Yes, that is something we have and do discuss. There are ups and downs to all solutions, but we feel that being able to offer informal peer support to a member in crisis is an important thing to do as a community, especially as times are hard for many right now, and we don't all have access to the same support systems and resources. If a user is in crisis, the first thing we do is try to connect them with professional services during those difficult moments, but informal peer support can do a lot of good in the meantime. We will, at times, lock the thread once we know the user is in a safer place. Though there are times we may leave it open if we feel the user in question may quickly need to return to it, or there is a lot of positivity and support that may be crucial.
This is dangerous and ignorant of why people who need professional help are told to talk to someone. Not talk to ANYONE. They need someone trained.
I wholeheartedly agree with this. People in need have a way to express themselves and others are willing to talk to them. That's a good thing.
Eh, you are saying you are worried about people with suicidal ideation seeing those threads, but as someone who does struggle with suicidal ideation on a nearly daily basis, I don't think your suggestion here is helpful at all. Immediately locking these types of threads (which are clearly cries for help) sends the message, both to the person posting and the people seeing the thread be locked, that such things are not wanted to be seen by the community. That you'd rather ignore the suffering and sweep it under the rug.
Doubt it. I can't imagine a working professional in this field saying that social media platforms should let the live stream continue when someone says they want to die. That's terrible for other users and terrible risk to the person contemplating.
I've posted on many other forums and off the top of my head every single one closed suicide threads with a hotline number. There's a very real risk in allowing suicide threads to remain open for days, no matter how well-meaning the staff's intentions are, not only to that user but to others who are seeing the threads. It's a really tough call but I do agree with the posters saying the handling of these threads is irresponsible.
Or sure, but I was mostly talking about members doing things like that. Maybe you could ask members if they want to do stuff like this and like interview them to see if they would make good candidates ?
MMO guilds already largely exist, if you jump into the various OTs you can join up pretty easy (or at least find people to play with, I know I do).
... this is a video game message board. they just need to be directed to the appropriate venue
It's not ResetEra's fault that the news are mostly negative. There's still plenty of discussion about movies, tv series, music & other culture (like, well over half, usually), there's the community side that is almost all devoid of Trump/fascist doom & gloom outside of a few political threads, and positive news get posted here as well, but those being super common is just not the reality we live in today + news networks themselves focus on the negative. Fascism is on the rise and nature is going to shit. It'd be nice to read about gay/trans rights being expanded everywhere, conservation efforts bearing fruit, fewer mass shootings, cures for serious diseases or whatever a lot more often, but that's unfortunately not what's happening in the world.
I think that as a community there's many many many more proactive steps we could be taking, and in fact that it's our responsibility to do so (especially the people who own the website)
this site has some redeeming features compared to other sites so it'd be nice to not have to throw away the whole thing.
Yes, we've spoken to people with experience in the field and continue to seek their advice and consultation.
it isn't their responsibility. mental health issues aren't the person fault, but it is their responsibility. it doesn't fall on others.
To be more clear I'm not talking about putting anyone in charge of suicide response. I'm more talking about how we can support each other and create a healthy culture as a community and prevent folks from reaching the point of suicide in the first place.
