I Pulled the Plug

It's damn near impossible to get a discussion forum off the ground.  Everybody's afraid to post on an empty forum, which pretty much guarantees it stays empty, and in the end, it's not worth the aggravation.   So I pulled the plug on the forum.  Now, onto other things.

To be honest, I don't think I'll keep the fb page up much longer either.  It really doesn't come up in search results and posts don't circulate because fb keeps changing how the site works, and how/what you see and when, even from pages or people you follow.  It's just another source of aggravation, and I've got more than my fair share of that.  They keep fiddling with their coding, and pages like mine get ghosted.  It's as though you already don't exist.  What's the point?

It's a better use of my time to use my blog to work out some of my frustrations and issues.  The internet's already full of blogs where people do all their venting and grousing.  One more won't make a difference either way. 

The internet's a horrible place to socialize.  Absolutely horrible.  I'm already almost a hermit, and have no idea why I can't just cut off completely from people.  It's like a woman who won't or can't leave an abuser, and sooner or later, he kills her.

I was having fun fiddling around with making memes, and basically the only reason I started the DNC page on fb was to have a place to post them.  It's neither therapeutic nor cathartic.  It's just way of passing time.

So I think I'm going to retreat to just blogging.  I'll never get hits but that's something I'm used to anyway.  Just screaming into the void for no reason whatsoever.

Take This Life

As I try out websites and discussion forums, I'm also compiling a review of that site for organization, functioning, and other considerations.  Some are just so bad, they are best to avoid altogether.  The first site I've come across that warrants a bad review is Take This Life.

Poorly organized and moderated.  It took me all of one hour to get banned.  My unforgivable infraction?  I posted a link from my forum and facebook page.  Are you serious??  Yes, I now have a personal beef with this site.  The ban notice said 'advertising.' 

Bans for advertising are not supposed to hot-button all links.  Sorry, but that's to understand the letter of the law without understanding the spirit of the law.  Bans for advertising are to prevent links to porn sites, hate sites, and commercial sites.  If you're not selling anything or trying to get visitors to a sex bot site, then you're not spamming the forum.

And having a problem with another depression forum--especially a new one that doesn't even have posters yet--is gulagy.  It's cabal-istic.  Who wants to deal with someone's mania when they themselves are in pain and looking for help and support?  Nobody.  In my wildest dreams, I never expected such a response.  Creepy.  That's just fucking creepy. 

Apparently, whoever runs that forum is trying to do it on auto-pilot, and doesn't care at all about the posters on their site suffering from depression and other mental illnesses. 

What is also a huge turn-off on forums is unnecessary restrictions on how you set up your profile, prohibitive restrictions on profile pictures--as in ridiculously small size restrictions, and PM and posting restrictions that amount to having to jump through hoops before you can fully utilize the forum. 

On all counts, TTL gets an F.  There are a ton of depression forums on the internet, so it's not even close to being necessary to register with that one.  In lay terms, they suck.  Hard. 

Read more: http://depressionboards.freeforums.net/thread/66/life#ixzz3IzYpBARV

Postaphobia

Fear of posting to a new and empty discussion forum.  That's postaphobia.  I googled to see if there was such an affliction, and finding none, made up the word 'postaphobia.'  Most people will not post on a new board.  They might register and watch to see if anyone posts something, but an empty discussion forum is apparently a huge turn-off.  Most new boards languish and die in precisely this way.

When I set out to design a new forum, I wanted to have what others didn't.  I wanted it organized a lot better.  I wanted discussions of suicide to abide the host provider's TOU, but to not drive it all the way to the other extreme where discussions were immediately and completely squelched.  Suicide's become one of the last taboos on the internet, and in my opinion, that's about five miles south of ridiculous.  So I wanted it to be a safe topic.  I didn't want a board that descended into talks about graphic sex and about drug use, socially acceptable or not.  A lot of forums have turned into havens that were nothing more than craigslist personals.  I wanted a real board that would be a real resource that provided real support.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.  Ah, well.  I'm not ready to give up just yet.

So, okay, I really want to stick it out a little while longer, but I don't know how much longer before it becomes pathetic.  I hesitantly started a new discussion forum for depression and other mental illnesses.  The forums out there right now are, in my opinion, inadequate in one major way or another.

But still, I hesitated, and that's because it's extremely difficult to get a board off the ground.  I have no idea why that is, but really, it's damn near impossible.  If there's something wrong with mine, a huge and obvious turn-off somewhere, I have no idea what that might be.  All I can think to do is sit and wait and hope someone somewhere decides to post something.

So I'll give it a little more time.  Maybe figure out a way to reward the first ten posters to the forum or maybe some other incentive or a prize or something.  Three new posts per day would get it rolling, I'm sure.  Until then, it's very discouraging, even demoralizing, but I'm going to stick it out at least one more month. 

Take a peek if you haven't already.  And if you notice something I don't notice, let me know.