Use the Chat Rooms? Please Read This

I've received and/or read about MANY instances of inappropriate chat room behaviors, as has the rest of the entire moderation/administration team.

Please remember the the guidelines for this community apply to both chat and PM's as well. LINK TO COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Chat is not a place to attack another, curse another, or harass another. Please know that future reports of this will see a warning. Once a warning has been issued for inappropriate behavior, the next instance could see a suspension of the account. If the behavior continues, it could lead to a permanent ban.

It is INAPPROPRIATE to use the support chat room for anything but support...people in need of support or those offering to support.

I appreciate so much everyone who uses the chat area. I love to go there myself when I can, but it takes ALL to make it work.

If a difficulty does arise, please save the chat and send it to a moderator/administrator in PM ASAP. After that, please feel feel to place on ignore anyone upsetting you. It's usually better to do that than to "get into it" with the other person...just until the transcript can be reviewed.

The intended purpose of chat was for members to be able to gather in real time for support, social or other specified wants/needs. Please use chat for its intended purpose.

I will be making myself much more available in chat for the next while in a hope to help with some of the upsets there. If I'm not in chat and there's a problem, please PM me a transcript.

I personally think that chat requires high degrees of both acceptance and tolerance, but that all those there should be respecting of the many various needs, personalities and wants there by acting as you would if you were literally sitting in the room with those same people.

Thanks always for your support,

KD

What about the photo section surely it should not be used to make digs at people by using hand signals to offend....

Trish.

You're right, it should not be. If you find that to be true, please PM me with the specifics, OK?

Thanks, trish.

KD

You have mail....

Trish.

It is truly a sad state of affairs when we require a babysitter.

Hey.

I'm not there to babysit, nor is any other mod/admin...well, 95% of the time we're not.

I'm going to be there to make myself available...that's all.

Thanks,

KD

I'm going to go one further and say the following as well--

1. The primary focus of the main lobby area -- the Psych Central room -- is for serious mental health issues, checking in with others, and general support. These things take precedence over all other conversations in that room. Same with the Support room.

2. From now on, purely social chatting should be done in the Social chat room (or the Teen chat room for teens, or the 21+ room for adults).

3. Members who are looking for support in any room but Social take priority over all else. If a member respectfully asks you to take a social conversation to a private room or Social room, you should do so.

We have said this time and time again -- the chat system is here to primarily support our mental health support community. If you are using it simply to chat with some new friends, that's fine, but remember to do so in Social, a private room, or one of the age-specific rooms.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have about these new guidelines, thanks!

And thank you for your continued support and cooperation,
DocJohn

What do we do if somone is abusing that and we ask them to leave the support room and go to another and they ignore us or worse are rude to us ?

Trish.

Then please copy the chat and send it to one of us and place that person on ignore.

Thanks,

Jan

will do thank you !

Also, ignore is a good tool to use in chat.

All should remember that a member using ignore is practicing good self-care, as well as care for those that are there by not responding.

If one member has another on ignore, others should NOT attempt to go around that ignore by relaying messages. It breaks down completely the self-care tools put in place and continues the upset.

Thanks everyone.

KD

Thank you Kimmy, DocJohn and Januray.

BRAVO!

Everyone needs a reminder now and then, and a good push once in a while for some helps too. Thank you for this nudge from the administrative team, webmaster. Sounds like new guidelines that will help us all to enjoy chatting once again!

It is nice to see that the administration here recognizes the problems in chat and are goingt o take an active part in helping to fix the underlying problems because using the ignore feature doesn't always work towards the best solution.

i have enough trust and hope to wait out this storm and hlep chat get back to the supportive role it has played in my life

Thanks
Linda

Thanks everyone for your feedback and support as we move forward.

KD

its nice to see i had nothing to do with the problem for once LOL

LOL Hyper, Really

Hyper

thanks you can always make me smile

Linda

What I'm finding is that people are not looking at the room name, they just see people in a room and crowd in.

With the site continuing to grow so fast, we all really need to pay more attention if at all possible.

thats all i do. just crowd on in.

and yup. really lol
this is my favorite icon (i just thought id share that)

Go Figure Hyper!

hey!!!

Hyper,

You must quit scolding me for agreeing with you! you know I'm very easily confused.

Back to the topic...

Yes, using the chat rooms according to their purpose is going to be necessary...just as takes place here in the forums.

It helps with the flow, but also meets expectations of anyone coming in...according to the room. Mostly, though, as DocJohn said, it allows to the higher degree the community's main purpose...receiving support on mental health related concerns.

**Edited to add...

The moderation/administration team has agreed to make ourselves more available as we can to the chat community. If you see a moderator/administrator in chat and there's a current issues, please don't hesitate to PM. However, there won't be one available in the chat rooms more often than not, so please remember that forwarding transcripts are the best way to help a continual disturbance/upset.

I'll do my best to pop in on a regular basis.