Posted by twinleaf on January 10, 2011, at 11:55:03
the problems which have been plaguing Babble. It's heartbreaking to see so many posters, ones who have meant so much, finally deciding that it's better for them to leave. A forum like this, devoted to mental health, should not be causing posters to have a flare-up in their symptoms, like Dinah, or blame themselves excessively, like Maxime..Not only is our community now not providing support, it is apparently causing distress and harm.
It appears that there is just too heavy a burden of unsolved problems. For several years, we have had difficulty with issues of degrees of privacy (FB/Twitter) and excessively long blocks. Now,there is the added problem of posters causing distress to other posters via Babblemail. Painful as it is, if it is happening, it needs to be brought out into the open and faced. And it is pretty clear that the present notification system is not solving this problem.
Despite this overload, many of us who have been here a long time cherish the memory of Babble as it once was (for me, it was 2003-3007). We will do a lot in the hope of restoring it. I would love to be able to participate openly on Psychology the way I once did. I left a few months ago because it seemed as though I was facing a year's block if I so much as mentioned what I considered to be injustices in how the blocks were applied. Then when it appeared that we might get a community council. I began posting again in support of that. It would help my particular situation tremendously.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PLANS FOR A COMMUNITY COUNCIL????
The Council could have made an excellent start by shortening blocks, and could well have eventually proved useful in handling situations like inappropriate Babblemail communications and perhaps even enabling the community to have a say in how relatively easy or difficult disseminating information from Babble throughout the internet should be. Even if just blocking issues are addressed, it is a move towards a more democratic and mutually respectful relationship with Bob.
This seems like the closest we have come to having Babble end in a catastrophe. I thought almost all of the initial plans for the Council had been worked out, and that we were about to start, Is there something I missed?
poster:twinleaf
thread:976438
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20101201/msgs/976438.html