[hairyone]

Hello All,

This forum is a great idea and I think it helps many people, thank you for hosting it.

Background:

I run a forum completely unrelated to psych, it is a cryptozoology/bigfoot research website. The focus of the site is field research, sightings analysis, stats collection, fieldcraft, etc.

We have a subset of our members who I believe need help. However, I am ignorant about mental health, so maybe I'm wrong and that's why I'm here, to educate myself.

Our website's subject matter is animals not accepted by science yet. There is a stigma associated with searching for bigfoot. Our site makes every attempt to keep the discussions science based.

Problem:

We have a subset of members who claim that they can telepathically communicate with bigfoot. That bigfoots are everywhere and have a society and special powers. That they have interactions with these creatures all the time, etc.

They have names for their bigfoot friends, etc.


Questions:

1) Do these members have a mental health issue? (I think so)

2) We have segregated them to a specific forum in our website and they stay there for the most part and do their thing. It's been about three years now. Is allowing that not helping them? Are enabling something we shouldn't?

3) Is it advisable to not provide that forum for them? that is what I would like to do, end it. I don't want to cause them any issues though.

Thank You for your advice.

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by hairyone

Hello All,

This forum is a great idea and I think it helps many people, thank you for hosting it.

Background:

I run a forum completely unrelated to psych, it is a cryptozoology/bigfoot research website. The focus of the site is field research, sightings analysis, stats collection, fieldcraft, etc.

We have a subset of our members who I believe need help. However, I am ignorant about mental health, so maybe I'm wrong and that's why I'm here, to educate myself.

Our website's subject matter is animals not accepted by science yet. There is a stigma associated with searching for bigfoot. Our site makes every attempt to keep the discussions science based.

Problem:

We have a subset of members who claim that they can telepathically communicate with bigfoot. That bigfoots are everywhere and have a society and special powers. That they have interactions with these creatures all the time, etc.

They have names for their bigfoot friends, etc.


Questions:

1) Do these members have a mental health issue? (I think so)

2) We have segregated them to a specific forum in our website and they stay there for the most part and do their thing. It's been about three years now. Is allowing that not helping them? Are enabling something we shouldn't?

3) Is it advisable to not provide that forum for them? that is what I would like to do, end it. I don't want to cause them any issues though.

Thank You for your advice.

Im sorry we cant tell you whether your members of your website have a mental disorder or not, only they and their own treatment providers can say that. you see we are not their doctors and here in the USA there are privacy rules and add to that if you look at the bottom of every page on psych central you will see a disclaimer that says this site is not for diagnosis and treatment, to contact ones own treatment providers.

that said I know many people who feel they can communicate with their pets, animals in general wild or not. Some people just have this instinctual ability. kind of like you can be out in public and accidentally make eye contact with someone and your own instincts will give you all kinds of clues and info about that stranger. some people have learned how to listen to their instincts with animals and other strange happenings.

some locations teach things like bigboot was/ is just a very large primate or individual. that anyone over a certain height and boot size is now considered to be a genetic relation to giants or big foot. example I have a friend who's brother is 7 ft tall, try buying a size 18 extra wide grown mens sneaker. yea he gets called bigfoot and he and his mom and dad have this instinctual connection, is it telepathy who knows but it sure seems that way when you are in the room with them.

also you have to understand if you are going to have a website based on mythical beasts and out of the ordinary beasts and animals you are going to get those who say they have met and talked with our have those kinds of animals just for the sake of saying so, just to see how gullible people on the site really are, having a website like this you are bound to get all kinds of people from believers to unbelievers and those that love to scam, heckle Bs their way through the site and forums.

my suggestion is you have two options you can look at what the rules are for the site and see if it goes against the rules of what your site is and as the administrator of your website take what ever action you want to

or

you can just sit back and enjoy the fact that you have a website that people are comfortable discussing bigfoot and other creatures freely. and that you have a site that does not discriminate against those who may be different.

or

you can have conversations with these people to see if they will tell you their self whether or not they have a mental disorder.

[Thunder Bow]

You are doing the right thing. Good work. Here is a link to my forum:

Hanblecheya

[Skeezyks]

Well... I'm not a mental health professional. So I can't offer anything in the way of a diagnosis that might be applicable to the members you describe. What this sounds like to me is that, perhaps, it might fall under the "heading" of schizophrenia? There's a forum, here on PC, dedicated to Schizophrenia & Psychosis. Perhaps you might take a look through some of the postings in that forum & see if there is anything there that is of help in terms of gaining some perspective regarding what you're dealing with. Here's a link to that forum:

https://forums.psychcentral.com/schi...and-psychosis/

My personal non-professional opinion would be that how you are handling the members you're concerned about is fine. I wouldn't forcibly segregate them of course. However offering them their own forum, it seems to me, is an appropriate way to proceed. I don't believe there is really an issue, or concern, here with regard to enabling.

You wrote that what you'd like to do is to not provide these members with this special forum, to end it. But you don't want to cause the members who use this special forum any issues. I personally think the question here is more one of what do you need to do in order to manage your website. You have these members who believe they are actually in contact with bigfoot. Can they be integrated into the rest of your website without undue disruption? If not, & if you don't want to apply whatever restrictions your website has with regard to such things as arguing etc., then I think perhaps the path of least resistance, so to speak, may be to simply continue to provide them with their own forum as you have been doing. Does that make sense?

Anyway... thanks for bringing your concern here to PC. The problem you describe is certainly an interesting one. My best wishes to you...

[hairyone]

Thanks all for your feedback. I appreciate it.

Originally Posted by amandalouise

... some people have learned how to listen to their instincts with animals and other strange happenings.

It is much, much more than that.

They "mindspeak" with bigfoot and what really concerns me is that it has gone on for so long, that one of the members is the leader who is the only one who can "mindspeak" with the "shephard" bigfoot. Other members have not reached her level, so they can only mindspeak with common bigfoot, IF the bigfoot has chosen them.

You see, bigfoot chooses you if you are deserving... blah, blah, blah...

The leader is giving advise and maybe instructions (from the "shephard") to the rest of the members. It's all pretty elaborate and I feel it's gone too far. It's not a bunch of passing trolls.

I know Skeezyks mentioned it already, but I want to ask again. Is there any harm in enabling this kind of thing?

If I end it, I don't know how to say it... will it trigger an episode or whatever?

[Skeezyks]

Originally Posted by hairyone

Thanks all for your feedback. I appreciate it.


It is much, much more than that.

They "mindspeak" with bigfoot and what really concerns me is that it has gone on for so long, that one of the members is the leader who is the only one who can "mindspeak" with the "shephard" bigfoot. Other members have not reached her level, so they can only mindspeak with common bigfoot, IF the bigfoot has chosen them.

You see, bigfoot chooses you if you are deserving... blah, blah, blah...

The leader is giving advise and maybe instructions (from the "shephard") to the rest of the members. It's all pretty elaborate and I feel it's gone too far. It's not a bunch of passing trolls.

I know Skeezyks mentioned it already, but I want to ask again. Is there any harm in enabling this kind of thing?

If I end it, I don't know how to say it... will it trigger an episode or whatever?

Wow... the more we get into this... the more complicated it gets. Here again, I have to emphasize I'm not a mental health professional. So anything I say is just my personal opinion.

However, with this new information, yes I guess I would have some concerns with regard to what is occurring in the forum in question. I can't even give you a specific reason or rationale for my concern. But the fact that you have this one member who has now emerged as something of a "leader" begins to make this take on the trappings of an on-line cult it seems to me.

Perhaps this is just all fun & games for the members who are participating. One would like to think so. But, heaven forfend, what if the "leader" suddenly began issuing orders to the followers to do something that could cause them harm? And what if even one or two would feel the need to comply? Call me paranoid. But I'd have to wonder what your website's legal exposure might be in a situation such as that. And, of course, you have to have concern for those followers who might come to harm in the process.

All of this may or may not be harmful to the members in question in terms of their mental health. That's something neither you nor we can know for certain. But, at least from my perspective, this sounds like the kind of situation no good can come from. No ill may come from it either. But the potential is there, it seems to me. So, that said, perhaps it would be best to simply close that particular forum down & allow the members who post there to continue to post in other areas of your website as long as they abide by the website's rules. Then "punish" any who offend in the same way you would any other member.

I personally doubt any of us, here on PC, can really say definitively, what effect continuing to allow this, or stopping it, may have on the members who use this particular part of your website. But the more we get into this, the more red flags come up for me.

[hairyone]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

.... But the fact that you have this one member who has now emerged as something of a "leader" begins to make this take on the trappings of an on-line cult it seems to me.

Heaven forfend that it would get to this stage. But what if the "leader" suddenly began issuing orders to the followers to do something that could cause them harm? Call me paranoid. But I'd have to wonder what your website's legal exposure might be in a situation such as that. And, of course, you have to have concern for those followers who might come to harm in the process.

Exactly. I've thought about closing it earlier, but thought maybe I was being mean spirited or prejudging people, until I started reading their posts. I guess I just needed some confirmation from a neutral party.

I think I'm gonna end it.

Thanks for your help!

[Skeezyks]

Good luck! I'd love to know how it goes... should you wish to follow up.

[hairyone]

So I decided to just present the problem to the users and get their feedback. Within two hours they came back with the excerpt below from a psychic/medium website:

Pursuant to the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”), 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1), and court decisions interpreting the scope of the CDA, You acknowledge and understand that We operate as the provider of an interactive computer service. Thus, We are immune from, and cannot be held responsible for, claims arising from the publication or transmission of third-party content, which includes content provided by Our Users, as well as the content of other Users and third parties. We do not create such content, and We are not responsible for the publication of remarks or communications of third-parties that may arguably rise to the level of being actionable under federal or state laws including, but not limited to, the publication of material that might be considered defamatory, or violative of privacy or publicity rights. Note, that federal law allows Us to remove or block any content found to be offensive, defamatory, obscene or otherwise violative of our policies, without impacting Our status as the provider of an interactive computer service. In the event that any court finds that any third party communication or third party content on Our Website falls outside of the realm of the immunity provided by Section 230 of the CDA, this shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any legal protections provided by Section 230 for any and all other content posted on Our Website.

Problem solved.
I'm going to make sure our terms of use have this included. Thank You again and Merry Christmas!

[MickeyCheeky]

It's admirable you want to do your best for your users, hairyone. Personally I think that, no matter what you decide, you don't really have any responsability towards them. After all, they're the ones who came there, and the only thing you did is set up a forum from them. You can suggest them to get help, if you want, but the final decision is up to them. The decision of whether to shut down that forum or not is up to you. Let us know how it goes! Sending many hugs

[seeker33]

You're a very responsible admin. This really sounds weird and like those people might need some help. But anyway, you're not responsible for them.
My suspicion is if you ban them they'll keep in touch anyway. Using PMs, mail or create a fb group. I guess everything that gets banned gets even more attractive and creates a potential for conspiracy theories.

What you can do apart from a legal disclaimer is adding a "normal" disclaimer in their forum section saying something like this isn't scientific and you as an official forum admin don't personally agree, but you decided to allow them to discuss.
The reason why I think it's better to keep it in public is that other members can step in and give logical arguments in case something goes out of control. If you force them to keep things secret it might get worse and no one will know.