I'm very curious

I am very happy that kimmydawn has decided to take the position of administrator, as I know she's done a lot of work for the site in other ways. She is always very kind and has 'saved the sanity' of many people on the site. I would be happy to ask kimmy should I need any issues about the site resolved (although I am sure this is an unlikely situation )

However, who is 'JustBen'? Admittedly, I do spent more time on this site browsing that contributing myself, but it would be my guess that if someone was to become an administrator they would need to have a fairly visible profile on this site, and be known and trusted to the majority of members. I am sure that JustBen is a very nice person, and I don't mean this to be a personal attack against him.

I must admit, though, that finding out he had made only a minimal number of posts over 14 months of membership, was of great interest to me. In my opinions, that's not really consistent with a well-known and involved site member.

So when I found out that in fact, JustBen is a psychology postgraduate student, things clicked into place. Apparently the position for a psychology student to moderate and/or administrate this forum was ADVERTISED. I don't really feel that this is a way to get someone from within the site to assist with the running of the site.

Reading the posts he has made, they do seem helpful to people, and pretty much textbook answers There is little personal information, and given that people on here share SO much, would it not be more appropriate to have someone in an admin position who has also been through a few bad times and therefore, people may reciprocate trust with them in their new role?

I don't know whether I am alone in my feelings over this, but it does disturb me that we have a post graduate psychology student 'practising' with people on this site. I don't know the level of training or competence he is at, but I do know that someone with SOME knowledge (even when they are in the process of training) can be pretty dangerous from a clinical perspective. Text books are not the same as real life experience. People who are training do not have this experience either.

I believe that either someone who is qualified and who is prepared to make themselves and their background known to other members, OR someone who is trusted by other members, is more important that giving a psyc student a chance to practise their advice.

I myself have a PhD in criminal justice psychology - I veered away from clinical but have a good amount of knowledge from postgrad study on mental disorders and treatment. Yet I wouldn't presume to know enough to advise others. I am sure JustBen is training more specifically in abnormal than I did, but it still doesn't make me comfortable with it.

In my opinion, someone like _Sky_ would be the ideal type of person to do this sort of job - with a PhD and therapist experience. I do hope people like her were asked BEFORE the advertising was done.

This is a good, helpful site for the most part, but this sort of thing does put me off somewhat.