A pleasure to read this thread and different people's experiences who come here and find different things.

One of my beliefs about community is that although larger communities (such as ours) have their drawbacks, one of the benefits is that hopefully people will find more support for their concern in the appropriate forum. A smaller community might not always have enough people with any given concern to provide as much support as might be wanted or needed. And yet, we still sometimes fail in that regard too, as morning_view pointed out.

Chat rooms are a completely separate issue, because some people simply aren't interested in that form of communication. And it's more of a social modality, meaning that people seem to be drawn to it as much for socialization and just chatting, than to be available for the kind of support that some are looking from there.

There are no single or easy answers to these kinds of concerns, but I think Micah wrote some words of wisdom that can help guide us--


I completely agree with this sentiment and encourage members to be as selfless as possible (as much as their own health and concerns allow), especially when you see another member who is crying out for help or is being attacked by others. (Always report such issues to a moderator or admin, and we will look into it, too.)

We try to make our community one of the safest ones we possibly can, and recognize that we can't always meet this goal 100% of the time. But we do try, and appreciate members who help others as much as they can here.

DocJohn