A message from your friendly neighbourhood Blogs mods-- please read

Hello everyone,

In the past couple of months, Blogs has grown quite a bit. As well, we've been able to make a few changes to the appearance and functioning of the area. I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the Posting Guidelines, as they are a relatively new addition and as they aren't as visible as in other forums.

It's not as though we've had any big problems with posters, but rather I think that it is best that everyone is aware of the guidelines that ocean and I use to moderate the area. As well, this would be an excellent place to discuss the guidelines.

I've quoted the guidelines verbatim below. Please give them a read before making your next post, and do feel free to comment on them here.

Thanks!

Hi! Welcome to Bluelight Blogs. Please read the Blog Guidelines carefully before starting your own Bluelight Blog, or commenting in other Blogs.

The Bluelight User Agreement will be enforced at all times by the Blogs Mods. If the moderators feel something is breaching the guidelines, they will take the appropriate action to resolve the situation.

Blogs are a great place to discuss your thoughts and virtually anything goes as to what you say provided it is not offensive to other Bluelighters or isn't violating the Bluelight user agreement. For example, do not go into your blog naming other Bluelighters specifically by name or situation and calling attention to them in a demeaning way. This creates a lot of board drama and it abuses what Blogs is really about. If you feel you must express yourself in a derogatory manner about another bluelighter then please remember your blog does have a lock feature that will make it private and only you will have access to it.

If you feel the need to discuss another Bluelighter's actions you may not be happy with in your blog (it is your place to vent of course!) and you do not want to lock it then please do not make any reference to them specifically. Blogs does not want any Bluelighters to feel they are being misrepresented by one person's thoughts on them via the Blogs forum.

Comments are most certainly an invaluable source of advice to the blog owner. It's also a great place to get to know your fellow Bluelighters. Remember that we are a Blog Community and it's nice to give comments as well as receive them. We encourage the use of images in Blogs, however please keep them at a reasonable file size.

And although we realize from time to time it may be necessary for you to post multiple entries in your blog please try to limit them to three at a time up on the most current entry page. This isn't twitter

Thank you, we look forward to reading you.

Your Blogs Moderators,

ocean and Dave

(with many thanks to spork & *starfalls69* for a prior draft)

 

i guess theres only one thing id like to discuss about the guidelines

i know i cant change the guidelines, but i just thought a gd idea wud b if u perhaps made note to evryone that it doesnt help ppl if they r getting triggered by certain entries

i know wen im posting an entry that im always careful to warn others not to read it if its the kind of thing they feel may b triggering....i usually post this as part of the title in brackets
there r some ppl who post and make it clear in the title their post is going to b about their love/endorsement of a particular drug or is going to hav a pic on it that they hav made into an NSFW tag....i think these r ppl who r thinking of other ppl
thats wat im trying to do

most of the ppl here (or a large portion of us) post here to deal with our lives that hav bn ruined by drugs/alcohol - some r even trying to stay straight/sober
yes some of us, another portion, r just regular BLers who come here to learn bout harm reduction/meet like-minded ppl....but this portion need to b sensitive, i think, to the other portion

i know, while i havnt given up crystal meth (easily the drug i hav most probs with...cos its the one drug ive had problems yet, but am not ready to let go of until 'the right time comes' and i fiend for it, even tho i use v small amounts of it these days and plan to slowly give up) i want to b able to progress towards it....so id like to know before entering an entry made by someone randomly talking about a fun experience they had wiv meth; describing the shards in detail and the smoke in the pipe or the liquid going thru their veins, describing that rush, and - worst of all - maybe even planting a picture of a bag of meth and some paraphernalia in that entry!
i wud always want a warning before something like that!

this is why i always try to think about whether or not wat im typing cud b the kinda thing that needs to b labelled (by me) 'possibly triggering to some ppl' - same wiv talk about self-harm, or other addictive behaviours that can set others off with if gone into detail about....if i was to read about someone self-harming i wud also feel triggered to do so myself
and again, if i was to ever make an entry about my problem wiv self-harm (gotta come up eventually i guess) i wud say 'potentailly triggering' on the title.....why not?

this is just sumthing im saying briefly to evryone who reads it i guess, but i wondered, mods, if u agree wiv me that this wud b gd practise to encourage ppl to do wiv their blogs, if not make it a rule?

 

Message noted, blog mods! The rule about multiple entries is one that I often have to keep reminding myself about. I tend to be a bit of a blogwhore.

 

Heh, that wasn't necessarily directed just at you sweet P, but there are a few people with 'lots of short entries' style of posting. I wrote this as a guideline for a new poster, and thought that I should re-post it here:

Not that there's anything wrong with short entries, but rather that we have a limited space on the front page for new posts, and posting multiple short posts tends to push other people off the front page.

Different ways of adding additional thoughts or comments to an entry that you've already made include editing your posts (the little pencil icon on the lower right side of your post) or by commenting in your own thread. A few people have used the second method as an effective way to give a twitter-esque feel to their blogs without taking up too much real estate.

DW: I get where you're coming from, but as (I think) I've mentioned before, this isn't TDS. There are more than a few TDSers here, and I know that some have used their blog as a way to help overcome their addiction, but the idea behind Blogs is that it is more to get to know other BLers better rather than the usual posting. I'm not opposed to the idea of putting a tag in the subject line mentioning that the following post may be triggering (perhaps something like: [TR] My awesome first hit, or What happens in Veagas stays in Vegas [PTR]), but a part of the Blog software is that it picks a blog at random to show on the front page. Short of making people put anything potentially triggering behind NSFW tags-- something to which I am opposed to as it goes against the idea of having a Blogs area on BL-- at least a part of these triggering posts will still potentially be visible.

It's a bit of a tricky situation, and one that I'm not sure how to get around at the moment. Perhaps after a run and a coffee...

Thanks for the comments by the way! I was hoping to get some good input on this.

 

DW- We've had this convo before but not about labeling the title as potentially triggering- but I think you should stick to what we discussed through PM.
I know it is hard to separate TDS and Blogs- Having come from modding TDS you are used to those rules and guidelines- But Blogs follows a different set of Guidelines.
I understand what you mean and I am sorry if you are triggered by others posting- but as long as these posts aren't breaking the BLUA- I think they should be kept as is, in Blogs.
I am not really for creating a rule where IF a post could be triggering to some, there is a notice in the title.