Hi All,
After a few incidents in the chat room over the past week I thought I would reiterate a few things….
The chat room is a place of distraction, a place to come into and forget your anxiety for a while, it can be a great social space to meet like minded people and talk about life the universe and everything. We like to keep the chat room a relaxed, fun environment where we discuss many things other than anxiety, to take your mind away from your suffering. Within the Chat room we also have the help room within chat for people in crisis to come in an get help and support when they are anxious and panicking.
In the Chat Room we have a private messaging service (oops I did type that as "private massaging service!!" but we don't actually offer those services :whistles::roflmao:) where you can message other members within the chat room, it is always polite to ask in the main chat room if you would like to private message someone who is in the room who you are not familiar with. If it is a person who you feel comfortable with then you are able to PM them without asking them, it is then up to the particular member if they reply to you or not.
Please be aware that the PM system can be a bit temperamental and not all PM’s get through to members (PM’s are also unavailable to those logging in on mobile devices) so please do not think that just because you have sent the message and you haven’t received a reply that the other member is annoyed at you and not wanting to reply to you, they could just not be receiving your messages. There is also a whisper function in the chat room which you can also use to message a member, these messages appear within the main chat window but are sent to just the person being whispered to.
The private messaging system, like the one on the forum is to be just that…. Private…. Anything you are told within the private messages is to stay there. The member has told you these things in strictest confidence and it is to stay that way you are NOT to communicate the contents to any other member on the site. If It is found that this is being abused then you may be sanctioned by the admin team, this is normally a first warning, a 7-day chat room ban and then a complete chat room ban if the behaviour continues.
Discussions in the main chat room are classed as public discussions, which can be discussed within its members. If there is a subject which you would prefer not to be made public then do not discuss it in main chat, take it to PM or the help room or ask the members in the chat room not to discuss it further, but if it is discussed in the main chat room then members will not be sanctioned for discussing it elsewhere.
We have a female and male symptoms forums within the main forum as members may feel uncomfortable talking about private issues of another gender so we separate those issues, this is also the same for the chat room. discussion of certain topics can be uncomfortable for other members to listen to. If you would like to discuss subjects where others may feel uncomfortable then do one of three things.
- Ask the members of the room if they mind you discussing the topic within the room. If there are any objections then please refrain from discussing it in the main chat room.
- Private message a member who you are comfortable with
- Ask someone to go into the help room with you.
Please respect the chat moderators, they are there to ensure the smooth running of the chat room, they may ask you to stop a certain behaviour and if you do not listen and continue then they are able to silence you for a minute, kick you from the chat room for 15 minutes and in very extreme circumstances ban you from the chat room completely. You will recognise a Chat room moderator as they will have a (M) next to their name on the online list. Any problems in the chat rooms then please PM or whisper any chat mods who are in the room, who will then deal with your concerns or pass them on to the rest of the Admin/Mod team to discuss further.
Finally, please do not moan or complain about a member in the chat room when that member is not in the chat room to defend themselves…. If you have a problem with a member then please bring it up with a member of the Chat Moderator or admin team.
Many Thanks
Admin and Chat Room Moderator Team
