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Melbourne ecstasy 'ODs', Bluelight, Social Media and Online HR Communities

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day_trippa

Greenlighter
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
26
Location
Melbourne, Australia
I haven't been active on bluelight in many years as I don't really take drugs anymore but I literally owe my life to this online community and the wealth of information on this site. While I never really contributed to the Aus drug discussion I always used to check in here and have a read, and after last weekends mass 'ecstasy overdose' in Melbourne I was really struggling to find any information as to what was taken/what happened besides the articles from the age/herald sun and the Facebook photo posted by Revolver. Naturally I turned to bluelight, and was surprised that it hadn't been mentioned here. I eventually found poledrivers post on Drugs in the Media two 2 days later, but it really left me wondering...

This was big news in Melbourne, everyone's talking about it and asking what they took. The police have given no info as to what was taken or what caused the deaths (besides a "bad batch" of "MDMA"), the man arrested at revolver could only be linked to one non-fatal incident as far as I'm aware. I was following the comments on the Revs Facebook photo, and only just saw their post on the 14th Jan which has over 2000 likes and 250 comments, a lot of them directed negatively towards Revolver and drug users but also a lot of good harm reduction advice from patrons and friends of the club...

My big question was WHERE ARE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THIS? and WHY AREN'T THEY TALKING ABOUT IT HERE? Is the Revolver Facebook page the new online HR community in melbourne?

I saw the AusDD posting graphs on Liam Engel's PhD project (and noticed the recent lack of activity on AusDD) and I have to say I'm pretty concerned about it. What is the future of online HR communities in the age of social media? Are people just sharing info on whats going around between themselves in group chats on Facebook or on pages like Revolver's. What does that mean for the rest of us who don't know where to look, and when google searches prove totally useless at finding any info.

I think there needs to be more HR discussion on social media, some sort of official Facebook group where people can ask questions and keep each other informed, and most importantly, SHARE posts. I noticed that bluelight has virtually no presence on social media whatsoever. Would it be possible to start a Facebook group for bluelight AusDD? I don't think any fb group could possibly come close to the massive wealth of information on this site, but the community is dwindling (in Aus anyway), and this could be a great way to revive the community. Most people I know haven't even heard of bluelight, but I think that would definitely change if there was more of a social media presence. It's something I've been thinking a lot about the last couple of days and I'm not sure what the best way to go forward is, but there really is a giant hole in Facebook where an online HR community needs to be, and I feel like I need to do something about it if no-one else is going to. I've seen Harm Reduction Victoria and DanceWize's Facebook pages, and not sure if I should approach these organisations, start an independent group or (ideally) something linked with bluelight. It needs to be a group, not a page (so members posts appear in the main section, not the tiny 'visitors posts' thing on the side).

Really interested to hear any ideas or feedback on this
 
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I found the lack of information pretty shocking too. This is quite a common trend these days in many communities, forums die out in favor of facebook posts.

I personally ingested one of these "bad batch" mdma caps, believe it to have been PMA. Waiting on a test kit to confirm.
 
A LOT have flocked to reddit.
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This is a major factor - people like reddit since it's centralized, they can get all their "interest" discussions in one place. The best location to establish a non-forum presence for HR discussion would probably be there. The problem with FB is the lack of anonymity, people simply aren't interested in having a profile which their family, coworkers etc. view attached to anything drug related.
 
I was surprised to see the incident hadnt really been mentioned here either when it happened. This was the first place I thought to come to when I wanted to read about it. Really sad to see how much Bluelight has died out. Im not sure FB is the way to go. Most of my friends rarely use that anymore either. reddit is right. Tho I hate it.
 
Yeah I'm really not a big fan of reddit either, but it's overall popularity and cultural presence is undeniable.
 
I've never heard of/used reddit... not really up to date with these things but I do use facebook, as does nearly everyone I know. I did think about the privacy concerns on facebook, and yeah while I agree a lot of people would have a problem with posting/joining a harm reduction group talking about drugs, there are also a lot of people like myself who have nothing to hide and no concerns about publicly advocating harm reduction, many people have done so on the revolver page and while it wouldn't have the same information and anonymity of a forum it'd be a place for people who feel comfortable posting publicly to share information and link people to AusDD or reddit... I just googled searched "harm reduction reddit" and can see a lot of posts. However, I just google searched "harm reduction reddit melboure ecstasy" and "reddit melbourne ecstasy" and I can't find any information

just searched "reddit melbourne MDMA" and came up with this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/5o2jj1/bad_batch_of_mdma_may_be_responsible_for_mans/

haven't read the discussion (lengthy) , will when I have a bit more time but if reddits going to be the new central place to discuss these things then maybe they should provide a link on bluelight, cause how are people supposed to know?
 
and while I understand the privacy concerns of a HR/Drug discussion group on facebook, has anyone actually tried it? They have pages for Harm Reduction Victoria and Erowid, but they're not accessible like groups are (only the page admins can post, people don't get notifications/see visitors posts)
 
so I did a little experiment today testing that theory "people simply aren't interested in having a profile which their family, coworkers etc. view attached to anything drug related." - posted a report on the 'bad batch' of caps circulating melbourne on my fb wall and on the rainbow serpent event page thisafternoon, so far over 400 likes and over 200 shares. Thats a community right there, I'm going to start up a group and invite all of these people, would love to call it "Bluelight - Australian Drug Discussion" if I'm allowed to? mods? or else I'll call it "Australian Drug Discussion" and have links to bluelight and erowid on the main page
 
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day_trippa said:
so I did a little experiment today testing that theory "people simply aren't interested in having a profile which their family, coworkers etc. view attached to anything drug related." - posted a report on the 'bad batch' of caps circulating melbourne on my fb wall and on the rainbow serpent event page thisafternoon, so far over 400 likes and over 200 shares. Thats a community right there, I'm going to start up a group and invite all of these people, would love to call it "Bluelight - Australian Drug Discussion" if I'm allowed to? mods? or else I'll call it "Australian Drug Discussion" and have links to bluelight and erowid on the main page
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While that wasn't a bad idea, it doesn't really "test the theory," since you have no way of knowing how many people didn't like/share because they don't want drug content on the facebook page.

The reality is that facebook is basically considered a public space these days. Some people are comfortable talking about drugs there, just as some people are comfortable walking around with marijuana leaf caps or arms covered in needle marks, but most people wear hats that don't identify them as a weed smoker and cover up needle marks to prevent public identification as an IV drug user.

If you do make a group, I'd suggest leaving anything about drugs out of the name. Some combination of "Bluelight," "Harm Reduction" and "Australia" would be much more discreet, while still conveying the message to those who need to pick up on it.
 
I find a lot of people willing to share and post information about drugs, but not in the same way as Bluelighters would. They will share warnings and links. But you don't tend to write full blown experience reports that kind of thing using Facebook (for good reason).

PS. I think you need the site admin's support to start up anything that uses the name 'bluelight' :) There are already Bluelight groups on Facebook. But perhaps not an Australian only one. It could be worth consideration though. but not to be done without a discussion.
 
Tronica I need to start this now, while it's going viral, any chance you could contact site admin ASAP? or else I'll just call it "Australian Harm Reduction Discussion" and change the name later if I'm able to do that, or "Australian Drug Discussion" what do you think?
 
I'd definitely leave out the "D" word. "Australian Harm Reduction Discussion" seems fairly official and benign.

I still think you'd get a much better response, long term, with reddit. These days a lot of people's first reaction when they become interested in a subject or news story is to google "reddit [subject]" and find the appropriate sub-reddit.
 
Thanks!
I don't use fb so i cannot view it, but i think any resources we can utilise in the battle to improve HR outcomes is a very good thing.

As for why this terrible topic has not been discussed earlier - it was posted about here, but with seemingly so little information available, it was difficult to post anything informative on the subject.

Thanks for bringing this up, day_trippa - it really is a very important subject
 
Cheers. This is way too important to be fobbed off with a glib 'just don't take drugs' message, thank you very much VicPol. Works about as well as abstinence-only sex education, and when you think about it, that kind of logic comes from the same place of people wanting to punish those who do things they don't approve of, rather than doing anything to protect and help them.
 
Groups been active for 3 days and we've got over 1200 members, thinking it'll probably grow to around 3000 before rainbow serpent. People are connecting and sharing very useful information and harm reduction advice.
 
Must admit, I was shocked at the lack of coverage here. I don't visit these parts very much so I didn't realise how quiet it's become. Tis a shame, no doubt.
 
quiet roar said:
Must admit, I was shocked at the lack of coverage here. I don't visit these parts very much so I didn't realise how quiet it's become. Tis a shame, no doubt.
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Bluelight has been too over moderated for too long and scared everyone away.
 
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