I am not a poor soul.

Again with outrage on this issue when this has been an option on ds for a long time.

This goes back to what I tried to tell my step kids. If you don't want your personal thoughts and feelings and issues out there for the world to see, DON'T POST STUFF ON THE INTERNET. It is common sense, and it's also YOUR choice. No one has a gun to your head demanding you share your personal feelings and experiences on a public forum. You make a conscious decision to post here, or FB, or wherever. You choose what to share, which thoughts to express and the words you publish.

Stop perpetuating this victim mentality about privacy when you choose a public forum for your method of sharing. If your privacy is this precious, really, you would not be on a public forum.

Also, californialyn, you are projecting how you would feel if you had PTSD or bipolar, not how a people with these conditions necessarily feel about themselves. People handle disease and illness and personal issues differently. All you have to do is look at any number of posts on this group and other groups to realize fragility and sensitivity doesn't discriminate.

I saw this months ago and raised the alarm with DS.

I accept it was always possible to do this. The change is that it has been made easier and in fact is now tacitly encouraged.

I feel that in perhaps a lot of cases it's a good thing. Someone might want to share a post on say macular degeneration with a friend who has just received that diagnosis.

The potential danger is when someone maliciously reposts something from here (I've had that happen before when someone copied and pasted stuff from my journal), either to embarrass or to make fun of someone.

So I guess the lesson is only to post stuff in public that you accept can be seen by "online tourists" or voyeurs. Quite where this leaves the members of sexual abuse, incest survivors or rape I don't know.

Thank you Middleman101, They say ignorance is bliss.
I was on the old site and now am on this one.
I had no idea that these could be posted to FB , tweet, email and so forth.
I know that nothing is really private on the net anyway. I basically never noticed the icons.
I haven't posted a photo. I will continue to post but will just be more aware of what is
being said. I may go into the journal part. I just do feel disappointed overall that those
options are available. I feel it goes against the purpose of this site. There aren't that many
others like this one (for better or for worse) and it is too bad because people know in all
these groups that there's a sense of isolation and sharing with caring people is very
therapeutic. It's a very valuable service.

I'll admit I forgot my pseudoname was no way one that would give me away. So that takes care of that issue. Nonetheless the options to post to social media are relatively new and unheard of in the old format. But then, who is middleman? That sure is anonumous pseudoname. But the existance of sending posts to social media without the author's consent blew me away.

My apologies, Starfish. I assumed people with PTSD and BD might wish to have a level of privacy. I"m modifying my earlier statement.

RMB: I think when you read my earlier, updated comment, you'll understand what I was trying to get across. It wasn't about projection at all.

I frequent some private Christian groups, the RA forum, and the bipolar forum. I am also a member of the PTSD group. I try and encourage people, which sometimes means just listening and being there for people. (Also a regular poster here, of course!)

I do understand what Lynn is saying. I certainly do not think she meant to be negative about mental illness. I think she was just worried about the stigma of having a rant or rave about some aspect of mental illness in a forum, and having it suddenly broadcast all over all over Twitter or FB.

I was in some secret RA FB groups a while back. Just because you have a disease that affects your body, does not mean you don't end up with some serious mental health issues. The first group fell to pieces in a few weeks as it turned out the leader was completely controlling and paranoid. We didn't know that when we started the group, it wasn't obvious.

So we started another RA group, and it took about 2 years, a suicide attempt to realize one of the members not only had severe PTSD, but she was also borderline, and an alcoholic. I shudder to think of the damage either of those women could have done, in those days if the FB option had been available, as we were still posting here. The borderline woman played games, and the group eventually shut down. she is not a friend anymore, here or anywhere else. So I think it is vital that even though DS is public, it is only public to people who come looking for help, not something our families and friends need to know about.

I made the decision to use my real name, as I was tired of explaining in various forums that no, my name was not (xxxx) but something completely different. So, I am being honest, and yet I am being told I should lie about my name! Not that some of these generic screen names are proper names, which may be a good idea, in retrospect to what I have done in keeping my own first name

Anyway, I do not want my posts here spread all over FB or other places. I understand the risks of public posting, I am willing to accept that. But I do not want my mental health issues, or for that matter, my physical issues spread all over FB.

And that is the bottom line!

I think people are just cautioning people to not use their real name, particularly a full name, when posting on the internet if concerned about privacy and what they post. It's just good sense.

Anyone can take any information you post publically, here and anywhere and share it. This is not unique to ds. It's an assumed risk. But realistically, most people aren't nefariously copying and pasting or sending your posts out there to the world. Strangers aren't all the interested in other people's lives, their issues, etc.

Truly if your bottom line is you never want it potentially shared, that's hard to demand when you choose to post freely on the internet. I really believe if this was such a deal breaker for some people, they'd decide any public forum, ds, fb, etc, is not something they want to engage in.

rmb, your last paragraph hits the nail on the head. Don't post, don't share, because if you're not one tough cookie and can't deal with the public nature of the internet, you shouldn't be here.

I like how you roll, buddhacat.

Doo, I'm afraid it's a social media site for support groups. I know that's contrary to how it feels because it's so intimate and covers so many issues typically considered personal but it is at the very core a public forum; the vehicle in which the support is provided is the internet. So you do the best you an to protect your privacy by using a username that doesn't include your full name, you set your privacy settings accordingly, etc. Otherwise, to me, only truly private support is in person therapy. Because it's against the law to share info discussed,with certain exceptions.

One thing I want to add. After I got sick and was searching for support and and wanting to find information, a lot of things came up in my google search, including a couple of support sites like ds.. I would not blindly join a site without reading different member posts and journals first, to see if the support site was a good fit for me and would give me what I was looking for. If everything was closed off to the public, and you had to join before seeing discussions, there is no way I'd join. You don't buy a house without taking a walk through it, to see if it's something you see yourself in and that meets your needs. There are other support sites that are just awful. The rules are super rigid and people use moderator power in a very weird way. It's freakin' warped. Thank goodness I could see that prior to joining those sites.

There's a whole FAQ section that outlines how ds works as a support site, that addresses privacy. I don't believe members are incapable of choosing to learn more about the site they're joining. They just have to want to. It's like smoking and then claiming you didn't know it caused cancer when all you have to do is take a second and read the package.

I just think it's interesting we assume people with physical and mental and emotional issues are incapable of educating themselves and understanding how things work. Some of the sharpest strongest, smartest people I know are people with physical, emotional and mental health issues and to treat them as if they couldn't know any better... me personally, I'd feel like I'd be insulting them.

" if you're not one tough cookie and can't deal with the public nature of the internet, you shouldn't be here. "

That might be a conclusion you and I might come to.

But that then doesn't sound like a good environment for people who are fragile and vulnerable. Like perhaps people who are in a mental health crisis, those looking for support as a result of rape, sexual abuse or incest.

And I thought that was exactly what DS was for?

I don't think it's up to us to decide who it's not a good environment for. It's the individual's choice. If someone struggles with wanting no one on the internet to see what they post, ever, even if no one knows who they are, then no, it might not be the ideal place to choose to find support. Public support sites are not for everyone. Just like in-person support groups are not for everyone. Internet support sites are not the only support game in town.

I agree totally Dooo! This place is supposed to be about SUPPORT! It was not designed to be social media. I have met so many hurting people here, and it frightens me the direction this forum has taken. If I had serious issues, as you mentioned, Dooo, I would not be comfortable posting them or talking about them.

It is one thing to go into a forum and complain about the new RA flares in my knees and shoulders. It is another thing to go to the depression forum, and cry out that you want to die, because you can't stand the pain anymore.

Both could be from the same person. The first scenerio, most people would rather not it be spread, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if new flares ended up on my FB page. But the suicide threat? Which was just as real? I wouldn't want that posted so every person I know could see it on FB. Maybe I am just afraid of the stigma, but certainly, it is my right to seek help here, and not have it broadcasted in places it was never meant to go.

One might even decide to come out about suicide on FB, and that would be fine. But people should never find out after the fact that it is on FB or Twitter (I don't use Twitter, I'm too wordy! LOL) that someone posted what I said here about very serious and personal problems.

And if people are afraid to post, why bother having those forums? The issue, which I clumsily presented before, is once you make friends on here, people often do go to social media sites which require the use of real names. If those people from here, don't turn out to be what we thought they were, then the very easy possibilty of spreading embarrassing material can happen with the click of a finger.

Therefore, DS is not a safe place, and we should not trust anyone, nor use our real names. Well, certainly not the last name! But the first name? Why are we even here, if DS's goal is to create another social media site, instead of the support group this was in the old days?