I think we've all heard your opinion on the topic and it would be nice and interesting to see what other people's opinions are on it. Re-stating your opinion in a half dozen different ways doesn't make it any more (or less) valid, it just makes others feel like you're pushing an issue into their faces.

Just because I've spoken doesn't mean others can't add their two cents. We, in fact, have a thread entitled, "What you'd like to see in an ideal mental health site" that provides a rich experience of people's opinions of things they'd like to see. But generally I don't change a long-standing community guideline on a whim (or even a single discussion).

My reasons are simple -- I've seen far more communities run more smoothly in the past 15 years I've been doing one form of community or another online with this type of guideline in place. When such a guideline wasn't in place, I found a few key community members would orient toward this issue and spend all of their time in the community focusing on it, to the detriment of general emotional support and sharing that communities like this are about. It only takes a handful of people in an online community to cause misery to a far greater number of people. So it is experience-based. (The same reasoning also goes to the discussion of administrative issues.)

So we've heard your opinion... now if others want to share their opinions about this topic, I'm happy to listen. Thanks!

DocJohn