I have been thinking lately about how to build this community faster, help more people with accurate knowledge, and grow a source foundation for new visitors to draw upon. My solution to this is by asking for members who want to help build this community into a resourceful knowledge base by becoming a moderator here.

What is a moderator? A moderator is a person who is assigned a category of choice (within the informational category), who sources information and builds unique content from research, edits any threads posted within that forum, and basically manages the forum/s they control. An example of a forum of interest for moderation could be "anxiety" or "Anger Management" etc.

At present, I manage the entire board, and as only one, am trying to source the most relevant content on each topic as well as post my own personal information I have on hand, plus chat and provide general advice, information and technique to individuals. This is becoming quite difficult to manage alone, in that my purpose for this community is to help as many sufferers of PTSD, spouses, family and friends of PTSD as possible, regardless of physical location. Besides that, I want to help people, not make myself ill from stress of failing that cause.

So, by taking volunteers to help build this community, I am actually trying to garnish a two-fold purpose, in that:

1. We build the community for unique, resourceful content to help each and every person that comes here in the daily struggles that PTSD challenges us with, and takes some stress of myself, and
2. It serves purpose to give sufferers a challenge to research a given topic of their choice which to become a moderator, and learn for themselves about what is primarily interesting them at a given time to better themselves. Tricky ha?

Basically becoming a moderator has no restrictive hold to an assigned forum, in that if one of your primary symptoms is anger, then you could request to moderate the Anger Management forum, research and report unique topics and information of interest to everyone, whilst bettering yourself on that topic, and learning how to better control that symptom. If you feel you have conquered that forum, then you can be assigned another of your choice, to start again.

Each forum can have multiple moderators, all building relevant content and topical information from different perspectives, viewpoints and interests within a given area. Each topic has hundreds / thousands of interesting topics, so there is no shortage of research. If you think a new forum should be created on a specific topic of interest, then I can do that and you build away. An example could be "medications."

To serve both purposes as stated above, building threads within each forum would require multiple research of any topic you are currently researching, in that copying and pasting information already upon the web is not the solution, instead researching multiple sources and writing your own assumptions, theories, evidence and report is the preferred method, in that two people can research the same topic, and both report differently though still outlining the same points. Users can then assimilate themselves to one or the other, as each person is quite different in their means of understanding content.

Rules? Some simple rules are in place for the protection of the community itself, the content, etc, and they will be outlined within the forum for moderators only to discuss topics of research or findings before posting to the public. Basic aspects would be:

• You need to write fairly good English, ie. structured sentences.
• Posts need to be spell checked in something like Microsoft Word before going public.
• No cheating by just copying and pasting, as I could do that, and you wouldn't learn effective technique to combat your own symptoms.
• And anything else that is derived by moderators themselves.
• Oh... and its not just for those with PTSD, in that spouses are more than welcome to be a moderator and build content in support of spouses. That would actually be superb if any spouses are interested.
• No time limits, no stress, no rush...

If you're interested, or if you want more explanation on this, then please just reply to this post for discussion.

I am interested in becoming a moderator.
You would have to make that judgement on your own though, lol
because I am abit nutty

either way I am going to do some research on some topics,
I like to have as much info as I can

That would be great YA. Which topic/s are you interested in moderating?

As boring of a topic as it sounds... lol
I'd like to do some research on: interpersonal skills,
although anger management would be a great choice...
I think I should leave that battle till later

Also, seeing as I am already looking up the information...
I can also submit drug information on Effexor and Seroquel

All done, and thank you very much for helping out to build the information sources YA, much appreciated.

yes :smile: anthony i would really like to giv it a go
as it would be great to be able to help others and feel useful..and i do need something to do..
hope to hear from you soon

That would be great Doobie, and very much appreciated. What topics are you interested in building and moderating within the information sections?

well anthony i think some more info on coping skills...matters like desensitizing, breathing..ways to cope with the real world as hard as it may seem....using medication wisely and combining them with coping skills as medication is a bandaid as you have stated many of times..we still need to deal with real issues... more night time support.
certain activities to pass and distract eg word associations...movies wat one gets from them etc and yes i know you have done similar with tv chows that i participated on...live chats to members. ..i know that already you have given help with directing to utilities that can be an outreach..these are of the top of my head..but i am open to further research and with something like ptsd i mean so called proffessionals are still learning and learning from us...
i have helped alot of others get some insight...and my doctor has stated many a time how much i have helped him help others i spoke to him on this and he would even offer help to me..
i feel and get alot from helping and learning from other people as it helps me as well ...

oh yeah worthwhile reading material that i have read got a bit of a library and have lent books to others who suffer mainly from hospital stays...and they have been enlightened by them..

Ok, so the "medications and anxiety categories?" The medication covers your above desires, and I think the anxiety probably bets fits desensitization and breathing to relax??? These are generally anxiety related factors I think... If that is correct with you Doobie, then I will put you in as moderator for those both.