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Misc How Can We Improve Other Drugs? v. Calling All OD Miscreants

I didn't say you aren't listening. I said that the reasons for your decision sounded like perfectionism which is self-defeating. Making a small improvement was decided against because a perfect solution couldn't be found. I thought that was helpful feedback, not bashing. Now, though, I think you aren't listening, so I'll stop talking.
 
^I don't understand where you're coming from...Are you writing in code?
 
^ I don't think he is lol I happen to have agree with him slightly but also I have read this whole thread And completely understand why you guys wouldn't want to split it up either way I'll still be on bluelight all day err day
 
^^

No doubt. Look if people still wanna throw out good reasons that haven't already been given for why OD should be split, go for it. We'll consider everything. We never have a problem with constructive ideas, no matter what they area. Just don't get all uppity and pissed if we don't follow your advice to the letter, haha.

But, I'd like to focus on other things as well as this has always been a tightly contested topic and I don't want the whole thread to be about that one thing ya know?
 
The way I read this is saying "We're not going to improve it since there's no way to make it perfect." That's a defeatist attitude. Pick the one subtype that gets the most posts in OD, and split it. That will probably be opiates - define it to include rx and street, or however you wish, and decree it so. Everything else stays in OD since there isn't the demand or volume to require a separate forum. People will adjust and ultimately both forums will be cleaner and easier to read. Or decree that no changes will be made - but then don't ask how it can be improved.

Thank you for your feedback! I'm not sure if you saw my position on this, or if you understood me fully so I elaborated below in greater length, I'm going to put NSFW tags around it as I essentially reviewed and then elaborated on my original response to your post.
NSFW:


1) Read it however you want, but Team OD in no way maintains a defeatist attitude, and not to contradict the meaning for this thread's inception or anything but our crew here are the most qualified, experienced, knowledgeable, and overall know best how to run the most heavily trafficked drug forum on the internet.

2) When I went into great detail about why it is very unlikely that we would ever split up OD into sub-sub-forums, I made numerous points to explain / justify my reasoning, however you didn't respond to any of the logical/objective reasons I listed.

3) Personally, (and the consensus of team OD is as follows: this suggestion has been raised many times over the years, and we didn't decide to run OD the way it is ran today without serious consideration and weighing the pros and cons of segregating drugs by class), and we have repeatedly concluded that segregation would do just that; segregate the forum and in doing so, for the many reasons I described, can be adding yet another barrier and in no way improves easier access to harm reduction pertinent information.

-I assure you, these decisions are not made lightly, and to reinforce one of the main arguments for why segregation offers zero HR benefits and even could lower the accessibility and response time to threads that the poly drug abuse community alone, already one of the highest "at-risk" populations of members.

-Poly drug users far outnumber the opioid-only number of threads (Which of course, 95% of the time, are redundant/repetitious or flat out have been asked and answered thousands of times already) , and because of how serious combining the drugs covered in OD can be, it's vital that we value the easier access to life-saving information over the alleged convenience of splitting OD into OD & Opiates... drug interactions can be serious/fatal.

Having to explain to the benzodiazepine forum why mixing with opioids and also having to explain to the opioid forum why benzodiazepines/alcohol/CNS depressants are in general, very unsafe and notoriously lethal drug combinations, this information is critical, massively underestimated and having to explain the exact same response in a variety of forums is beyond reduntant, and definitely falls under the OD Guidelines prohibition of discussion of the same topics ad nauseum.



if you go to other forums, there are serious consequences for NOT using "swim" - so it's a hard habit to break when they come here. if it's considered troublesome, you could put a warning in red at the top of every page, "do not use swim or foaf or any other such terms" - and/or add those terms to a filter which would not allow them to post using those words, or would pop up the rule so they could revise the post first.

-In times past, we used filters like you described that allowed similar functions to perform, like typing a specific phrase would delete your account/autoban. If we decided to edit out SWIM (Which posters who are complying with the BLUA don't need to worry about), I don't see how it would help anything at all either.

-These 'macro' like functions may at first appear to be handy, but in practice, don't make anything any different and makes it impossible for those who are literally trying to describe the act of swimming, say on ____ drug, and if they shouldn't be swimming while intoxicated, we need to be able to not have the servers automatically edit our posts for us in the event that it completely renders all responses containing the characters "swim" possibly useless, confusing, or difficult to understand which is a much bigger problem again thinking Harm Reduction wise.

-The SWIM acronym is annoying and an eyesore, and it is a waste of staff volunteer time when we have to go through an entire thread and switch the terminology to the correct "I, me, myself" format, since SWIM offers zero protection from incriminating data one puts on the internet forever, it would be a whole lot of changes and extra work for staff (We could have banners and 100 pop ups on every page saying "READ THE RULES! READ THE RULES!", "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO POST THIS?", and all for pretty much no effect on harm reduction if anything, just making the HR information more difficult to access and deter members who need access the most.

-It is made explicitly clear when registering an account here, that your account is created under the unwavering conditions that you agree to know in their entirety, cooperate/follow all the rules, use common sense, etc.... And there are links to the BLUA all over the place especially when members are at account creation stage, you'd have to be visually or cognitively impaired to not find the BLUA on the registration page (and on 99% of every page, forum, sub-forum, staff signatures, ALL with links to the BLUA)....

-Yet, STILL people indicate that they accept the terms and conditions despite choosing not to read what they probably think is a very very very long Terms of Service, checking the mandatory I understand / I agree / I accept option that in most users experiences, like for example, the iTunes Terms and Conditions of Service is like... what, hundreds? about 100 or so anyways, 100 pages of size 8-10 font size and because so many people don't ever bother to read the Terms and Conditions of an application, website, databank, or the dozens to hundreds of pages of literature that only a fraction of the more intelligent/careful users read in it's entirety.

-It's a shame that people sometimes don't bother to read the BLUA, but if they didn't read the BLUA, it is rarely a matter of the BLUA not being more accessible / "in their face" since there are links to the BLUA on every page on BL. People just probably assume it's a huge document and that they'd rather check the box saying they read & will comply with the rules than attempt to read our direct, concise, and extremely carefully written Bluelight User Agreement.

-I value your suggestions and have definitely considered this from many angles over the years, also curious as to whether splitting the forums, or making new users forced to read or be reminded of the rules, and over the years of observation, and as you said, looking at other forums that took different approaches to these issues, either being much more strict with the useless SWIM acronym, or making new users jump through dozens of hoops and hurdles before they can actually post their question and receive harm reduction advice in a timely manner.

-Honestly have not seen a single advantage these other forums benefited from by implementing the changes you've raised, and all feedback is welcome but as a general reminder to everyone, it's best to keep in mind that this is a strictly harm reduction based focus forum (as clearly outlined in bold letters under the forum description), and that while all feedback is welcomed, the suggestions that focus on increasing the availability and rapid access to harm reduction material are of much greater concern to us than new users thinking that saying SWIM is any less incriminating in court than saying "I, Me, Myself" etc.

I wish there was a better way of ensuring that posters have read and understood the rules prior to posting, but as explicitly stated upon creation of the account, all of this is covered, and while it is a waste of moderating resources to spend time editing a long post from SWIM --> I/me/myself/etc, I just think it's a rather low priority task in the greater scheme of things, especially since using SWIM is a mistake that users often make just once or twice before the community links them to the BLUA that we are ALL bound by, and this is not something that people tend to do after they've been told SWIM use is forbidden and offers no legal protection whatsoever.

-SWIM only makes the affected posts difficult or outright annoying to decipher/read, are overly vague, and limit our ability to provide HR to the people who actually say "Hey so I am this that and the other thing, and my question is, how many _____ should I combine with _____ I have a tolerance of _______ and use the following other medications as well _______________". As the BLUA says, you are responsible for what you post, if you violate the BLUA in any way, some things are not a big deal, some things can be met with an immediate and permanent ban from the community.

-It is not Bluelight's responsibility to ensure that posters know the rules they should know and it's a waste of time and resources in my opinion since minor issues like using SWIM upon joining the community, and how often these issues are and can be resolved without staff intervention because our community of members that remind the OP's that the BLUA is being violated and if people are serial offenders, then Staff can resolve the issue with the offender.

In conclusion, the vast majority of SWIM related usage resolves itself on it's own and devoting more staff time to regulating the (often self-correcting) accidental offenses often committed by new members who quickly leave or learn.

I just see time being spent more effectively, efficiently, and explicitly in the best interest of the community and the life-threatening behavior that regularly arises, taking priority over minor violations, and would not be the best use of the time dedicated by staff to Bluelight, as it distracts from reduction of harm and the necessity for users to research and actually know a thing or two about what they put in their bodies (in addition to merely knowing say, the name of the drug, and that it makes them feel "good".)

What a person chooses to post online, is, well, frankly, it is their own choice once they hit Submit Reply, and their actions will have consequences, so this is why the BLUA stresses not to incriminate where it can be avoided especially when it is not nearly as important nor as relevant as the HR issue they are presenting; It overall just seems like focusing too much on minor details that DO matter but DONT necessarily add to the discussion of Harm Reduction, (the focus of this forum).

I've often desired that all greenlighters be required to go through multiple verification forms, pop-ups/disclaimers that say "YES I HAVE USED THE SEARCH ENGINE AND KNOW THE STANCE THIS COMMUNITY TAKES ON POSTING STANDARDS", or something like that, but as mentioned in your post, you (and I) have both seen other forums and how they attempt to automate the enforcement of the rules, but I do not see how focusing on stuff like SWIM or creating sub-forums for Opiates and then somehow just keep the rest of the many substances OD covers daily. Also, if opioid users had their own forum, what makes them entitled to one over someone who uses methamphetamine, cocaine, and/or pharmaceuticals?

Hypothetically I think it would be very unfair, and it would be very irritating to give one class of drugs covered by OD their own sub-forum just because they are so commonly abused and preferred by most people (Speaking myself as an opiate addict & a legitimate chronic pain patient [worst dual diagnosis one can have IME], I understand the high demand for all opioid related discussion, I really do,) but segregating the forum has done nothing to better any of the other forums I've seen with segregated/drug-specific divided systems.

If anything, segregation makes HR less available and the Search Engine Function less effective and leads to more people posting stuff in incorrect forums, or dealing with poly drug abuse that can't be discussed in two forums simultaneously without severe impact on the ability of Staff to best serve the community in a timely fashion especially to those who need the most help and time is a factor.

Do you have any ideas that might help promote HR or it's dissemination?

~TC
 
Hi Tricomb. Thanks for responding and being willing to discuss without setting up a straw man argument or making personal insults. I've made four suggestions altogether which I'll treat separately below.

1. Creating a dedicated forum for opiod class drugs

I need to point out that I did not make this suggestion in the first place and I'm not sure how I came to be viewed as some kind of ringleader or malcontent. bluephoenix was the first to mention it in this thread. scagnattie replied that it was being considered. felonious monk said he also would like to see that. Scag said "Interesting. Anybody else interested in an opiate specific sub forum?" And I replied that yes, I was a third vote in favor. I wouldn't have said a goddamn word without that direct question having been asked. I assumed your first long reply was addressed to everyone who wanted to see this change, not just me. So I didn't think anyone expected me to be the only one to reply to it directly point by point.

I did read your post, and didn't respond to it point by point since the arguments on both sides been covered many times already. For example in this thread, http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads...piate-Discussion-Off-From-OD-Into-A-New-Forum which included a poll showing that 72% of BL thought splitting was a good idea, yet the powers that be still decided against it. If you go back and read that thread, all of the arguments on all sides were articulated as well as they'll ever be. I think it's ill-advised to ask for the opinion of members as a whole and then decide to ignore it. But having seen how things work in that regard, I didn't expect to be able to change anyone's mind.

I think that most of the arguments against it fall into the category of "If we split it there will still be problems." It is a hallmark of perfectionism that the perfectionist is unable to make even a small change because he knows he can never make things perfect - like the student who knows he can't write a perfect paper, so he doesn't write a paper at all. If there are good reasons to split the forum, and at one time 72% thought there were, then making a small improvement and dealing with the other problems later is better than not taking any action at all. But if BL decides not to do that, then the members will live with it. It's a free forum so we can't really complain.

As for the individual points, I understand where you're coming from, but I think the benefits of splitting far outweigh the issues that will arise to be dealt with. I will comment on a few:

Splitting "can be adding yet another barrier and in no way improves easier access to harm reduction pertinent information."
Then why are cannabis, psychedelics, and steroids split into unique forums? There's no reason to think opiates being in their own forum would fare worse than these drug classes have.

"Poly drug users far outnumber the opioid-only number of threads."
a. There are plenty of poly-drug users that also smoke cannabis or use psychedelics, but somehow they adjust to going to a separate forum for cannabis questions, psychedelic questions, and opiate questions. They could just as easily adjust to opiates being in their own subforum.
b. If it's so hard to know if a thread refers to primarily opiates, then how do the mods decide to put "(opiates)" in the thread title?

"Do we split Benzodiazepines/Barbiturates, Ethanol/Alcohol abuse, amongst any others"?
My answer would depend on post volume. If the number of threads with (opiate) in the title are indeed less than 40-50% of OD, as I said before, then I would agree there's little benefit to making an opiate forum. But it certainly feels like it hits that threshold, although I have not done the analysis. The number of benzo posts or alcohol posts probably doesn't merit a dedicated forum.

"moderators don't grow on trees."
Then let's put cannabis, psychedelics, and steroids back into the big group and just have one combined forum. Or combine some of the other less-trafficked forums to free up mods. Education or Philosophy are lucky to have 1 or 2 active threads per day. A large combined "community" forum would work better than a large combined "other drugs" forum, especially when considering the goal of HR.

"if opioid users had their own forum, what makes them entitled to one over someone who uses methamphetamine, cocaine, and/or pharmaceuticals?"
What makes cannabis, psychedelics, and steroid users entitled to dedicated forums over someone who uses opiates? I think the number of opiate users/posts far exceeds those in the steroids category.

Once again, I've seen that management is unlikely to change their mind, but unlike your two counterparts, you were thoughtful enough to respond to me without being insulting, so I wanted to return the favor and answer sincerely. Hopefully you can comprehend my words and don't think I'm writing in code.

The funny thing is that I really don't care about this issue, except for seeing it as a more efficient way to run things in general. I haven't thought about it in 3 years and I don't have any kind of soapbox. I was just trying to say "me too" to Scag's question and did not expect this to turn into such a production. But since you asked me directly, I wanted to honor the time you spent responding to me by being just as thoughtful in my reply. I hope you'll understand when I say I really don't have any more time to devote to it after this.

2. As for the SWIM issue, I'm not one who was really concerned about that either. I was trying to say that I didn't see it as a huge problem myself, but since several others who have posted in this thread did find it to be a huge problem, I wanted to make one suggestion on how it might be handled. I hope that the ones who are will expand that NSFW tag and read your points. I agree with you that automatically changing SWIM to another word would not help, but if the filter detected the word SWIM and popped up a window explaining that SWIM was not allowed, the user could then edit it out before posting.

3. I think you might have missed my third suggestion, which is that the OD "instructions" refer to using the BDD and ADD forums, but I think ADD is gone. I couldn't find it anyway. So if it is gone, the command to use it should be removed. ("Please use ADD or BDD for more advanced or basic topics, respectively.")

4. I will submit one more. The megathreads are hard to find, and having to wait so long between searches makes it even harder. (I'd love to see that delay reduced to maybe 5 seconds.) I would highlight the directory more, make it a sticky at the very least. And when someone does post a repetitive question, merge it or direct them to the thread where it's covered, which will also help future users who have the same question.
 
As I've stated before, 90% of the opiate threads that are started on BL are completely redundant, and shouldn't even have been started in the first place, because even a little bit of digging would easily yield an answer to whomever started the thread.

Most opiate/opioid drugs have very similar and predictable effects on the user, and they're a very well understood class of drugs. They're also physically addictive, widely abused and relatively easy to accidentally overdose on....and it's for these reasons that we get inundated with so many opiate threads. Not that there's not difficult questions that arise, because there are, but the most difficult questions involve different drug combinations. The effects of stimulants and benzos are fairly straight-forward and easily explained as well, when speaking of them taken alone, but the fact that they're so often taken in concert is the reason we have all the questions about these drugs in one forum.

Psychedelic drugs are a completely different ballgame, and a much broader category than opiates, which is why they have their own forum.

If anything should be changed, in my opinion, RC questions should be dealt with by PD...but as for everything else, I think it should remain the way it is.
 
As to your points abracadabra girl.

1. Our points for the cons of splitting the forum are in the beginning of the thread

2. The SWIM thing is a non issue really.. once we tell new members we don't do that here, they stop.. so it's not that big of a deal.

3. ADD is not gone.. it was retitled to Neuroscience and Pharmacology Discussion, which we will change all "ADD" references and replace with that.

4. Hard to find? There is a list of all the megathreads stickied on the homepage that gets updated regularly (PM one of the OD mods if you find a megathread that is not listed there and we'll add it). The OD directory is in big bold font at the top of every page in OD, as well as in all of the OD staff's signatures. Also, what you said about merging or directing repetitive questions to other threads.. that's exactly what we already do.
 
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Thanks for the response I will revisit this later when I have the proper time to dedicate a better response to but basically, separating cannabis use from hard drugs and separating hard drugs from psychedelics, to put it simply, is the existing structure of BL and the majority like the way it is. Segregation has been proven to not be as effective, OD may not be perfect, and we strive for the best and that's why we bother to ask our regulars and visitors and staff from other forums to submit their opinions on what they think could improve the ease and speed of delivery of HR information pertinent to the goals of this forum.

Forums like Other Drugs and Neuroscience & Pharmacology Discussion (Formerly ADD, as Mr. Scagnattie said, we will be updating the things that need to reflect the forum name change in the near future), since both forums are for hard drugs and poly drug abuse and the mission of each focus forum is to focus on the harm reductive strategies one must apply themselves and take the time out of one's life to research our huge database and archives that span over a decades worth of first hand experience, when things go bad, when things can be prevented from going bad, when things go well and how that thread showed how to properly and in as safe a way as this HR community knows of, administered their drugs of choice and they didn't make an unnecessary uninformed decision.

Posters come to OD because they want to learn how they can achieve what has been done by millions since the drugs in question hit the substance abusing community. We don't want to glorify or encourage anyone into doing drugs, and having an opioid only forum sort of puts it on a pedestal, and we don't want to encourage the abuse of any drug, and in a way, breaking down hard drugs into multiple separate categories to suit EVERY hard drug and pharmaceutical or clandestine chemical that we deal with in OD because there is ALWAYS substance B, C, E, D, F, G and H and how they are used to either enhance, or reduce side effects of substance A.

By leave the front door wide open for people to be able to find a thread that relates to them or can help build their understanding of all the substances and how they all intermingle and which ones need to be taken with extreme caution and reduced dosages when combining certain classes of medications like CNS depressants. OD is meant to cover a large variety of topics, it's in it's nature.

This is why it's the most heavily trafficked forum on bluelight, and the most heavily trafficked substance use website on the entire internet. It's for complications and long-term consequences due to not researching and learning from others mistakes, learning from the knowledge and experience of those who know what they are doing, and having this be the priority.

For example, Username1 makes a thread about how determined they are to inject their tablet-form opioid narcotics along with street-grade crystalline methamphetamine, They need to know and can easily find out information about methyl/amphetamine & opioid analgesic co-administration via any route of administration, the pros and cons of each ROAs, and all of that information is available already here. The amount of work involved in sorting our entire database, more than a decades worth of content and good and bad choices and the consequences that arise.

As BluesHues pointed out another reason why an opioid-only sub-sub-forum is unnecessary and more limiting than it broadens any horizons, if users just used the search engine, they could find their results easily and definitely at least 90% of opioid related threads posted here are asked & answered thousands of times by thousands of people who were competent, and thousands who were reckless, and the differences in the lifestyles of these two types of individuals.

I just have yet to hear any convincing reason that the vast majority of users would respond positively and efficiently to as to not interrupt or complicate their much needed hours, days, weeks, months, however long as it takes a person to learn as much as they can about what the effect the chemical(s) they're ingesting do to people, not just like "oh yeah after I shoot my morphine I get the nicest rush and extremely fast analgesic effects that are the reason I am prescribed morphine for my chronic pain and the rush is just a bonus." But we cover things from nicotine to alcohol too, so would we create separate forums for these??

I don't want to support or condone either of those industries, and I think that it is best that we don't highlight any drug in particular because people may become interested why opioid abuse is so prevalent or how the methamphetamine epidemic has effected people's lives, their relationships with their significant friends, society, family, their children, their mistakes, their recovery, relapse, how their substance abuse has affected their lives for better in the short term and most often for the worse in the medium to long term.

Some people's descent is so rapid that in a very short time they find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, homeless, or incarcerated/institutionalized.

People need to see the whole story, how each drug has a relationship to another either chemically, or socially.

Thank you everyone for your input so far, just because a suggestion turns out to not be practical, it doesn't mean that it isn't worthy of mention and yeah in OD, unfortunately the same exact subjects tend to repeatedly be posted, even suggestions for improvement threads like this, and sometimes there's not much we can do to prevent this despite our repeated attempts to encourage use of the search engine to find out why we, and previous generations of OD moderators felt on your search criteria, which I find to be helpful for finding further reasons why OD has not split up since it's inception so many years ago.

~TC
 
Had a quick flick through this thread and I can't really add much to what has been aforementioned, which I think is a backhanded compliment to how well OD is run. The information BL mods & users give in OD is usually fast, informative, and accurate (or if not, someone is usually quick to point out and explain why something that has been suggested is wrong). The debates are good and there's very little bitching/flaming compared to other sub-forums and other drug-related forums.

Though OD is heavy in opiate threads, I don't think it should be split. People often refer to benzo's, GABA drugs and what not whilst talking about opiates so I think it currently works very well. It just flows quite nicely as it is.

I really can't say much, other than give my praise to all the OD mods because you're helpful, tolerant - considering what you have to deal with and most of all, fair. I guess kudos also goes to the regulars who also put in a lot of time and effort with constructive and helpful posts.

Overall, it's really well run and I do enjoy my time in OD so please keep it up! <3
 
^^^

Thank you Rybee, that is nice to hear. We try our best to walk that line between keeping the place in check, but still making it a fun and really informative place, and it's nice when people recognize that.

Really appreciate it, brother.
 
^^

No doubt. Look if people still wanna throw out good reasons that haven't already been given for why OD should be split, go for it. We'll consider everything. We never have a problem with constructive ideas, no matter what they area. Just don't get all uppity and pissed if we don't follow your advice to the letter, haha.

But, I'd like to focus on other things as well as this has always been a tightly contested topic and I don't want the whole thread to be about that one thing ya know?

First, let me apologize in advance, since this has already been covered, and no good can really come up dragging it on.

Second, I am totally biased so you should ignore everything I say! Seriously, I love opiates!!!

Nah, but there are a couple of things that have not been brought up.(recently).

Mainly, opioids have a LEGITIMATE MEDICAL USE. Not that many of the other drugs don't(if not nearly all) but alas, these are either not recognized, or rarely used.

And in the cases they are used(such as amphetamines) you are never given them intranasally, and certainly not intravenously! On the other hand, IV opioids are used every minute of every day, and in many countries, they even use IV diamorphine(though in fairness, SQ is far more common.).

But my point, A LARGE PROPORTION of opioid users(addicts are either prescribed them, or we're initially.

And there are a ridiculous amount of double posts, true, but many regard tapering and such, which can get quite specific. And the fact is, addiction is a momentous life-changer, and everyone feels that they're situation is unique.

And do you know what the most abused "fully illegal" drug is? Opioids.

The list goes: 1.Nicotine 2. Alcohol 3. Marijuana and (drum roll) 4... Opiates/Opiods! And, every concerned organization in the world, and multiple studies agree heroin addiction(and or opioid addiction) causes the most damage to both society, and the users health(though how tobacco and alcohol don't win that prize... Eludes me.)

And finally, a lot of people(including people I've met and even a parent!) never used/use bluelight, instead using an opioid specific site, or one with an opioid dedicated sub-forum(no, I am not joking...)
If you have ever been to these other sites, as an example "opiophilly"(name changed to protect site's anonymity) well, um... they suck! Blue light is BY AND FAR the best site of it's kind, and actually, the ONLY site of it's kind, as far as I'm concerned...

But anyway, you haven't changed it in all these years, and won't anytime soon, and I respect and understand that. :)

But FYI, if you guys ever decide to open one, I'd happily moderate that!
 
I really dont think much should be changed at all anywhere on this site. I was a little confused when i first got here that there wasnt certain drugs with there own forums. Took me a mintue to see that my interests are mostly grouped in the other drugs area and the category in bold makes it quite easy to navigate anyway.

The mods seem good to me also. There are other sites where the mods are just waiting to tell you how dumb you are or let you know how stupid your question is. Or how every other poster gets butthurt if you dont absolutly sugar coat everything. I seen one site that had a reputation system. Ya, thats exactly what us addicts and alchoholics need. I little meter that rates what other people think of me. Talk about being judged. Sounds healthly. I dont see that higher than thou attitude here and its refreshing to see people be able to say whats on their mind.

I couldnt agree more with closing threads where the op is in danger and needs medical attention. First, the internet is not the place for that even if this site had a bunch of doctors on it. YOu cant see the problem so how can anyone safely tell them what to do. Second, even when people know their fucked their gonna hang out and wait for that one post that says your ok, just put some lotion on it. So you have people that camp out looking for that post when they should be going to the hospital. Its life and death sometimes.
 
my 2 cents: instead of adding a reputation system for individual posters, add something so people can condone great posts (like a +1) without having to post a whole separate reply and a lot of time give redundant information (which is sometimes needed to show that you know what you are talking about). This will not only allow people to gauge the general populations acceptance of the quality of post and applicability to the situation, but when incorporated into the search engine, allow for threads with highly rated advice to float to the top.

The hope would be that this would prevent hours on end of searching through some amazing threads, and some that contain a lot of back and forth opinion and possibly misinformation. This also avoids the "popularity" aspect as previously noted should be avoided, yet could also give mods background insight into individual users' posts (ie when choosing who should become a new mod). By shortening the search time, and great amount of judgement that goes into reading other threads and trying to extrapolate into one's own experience, it will reduce harm by getting information faster as well as hopefully preventing new threads being posted on redundant topics.

Overall, I love the forum and think the users / mods are top notch. I just think the time-suck that comes from sorting through so many threads of varying quality of information is very time and cognitive consuming, especially for someone who may be under the influence when searching.
 
^So you think BL should have a "like" button for posts and it should keep track and show how many of those persons posts got so many likes? lol.
Not saying it's a bad idea, but i have 5,000 posts and a lot of mine were informative (less so lately since my hiatus) so they would need to go back and "like" old posts for me so people know what I'm talking about.
Too much work for not enough benefit IMO. I could be wrong.
My point is if we started something like that (which in concept is cool) what about all the people that have been here for a long time with many informative posts needing to all of a sudden reprove their knowledge because of a "point system".. also it seems like it could lead to dicksizing.

Good idea but im with and against that tho.

I'll reiterate my suggestion: BBTS! (Bring Back The Social) lol. I will behave this time, I promise %)

-HOOD

EDIT: Just reread your post.. i first read it as "adding a reputation system" and that is why i responded with what i said..
I like your idea to +1 a whole thread (not just 1 persons post) to bring attention to a informative thread not a certain user. Fixing the "popularity" thing also.
(People can tell who knows their stuff after being on here for a bit)
I +1 the idea of +1ing a THREAD to show if it is informative, not POSTS. But the OP shouldn't be able to +1 their own thread.

Sorry I misread your post at first VC. My apologies. :)
 
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I am going to second the 'like' button. or a thanks button, which this forum could have as a feature. There are so many inforatiove posts that I would like to thank or like but there is not button!
 
I really do not like the idea of copying/mimicking facebook in any way, shape, or form. Not only for whatever legal reasons might arise, but this is a harm reduction focus forum and social media shouldn't have anything to do with HR, OD, or BL, in my humble but experienced opinion.

I don't know how my peers (staff and otherwise) feel, but I don't really like the idea of a reputation / points system, citing HOOD's note that it often can lead to dicksizing and if a poster really benefitted from say, something I posted in a thread, I think they should just quote my post, and say " Thank you Tricomb for _______, this contributed ______ to the thread and hopefully the OP will take your advice and do / do not ______" etc.
 
I totally respect your opinion, although I really think you are missing the point a bit if you think it would in any way resemble facebook or lead to dicksizing. The point is to give credit to the information, not the poster. There would be no public record on your profile or otherwise that would say how many likes you have received. If anything, I think it would promote posts of more quality and substance. It would have to do with HR because future users of the site would be able to quickly find the threads that have been voted by the bluelight community to contain a lot of quality advice, and would hopefully minimize the hours upon hours of research it sometimes takes to find the information you are looking for (at least quality speaking) if incorporated into the search feature. This would also help people new to the forum, and consequently not sure who to trust, decide which information is considered by the community to be good advice.
 
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I admit to partial bias because I fucking hate social networking, particularly facebook. I've seen Reputation systems on many other forums, some use points, some use titles, I dunno, I guess it just doesn't float my boat. Thank you for your logical reasoning though, It definitely did make me look at this from another perspective. And I am omnipresent and all powerful and all, but my opinion isn't the only person's who needs to be convinced this is a good, reasonable, feasable, etc... thing to ask our engineers to implement for the sake of HR into the forum. Interesting perspective though, and I like the way you explained how it could benefit HR, not sure I agree, but I definitely see what you're getting at. What would be awesome if we could get more than (?) 10% of users to use the search engine AT ALL before posting a thread that's been answered a thousand times in the last decades. ;)
 
Anything that makes bluelight look like drugs-forum is a bad thing.
The reputation system is so dumbed-down and childish in my opinion.

If you want to know if someone is talking shit - or if they are a reputable poster, read more of their contributions.
You can soon work it out, if you are at least partially literate, or discerning. That's not aimed at anyone, just my opinion.
The few times I've looked at drugs-forum, I feel like I'm reading the musings of school kids.

People always bring up this "like" button thing...how about writing a few words in agreement or disagreement?
The other systems seem lazy and frankly kinda stupid to me.

There is a reason why BL is the best forum of its kind. Well, there are many (the quality of its members and staff for one) - but lets not ruin that by trying to fix something that ain't broken.
 
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