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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Phil on October 19, 2012, at 19:40:17
I go to an e cig forum. I quit smoking 111 days ago, now I 'vape' delicious concoctions that I make for a fraction of cigarettes and there is no combustion so no tar painting my lungs brown.
The forum has 13,000 active member and after 3 months I'm still finding new stuff. Google e cig forum if you want to take a peek.
They have ten moderators for sub-forums. I never see drama there but one day one guy made me mad. I contacted a moderator and said what's your policy on this? She said if you're asking if we publicly humiliate people here, we don't but I can steer you to another forum if you like.
It's amazing. People don't cuss it is a very enjoyable place. This isn't about the e cigs you find at the mall. We use advanced personal vaporizers and it not only is better than smoking it's also a great hobby. For people coming off cigs you would think tempers would flare but e cigs are just better than tobacco. FDA? Wants to ban them. Tobacco? Wants to keep it because it's part of our heritage. m-o-n-e-y.
I wrote a huge post on my bipolar story there. Woke up the next day and asked myself if I could progress anymore in the stupidity department. Wouldn't go back for a week because of you whiner those drugs are bad for you comments. When I did go back I heard courageous, thank you so much you're very brave, I'm bipolar my cousins bipolar, you have made a difference. Friend requests and pm's with the senders phone # and telling me stuff like my wife has never taken one minute to learn what I go through and won't talk about it. Well, we talk now.
So there are people there with mental illness. The forum managers name is old soldier and when I saw his picture I thought, I'm going to do everything in my power not to p*ss him off.
I've never seen a moderator argue with a poster. I'm sure there are problems but like old soldier they are taken care of in a stealth manner.
I think the key is laying the rules out plain and simple. I don't know if people get warned by pm and banned or just get banned or it just isn't necessary. But it is the best model of how to operate a forum that I've seen.
I wonder if the babble rules weren't so convoluted and impossible to understand or follow, when there were rules, and didn't involve public humiliation and the predictable public outcry, if we would have never lost those gems that made this place spark with life.
I'm not even sure of ecf's actual rules but I go by, when in France.... But I wonder if the rule from day one stated, this is a forum for people with mental illness that are looking for support and education. However, we do not condone this this or this. While we know that members do deal with serious illness, if these rules are broken, you will receive one warning by pm. If it happens again you will be banned with no further communication. As a courtesy, here is a list of other supportive websites. While we understand these are strict guidelines for people with mental illness, we will not tolerate any of these behaviors because of mental illness.
Maybe I'm in Disneyland here but like Scott Peck said, without self discipline it's hard to be happy. < something like that.
But I've seen a big forum that does work so this one could too. True, this is different but people are people.Remember Hurricane Katrina and the tragedy and chaos? Remember when they called in that general chewing on his cigar and before his boots hit the ground he was barking out orders and lost people were told straight up what they were to do and they were to do it yesterday. Should have made a movie about that guy. Called it 'Old Soldier'.
Posted by sleepygirl2 on October 20, 2012, at 19:03:53
In reply to How to moderate a forum, posted by Phil on October 19, 2012, at 19:40:17
I have theories about this...
It could be, that given this is a forum for the mentally interesting, there was some sort of responsibility assumed, beyond that which would be assumed with "normal" folks. Perhaps there was an assumption that people had to be protected from each other, that one couldn't count on internal controls, and that it had to come externally.
Imagine, letting emotionally fragile folks go after each other...
responsibility that might go along with that? Maybe because you are a mental health professional. Not that it necessarily should.
And when this forum started... How many forums like this existed? Who knew how this would turn out.
And talk about blank slate...
The idea that we transfer feelings into a supposedly neutral therapist. How have we done with someone in authority who's a name and a picture on a website?
But...
No matter how thin you slice it, there's always two sides, so others have their opinions.
I think a lot of things didn't turn out do well, but I think intentions have always been good.
This is the end of the thread.
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