Thanks for the great support. We are doing our best every day to improve and it is feedback like this that we find so helpful. Thanks again and let us know where we need to improve to make this website part of improving everyone's lives.
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 2:39 PM
Posted by: newdawn Posts: 105
Thank you Erika for your support. I hope we can support eachother. I sympathise with your predicament. In the depression stakes I can gel with you wholeheartedly. I would be glad to help in any way possible. This is the very reason I joined this site in essense. No man walks alone and nor should we. I will respectfully help and thank you most sincerely for your current support. With little wells of tears of gratitude to yourself and others today in my eyes, I thank you all.
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 2:47 PM
Posted by: bonniethesurvivor Posts: 1,138
I have found a great deal of benefit from Disaboom. I have also experienced some very hurtful negativity for some of my points of view, and in those instances, on the Bulletin Board, I now simply withdraw from the discussion. I do not use the chat room at all. I find that posting on the Bulletin Board when I think I can be helpful or have a strong opinion, blogging when I feel the need to express myself, and responding to other people's blogs with either support, or polite disagreement, are all good experiences for me. The Health and Living sections have also provided some very interesting information for me. The Bulletin Board has given me information on equipement, medication, other web sites and more.
In other words, not every section of the site may be useful to you, but many can be very helpful. I would encourage you to use this as you would a library--go to the sections where you are comfortable and can make contact, and ignore that which makes you uncomfortable. Good luck! Bonnie
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 2:48 PM
Posted by: Posts: 4,183
The problem with the chat room is that a power struggle to control it is underway. Gail you are a part of that struggle. As a woman I hate to have to admit this seems to be just one more cat fight in a world of cat fights. It sux and some people need to just pull up their big girl panties and get on with life. A chat room is nothing more than a diversion anyway so don't sweat the small stuff. Say your piece and then ignore people who get on your last nerve.
By the way there are teen agers who frequent that chat room so the its all among consenting adults if a moot point.
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 3:08 PM
Do you know it wasn't until that day that I even understood or realised that there are teenagers using the site. I hadnt bothered myself in my anticipation of finding newness and friends that I bothered to even consider the possibility. I know, it doesn't seem even worth contemplating a statement like that...but I assure you it is true. To the one 16 yr old present that day, I did immediately apologise. I would love to say that forewarned is forearmed, but I cannot do that now! It would be like asking me to shut the gate after the horse has bolted. But, in reply to your message beakerless, I do now and like I said, I apologise if I offended anyone.
I am, however going to continue in the places of interest, my whole reason for joining and I do nonetheless appreciate all input, critical or otherwise, so thank you.
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 3:20 PM
I'm not being critical of you with the comment on teenagers dawn. It was just a statement of fact and as for you continuing to be a member here I think my email to you should explain that I agree you shouldn't leave here. As for the grudges that are held by the chatroom regulars well they are the ones I was suggesting need to pull up their big girl panties. Enough is enough and the ongoing war is about as stupid as someone wearing tin foil on their head to get better tv reception.
So stick around Dawn and like I said before say your piece when you need to and just don't pay attention to or respond to the stupid stuff. I let myself get sucked into some of this because there were some racist and other discrimminatory comments made in the past. All bets are off now though because this whole situation has been taken to a level that is beyond childish and petty but you can bet your bottom dollar I ain't leaving. Life is too short dawn to throw the baby out with the bathwater and Disaboom is an environment long overdue for those of us who struggle to function in a world that is neither conveniant or welcoming to use for the most part.
So see you in chat I hope and when all else fails and your patience is worn thin in there do silly stuff like throw lard or get out your can of silly string. One can show others that you don't like their behavior without saying nasty things, calling names or cutting them down.
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 3:37 PM
You made me laugh lots. Thanks....and incidentally...in a world that's hard enough already without all this rubbish....I hear that!!
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 3:50 PM
Posted by: ducky01 Posts: 153
I remember seeing you in the chat the other night while I was there, Dawn. I teach Sunday School, and am prety conservative, so I'm not always comfortable when the talk becomes too explicit. I can kid around with the best of them, but try to keep my jokes below the blue radar, so to speak, with the occasional innuendo that can be taken a couple of different ways. I usually mention that I teach Sunday School when I go into a chat, so that others might take the hint that I don't do explicit chats. I'm usually cautious of what I say, because, as I mentoned to someone there, many general discussion boards are considered "Family Boards," chats where minors are permitted and, therefore, conversations should be kept "clean." Not sure if any of the folks I was chatting with were the person who was banned, but if they were being explicit, I was probably either ignoring the more explicit stuff or trying to joke it off and turn it to another subject. But, don't give up on chat just because of a few folks that are disruptive. Chat can be great fun, and a good way to meet other folks here, and a nice place just to talk about your day and such. It's an important tool, especially if you are homebound, so that you can "get out into the world" among other people, and not feel isolated and alone. I really hope I do see you there again next time I get a chance to chat with everybody!
hugs from ducky
Posted on: Sun, May 18 2008 3:51 PM
Posted by: Nightengale Posts: 686
I have been a member since last July and been in chat since that time.
I have had some enjoyable conversations in chat and met some interesting people. Which is why I keep comming back to chat. We even had some great chats on specific topics, like SCI, pain management, or working with a disability.
However more and more often I have found the General chatroom has been a less and less pleasant place to be. Often it seems like a mass of jokes and emoticons being traded. Jokes about drinking, drugs and sex, when there are teens in the room worries me. People looking for dates who don't take "no" for an answer." Other times I have seen personal attacks. I have seen negative comments about people's sexual orientations. Including mine, actually. And through all this I see new people come in with specific questions about disability who can't get a word in edgewise.
And as long as these conversations are the first thng newcomers see, people are going to leave the chatrooms. In droves. And most of them will not stop to post the whys and wherefores, they just won't come back.
I've proposed this before and I am proposing it again. Chat needs rules clearly stated. Is dating conversation to be kept in the Dating Room or all over the place? What about adult topics when there are teens around? What about prostylizing or calling people "crazy" due to differeing opinions? Without specific guidelines, chat can be pleasant or it can run amok, and the people who try to speak out are then jumped on.
I don't actually object to discussions about sex, politics and religion, so long as everyone present is comfrotable with the subject matter and it is a discussion, not an argument, a personal attack or a prostytizing session. Sometimes we have managed this in chat but more often it turns into a screaming match.
It would be very helpful to have a teen room, and also an adult conversations room. Not to turn the general room into either of those things, because I think it is good to have people of all ages learning from each other, but to have specific spaces for adult only conversation and a specific space that is free from adult topics. In addition, the rules need to be clearly stated so that those who speak up for the rules can then be supported rather than attacked. If moderators or administration were to stop by chat even a half an hour each once or twice a week, I think that would be helpful as well.
Having a disabilty related chat is SUCH a good idea. I just hate to see people driven away or feel driven away myself. Please take some of the comments in this thread as a serious sign of the realities of the chat room in its current form.
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