Thinking About Suicide calls for a broad community conversation about suicide. If possible, I'd like this website to be able to contribute to this conversation by creating a space here where some discussion can take place. But I have a few reservations about this, partly because I'm still learning the technology, but also because of the sensitive nature of our topic and the hazards of cyberspace.
At this stage, there's only one blog here and only I can create a new topic for discussion, which visitors can then comment on. Hopefully I'll later be able to have another blog-space where you can create your own topics of discussion that others (including me) can comment on. In the meantime, if you want to start a new topic then you can let me know through the Contact page.
I do not want to control or censor this conversation but I do feel the need for some caution. So here's the current setup for posting comments:
- only registered users are able to post comments - with apologies for the inconvenience but I feel it's necessary
- comments are not moderated by me - i.e. they are not sent to me first for approval but are visible immediately
I really don't want to be the moderator (censor) but this will only work if all visitors use this space respectfully. In particular, please observe the following if you wish to post comments:
- this is not a space for encouraging people to kill themselves - there are websites where you can do this but this is not one of them
- similarly, this is not a space for discussing methods for killing yourself - again, there are websites where this happens but not here
- please be respectful and non-judgemental of other people's comments
Any comments with that are abusive or have inappropriate language will be deleted as soon as I see them. I may also delete the registration of anyone posting such comments, perhaps after contacting you first by email (but maybe not). And anything that is potentially illegal will be passed on to the appropriate authorities.
If need be, I'll change it so that all comments will have to be approved by me beforehand. But I hope this will not be necessary. Please help make this a useful - and safe - space where we can talk sensibly and thoughtfully about suicide.
David Webb, May 2010