Discussion Closing the site to the public

[foxdie]

I agreed with this viserally at first. Make suicide discussion private. However reading some of the other replies and being a former lurker maybe my mind has been changed? I don't think I would have worked up the courage to join if I hadn't been able to read suicide discussion and only seeing recovery and off topic I wouldn't have. I don't know it's tough.

 

[woxihuanni]

I agreed with this viserally at first. Make suicide discussion private. However reading some of the other replies and being a former lurker maybe my mind has been changed? I don't think I would have worked up the courage to join if I hadn't been able to read suicide discussion and only seeing recovery and off topic I wouldn't have. I don't know it's tough.

Good point. It shouldn't come across unbalanced, as if it was another useless forum. There can be solutions to this, possibly.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

This may be underestimating how contemptable and despicable we are to average Joe in or out of context. They are not scratching their heads trying to understand, they dehumanise.

I want whole heatedly to believe otherwise. But I don't.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

I agreed with this viserally at first. Make suicide discussion private. However reading some of the other replies and being a former lurker maybe my mind has been changed? I don't think I would have worked up the courage to join if I hadn't been able to read suicide discussion and only seeing recovery and off topic I wouldn't have. I don't know it's tough.

I get the ambivalence. On the one hand, it helps some others to read the more personal posts and then join, but on the other hand, it's not one's responsibility to expose themselves for others' benefit. I lurked for quite a while, went back and forth about joining. I actually think I would have joined sooner to see what it was about, and most forums, at least the ones I've been a member of, don't have a rule that one must post and cannot simply read and lurk. Public posts was a deterrent to me joining, because I know myself, and I knew I would post. It's what I do. I'm an extrovert, I get the most benefit and thrive when I interact.

Edit: @foxdie, I hope this comment didn't feel negating, or like I was twisting your stuff and making it about me. You got me to thinking. I acknowledge and respect that you feel and think your own stuff.

 

[foxdie]

I get the ambivalence. On the one hand, it helps some others to read the more personal posts and then join, but on the other hand, it's not one's responsibility to expose themselves for others' benefit. I lurked for quite a while, went back and forth about joining. I actually think I would have joined sooner to see what it was about, and most forums, at least the ones I've been a member of, don't have a rule that one must post and cannot simply read and lurk. Public posts was a deterrent to me joining, because I know myself, and I knew I would post. It's what I do. I'm an extrovert, I get the most benefit and thrive when I interact.

Edit: @foxdie, I hope this comment didn't feel negating, or like I was twisting your stuff and making it about me. You got me to thinking. I acknowledge and respect that you feel and think your own stuff.

I didn't take it as negating at all. I have the same ambivalence that has got me thinking too, which is why I'm not so certain what would be the best solution here anymore.

 

[RainAndSadness]

How does making this forum members-only solve any of the mentioned issues? They'll keep watching us, just with accounts - creating those is a matter of seconds so this options doesn't offer any protection at all. So what's the next step? Making the forum invite-only? That would drastically reduce the number of people that can access this forum and therefore lose its purpose. Those resources about methods are out there to help people make informed decisions and that's their problem. If we hide them, the pro-lifers essentially win this fight. And that's not what we should do, in my opinion. If we take away those resources from the public and treat them as some kind of secret, nobody is gonna find them, so why would we have them in the first place? That would essentially turn us into some kind of secret club of suicidal people, it would make us almost irrelevant. I want this community and the support it offers as well as the resources to be accessible to the public because people deserve to be informed about their options. People are gonna watch us, there is nothing that can be done about that. Even if we escaped to the darknet, they would still observe this community and try to sabotage us from the distance.

 

[x~Sophia~x]

'Fixthe26' has screenshot posts from here and posted on twitter! I'd be furious if it was one of my posts.
I also think kids and teenagers could get access to the site and a lot of the information that's accessible to the public, could be dangerous to them, especially if they're having difficulties in their lives along with raging hormones. We need to be mindful especially of children reading about methods to CTB
I believe children/teenagers would be less likely to open an account for fear of their parents checking their phones.
I wouldn't worry about anyone else reading the site, if they're adults, but if a child attempts CTB and it's discovered that they were viewing this site, there could be trouble.

 

[Quinlor]

No, fuck the world, we need show how the world is cruel! We are the society open wound, screaming !

 

[woxihuanni]

Nobody pointed out that the idea under discussion does not involve hiding the resources? Anyways, I am rather distracted by death to come up with more things.

 

[omoidarui]

Whilst there's some compromises mentioned in this thread that I wouldn't mind, I'm just concerned that by having an option to post something that can only be seen by other members here, we (and particularly new members who don't know about the hidden dangers of this forum) can become more lenient to divulge aspects of ourselves thinking it's exclusively seen by "trustworthy" individuals, which isn't true.

I also think people with motives that are either pro-death or pro-life, both detrimental extremes, would be benefitted in their own ways if we privatise this forum, either wholly or just Suicide Discussion. We can make the Resources accessible to guests but Suicide Discussion may have additional clarifications of things not covered, which is also in itself a resource (anything with the Method tag) so I'm not in favour of making that sub-forum private.

Anyway, the last time I checked, Fixthe26 have one particular screenshot of this forum with a notifications icon in the corner with something like 60+ new notifications, which means one of them is not only a registered member, but an established one. Or someone from here leaked to them. Either way, they have the capacity to collect evidence regardless of the outcome of this poll, so I suspect if we make anything hidden they'll just be incentivised to allege that we encourage suicide behind closed doors or something

 

[GoneGoneGone]

divulge aspects of ourselves thinking it's exclusively seen by "trustworthy" individuals, which isn't true.

but this is exactly the point, we should be allowed to rant and not live in fear of getting doxxed due to our writing style or other peculiarities + personal details. Then it's just like writing an email to your boss

I also think people with motives that are either pro-death or pro-life, both detrimental extremes, would be benefitted in their own ways if we privatise this forum

How? I truly don't understand this perspective, I'm sorry.

Either way, they have the capacity to collect evidence regardless of the outcome of this poll, so I suspect if we make anything hidden they'll just be incentivised to allege that we encourage suicide behind closed doors or something

If the suicide and recovery resources are stickied and public, then there would be no reason for them to believe that we encourage anything. It's exactly the fact that the info is public with the comments that can be taken out of context that feed this discourse that we encourage anything.

 

[Acopia]

I stalked for a long time before joining. Had I not been able to do that - I would never have felt confident enough to join.
Sure we take flack from others, but I don't feel like hiding away because of that.
-Acopia

 

[omoidarui]

but this is exactly the point, we should be allowed to rant and not live in fear of getting doxxed due to our writing style or other peculiarities + personal details. Then it's just like writing an email to your boss.

We should still be cautious though. You can't be doxxed by another member...?

In general, I just think viewing restrictions are going to create an illusion of safety that doesn't actually exist when we know from experience there are dangerous members, and everytime we post we're still conveying our thoughts to people with unknown agendas, and we should exercise equal caution on a private message board as on a public one. Depending on context, if we wouldn't confide something with complete strangers then we probably shouldn't with strangers who happen to be registered

How? I truly don't understand this perspective, I'm sorry.

pro-death cultists on here would want to avoid scrutiny as much as possible and this arguably helps with that

pro-lifers on the other hand have openly chastised us in radio interviews for making suicide info publicly accessible.

If the suicide and recovery resources are stickied and public, then there would be no reason for them to believe that we encourage anything.

assist = encourage in their biased purview of definitions

It's exactly the fact that the info is public with the comments that can be taken out of context that feed this discourse that we encourage anything.

they won't stop pursuing this site just because guest viewing is off, like I said at least one person on their side is confirmed a member here anyway. We're exhibiting that in spite of their claims we have nothing to hide - nor intend to succumb to them.

 

[waived]

Yes, I've wondered why so much of this forum is open. I don't think it should be a secret place but I do think most of it should require registration and be hidden from public view. I'm glad this thread was created and imo privacy should go into effect immediately. Sometimes I also can't help but wonder if there needs to be more regular discussion as to what pro-choice means, and what it doesn't.

 

[Panna]

If we could prevent what we post here being used against us, that's what I would care about. Look at rosie's ex who tried to use her post's as a way to tell the police that she's a danger, or when aj95 got doxxed and had the police show up outside her door with knowledge of the method and potential date. On one hand, having the suicide discussion board open helps people who are undecided make up their minds about joining, (I was one of these, I tried using reddits suicide board and got banned with one post) but on the other, the number of self righteous nutjobs who feel it's god's given mission to save the mentally ill by reporting them regardless of the consequences far outnumber new potential members. Parroting others who suggested the option of being able to private their threads from the public, I feel that would be the best way.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

How does making this forum members-only solve any of the mentioned issues? They'll keep watching us, just with accounts - creating those is a matter of seconds so this options doesn't offer any protection at all. So what's the next step? Making the forum invite-only? That would drastically reduce the number of people that can access this forum and therefore lose its purpose. Those resources about methods are out there to help people make informed decisions and that's their problem. If we hide them, the pro-lifers essentially win this fight. And that's not what we should do, in my opinion. If we take away those resources from the public and treat them as some kind of secret, nobody is gonna find them, so why would we have them in the first place? That would essentially turn us into some kind of secret club of suicidal people, it would make us almost irrelevant. I want this community and the support it offers as well as the resources to be accessible to the public because people deserve to be informed about their options. People are gonna watch us, there is nothing that can be done about that. Even if we escaped to the darknet, they would still observe this community and try to sabotage us from the distance.

All that you say is true. Also there is a huge turnover on this site with most people not staying on this website as active members for very long. People leave this website for various reasons not just because they ctb. If they close this website to the public very soon it will be down to 10 active members and that's not a website that provides anything only maybe chat and then those 10 would get bored of each other soon too.

 

[waived]

I'm going to challenge some things that have been brought up repeatedly by multiple people so don't worry you're not getting singled out or anything. I genuinely don't understand people being undecided or undecided about joining without lurking and would like further clarification. You create a disposable email and login credentials and check it out that way. It's almost 2021 it's been about 25 years since the internet got hopping this is how it's done.

I don't think anybody is down with the idea of a secret club but instead severely limiting what is available to the public. People will still see it is here and see what it is.

 

[Cupcake]

How does making this forum members-only solve any of the mentioned issues? They'll keep watching us, just with accounts - creating those is a matter of seconds so this options doesn't offer any protection at all. So what's the next step? Making the forum invite-only? That would drastically reduce the number of people that can access this forum and therefore lose its purpose. Those resources about methods are out there to help people make informed decisions and that's their problem. If we hide them, the pro-lifers essentially win this fight. And that's not what we should do, in my opinion. If we take away those resources from the public and treat them as some kind of secret, nobody is gonna find them, so why would we have them in the first place? That would essentially turn us into some kind of secret club of suicidal people, it would make us almost irrelevant. I want this community and the support it offers as well as the resources to be accessible to the public because people deserve to be informed about their options. People are gonna watch us, there is nothing that can be done about that. Even if we escaped to the darknet, they would still observe this community and try to sabotage us from the distance.

AMEN!!! I love this!

I can't get the vote buttons to work with my screen reader, but I vote NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO on closing this site to the public.

No no no no no!!!

Cheers,

Cupcake

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

I have been thinking about this site being visible to guests (anyone really), and I am not sure that is a good idea. This way, anyone can take screenshots of different comments and interpret them out of context. This site is under constant watch by various pro-life groups and I do not think that it is wise to give them free access to everything that is being posted here.

I would like to know what others think about this.

Closing this website to the public would kill it very soon . This site needs new people to sign up continously as old members leave very rapidly. How would people decide to join if they can't read the content? Also any search engines link to specific posts. This is how i found this site. The old members would keep leaving without new people joining the numbers would dwindle to nothing. less and less members leads to less posts and so less and less time spent for any members remaing and so one.

There is a huge turnover on this site with most people not staying on this website as active members for very long. People leave this website for various reasons not just because they ctb. If they close this website to the public very soon it will be down to 10 active members and that's not a website that provides anything only maybe chat and then those 10 would get bored of each other soon too.

Very few of the members that were here last year are still here actively. look at active members posting and you see the sign up dates are very recent. It's only through guests continously signing up and providing content and interaction that keeps members viewing the site. It's only though guests or lurkers seeing the content and postings of this website that makes them join and then when they become members they provide content and the cycle continues. In other words without a continous sign up of members there will only be very few members posting at at time . Plus this is also surrendering to anti-suicide groups that are slandering and petitioning to shut this site down.

The way i found this website is i was searching for methods. Then i clicked on this site in the search results and i read the posts of some members. I would have never joined if i hadn't read the posts. But i didn't join after the first time i read it . i read it for a few days until i started to realize all the great other content here the posts of the members. The i lurked some more time until if finally decided to join .

People don't realize what the creators of this website have done is to have a site like this survive in this anti-suicide world . If it isn't broke don't fix.

the people wanting this one of them should just create their own site and make it private and see how long that lasts .

 

[Cupcake]

AMEN!!! I love this!

I can't get the vote buttons to work with my screen reader, but I vote NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO on closing this site to the public.

No no no no no!!!

Cheers,

Cupcake

I also just want to add that creating accounts for certain people, like myself, is difficult. I am blind, and if this community were to be inaccessible to me if I had no account, I would have found it very discouraging and even discriminating.

So much of the internet is inaccessible to me, so this is pretty much the only place I can go for support.

Even though I don't post much, I do lurk a lot and find a lot of encouragement and even hope seeing other people's posts. Reading them gives me a sense that I am not suffering alone and that, if I chose to post, I could find understanding people who could relate to whatever it was I might be going through at the time.

Just my two sense, carry on everyone.

Cheers,

Cupcake

 

[Wayfaerer]

At least this way anyone who's so inclined can visit the site and do their own fact checking. Close the site, all the public will have to rely on is the out of context screenshots that are taken by people who join disingenuously. I wouldn't underestimate the "spy" factor either. "Infiltrating" a community is thrilling and intriguing. Giving people something to infiltrate would provide an outlet for more sensationalism and more game-playing behavior disguised as virtuous action. And it would further the us vs them mentality, which I don't think is a healthy divide and only detracts further from understanding the reality of the situation, whatever that may be.
It seems regressive when the point is that this is something that people should be able to talk about openly.

I find it cute that you think the average person cares about fact checking. The world would be a very different place if that were so.

 

[GoneGoneGone]

If they close this website to the public very soon it will be down to 10 active members and that's not a website that provides anything only maybe chat and then those 10 would get bored of each other soon too.

So your argument is low traffic? Do you have ads on this website to worry about that?

Plus, why do you keep posting the same paragraph over and over?

I don't know about you lurking before making an account, these are individual stories. We should have an estimate - on average how long it took for people to make an account once they found the website?

I personally found hanging resources and made an account that same day, it's not that hard.

What worries me is that 60% do want certain portions closed off, and nothing is happening.

I won't be a big loss to this website but yeah I'm considering taking 9 friends from here and just hanging around on a chat and not posting here anymore.

 

[woxihuanni]

So your argument is low traffic? Do you have ads on this website to worry about that?

Plus, why do you keep posting the same paragraph over and over?

I don't know about you lurking before making an account, these are individual stories. We should have an estimate - on average how long it took for people to make an account once they found the website?

I personally found hanging resources and made an account that same day, it's not that hard.

What worries me is that 60% do want certain portions closed off, and nothing is happening.

I won't be a big loss to this website but yeah I'm considering taking 9 friends from here and just hanging around on a chat and not posting here anymore.

I was just surprised to see the proposals were not read or understood at all in the first place.

 

[Soulless Angel]

You'd be surprised but people are lazy to make accounts especially since they have to give a strong motivation for joining.

nah, anyone can lie in the reason for joining, trust me I know, I have seen it first hand myself :/ If people are wanting to know more, they will sign up and lurk.
I know admin have/had their reasons for being open, and to be honest, bar the suicide section it should be an open forum, I think that should be private or at least members only to ensure youngsters looking for ideas, don't come across and read that side of thing's without having to sign up.

 

[GoneGoneGone]

nah, anyone can lie in the reason for joining, trust me I know, I have seen it first hand myself :/ If people are wanting to know more, they will sign up and lurk.

But if it's no problem for people to sign up, then the two options (public vs private sections) are equal. Why is it then preferable to have everything public then?

 

[Kramer]

People should put sanctionedsuicide on stickers. Public bathrooms, etc mwahahaha

 

[RainAndSadness]

What worries me is that 60% do want certain portions closed off, and nothing is happening.

I won't be a big loss to this website but yeah I'm considering taking 9 friends from here and just hanging around on a chat and not posting here anymore.

It's a minor detail but this poll isn't really representative of the opinion in this forum with barely 100 votes. So that's not 60% of the members in this forum that want a certain portion of the forum closed of, that's 60% of the people participating in this particular topic. And this poll wasn't created by Staff either so I don't know why the outcome of this poll would determine any change. As I explained before, making this forum members-only wouldn't solve any of the issues that are mentioned in this thread in my opinion. And I think it's wrong on principle to surrender to those pro-life groups in general. We shouldn't have to hide in the first place because the purpose of this forum is morally justifiable. The right to die is a human right, end of discussion.

Also there is a much better solution to those pro-life people monitoring us: don't post personal information. If they take screenshots of posts, and that's apparently a concern here, why is that such a big deal? They also took a screenshot from one of my posts back in 2019 but I don't fear any backlash because I keep most personal information that could reveal my identity to myself. Nothing happened. These people are screaming into a void and they're not nearly as important as they make themselves out to be.

Feel free to stop posting in this forum but I think that's an overreaction based on paranoia.

 

[Caspers]

As mentioned by another user, I believe an option to post publicly or members only should be available. Both sides win; the people who want their posts public win, the people who want their posts for members only win. I think that would work very well

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

So your argument is low traffic? Do you have ads on this website to worry about that?

Plus, why do you keep posting the same paragraph over and over?

I don't know about you lurking before making an account, these are individual stories. We should have an estimate - on average how long it took for people to make an account once they found the website?

I personally found hanging resources and made an account that same day, it's not that hard.

What worries me is that 60% do want certain portions closed off, and nothing is happening.

I won't be a big loss to this website but yeah I'm considering taking 9 friends from here and just hanging around on a chat and not posting here anymore.

No i didn't say anything about traffic or ads . Why are you twisting what i said? I just don't want to see the membership numbers dwindle as that would lead to shutting this site down to lack of interest. This site depends on a lot of new members joining every day as many older members leave every day. For most people there is no way that people would blindly join a website without reading a lot the content beforehand. Hackers, phishing sites, or other scam artists could create false sample posts to hook members and many are aware of that. Almost everyone from last year is gone : very few people here with sign up dates of 2019 . Yes there are exceptions but for most people what i write is the case.

Closing this website to the public (or guests) would lead to rapidly dwindling number of members and then the subsequent shutting down of this website.

Plus as others have posted : there is nothing stopping anti-suicide people from creating an account and becoming members ; and then they would be able able to take sceenshots of posts to take them out of context .

There is no need to twist what i said or have an overly critical reaction to one post i made as it is only my opinion and imo i did it to try to save this site. And i didn't get any sleep so for you to criticize one post that way is uncalled for and goes against the opinion respecting attitude of this website.

 

[waived]

And this poll wasn't created by Staff either so I don't know why the outcome of this poll would determine any change.

Are you saying you don't understand why questions, comments, and concerns of the user base of this forum are important or could possibly change anything? The opinions of 100 users are just insignificant to you because you disagree?

As I explained before, making this forum members-only wouldn't solve any of the issues that are mentioned in this thread in my opinion.

It would stop a lot of the people(s) who don't want to take "a matter of seconds" from seeing what is going on at all times and stop them from being able to effortlessly stalk users of this forum but tbh I don't know why we have to pontificate why we want privacy. It should be the standard not the exception.

And I think it's wrong on principle to surrender to those pro-life groups in general. We shouldn't have to hide in the first place because the purpose of this forum is morally justifiable. The right to die is a human right, end of discussion.

Why are my offtopic posts and recovery posts being used as part of your personal tactic and strategy towards dying as a human right? I think your personal tactics and strategy are as insufficient as your responses in this thread.

Also there is a much better solution to those pro-life people monitoring us: don't post personal information. If they take screenshots of posts, and that's apparently a concern here, why is that such a big deal? They also took a screenshot from one of my posts back in 2019 but I don't fear any backlash because I keep most personal information that could reveal my identity to myself. Nothing happened. These people are screaming into a void and they're not nearly as important as they make themselves out to be.

Feel free to stop posting in this forum but I think that's an overreaction based on paranoia.

lol "hey there's groups of people screen capping stuff and stalking users across the internet don't be so paranoid believe me guys I know what I'm talking about".


Bad look.