PathLabTalk News

We’re excited to have PathLabTalk turned back on.  We think you’ll like the many new features of posting on the site.

Before you can use the site you must follow these steps.  You will not be able to post unless you do.

1. If you are still logged into the site, you must log out.
2. Clear ALL of your cookies related to the site and ALL of your browser cache.
3. Close your browser.
4. Reopen your browser and log in.
5. You must do this for each device you use for the site, including mobile devices.

The site may look a little different, but most of the features we previously had should still be there, plus there are many added features.

Most links you had prior to the upgrade will no longer work, please reset your favorites.

The new editor automatically adds a paragraph return when you press enter, so no more need to press enter twice when starting a new paragraph.

Some forums have been eliminated to streamline the look of the site.  In particular, the Hot Topics forums have been eliminated.  All of the topics have been preserved, just moved to their correct forum.

We’re excited to announce a new option, Premium Membership.  This site has remained completely free for your use for over 10 years and will always remain this way.  There is now an option to help support PathLabTalk and use a few more features the site has to offer.  You can learn more by clicking the Store tab at the top of any page.

There may still be a few items that are a little “buggy”, we are working hard to fix those items.  This was a significant upgrade, and these types of upgrades often come with a few items that need cleaning up.

If you have any issues or need help using the site, please use the live help link on the left of any page – and please be patient waiting for your response, this is a big upgraded, and while we expect it to work well, there are always hiccups.
 

The PathLabTalk site has been moved to a new server.

This new server should at least as fast as the old one.

We moved because we were getting occasional errors with the old server, and we want to provide as stable as an environment as possible.

Please report all bugs here.

Thank you

PathLabTalk uses a newsletter program to send our daily newsletter. To sign up for our daily newsletter you can select from one or more of our 20 newsletters available here.

We have over 1,000 people subscribed to the newsletters; however, we occasionally receive reports that the newsletter is not being received.

If you have confirmed the newsletter is not going to your spam folder, and you have contacted your place or work (assuming you have it delivered to your work email) to ask them to not block mail from pathlabtalk.com and pathlabtalk.net, then please post a short message here letting us know.

We know this is frustrating and we are trying to resolve this issue.

Due to many issues, mostly with being unhappy with the current software vendor, PathLabTalk will be moving to new software.

Yes, there will be differences and yes it will take a little getting used to.

What won't change is your username or your password, that will remain the same.

There will be intermittent downtime while we import to the new software this weekend (April 20, 2013 - April 21, 2013).

We appreciate your patience and assure you we will do our best to make this as smooth as possible.

When the new software comes live initially only the forum posts and blogs will be active, however, there will be other tabs for future enhancements that will come online at a later date. We will work to get the Library moved over also, that may prove to be a little trickier.

As always your comments and suggestions are welcome.

PathLabTalk continues to grow. Sometime in the next few weeks to months we'll hit 50,000 posts! Not too shabby.

There are some sections of this site that get used less than others. Some require different pieces of software to run them adding to the complexity of running the site, and making it feel more cumbersome to navigate than it really is.

I would like to propose that some of these sections be removed, but the choice is yours.

Please reply to this blog posting with your thoughts either way.

The sections I am considering removing are:

Classifieds

Bloopers

Links

Thank you for your input.

There is a new page on the site, Charities.

I have started to participate in challenge bike rides to help raise money for various charitable causes. I started in 2012 with a couple of small rides and plan to add longer rides in future years.

If you are interested in donating to my rides, please view the rides I am participating in here.

Thank you for your support,

Cliff

I got this message from a member, and they gave their permission to share.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Cliff,

First of all sorry that I haven't react in any way your welcome message, but 4 years ago when I joined the Hungarian Blood Bank and a bit later the Blood Bank Talk community (beeing a logistic expert) I was sure I would never be able to contribute your conversations. You know I had a foggiest idea what blood banking ment at all, and to tell you the truth even now I only guess what the majority of the topics are about.

Anyway I thought reading the threads was an excellent chance to practice my English. So I became your diligent reader. Slowly I got acquainted with Malcolm, Deny Morlino, David Saikin, Auntie-D, Mable Adams, and the others and enjoyed so much their communication except for those horrible abbreviations...

I must say I am really envy of your profession and the helpfulness and devotion what is so tipical of every single one of you.

The event that is accountable for my turning to you is that soon I am leaving the Hungarian BB and continue my career in a business that has nothing to do with blood. I looked for the suitable point on the home-page to unsubscribe the e-mail list, but I failed. As fare as I noticed you are a sort of a system administrator here, so I hope you can solve my problem.

I wish all the best to your blood bank community and farewell,

Eva Jaszay

Budapest

PS: If you think so, share my letter with the others, and please forgive me my grammatic mistakes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eva,

Thank you very much for your kind words, and this is an international forum, don't worry about your grammar enhancements.

Cliff

You may have noticed hidden in the Help / Info menu PathLabTalk has an Arcade installed. Actually almost since the site has started there was an arcade.

The previous arcade (previous to today) had a significant security issue and needed to be removed. No fear, your Asteroids score was not shared with the world. :cool:

The sad news is your scores were deleted. The good news is we have all new games for you to try and beat.

As always, please post any site errors here.

The main forum software, as well as many of the supported / related software tools, has been updated.

The most noticeable update will be the post / reply editor. PathLabTalk is now using one of the most popular editors used for sites. This will give users a more familiar feeling while posting. Another great feature is we have turned the auto-save feature on for the editor. Every 30 seconds what has typed will be saved. That way if you close your browser by accident, or simply leave the page before you click submit, everything you typed will still be here for you when you return - that's pretty cool for us two finger typists.

We have had a Thank You button on the site for many years. The one we were using was acting very erratically and was recently disabled.

A new button developed by a different programmer has been implemented, and the best part is we were able to import all of the prior Thanks data.

Please let us know if you have any problems with the new button, or if you like it.

"Thanks"

We have some sad news about how PathLabTalk communicates with you.

We have had a voluntary Newsletter for many years, yet we have now been marked as a spammer by those same Newsletter recipients.

It's a shame that so few have so much power, but that's the wonderful world of the internet.

Effective May 20, 2011, we will no longer send Newsletters to current subscribers.

We now have a spam compliant process for signing up for our Newsletters.

Please click here to sign up.

This is the last email you will receive from this Newsletter list.

In order to continue to receive Newsletters, you must click here and re-subscribe.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

We've installed a mobile style for the site.

Obviously this is only intended for those that want to use a mobile device to view the site. This mobile style is optimized for all webkit mobile devices in most languages, and will auto-detect if a user visits the site from a mobile device and render the site in the mobile style.

Please let us know what your experience was if you try it out.

Also, we are considering a dedicated style for the iPhone and Android phone. Again, please let us know of your interest in this option. We won't purchase the license if the usage will be low.

Thanks for your feedback!

With the planned growth of PathLabTalk, we need an easy way to navigate the many new sections.

The plan is to have a slightly different color scheme for each of the different forum sections. This will help you keep track of where you are.

Each of the menus will have a slightly different color scheme too and the logo will swap depending on the section you are in.

We will add a Library section for ChemLabTalk, HemeLabTalk and MicroLabTalk.

The menu will be huge, but we want to make it easy to navigate at the same time.

I have posted a temporary menu, it is a very early beta set-up and this will not be the final menu.

I wanted to give everyone a chance to have their input.

It will be changing on a regular basis, so don't be upset if it's not what you hoped for, we'll get it there.

Here is the temporary home for the menu:

http://www.pathlabtalk.com/site_menu/test/html-drop-down-mega-menu.html

If you're reading this, then you are either a new member, or you are a loyal member who found our new location.

The BloodBankTalk site was moved to the new address yesterday.

The new permanent home is here at PathLabTalk.com.

As we previously mentioned, over the coming few weeks we'll be adding the new sections, ChemLabTalk, HemeLabTalk and MicroLabTalk. One of the challenges we are facing is developing an easy menu system that will allow members to navigate a much larger site without ever feeling lost. We have a plan in place and you'll see changes incrementally.

We know there are a few minor glitches now, and we are working on them. Your help in identifying issues would be greatly appreciated. Please post any errors you see in our support system. http://pathlabtalk.net/support/

Best regards, and Happy New Year,

Cliff

Woohoo, BloodBankTalk hit it's 30,000 post today!

BloodBankTalk has enjoyed great success over the past 5+ years, all thanks to you.

We've decided to expand. We'll keep all the same great content we have now, and we'll add options for all of the other pathology labs that show an interest.

Please visit this post to vote for the new name / web address.

Updates 8/30/2010

I understand some people are concerned about what this means for BloodBankTalk.

While all of the details have not been worked out, here is how we see the site moving forward.

The URL (link) to get to BloodBankTalk will change. The post listed above will decide the new URL - you choose. After the change is made and you type in www.bloodbanktalk.com it will automatically forward you to the new site. We will always keep that name registered. The easier way to get to the site will be to type in the new address - or click a link in the newsletter.

There will be a similar menu system to what we have now, there will likely be different tabs for each of the different forums. All of the content from one forum will remain in just that forum. If you click the bloodbank tab it will essentially look like it does now.

Each new section will be color coded. As an example all pages related to chemistry will have a red theme, all pages related to heme will have an orange theme, all pages related to blood bank will have a blue theme. The last part will remain true - the bloodbank section will keep the same color it has now to maintain familiarity.

The logo on the top left of the site will reflect what section you are in. If you are in a bloodbank section, it will display the same logo you see now, if you are in micro you will see a micro logo.

The ads will be relevant to each section. When you are in a chemistry page the ads will be chemistry related ads, when you are in a bloodbank section, you will see the same ads you see now. Te ads will not cross over to other sections - this way they will be relevant to the section you are viewing.

The newsletters will be specific to the sections you want to receive. If you choose to get heme and bloodbank, you'll get only those newsletters - you choose.

One of the biggest benefits to the members of the site will be the addition of many new members. You'll have the option to visit and contribute in the other sections if you choose, or you can remain only in the bloodbank section - the choice is yours.

As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome. I hope this clears this up a little and I didn't make it more confusing.

This site (as well as most modern sites) is best viewed with a modern browser.

We highly recommend using IE 8 or FireFox 3.6+.

There are known compatibility issues when using IE 6 or lower, these issues will not be resolved as IE 6 is a very old browser and will be sunset by Microsoft soon.

Currently there are minor compatibility issues with IE 7, but they seem to be resolved with IE 8 or FireFox 3.6+. We are working to resolve these issues.

Feel free to post comments or suggestions.

We've upgraded to the newest version of the forum software.

Updating the forum was quite simple, updating the rest of the site is going to take a few more days.

Most of the functionality previously available is currently working.

One pending key item is the document library.

This should be available in the next few days. We'll update this post to keep you apprised of what is still pending.

Pending Items (as of August 4, 2009)

Bloopers - fixed 8/4/10

Product Reviews

Document Library - Fixed 8/4/10

Announcements - fixed 7/26/10

Advertiser List - fixed 7/26/10

Data Calculators

The Announcements section of the site has been updated to the new (future) look of BloodBankTalk.

The top section where the menus are is essentially the same, but the display and the new Announcement submission form have been updated.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

Significant upgrades will be coming to BloodBankTalk.

Some changes will be cosmetic, others will be more significant.

To make the transition easier for all of the sites users, the changes will be implemented slowly over the next two months.

Today we will be switching the vendor we use for the classified ads. The current ads will be imported into the new system.

Stay tuned to this section for more updates.