Cowgirl, I do agree with diverse and this site does achieve this.... and your point is exactly why I make mention of sympathy several times a year. People come here that are new, they don't go through all the old posts, so some topics are raised every so often during a year to rectify issues as they rearrise, which they do time and time again on a forum.... not just this forum, most forums.

If I didn't bring sympathy back in check as it got out of hand here, then what you mention is exactly what we would end up with.... a bunch of even newer members all thinking its acceptable to pity one another and live in self loathing. No problem with people wanting to do that, go for it, I just do not allow it here which I have every right to do. Forums run on rules, each and every one of them, and you hit it on the head with there being plenty around that cater the sympathetic bullshit some so want from here. Won't happen here.... sympathy is something given rarely, NEEDED rarely, though often people become sympathetic before empathetic. Empathy even has boundaries, in that people with PTSD need to be challenged during their trauma therapy time in order to look inwards. Without these very basics and the foundation of this forum, we would just be another one of those forums that achieve little, market on numbers, and how sympathetic and full of shit we can be.

Not for me.... This forum sits inbetween the hard arse military forums telling one another to "get over it" and the sympathetic forums drooling in each others drivel and self pity.... a little of each is a good mix, along with lots of commonsense, experience and facts. The more of those three are released into this community, the smarter and better we all become, not more depressed by being rewarded or acknowledged as a pity pot.