Unburdening myself

[Warmaster Death]

Now before I begin, I would like to ask you to look back at my time here, whether it be in your memory of the times before the move and crashes, or the records in the time since, have I ever to your knowledge refused to follow the rules or tow the lien when asked to? i can't think of a time, though I freely admit that it is highly possible that i have in fact committed some form of infraction.


however, I do have a question to ask regarding the new rules posted in this, the Counseling sub forum.
well, a few questions and some opinion actually, though i want to stress that I feel the Moderators and Administrators do a great job, and i sure as shit dont think i could do any better.

In any case, i feel the rules, though well meaning and written with the safety of the forum and all its members in mind, and admittedly the more i read it the less restrictive it seems, but i still can't seem to shake the feeling that Iwaku is slowly becoming less of the warm, close knit family group that I have always felt it was, and becoming more of a cold, less caring forum, like so many others i stopped posting on because they took time away from Iwaku and my Internet forum time was dwindling due to real life and my need to reconnect with it.

shit, the reason i still come here day after day, and will continue to do so is because there are people on here that i consider to be friends i trust, friends i trust even with things i physically CANNOT seem to convey to others, and i have indeed tried to convey my issues regarding my loneliness, and I've failed, simply becoming more miserable.

in short, i feel that stating that the no one on the board can comment on situations such as that is perhaps too restrictive, I mean i understand the need to cover our backs and our arses from legal shit, but i think it could be made more as a disclaimer than a DON'T DO THIS FUCKWEED! type of unbendable, rigid law type rule.

anyway, thats my opinions on that, and i hope no-one takes offence or thinks I'm trying to fuck with authority for the sake of it.

 

[Soldato]

I'm behind Warmaster on this. Ever since I came back things have just seemed...Different here. I really didn't start noticing though until after a few weeks however. There is no blame to be directed at anyone and I'm not even going to throw my occasional cheer joke in for this. It has generally felt...cold.

Regarding these new rules for the Counseling section I understand parts and pieces of them but it does almost defeat the point of even having this subforum on certain levels. I mean the last thing I want to hear when I'm stressed out of my mind is, "By the way this is too personal go make a blog for it". That seriously gives me the impression that this small community which some consider a second family just doesn't care.

I'm not sure what has happened...but you've changed Iwaku...and I'm not sure how.

 

[Hydronine]

Hey, I know... I'm probably the biggest one. Past and present.

But IWAKU SAVED ME.

Hell, if it wasn't for that day on here, I would have slit my wrists and never known Ryker, really, or any of you.

Since then I post shit, time from time, but I don't know how to use a blog, and all my old counselors blamed some of the heavier shit on me, so I don't trust them. Plus, if I just went on a rant about this to Ryker or Katsugi, it WOULD NOT END WELL.

I understand it, though.

 

[Asmodeus]

Thanks for raising this, WMD. It's better to have these things out in the open and get some feedback. And no one on the staff thinks for a moment that you're anything but one of our most loyal and considerate members (except Sakura, but she's always bitching).

As for the rules, that's a guide from the old Gabe-era forum that we threw up in response to some recent Counselling issues. It might have been a bit knee-jerk of us, but we seriously don't want to be responsible for escalating a problem or being blamed for a real-life tragedy.

I personally would rather live without the rules and trust you all to treat this place for what it's worth - a chat with friends and not a therapy session.

But there's a lot of new members coming in at the moment, and not all of them are aware of our unspoken codes. At the end of the day, you really shouldn't be logging into Iwaku if you're in a volatile mood. We each have a responsibility to preserve a sense of community here.


So we'll take another look at the guide and see how our Counselling Mod wants to proceed. Okay?

 

[Diana]

I updated the guide a few moments after you guys brought it up, so it should be much more clear now, and less...uh... scary. XD

 

[Warmaster Death]

cheers asmo n' danna. my mind rests easier now.