That is right Jon and that is why it is probably good to carry over the suicidal rule into chat. Unfortunately as you said there are no moderators there regularly to help. I think all you can do is push the person to get some help, call a hotline, whatever... but you are right it is very stressful for the people in chat at the time and a very unfair position to put them in.

If someone has a habit of doing that please let the moderators know. You can even let them know if someone does it once. The mods or DocJohn aren't going to do something overreactionatly (a very old word that I just made up) as we understand that people are vulnerable and they make mistakes. Sometimes they may come here just because they know they are in danger and don't know where to turn... and in that case our role can be to give them their options, hotline numbers, etc... but it is not for us to take "responsibility" for helping them. IMO the goal is to get people thinking in such a way that their instinct will be to call a hotline rather than to log on here... that can be a hard habit to break but in some situations it is the best course of action.

And in general I think it is safe to discuss our reactions and sadness when others in our lives are hurting, suicidal, or worse. That can be a healing and informative discussion as long as it doesn't become a debate about the "merits" of suicide or something like that.

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