Thanks. and no Im not having a problem.

this issue has come up here on psych central before. not directly related to my blog but just the fact that sometimes people get a false sense of security when in on line support groups.

normally (in real life time) support groups have confidentiality rules and so on.

but when on line in PUBLIC COMMUNITY MESSAGE BOADS that confidentiality does not apply.

the whole world wide web has access to public message boards just by locating the websites main page or other resourses so there is no way to enforce any confidentiality rules of ON LINE PUBLIC COMMUNITIES. They are OPEN to the whole wide world, friend or foe, relative or stranger.

But sometimes because it is a "support group" people forget its NOT a closed group like in real life. and get shocked when they realize what they post is PUBLIC for qall to see and use at any time. Look how many times people have copied and pasted pictures, posts, articles, links and so on just by going to other websites and then cutting and pasting them here without permission from the website or author.. Same thing if its open to the public its open to be used in any way that anyone wants be it to cheer someone up, or write their thoughts or a way to express how they are feeling,

which is why people have from time to time brought up threads about on line privacy issues here at psych central.

Psych central advertises publically the Psych Central website and the blogs are searchable by search engines so there is no telling who is visiting and from where so everyone has been told many many times Psych Central COMMUNITY area is not searched by search engine but t he rest of the site is so everyone must always only post what they are comfortable posting here knowing full well that non registered members can at anytime read the posts and threads here in the community area.

As for links from my blog to here -

No I am not posting links in my blog to the message boards.

that has ALREADY been done by doc John or whoever sets up the blog sites BEFORE I even got access to my blog.

when people register for a blog their blog automatically contains two links within their blog when they are given access to their own blog site.

those links ALREADY PREINSTALLED are called -

"Psych Central Forums"

and

"Psych Central"

From the first day that Psych Central assigns a member their blog site ANYONE who visits the blogs has access to the community message boards by way of the ALREADY PRE INSTALLED links.

I HAVE NOT PLACED THOSE LINKS THERE. THEY WERE ALREADY THERE WHEN I GOT MY BLOG SITE FROM PSYCHCENTRAL ADMINISTRATION.

The only thing I did was chose not to delete them after I started my blog.

people doing searches that match with my blog for the past two years or more that I have had my blog have been coming in to read the message boards. Just like anyone who does a google search for depression can be lead to the main psych central webpage and then all they have to do is click on the word "community" and be here reading the posts and threads here.

the bottom line is the community area is Public and people do read the threads and posts here no matter who they are where they live and so on.

As for writing my thoughts in my blog about what I am reading on the PUBLIC boards I am not doing anything that many other bloggers here have not already done and am not doing anyhting that I have not already done before in my blog the only difference is that I am being upfront about it.

A blog is a persons journal about thier own thoughts about their own experiences and being in online support groups are a part of MY experiences and so on for the past 5 years. And that includes posts and threads in my many on line support groups that I agree with, disagree with, grab my attention, make me laugh and so on.Those that have been reading my blog now for the past two years have already been reading about my on line experiences in on line support groups. Im not doing anything that I have not been doing now for the past 2 years.