h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anyone else having converstaion about self-harm moderated on the basis that to talk about it is be encouraging it on a family site?

I haven't seen any such posts moderated, but then, maybe I just hang out in the wrong threads. What thread was this in?

Of course, these days, something only gets moderated if someone is offended by it and clicks on the yikes button. Not having seen the post, but trying to guess, I'd think it's possible that a post talking about self-harm might trigger someone who either has similar issues or is close to someone who does.


Mikey

I had a post moderated on the 360 site, when I was talking about something my seven year old son had said (threatening self-obliteration) in the middle of a well established thread with the then producer of the site. I was very annoyed about it, particularly as it prevented me from getting a balanced response to it. She saw it and reinstated the post.

hmmm - glad it was reinstated.
They will do that in some cases.

Was it moderated in this forum stealth?

No...

I just want to say I have spoken about self-harm on this site, I have in fact indicated that I was harming myself, while I was actually doing it. I wasn't moderated. I also announced my intended suicide onsite, while sitting with the gun in front of me with which I wanted to do it, and a bunch of conversations took place in real-time while was doing that. None of that got moderated. But I've been moderated for other stuff.

As far as I'm concerned, moderation is done rather inconsistently here.

Anyways I gather the problem they have is that you give people alternatives for self-harming. Anyways when I self-harm I use rusty old kitchen knives or cardboard-cutting knives we use in our art work, garage utility knives, garden knives etc. and I certainly don't clean the blades first. When I self-harm the absolute last thought in my mind is safety and/or cleanliness.

Will this post get moderated? Let's see.

PS I've even cut myself with uncleaned toenail-clippers.

I recieved an e mail from Abi about it... when I tried to enter into a discussion with her on why she felt justified in upholding thge moderastion she flatly ignored my e mail...
So I think you were lucky...
I've had journals written when I was suicidal moderated in the past also...
The italics don't like discussion of depressive issues on their site... they want everyone to be all cheerful and false smiles...
The threads I had moderated were one where I was advisig someone to act safely if she intended to cut herself...

You know Stealth this is one of my problems with the way the 'big wigs' are trying to run this community ... a kind of cleansed and sanitised version of 'reality' with all the messy bits taken out. '... everyone all cheerful and false smiles...' well that's why it's called *virtual* reality I guess.

But I remain and I continue to protest. I don't want this to be a fake community because I think that's a betrayal of the people who think it's a sort of a real community.

But to get back to the point ... you advised someone on a 'safe' way of self-injuring. Compare this to me telling somebody else how to safely and effectively use anabolic steroids. They'd certainly moderate me for that. But you know what ... anabolic steroids are illegal while self-injury is not.

Indeed... and indeed...
She'd already taken the descision to harm herself... All I did was make it clear that self harm is not somethig to be ashamed of, that isn't a barrier to having a life and that she should take appriate care when doing it... I didn't tell her that 'self harm works for me, everybody should try it at least once' What I doid do was offer support and understanding of a problem... Not promotion of or encouragement to self mutilation... And I gave her the link I gave this group on methods of stopping... that link was removed by the moderator as inappropriate
I'm sorry, I'm still fuming about this...

Just to clarify my own position: self-injury in a way 'works' for me, and yet I still would prefer if I didn't have any urge to self-injure. In my own case, *in and of itself*, it certainly does not contribute to my health, happiness and wellbeing. It would be better if I never did it, never wanted to do it. As it is I try my utmost not to do it, to not land myself in a situation where I want to do it.

Aye, for me self injury is a tool... one that I try very hard to remain in control of and to not let control me... It works for me when I become 'agitated' and need some form of calming solace... It works for me whe I feel like taking my own life and am tryig to not let those feeling overwhelm me...

In my own case it serves as a substitute for suicide. Last time I really wanted to kill myself, I made some cuts along veins and arteries of my arm. After making shallow cuts I was satisfied in a way and didn't feel I needed to cut any deeper. So in this sense, self-injury stops me from going further, and killing myself. But there is a danger ... I might have cut just a little bit deeper and then I would have been dead. So I can never say that it is a safe thing to do, or that it could be a safe thing to do ... in my own case, at least. This is why I try my damnedest not to become suicidal and not to self-injure. But it still happens ... for it to happen my mental defenses need to be broken down and that takes a rather intense trauma ... if I ever go so far as to self-injure, my brain circuitry would already need to be pretty much fried to a crisp ... but the first pangs of pain and the blood serves to bring me back to a sense of myself, to a feeling of reality and clarity and that has so far stopped me from going further.

Indeed that's what I was somewhat inarticulatly trying describe in the last part of my previous post...
I do believe that there are certain precaution and rules you can give yourself around the ritual of self harm that minimise the dangers of doing something that you may not have the opportunity to regret...

Hi Stealth

so you advised someone on how to something they were gonna do anyway, safely. And you pointed them towards a site which gives advice on stopping self-harming. That site address was then removed?

F**king italics, so they don't want people to get better, they would rather hear it had gone too far and the person had died.

They disgust me.

That about sums it up...
They made some not very subtle hints that if made similar contributions no matter how well intentioned that I should consider my ACE badge at risk... basicly suggesting that as an ACE I am seen as representing h2g2 and the BBC... also that as h2g2 is a family site I should be yikesing discussions of self harm to protect children not showing understanding...

I started self-harming at 11/12. The bbc should recognise that helping children means information and education not denying them that help. It costs nothing to elp to be there for someone. It can cost a life if you don't bother. Obviusly the bbc can't be bothered and do not care what happens to people in despair.

If I had found a site like this when I was that age, which coincidentally was the age when my father started sexually abusing me, it may have helped me to get out of that situation. But while organisations in the public eye, who could do something, all decide to stand back in cowardice, nothing will happen. Excpe the kids will not find a way out and will become suicidal and some of them will succeed. All because the bbc would rather stand back then help.

I still think they are b*****ds and I still furious at their callousness, cruelness and wilful misunderstanding. Perhaps if one of them had suffered as a child like we did then they may have learnt a little compassion, but obviusly they all had easy lives - lucky bbc.