BOYCOTT Thursday 14th Feb

[umbrella4therain]

I will boycott too. xxx

[judithj]

[quote="oobydoobie"
No one is shouting. People have made highly valid points that have been ignored. How can we work with someone who has shown an unwillingness to enter into a reasonable and intelligent dialogue over an issue?
There has to be a basis,even a minute one,on which to proceed. Being given an authoritarian fait accompli goes nowhere near to achieving a rational and intelligent dialogue where service users voices are given consideration.
In a situation where administrators are acting irresponsibly, and against the good and wishes of those they proclaim to be there to support, then it is only right that people speak out.
Or do you really believe that one should stay silent when wrong is being done? Surely that is a catalyst for more wrong?[/quote]

precisely. you can't negotiate if no-one is prepared to listen: we've asked the mods to listen, to reconsider, to take our feelings and needs into consideration, but Sane appears not to care about applying its own Aims and Outcomes (http://www.sane.org.uk/what_we_do/aims_outcomes/) to this forum. Sad, isn't it? hugs, Judith xxx

[muchlove]

I understand why people are boycotting, but I won't be signing up to the other forum, I've been member on other forumsc and have found them more harmful than good. The one chosen is too big for me too.

[DC07]

Can we just clarify when we are doing this, Ive cocked up the date a bit, shall we do it tuesday or on valentines day?

[DC07]

Valentines day, THURSDAY it is then

[Dovahkiin]

Not sure I'm going to join in actually. Wednesday/Thursday could prove to be very tricky days for me.. and I'll need all the support I can get.. and I don't understand the Mental Health Forum, it's too confusing. xxxx

[Dovahkiin]

Good I hope to see you all on TD. xxxx

[robinbird]

If anyones interested I've made an account on mh forum but it looks much too complex for me. I may just flit in and out so if anyone needs me come thursday just drop me a message, hopefully I'll see it.

[Taffy2]

Well, I choose.......not to be here, having listened to the debates, I am a service user who tries to help when she can, and I am respecting that others may choose otherwise.

But I am not a paid worker, no reponsibility on my part to be here, and I feel that people have been shabbily treated here, Kay tried her very best for us, its very disappointing indeed.

[stalwart]

Yeah, I've just come back after a break and was completely baffled to find that private messages have been disabled. I've really just had enough. I'm going to mentalhealthforum and probably won't be coming back.

It's all gone a bit One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest around here. Maybe the people who run the site think they're helping, but I just find the atmosphere very oppressive now and they've obviously just decided we're irrational people who can't be reasoned with, since whenever I tried to engage, in good faith, in a discussion about the board's policies to try and better understand the rationale, they just stopped responding to my messages as soon as I asked difficult questions. I was never aggressive. I was very conversational. They just didn't think I was worthy of a proper explanation. They'd clearly been taught that all they had to do was enforce the rules, not understand them - certainly not be expected to explain them. It's just not conducive to mental health when for a lot of people this is their only connection to other people to have those interactions controlled so strictly by anonymous strangers.

Clearly the rules must have changed while I was gone though, as usually this thread would have been deleted immediately, so maybe that's progress. But whatever, I've just lost interest.

I also don't think the boycott will have an impact because I don't think the mods are hugely interested in the views of the board users or what some of our most experienced members contribute. In my normal life my views are listened to and respected, even if they're not always agreed with. Here, as far as the mods are concerned, I'm nothing but a mental illness and therefore must be entirely irrational, which is exactly the feeling I should be able to come here to escape. They're in charge, the rules are the rules, and we have no right to question them. And the feelings of frustration at that fact have become too annoying. I'm out.

A recent report found that people sectioned under the mental health act are often denied the information and advocacy services they have a right to. This shows that there are still those working in mental health who think the mentally ill can't identify what's best for themselves and don't deserve to be listened to. It's not impossible that this site has fallen victim to that same attitude.

I do respect sallybee's opinion on this. I understand that people will still stumble onto the forum needing support. I just feel it might be better for them if they very quickly decide to go somewhere else.