Blogging Guide

‘Let’s talk about suicide‘ on the menu above takes you to our blog where we can begin to have the new conversation that this website calls for.  I want it to be as free and open a conversation as possible but, given the sensitive nature of our topic, some cautions and guidelines are needed.

1. All the posts and comments are public – i.e. can be read by anyone.  So just be aware that if you make a comment (see below), the whole world can see it.
2. If you want to make a comment/reply then you will be asked to identify yourself with a name and an email address.  You may wish to use a pseudonym (nickname), which is displayed with your comment, rather than your real name, which is fine.  But your email address, which is not displayed,  must be real and belong to you, in case I need to contact you.
3. Currently, only your first ever comment will be moderated – i.e. it will need to be approved before it appears. Once you have your first comment approved, subsequent comments will appear immediately. I hope we can keep it like this, but if there is any abuse/misuse of the blog then this may have to change to a more strict moderation of dicussions.
4. Currently, only I (as the system owner/admin) can initiate a discussion – i.e. post a message – that you can then comment/reply to.  This is less than ideal, but I feel it’s necessary to begin with.  Over time, I hope we can add other “contributors” – i.e. who can post messages to begin discussion of other topics that may be of  interest.
5. Meantime, if you want to start a discussion on a particular topic, please send me a message through the Contact page and I can forward it to the blog for comments.  Please indicate what name you would like it to be posted under.
6. Be nice … no insulting, rude, offensive (etc) comments, please.  Be sensible.  Please!
7. And especially, NO advocating or encouraging suicide (or self-harm), and NO explicit discussion of suicide methods.

If we have trouble with spammers are other unsociable comments, it may be necessary to tighten these guidelines- e.g. require that you register and login before you can comment.  But I hope this will be unnecessary.

So now … Let’s talk about suicide …