we’ve been unable to post questions that appear on the Question page but, instead, end up on the Wall of the poster. As a result, no one but the poster sees the question. We need help here, please. Thank you in advance.”

Carool

MarcieB, thanks!

I just sent the following PM to the Facebook WhiteNext site: “Hi, ColbyR! I hope you’re doing well. I’m an active WN member. As you know, we’ve been unable to post questions so that they appear on the Question page. Instead, they are ending up on the Wall of the poster. As a result, no one but the poster sees the question. We need help here, please. Thank you in advance.”

legaljen1969

I have had a little email thread going with Colby. This is the last bit of our correspondence:

On August 2nd I wrote "Colby, folks are feeling like nothing has come of the survey. They feel they have been left to languish again. This site is losing relevance and credibility. I know none of the oncologists in our area are recommending it anymore as a support site. That's sad because it was a blessing for so many. Is anything being done to breathe life back into the site? If there is something I can do to help, let me know. I really don't want to see the site go away. I feel like there are others who are more knowledgeable than I am who could help. I can't speak to whether they are willing to help, but I think if we felt like the site could regain some usefulness some of them might get on board."

His response August 3 "Hi Jen, Thanks for reaching out, and I appreciate you and other WhatNext members taking the time to complete the survey. One step that we at Patient Worthy have taken alongside the patient survey is to reach out to some of our rare cancer community partners to ask for their insight about WhatNext. I have made sure that everyone involved behind the scenes is aware of the concerns and the ideas that WhatNext members have brought forward. Though I’m only able to help out where I can, I know how important the site is to you and others, and I know all of this feedback is going to be invaluable when considering the future of the website. Thanks."

My subsequent response back yesterday August 4:
" Colby, I appreciate what you are trying to do. I am sure it hard to do when it seems we are complaining. I have been less active on the site recently. Because life has finally come back for so many after the initial COVID surge. I am back to working 12-14 hour days and I simply don't have time to check in very much. I did check in the other day and realized that things seem to be drifting away again.

I truly believe that one of the biggest obstacles to keeping conversation going on the site is being forced to enter a diagnosis to ask a question. I understand it does keep things focused though. I also understand that someone might be more inclined to look at the questions and answers of someone going through the "same" thing as they are. However, I have learned a lot from many who had different kinds of cancers. I just think that some of the generalized questions people might ask might meet with better response if there was just a way to ask a general question.

I just seem to have appointed as the squeaky wheel/ thorn in your side because some realized I didn't mind vocalizing.

Another idea is perhaps directing people to more of the features of Rare Patient Voice and other rare cancer community resources. Maybe the website/ message board feature is just a small part of the larger community and maybe some are not aware of that. I don't know that I was really aware of the fact that WhatNext was part of a larger community. Or is the other way around? WhatNext is the umbrella and there are other components within?"

Keep doing what you're doing to try to bring things back."

I really get the feeling that Colby has a larger role to play and/or maybe a full time job that prevents him from being a full-time moderator. I found out quickly when I tried to start a page/site that it really requires a great deal of time. I let it go when I thought WN was coming back.

Maybe this is just an idea that has run its course. I am trying to be patient with Colby. I really do not think it is that he doesn't care about us, but more that this is one small component of his responsibilities and maybe it really isn't even HIS responsibility but just something he is pitching in to do from time to time. I know, then why introduce himself as moderator? I can't answer that, but he has posted how to contact him. If you don't make your voices heard, the organization will continue to let this site remain a low priority.

Maybe others ARE contacting him. I don't know.

meyati

Legal Jean--I resent Colby inferring some responsibility about rare cancer patients. I AM A RARE CANCER PATIENT--And I don't see him doing anything for me anywhere. As a rare cancer patient, all I get are surveys for rare cancer patients. I have participated. I have been mostly interviewed by English researchers in London.

With that Colby sounds like a middle school student trying to look and sound good by bull shitting. High school didn't have effect on Colby for any maturity.