I guess that may have to be put up for someone to see. But it just seems like common knowledge not to go somewhere and act like an ass or play games with a issue as serious as PTSD. But it seems some people do lack a little common sense. I mean can we honestly tell ourselves who are here regularly don't already try to do this without having to be told? I am just thinking if those types of "rules", which is just common decency, has to be put in black and white... If you are going to act like that to begin with it doesn't matter if it is in writing or not. They will act like a horse's ass any way. I think if anything just a clear understanding of what they will find here. But it looks like I am the only one having that line of thought. Glad I am not getting knocked for it, but I think y'all have some common decency LOL.

Thanks all for your help and opinions, as they are all valued for help with this.

Veiled... I think what Warren is saying is pretty much what your saying, so your not alone I think. People ignore what they don't want to here, and all those here now are good people who when do have that bad day and attack, they near do instantly edit and post an apology. We all know, and understand that reasoning.

Darkskies... Yes, I can do all that, and new registrations go through a pretty similar method now as you outlined. New registrations all get manually approved by myself or moderator, if the details look spammy or aggressive, they go into a moderation group, where everything they post must get approved by a moderator before all others can see it. Those that look outright self promo, gonna spam the forum, ie. username: "superdude.com" get instantly banned, or "pharma1234" or "viagrahardcore", etc etc... Most get flicked before people see them now.

Kim... know what your saying, and the registration has these exact features already, except obviously without this specific information attached. Members already tick a box accepting the TOS of the forum, its just the TOS hasn't been modified to include any of this before, because it never really needed it / nor did I want it. Oh... I am stoked your comfortable Kim... which just kicks home that the community is on the mark for what its doing. Thank you for that.

Warren... I agree about that post mate... A slight edit on veileds post and bam, here it is straightup for you. It cracked me up... so much like my own attitude at times.

Hey you guy and girls are doeing a great job moderating this site. Before I found this site I went to the burn survivor site BSTW and went to the forum section and it was all spam and totaly useless.

I think darkskies idea of putting all new members posts into moderation would be a great idea!
Then I could concentrate on the posts in moderation first, make sure that newbies aren't posting spam and stuff.
And then move onto moderating the "safer" threads.

It would help us prevent spam/unacceptable posts from appearing to the public.

Rules are a great idea too, no one can say they didn't know better, lol

Veiled, I would LOVE to stickie that, as it pretty much sums up my feelings too, :) BUT... I think that it would be a little extreme for a welcoming message.
I understand your opinion on medication, as I agree with some of your points, but I don't think medications should feel like a taboo subject.
For some of us, it is a part of our daily lives, under our doctors supervision.

Well, yeah, but that it just my opinion on drugs as I have been on so many and walked that walk. But other sites I have seen were pushing drugs as hard as the shrink was my point, but a more in your face welcome I think may be in order making it clear what you find and what is the goal. I get drugs are part of our daily lives, not for some, but for near everyone here. Self included. It is just I have been dealing with the drug aspect so long and I know for me it has been like a dog chasing it's tail, you really end up no where and sometimes it takes many years of this to see it. Since I knew drugs were not doing anything for me I was looking for a place that would encourage and push a more drug free route. The place I went to before this I tried desperatly to find just one person who could live and did so without meds. Help me understand what is going on in me. All I would get back was have you tried this one? Or this one helps this. Drugs, drugs, and more drugs... The only person who pushed the way I was looking for did not have issues so they could not say any way as they did not get it; no way would I listen to one who has not been there and can no way understand the magnitude of it all. Others seemed to feed off each other's issues on other forums. Scary.

Like my husband told me lastnight after I popped off a smart ass comment if I just have a 12 pack maybe I can cook (I wasn't being serious just flustered), as once upon a time drugs or self medication kept me functioning, he pointed out your brain is not receptive to chemicals anymore. You just can't and you know it. If it is a pill I can pretty much bet I have taken it at one point, and drowned myself self medicating. So I needed this place very desperatly as I get only one thing from the drugs I take now, withdrawals. They do not work but it hurts bad coming off inducing even higher levels of anxiety.

Chronic pain from serious injury like you or Boo, I won't even try to say one way or another as I cannot get it. But the drugs for treating symptoms of PTSD I can, as I have been there so long and see where you will hit the wall eventually and run out of options. I have been misdiagnosed before, but the same meds were used as others get. Just not the counseling or self help options to treat since I did not know what was wrong with me.

Also, this place made me understand why I get the way I get. The doctors I see never could do that or did. Anthony did. I am all jacked up today. Normally I would not get it, just think great here we go again, no end in sight. But now as I have been shown, I know exactly why I am. The severe aspect of agoraphobia I developed was always beeing triggered as I was drug out to do one thing or another or if I felt OK I would try again. Now I see I was tripping way too many triggers at once not giving myself a chance to recover. Now I do baby steps. It starts to get easier...

Before I would be baffeled why yesterday I could get out and now today I am a wreck shaking and cannot drive and having panic eat at me. Now I know it is yesterday getting out is why I am the way I am today. I see the pattern now... Hubs has a better understanding too as to why I am the way I am. Before he thought me not leaving or not going to a store was "just a bit flaky" when we dated. Then he got to a point of not getting what was wrong with me saying he knew if the house had no food in it and it came down to me going hungry or to the store I would choose hungry for days. Then he thought I was just nuts. Now he gets it, why I am that way, and sees the patterns too. He also sees me being able to leave sometimes and not a wreck every single day. I could not have done this without implementing what I learned here and willingly follow where I have been guided. Hell, what did I have to loose? My mind? I was very much at the end of my rope. Some others may have a little more sliding room on theirs before they get to this point.

Some can better deal with the issues while being medicated, but in my gut I am not 100% certain they can be dealt with complete as possible as without medication. I am not saying medication is the ultimate evil, some helps people get on their feet no doubt. But you cannot stop there, you have to start educating yourself and learning to process. If they rely on it to fix them or keep them stable I think they are in for a very rude awakening. I really feel like once you get stabilized you should be set up with all the info avalible to start teaching you how to come off and address the issues. Let you know without a doubt what you are in for. I think people are being cheated being doped up and expected to stay stable. It just doesn't work like that.

i think you must have something to deal with some, and especially spam. but, if too closely moderated-some of us may not have gotten in and we really needed it. myself included. i was in very bad shape when i first posted, and i acted like an idiot, talking about suicide, etc. i wish i could take it back, but that's impossible--i was corrected, which i deserved, but i don't know where i would be now if i had been turned away completely. not that i think someone should just be allowed to attack people or spout angry things at innocent people--but it happens with the ptsd sometimes, before one has got a grip on things, or maybe before we want to have a grip on things. geesh! i am in a chatty mood. sorry, i didn't mean to write a book.

I'm not exactly sure what's been going on with regard to people behaving inappropriately (perhaps the posts are being removed before I ever see them), but I feel for you, Anthony.. The internet is just chock full of troublemakers with nothing better to do with themselves.

I can understand some angst in those who suffer from PTSD, as it is part of the illness itself to begin with. But I can also see where that angst may be carried too far, as well. I'll trust your judgment on what you deem to be 'going too far' because it's a guaranteed issue sure to arise (sheesh I hope I'm conveying this well, I feel scatter brained as of late, haha!)... I did and do still agree with the suicide posts, however. People who are suicidal should treat that as a medical emergency requiring immediate care that only trained professionals can provide.

I like the ideas I'm seeing so far, I suppose what I am trying to understand are examples of what kind of post would be considered as being purely argumentative without any indication of desire to understand or heal. In forums such as these, it is difficult to distinguish between the two sometimes, as many (if not most) with PTSD already have a very difficult time expressing themselves how society would deem "correctly"... It's definitely a fine line in some cases, although I acknowledge that some are blatantly and obviously designed to be antagonistic and inflammatory. However, objectively in my experience, I've seen people consider a point made 'antagonistic' simply because it differed from their own, too.

Thanks for any and all input =)

Well to me, medication means something different.
For the first year after my "accident" I refused anti-depressants.
I just didn't want to become a pill-popping zombie.

It wasn't until January 2006 that I finally gave in... as far as I was concerned... my mental state couldn't get worse... there was nothing to lose.

I've been on medications for 10 months now, and I think we've finally found the combination for me.
Life is starting to make sense to me, the voices in my head are slowing down, I can actually get to sleep!

I haven't gone through the "withdrawel" battle yet, medication got me through some of the worst of my PTSD, and the calmness/pain relief it brings me/my mind... is priceless to me...

It has helped me talk about my accident in therapy, and start to logically process some of the knowledge I get here.

I don't abuse medication, it is something that I need.
Before all of this, I felt very anti-med... I rarely even took Tylonel!
Plus the stigma that follows people who take "anti-psycho" pills...
The last thing I would want is to discourage someone who needs meds, to not take them.

I don't push drugs, in reality, there are probally only a small handful of people that know I"m medicated.
And this is the one place that I feel I can talk about my medication experiences... because alot of people here are going through the same things/symptoms.

I think rather than making subjects taboo, we should just get rid of the "distructive" posts.
If I can't discuss it here, or I can't be open and honest, where should I go?

Yer, the meds aren't an issue, actual suicide is (not talking about suicidal thoughts themselves, just the "going to kill myself posts"), distructive is, and directed anger is another growing one, yet I can force myself past that usually. This thread from woundedme is the most recent in regard to anger Hey - Chronic Pain with PTSD being he stated he had anger issues, yet when shown different aspect to anger and emotions, he got angrier and angrier and directed it at me, then cookie for her post, then the entire forum, which is just bullshit IMHO. If in doubt, you ask... that is my take on communication. Guessing does nothing except promote frustration, which equals anger.

Yes, most of the rubbish does get removed before many see it. Some people here would see bits and pieces at times, if we haven't gotten to them first.

New members are now heavily moderated, but some may still get through. The woundedme I should have seen coming, because the name says it all, "I want sympathy to reside on my pity pot". Its amazing what you can tell from a username or email address about a person.

Cookie made a very relevant point, in regard to not overdoing it, which I don't believe is done, and will ensure never occurs. I want people to be themselves, I want people to be honest, nothing more, nothing less. The only thing I ask, is that people don't demonstrate aggression towards others, which was done most recently by woundedme, and that people don't try and garnish support for uncharacteristic values. If people want to lie, cheat and steal in life, then that is up to them, but I can and will say something about it if and when it comes onto this board, especially looking for support. About 99.9% of possible discussion is ok here, its just that small minority that is becoming more and more as the member rate climbs so rapidly. With an exponential graph of the way membership is increases, opposed to increase in posts and threads daily, by the end of next year the board would have approximately 2000 members, if not more. With the way the web is with spam and promotion today, near 500 of those members will be here for nothing more than to spam or self promote their other online interests. This approximate 500 are the problem, let alone the few that slip through the cracks with aggressive, destructive or disruptive behaviour.

lol, I just read that thread. Seemed to me he has it all "figured out" in his own little world... He's 'normal' and the rest of us are nuts! LOL sorry, that just got a good chuckle out of me. My favorite part was where he claims a "nurse" (*cof* yea, right) said that most with PTSD are nuts...

Yeah, Anthony, I agree that was a clear example of what no one needs on any kind of forum.