New website and branding for Bluelight has landed!

Hello to the Bluelight community

Today we are announcing the launch of our new website and our new branding.

The purpose of the rebrand is to update and consolidate who we are, our values and mission, and how we look to the world. We aim to attract new people to our site and into our communities, and retain them as members and contributors. We also aim to improve our ratings with Google through emphasizing our expertise and authority in the harm reduction space. We also wanted to look less like we still lived in 2011

A significant change is that bluelight.org now points to a new frontpage designed in Wordpress (you may have to clear your cache or use an incognito window to see it). The forums will continue to be available via their existing URLs that will resolve to bluelight.org/community. These can be accessed via numerous menus and buttons on bluelight.org, as well.

We have re-written our mission, which you can see at the top and bottom of our website at bluelight.org. That is, our mission is to advance the health and wellbeing of people who use psychoactive drugs by hosting, managing and maintaining supportive digital communities. We remain committed to harm reduction across our communities. You can now read the full about statement on our new front page.

You may also notice on the new website that we now have a registered charity, Bluelight Communities Ltd. This organization was created to help ensure security for our ongoing operations and future endeavors.

The new website will host articles that relate to our mission. Our aim is to post one article per week, which we will promote via our social channels and networks. Discussion of these articles will be held at the new subforum Bluelight Article Discussion. We hope you like the new content and get involved in the discussions of it.

You will have seen the new logo and colors. The logo represents two chat bubbles in the shape of a B (for Bluelight). We’ve gone for a minimalist and inclusive design.

Many of us have a strong and enduring connection to the Bluelight capsule logo, and there will naturally be some nostalgia for it. We intend to immortalized the old logo, as well as the other capsule logo we’ve been using on our social channels as an archive [note: we will come back and update this when complete].

We have also now published the Bluelight drug icons that we co-designed last year - these include a capsule in addition to multiple other drug forms and types, representing the diversity of what we cover here. These icons can now be used by the public under a creative commons license.

We have new themes for our forum - Light and Dark. However, if you would like to switch to the old themes, these are still available, for those who don’t feel like changing anything right now Also, as these are new themes, there may still be some bugs in them. While we have tested them and believed we ironed things out, if you see anything unusual or something that doesn't work, please let us know here. Do clear cache if you are experiencing weird logging in and out issues.

We welcome your thoughts on the new direction and thank you for your patience over the years it has taken to get to this moment.

Bluelight Admin

 

Rather than just give criticism without ideas to improve, I would imagine a blurb on the landing page would say something kind of like this:

Bluelight.org: A Community of Real-Time Discussion and Support.

Dive into our vast forums and active Discord server to join thousands in open, impactful conversations on harm reduction and psychoactive substances. Talk and engage with people from all around the world to ask questions, share experiences, offer advice, and exchange knowledge and support unlike anywhere else. Create a user profile* and start participating today – your insights can make a vital difference in our collective journey towards safer, more informed substance use.

As a non-profit, our mission is to advance the health and wellbeing of people who use psychoactive drugs, so our membership is free of charge and open to all.

* note the user profile (or whatever the term used) would link directly to the following: (note you have to be in incognito mode in your browser to see what this link looks like to a first time visitor because we are all already logged in to an existing account, but it takes you directly to the new account creation page): https://www.bluelight.org/community/login/register

This example of course isn't what I'm saying it should actually say verbatim, I'm just saying conceptually speaking, something of this nature would be much clearer in communicating what bluelight is about to a first-time visitor. Again, the current homepage seems more like an About page than a main landing page.

 

I think very early on it should say something to effect of:

We have a large forum here with XXXX members, where you can talk to people like you and ask questions right now

And if you are a Discord user, we have a Discord server here with XXXX members actively chatting about topics you care about

Or etc, just something to make clear what the assets of bluelight really are. As it is now, none of that is immediately clear, and it appears to be just another harm reduction nonprofit page. I'd take a quick scroll through the page and leave quickly.

You're completely correct with what you've written.

The primary hurdle when I was involved was the fact Google blacklisted the forum. I'm not involved in any of the site development or work regarding that apart from part owning the company that did it, but I think it's important to note this is a v1.

Iterations will be made with a balance of basically not being blacklisted and being blacklisted.

As I said, I have 0 involvement for now in regard to this, but after reading your comments, you do have a point. However, I'll point out again this has just launched after a year+ of work, and now Bluelight can get into the nitty gritty of making things perfect.

There's so much behind the scenes that must be carefully acted upon (remember when you googled 'how to sniff a line of coke' and BL would be the first result).

There's more to it than that, that I'm sure Tron will add, but that's my perspective, having been involved last year.

 

Rather than just give criticism without ideas to improve, I would imagine a blurb on the landing page would say something kind of like this:

Bluelight.org: A Community of Real-Time Discussion and Support.

Dive into our vast forums and active Discord server to join thousands in open, impactful conversations on harm reduction and psychoactive substances. Talk and engage with people from all around the world to ask questions, share experiences, offer advice, and exchange knowledge and support unlike anywhere else. Create a user profile* and start participating today – your insights can make a vital difference in our collective journey towards safer, more informed substance use.

As a non-profit, our mission is to advance the health and wellbeing of people who use psychoactive drugs, so our membership is free of charge and open to all.

* note the user profile (or whatever the term used) would link directly to the following: (note you have to be in incognito mode in your browser to see what this link looks like to a first time visitor because we are all already logged in to an existing account, but it takes you directly to the new account creation page): https://www.bluelight.org/community/login/register

This example of course isn't what I'm saying it should actually say verbatim, I'm just saying conceptually speaking, something of this nature would be much clearer in communicating what bluelight is about to a first-time visitor. Again, the current homepage seems more like an About page than a main landing page.

All valid points again, but it's not a landing page, nor is BL a non-profit organisation. I won't chime in too much on this as I've been a BL member since 2008 and was a home to me for a long time, so I see where you're coming from, but I can tell you there was an enormous amount of effort put in to integrate BL as a company and BL as a community, pretty much pushing the boundaries of what was possible in regard to again being completely blacklisted.

 

@negrogesic
Thank you!
I certainly appreciate the critical feedback.

Especially as our key aim was to highlight our communities, and link back to them a lot, which the front page does actually do, but it may be we need to rethink it or emphasise it a lot better.

So my main point in response is we weren't trying to de-emphasise the forum.
However, another aim we have with the website is to get back to the top of Google searches. to do so, we need to be seen by google as 'not just a forum website' as forums are devalued in the algorithm. So, producing content in a different form (articles) that lead back directly to the forum for discussion, is the aim here. It means we can (in theory) get back into the Google good books, while also leading new people back to the forum (where hopefully they will join and contribute).

The google thing is one of the reasons we have photos and bios of contributors to the website, with real names and link backs to authenticated websites, e.g. LinkedIn or similar. Credibility and trustworthiness relates to Google scores and we lost a lot of that in their 2018 algorithm change. Being anonymous and in solely forum format and about a 'dangerous topic' meant we lost a lot of our new traffic. But yeah, I see your point, it might give the impression we are 'small', and that's a bit unfortunate given we have 25 years, 6 million+ posts, etc. this will sort itself out a bit over time, as we will add a 'contributors' page, because over time there will be many more than 5 people.

I think your suggestion about getting content on the front page that says:
"We have a large forum here with XXXX members, where you can talk to people like you and ask questions right now
And if you are a Discord user, we have a Discord server here with XXXX members actively chatting about topics you care about"
is a great suggestion. Actual numbers isn't something we included in the about page, but we can improve it by adding those in, for sure. As well as something clear at the front page for that first impression. And in the upcoming contributors page, we can also note the actual size of the communities there too - makes sense.

One thing your critique relates to were part of the plan but haven't yet been implemented - e.g. the tool we have under development for forum users to nominate forum content to highlight on the website. It's not complete yet so we had to launch without it. But once it is done, it will help us determine the community-nominated forum content to highlight at the front page, and I think would go a long way to improving visibility of forum on front page.

You mention 'static articles'. This may be a design issue to address, but each article has a related discussion thread back on the forum. Perhaps because we aren't hosting comments directly under the article, you got the impression they were static/noninteractive? I can see how that could happen. Perhaps a fix would be a more obvious button "Discuss here!" or similar (leading to the forum thread associated with each article).

The 'register here' issue can be resolved - I assume by spelling out 'Register for our community here' 'Register for our forum here' or whatever works.

@negrogesic please do let us know if the above fixes would make a difference in your opinion.

And everyone else - as much as it's been great to receive positive feedback, critical feedback is so valuable, and we welcome it.

 

Thanks @MicDown - you were posting as I was composing!

I would just add that, as of a few months ago, BL is governed by Bluelight Communities Ltd, which is a registered charity. So, we are now a nonprofit organisation. But we are one focused squarely on hosting digital communities to advance our mission (see footer). We aren't changing our focus, we are just trying to dig ourselves out of a Google hole in terms of being able to build back our reputation, as well as be able to approach new partners, new people, new communities, new researchers, etc. with a clear and updated website.

 

Hello to the Bluelight community

Today we are announcing the launch of our new website and our new branding.

The purpose of the rebrand is to update and consolidate who we are, our values and mission, and how we look to the world. We aim to attract new people to our site and into our communities, and retain them as members and contributors. We also aim to improve our ratings with Google through emphasizing our expertise and authority in the harm reduction space. We also wanted to look less like we still lived in 2011

A significant change is that bluelight.org now points to a new frontpage designed in Wordpress (you may have to clear your cache or use an incognito window to see it). The forums will continue to be available via their existing URLs that will resolve to bluelight.org/community. These can be accessed via numerous menus and buttons on bluelight.org, as well.

We have re-written our mission, which you can see at the top and bottom of our website at bluelight.org. That is, our mission is to advance the health and wellbeing of people who use psychoactive drugs by hosting, managing and maintaining supportive digital communities. We remain committed to harm reduction across our communities. You can now read the full about statement on our new front page.

You may also notice on the new website that we now have a registered charity, Bluelight Communities Ltd. This organization was created to help ensure security for our ongoing operations and future endeavors.

The new website will host articles that relate to our mission. Our aim is to post one article per week, which we will promote via our social channels and networks. Discussion of these articles will be held at the new subforum Bluelight Article Discussion. We hope you like the new content and get involved in the discussions of it.

You will have seen the new logo and colors. The logo represents two chat bubbles in the shape of a B (for Bluelight). We’ve gone for a minimalist and inclusive design.

Many of us have a strong and enduring connection to the Bluelight capsule logo, and there will naturally be some nostalgia for it. We intend to immortalized the old logo, as well as the other capsule logo we’ve been using on our social channels as an archive [note: we will come back and update this when complete].

We have also now published the Bluelight drug icons that we co-designed last year - these include a capsule in addition to multiple other drug forms and types, representing the diversity of what we cover here. These icons can now be used by the public under a creative commons license.

We have new themes for our forum - Light and Dark. However, if you would like to switch to the old themes, these are still available, for those who don’t feel like changing anything right now Also, as these are new themes, there may still be some bugs in them. While we have tested them and believed we ironed things out, if you see anything unusual or something that doesn't work, please let us know here. Do clear cache if you are experiencing weird logging in and out issues.

We welcome your thoughts on the new direction and thank you for your patience over the years it has taken to get to this moment.

Bluelight Admin

Will this cut down on the shit posting and trolling? I've had a lot of friends join Blue light for harm reduction and leave over the allowed nastiness. Its commonly stated that the forum was created with a great mission but lost its way.

 

Will this cut down on the shit posting and trolling? I've had a lot of friends join Blue light for harm reduction and leave over the allowed nastiness. Its commonly stated that the forum was created with a great mission but lost its way.

Thanks for this.
I hope we can do something to make more a more inclusive culture across our platforms.
It will be a bit of a process though. And needs to be led by the community itself, not some kind of top down process.

 

Props to @Tronica and everyone involved with the recent update/changes. I love the look of the homepage and have seen a few really positive comments across social media (fb HR groups ect)

Well done and thanks again for all you do to those who were involved with this!

 

Am I the only one who thinks the new logo resembles that of the language learning app Busuu? I tried to insert the image but the board always tells me it couldn't use the link, even after uploading to ImgBB so you have to check it out manually here.

 

you just have to grab the actual url of the image...

alasdair

 

Ha, yeah I'm sure there will be other things with similar colours, shapes, logos. I doubt the whole package will be confused with Busuu though (first time I'd heard of them).

 

I think very early on it should say something to effect of:

We have a large forum here with XXXX members, where you can talk to people like you and ask questions right now

And if you are a Discord user, we have a Discord server here with XXXX members actively chatting about topics you care about

Or etc, just something to make clear what the assets of bluelight really are. As it is now, none of that is immediately clear, and it appears to be just another harm reduction nonprofit page. I'd take a quick scroll through the page and leave quickly.

Yes HARD AGREE. Should be making it clear that the main focus is for drug users to socially interact.

PS and also what is it with the overly PC 'people who use drugs' clunky language. Just call me a DRUG USER when you're referring to me in the context of my drug use, because the term applies. Going all wishy-washy in fact CONFIRMS the stereotype you want to avoid. It indicates that drug use is inherently negative because we don't insist for example that joggers be called 'people who jog'.
If you feel conpelled to say 'people who do xyz' instead of being straightforward, you're already implying xyz is a thing you have to make excuses for / is not acceptable.

 

Am I the only one who thinks the new logo resembles that of the language learning app Busuu? I tried to insert the image but the board always tells me it couldn't use the link, even after uploading to ImgBB so you have to check it out manually here.

Similarish, but in 2024, to get a completely unique logo stamp is extremely difficult, plus the thought that went behind the logo was through the lens of the brand. A logo isn't a brand, but the thought behind the new logo went into serious depth and each part of it has a meaning.

 

Yes HARD AGREE. Should be making it clear that the main focus is for drug users to socially interact.

PS and also what is it with the overly PC 'people who use drugs' clunky language. Just call me a DRUG USER when you're referring to me in the context of my drug use, because the term applies. Going all wishy-washy in fact CONFIRMS the stereotype you want to avoid. It indicates that drug use is inherently negative because we don't insist for example that joggers be called 'people who jog'.
If you feel conpelled to say 'people who do xyz' instead of being straightforward, you're already implying xyz is a thing you have to make excuses for / is not acceptable.

On the first point, yes. We will be making some changes in that direction. It's helpful feedback. It's there in the about page but needs to be right up the front, for sure.

On the second point, I hear what you are saying. Thank you for your thoughts on the language issue.
But damned if we do, damned if we don't on this point.
The purpose of 'people first' language is to centre people - drug use is something a person does, but is not something that defines them. People are many things, with drugs being just one of them.
But for some people, it totally does define them! As in, it's an identity, and there's nothing wrong with that.
In my part of the world, in the drug activism scene, we've moved towards people first language over the last 10 years.
And it's not uncommon for peer workers to announce that they are a 'proud person who uses drugs'.
In other contexts and scenes and places, people will say they are a 'drug user' and proudly own that term.
So yeah this is about identity first or person first language. And I don't believe there is one 'right' way of doing this. There's pros and cons with either choice.

I'd be open to running some kind of consultation or survey across the community about this language issue and preference. It's a bit of a passion/interest of mine to better understand how it has evolved differently and how it evokes (strong) reactions in either direction!

One of my colleagues has another solution which I actually quite like. She uses the term 'drug taker' or 'drug taking'. Because there's something a bit off about the term 'user' in terms of stigma - it's not hard to find examples in the tabloid press where the term 'drug user' or just 'user' is used in a derogatory way, still, unfortunately. Whereas drug taker avoids that off feeling, while still not requiring person first language which is, admittedly, grammatically more clumsy.

Reminds me of a saying I love. "I hate drug takers. Customs, for example."

PS And yes, you can call me PC, in that I'm aware of all these nuances. But I'm certainly not making these choices to be politically correct, as in, let's just be PC for the sake of it. Reclaiming terms that have been used in a derogatory way is something people can do, but it comes with difficulties especially in the written form of a website. Using person first language seems like the better approach but we can be open to debating it and seeking views across the community, as with all these decisions.

 

Snazzy new look and website y'all, well done!

I can imagine how much work must have been involved so kudos to all involved.

Time for a well earned break for some of you no doubt!!

 

The new layout and logo looks glorious. I know it’s a massive task! Congrats Blue light team!

Longtime hang around- new member:Love the new look- surprised me at first- used to the old (tor) one-Great Job!!

 

Congrats to the new design. looks fantastic