I've been thinking about this a lot. I've been pretty caught up in the more slack or perhaps toxic side of this site as of late.. although I do my best not to drag that casual, don't give a shit attitude into my posts in the more essential, harm reduction motivated parts of the site. Still, the attitude leaks out. This probably isn't going to be a popular opinion but I honestly kind of think that some of the culture that's developed in parts of this site, specifically the lounge, is having a negative impact on the rest of the site at times.
I do have some belief that that part of the site has gone wild and unchecked to the point that these responses which are a little inappropriate elsewhere are making it out elsewhere and it feels counter intuitive to maintaining a harm reduction based, support forum for us people with drug and mental health problems. I certainly have my fair share. And to be quite honest, although it may seem kind of funny at the time, I'm not sure I really ever feel better after a round of shit disturbing and smack talk in the lounge. But I do when I'm trying to be more helpful, and concise in my stances and act more empathically, or even with some degree of professionalism in attitude towards trying to help others like myself through these kinds of problems we have. Whatever capacity that I can.
My persona here is real. The degree it's gone to though some aspects is kind of warped because I've been engaging in this culture here which is ultimately a little toxic at times. Sometimes if you get a bunch of people joking around, being hostile towards each other because that's status quo, then the community can become just that. A joke. Every once in awhile I think of stepping away from it and just focusing on forums like the Dark Side, dipping my toes more in the mental health forums and the recovery forums, I've got a lot of input I can give to drug culture and the other drugs forum. Some of the interest forums like Music are cool to me. But instead I'm lounging around quite often.
I do not advocate for dropping this part of the site or revamping the user base or anything radical like that in any sense, but I do think that if some motions could be made towards dealing with the obvious shit posts where it isn't necessary (including my own) in a healthy way that promotes healthy discussions and the development of healthy supports between more of the members here, there's a lot of untapped potential in this site. I'm gonna stick around, and I hope to prove myself worthwhile volunteer my time towards the operation and development of this site in a more official way as a thriving harm reduction community at some point in the future. It is a huge subject in my life which I'm very involved and interested in, and I'm honestly feeling a little tired mucking about sometimes while my primary purpose for being here is being left off side.
This isn't very well thought out and its been a long, weird day so I'm going to leave it there. Hopefully it makes some sense, without coming across as being holier than thou or that I'm just in opposition to a larger part of the site.it's not meant to be. Thanks for listening
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