Lately there have been several incidents of some of us posting on threads and stating what we disagree with about it, or the person's personal opinions and thoughts, and the thread has gotten a bit heated. I'm not saying that's wrong, or that no one here should disagree. I am suggesting that posts in disagreement can be, and should be, supportive in nature. Generally, if a post contains personal opinion formed, or thought, can it really be wrong (as long as it's within guidelines)? It might not share ours, indeed it might not share in mainstream opinions and thoughts, but that doesn't mean it's wrong for another to think or feel.

This is the very first paragraph in the guidelines for posting:

This is, first and foremost, a self-help support community. That means if your message (post or PM) isn't about offering support to another person or asking for it, it's potentially not appropriate for our community.

If your post is not supporting the posters within a thread, it might be best to wait. If a post causes a high degree of emotion for you, then it might be wait to best.

Not everyone here (as large as this community is) is going to agree on everything, but recently it seems that some posting has become heated due to disagreeing opinions, thoughts, etc.

Posts are to be supportive. We can certainly disagree with one's statements within a post. However, if we feel we want to share disagreement, please do so in a manner that isn't hurtful, or flaming to others in the thread. Accusations and blaming can often lead to defensiveness. Knowing that, when I disagree with someone, I try to always use alot of "I statements" and share my differing thoughts without accusing the other in any fashion. That makes a good discussion even better, I feel.

In general, folks, please keep replies, posting, threads, PM's and basically your entire interactions here at PC supportive to those you interact with.

Also, to those of us who like to begin new threads, please remain supportive to those that might show a differing opinion, or even those that are flat out disagreeing with our statements as long as the responses are supportive in nature. When we post a public thread, we're opening ourselves up to response. Yes, we can expect, according to the guidelines, supportive responses. I don't think, though, that we can expect everyone to agree with our thoughts/opinions/etc. 100% of the time.

Finally, if posting is unsupportive (or you suspect it to be) instead of acting/reacting within the thread when we feel ourselves angered or defensive, sometimes it's better to PM a mod/admin to take a look at it.

Thanks,

KD