Depression Support Group
Depression is a real and debilitating condition that is often misunderstood by family and friends. Its meaning can range from a prolonged period of sadness to an actual mental illness with specific symptoms. Find and share experiences with others who are going through the same struggles.
Ok, I'm gonna just get this started. Not meant as a complete picture, but an outline. Can you add your thoughts?
Generally speaking, any topic is OK on DS unless:
1) COMMERCIAL MESSAGES: Users are posting messages promoting products from which they materially benefit.
2) INTERFERING WITH THE FLOW OF CONVERSATION: We had a problem a few weeks ago when a member posted hundreds of topics within a few minutes. It destroyed the flow of the community. Not OK.
3) PERSONAL INFORMATION: DS strongly advises against the posting of personal information (email addresses, phone numbers, addresses) and may delete that if posted. This is done only for your safety.
4) RELIGION: DS is non-denominational and while we think religion is an important part of healing, imposing your religious beliefs on others is not ok. As an example, we do not permit religious folks from entering our Gay and Lesbian forums with the intention of "curing" or otherwise fixing the members there.
5) PERSONAL ATTACKS: Now this is where most folks get tripped up, so let's see if we can come up with something useful. A threat of violence against another member is unacceptable. Example: "I'm going to kill you" or "you should die". Debate about all kinds of subjects is fine, but attacking an individual is not. As an example, if you and I disagree about abortion, we can attack each other's position and claims, but it is NOT acceptable for me to say "You're an idiot! You deserve to die!"
6) ATTACKING A GROUP: Obviously, attacking or insulting a group (race, religion, etc) is also unacceptable.
7) WHAT'S OK WHERE: Forums are public places and require the strictest interpretation of our rules. Journals are more oriented towards personal communication. Journal comments, hugs and private messages are the place where we often see personal attacks, and that's obviously not OK.
8) OBSCENITY / PROFANITY: Generally speaking, we're not sticklers for curse words, though we ask folks to remember that anyone 14 and older may be on the site. Where folks have gotten in to trouble is when they post an obscene word in their avatar (which can be seen by anyone across the entire site) or post the F-word in all caps in the middle of a discussion. Obscenity in the course of a valuable discussion is one thing...just saying it for the shock value isn't really helping anyone. Thoughts? Unfortunately, nudity is generally not allowed on the site because, well, frankly many other members complain about it when they see it. We can get more technical about what consistutes actual nudity, but I thought I'd just get this started.
9) COPYRIGHTED CONTENT: We can get in big trouble if we don't take down copyrighted content, when notified by the copyright holder. I think you all get that.
Ok, that's just a start. Thoughts?
doug
Generally speaking, any topic is OK on DS unless:
1) COMMERCIAL MESSAGES: Users are posting messages promoting products from which they materially benefit.
2) INTERFERING WITH THE FLOW OF CONVERSATION: We had a problem a few weeks ago when a member posted hundreds of topics within a few minutes. It destroyed the flow of the community. Not OK.
3) PERSONAL INFORMATION: DS strongly advises against the posting of personal information (email addresses, phone numbers, addresses) and may delete that if posted. This is done only for your safety.
4) RELIGION: DS is non-denominational and while we think religion is an important part of healing, imposing your religious beliefs on others is not ok. As an example, we do not permit religious folks from entering our Gay and Lesbian forums with the intention of "curing" or otherwise fixing the members there.
5) PERSONAL ATTACKS: Now this is where most folks get tripped up, so let's see if we can come up with something useful. A threat of violence against another member is unacceptable. Example: "I'm going to kill you" or "you should die". Debate about all kinds of subjects is fine, but attacking an individual is not. As an example, if you and I disagree about abortion, we can attack each other's position and claims, but it is NOT acceptable for me to say "You're an idiot! You deserve to die!"
6) ATTACKING A GROUP: Obviously, attacking or insulting a group (race, religion, etc) is also unacceptable.
7) WHAT'S OK WHERE: Forums are public places and require the strictest interpretation of our rules. Journals are more oriented towards personal communication. Journal comments, hugs and private messages are the place where we often see personal attacks, and that's obviously not OK.
8) OBSCENITY / PROFANITY: Generally speaking, we're not sticklers for curse words, though we ask folks to remember that anyone 14 and older may be on the site. Where folks have gotten in to trouble is when they post an obscene word in their avatar (which can be seen by anyone across the entire site) or post the F-word in all caps in the middle of a discussion. Obscenity in the course of a valuable discussion is one thing...just saying it for the shock value isn't really helping anyone. Thoughts? Unfortunately, nudity is generally not allowed on the site because, well, frankly many other members complain about it when they see it. We can get more technical about what consistutes actual nudity, but I thought I'd just get this started.
9) COPYRIGHTED CONTENT: We can get in big trouble if we don't take down copyrighted content, when notified by the copyright holder. I think you all get that.
Ok, that's just a start. Thoughts?
doug
one favor to ask - this is a board just for suggestions of improvements...no need for anyone to get upset with each other here.
i'm still reading through the more than 100 posts, but yes, we're working on IGNORE - hope to have something soon - and we're still talking about ways to report violations about a certain member.
i'm worried about explaining why we take action against someone for 2 reasons:
1) it's really between the person and DS
2) i don't want to invite an entire tribunal into every decision we make. if we say "person x has been banned for personal attacks", we don't have the time and resources to then get into a lengthy argument with everyone about the severity of the attack, why they were provoked, etc.
i don't hate the idea, but i want to make sure that it still meets our goal of providing as much support to our members as possible. we don't want to turn every administrative decision we make into a public debate.
anyone disagree?
It would be nice...Thanks
Izzie