Suicidal messages posted on forums like this one.

[Larry_OHF]

I know we have seen a few people post messages on this forum before, talking of suicide among other things, and it always gets a wide variety of responses from us. Some of our members ignore the supposed troll, some taunt the member, some chastise the member for being stupid or wantng attention, and some beleive the person and try to talk them out of making the mistake.

I read this just now and it makes me wonder. What if the moderator of that forum had not believed what she read? What if she would have closed the forum, banned the member, and left it at that? Think of that when you read it here


[ 10-04-2002, 12:19 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

nope. if someone wants to commit suicide there are dedicated phone lines for help, NOT roleplay forums. otherwise members will think it is, well, ROLEPLAY

[Kaltia]

I'm glad he's okay...If it were not for that woman I would hate to think what would have happened...

[Horatio]

wow. Sounds like the kind of replies people would make here!!!

[Melusine]

That was good acting on the moderators part - she judged the situation well.

Have to correct you on one thing though Larry - I have seen quite a few people bring up the topic of suicide on IW in the past two years and the sympathetic and helpful posts FAR outnumbered the few indifferent ones. It's different of course when a complete newbie introduces him/herself with a suicide note, [img]tongue.gif[/img] that is fairly indicative of trolling, but I have never seen much taunting or indifference here in the large amount of help-seeking/depressed etc threads we had so far. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Larry_OHF]

Thank you for the correction, Melusine. I could only post my opinion based on what I have seen, and am surprised to know that I have missed many more threads where better responses have been. I am glad to hear it!

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Lord Shield: nope. if someone wants to commit suicide there are dedicated phone lines for help, NOT roleplay forums. otherwise members will think it is, well, ROLEPLAY

I have to disagree. First of all, if one of our members felt that way, I think they'd rather discuss it here, among friends, than with some stranger on a phone. It's a pretty high treshhold to just up and call to one of those lines - posting a topic here I imagine would be the more natural thing to do.
Second, we're not just a roleplaying forum, GenD in fact doesn't even allow roleplaying. So in our case, there would be no such risk.
Of course I don't think people should post threads like these to draw attention, and it's always good if they can find offline help (say from a friend or parent) rather than having to post here. But I can understand if there's no other option and I think this too is one of the many purposes this community serves...

I wasn't referring to IW as roleplay forum. i was referring to the Ultima on-line forum referred to in the article.

and i've seen too many attention-seekers to take such thread too seriously to be honest, for good or bad

[Dundee Slaytern]

I remember spending 6 hours talking to a guy in mIRC along with 4 other people in a bid to bring him out of his suicidal mood. The next few days were quite tense for me, because here was a guy that lived on the other side of the world and I had no way to contact him or find out what happened next. He had listened to us and contacted help, and I am happy to say that he is living well now( judging from the photos at the latest boardiecon which I could not attend).

[Horatio]

Sorry, Mel, I usually agree with you on serious stuff, but not today.
Someone seriously considering suicide may feel more comfortable with a TRAINED PROFFESIONAL. It may even help that this person is a stranger; you could tell them anything without feeling embarrassed.
I think it would be very important to speak with a proffesional, and not to someone here. A random post may affect someone's life