Splitting GoutPal In Two

GoutPal Interactive is a terrific resource for gout sufferers.

• You can ask about your gout.
• You can get help from fellow gout sufferers who understand what you are going through.
• You can discuss gouty arthritis and all matters that relate to it.
• You can help me improve the main gout website.

Almost all this is provided in the gout forum, with some extras in this gout blog. Unfortunately, the software that runs the gout forum is complicated – hard to manage and resource hungry.

There have been some terrific discussions in the forum, and thousands of people have got good answers to their gouty questions. Unfortunately, some questions never get answered properly because the discussions grow through many topics. Some questions never get asked because the complexity drives prospective contributors away.

My answer to these problems is to split the site between questions and discussions.

You can ask your questions, and contribute to the answers in the Gout Question and Answer Section. You can discuss any and all aspects of gout in this blog area, using the comment boxes.

My plan is:

1. Establish the Question and Answer Section with appropriate User Guides, indexing and archiving features.
2. Improve the discussion features in this blog area, including better management features for starting new discussions, contributing to and tracking existing ones, and improving indexing and archiving to find relevant discussions easily.
3. Phase out the old gout forum.

I have no timescale at present. I will be driven by your discussions in the comment box below, and by your Gouty Questions and Answers.