Ptsd Blogs - Your Thoughts?

[scout86]

Just wanted to say I like this idea. It's not something that I'd do, myself. I'm not that good at consistently working on that kind of thing and have (finally) realized that I don't need to add to the list of "things to beat myself up for not doing or not doing enough". LOL But it's a great idea. I followed the link out of curiosity, and liked what I saw. And, although I'm also not organized enough to remember "What was that interesting blog I saw last week?" I WOULD probably be a regular reader of a blog by someone like Ms Spock, or FridayJones, or Kefira.

 

[Owl.]

As someone who's been blogging for much longer than I care to admit (getting old here! ...sort of) on a few of the usual platforms, I'd be pretty interested in this myself.
What might hold me back, though, is the whole "pre-screening" process. While I absolutely see why you'd want/need to do this, I think it might also scare away potential bloggers, myself included.

Not that I'm scared of you as a person, @anthony (unless you tell me I should be ;) ), but there's that whole twisted idea of "what if I'm not even good enough to be allowed to blog with my peers" - that anxiety/self-confidence issue that's pretty common within the community.
Plus - life can get in the way, as can that lovely acronym that moved itself into all our bedrooms and keeps raiding the fridge without ever even changing the TP roll...so I guess my question would be about how much silence you'd tolerate on a blog without sending in the angry mob with their torches and pitchforks.

I do love the concept of a specialized and very customizable blogging-site and I'd probably contribute (if able/allowed) or at the very least read what others share, but until there's a "blogging-rules for brainless wimps" post, I'd probably stick with the usual hosts where I'm not letting anybody down when I don't post for a while and let the resident bada**es above handle the content. :)

 

[anthony]

diversity begins to negatively impact a blog, or as long as it's well categorized and organized do people respond well?

Diversity is the spice of blogs. Yes, as long as you well categorise the content, both readers and Google will take the content well.

What might hold me back, though, is the whole "pre-screening" process. While I absolutely see why you'd want/need to do this, I think it might also scare away potential bloggers, myself included.

Absolutely. This is also another aspect I wish to refine more, as I sit on things myself I find "pre-screening" is possibly a little daunting, compared to something just like, have a conversation with us, type approach. Thanks for your feedback, and it will be changed the more I ponder it.

I guess my question would be about how much silence you'd tolerate on a blog without sending in the angry mob with their torches and pitchforks.

There wouldn't be anything, basically. Once you start blogging, I trust that you're motivated. PTSD gets in the way of all our lives. I would only begin asking if a person plans to return after maybe 6 months absence.

My policy will be something along the lines of, mass closing all comments on their blog, basically. It is old blogs with comments left open that cause issues. They bring spam and legitimate responses, which obviously aren't being moderated. The site itself is not a problem being left for their return.

If a person starts a blog, posts a handful of posts and does nothing further, I may simply remove it after 6 months.

I'm still pondering whether to leave the user delete function present or not, at this stage. Basically, it allows users to delete their blog if they choose. It has pro's and con's to that, such as giving users too much choice, especially with PTSD, things can get ugly and affect the site overall.

It was a reason why I stopped allowing user self delete here, as it caused a lot of errors for search engines and such to deal with.

Another good point to be answered in an FAQ though.

Basically... if you've maintained a blog for a long duration, then that alone says that you do blog. Sure, not consistently... but you over time there is consistency. If your current blog allows exporting your information, we can import it into a blog on PTSD Blog's for you, so you lose nothing, but gain all the features and freedom that we offer.

The problem though, is most platforms remove the ability to import / export your content.

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

I think it's a cracking idea. :)

 

[Friday]

A soft delete, perhaps? Gives the illusion of control without the consequences? If it's been deleted for x period of time, hard delete?

I was in a slash & burn mood last night for a few hours. Not the first time, won't be the last. If the option had been available, I probably would have. It's not entirely rational the 'delete everything' impulse. It's ridiculous, actually. Rude, pointless, & usually regrettable if followed through. Creates more problems than it solves. Usually it wears off after a few days at most. More typically, at least for me, it's a few hours. Sigh. One more damn thing to wait out.

 

[anthony]

I have opted to remove the delete function... for all concerned.

 

[anthony]

Changed home entry: PTSD Blog’s is a closed network — contact us to discuss your needs.

 

[ghotiff]

I wouldn't blog, but my questions would be.

Do I have to have PTSD or a criterion A history.
Would it have to be formally diagnosed....do I have to "prove" it.
What if I have been told by a doctor that I have PTSD from eg stubbing my toe.

 

[Friday]

What if I have been told by a doctor that I have PTSD from eg stubbing my toe.

Ditto.

 

[Owl.]

What if I have been told by a doctor that I have PTSD from eg stubbing my toe.

Good point, especially with the (and I'm just gonna call it as I see it) tumblr-crowd out there.
Self-/Quack-diagnosed folks are a thing, there's a ton of them, PTSD for some godforsaken reason is the thing to have, and you can totally get it from having a bad hair day.

There are so many of those people - and they are very, VERY loud. Getting on the bad side of that lot can do some serious damage to a website and not allowing them to participate in their favorite hobby (telling the whole internet they have PTSD and a laundry-list of other "in"-diagnoses) because, guess what, closed network run by somebody who knows what they're talking about...well. It might just get the site a lot of attention in the form of a ridiculous shitstorm as spearheaded by the likes of Melody Hensley.

How one would go about trying to protect the network and its members from that kind of attack...I have no idea.

Thank you for answering my previous questions though, Anthony! :)
Glad to see a few things clarified and also happy to read you'd allow importing. I personally wouldn't use the option as my current blogs have a very different focus and I'd rather not mix up the two (or ten) sides of this particular coin, but it certainly might work to convince others to move virtual house if they don't have to fear losing years of work.

I'm very much looking forward to see where this will be going. :)

 

[anthony]

I have made some changes to wording... so that people need to have a conversation with me. Tell them about themselves, their experiences, what they want from blogging / website with us.

If a person cannot have a conversation, yet want the serious benefits that PTSD Blog offers them, that they would pay around $200 per annum for to get themselves, then they aren't going to be the right fit.

I will add another post in the coming days about what we're looking for, who is right for PTSD Blog... yet have amended the existing content to reflect a nicer method.

Some will always be shitty, they want it all now, want it for free, feel they have a right to it... and they aren't the people we want either. So a conversation process will remove those, as it will remove those who tripped and stubbed their toe, believing they have PTSD as a result, or have endured catastrophic trauma doing so.

I don't see any automatic way to screen for quality. Yes, I could cut back and restrict the crap out of the settings, just like every free blog site does with automatic signup... but then that defeats the purpose. I would be mimicking what exists... payment plan to upgrade this, all automatic, people wondering around, given a site with no idea how to run it, design it, leverage it, market it, na da. So they give up and ditch it.

PTSD Blog is tapped into a lot of the MyPTSD marketing that I do behind the scenes, thus it will leverage similar exposure, except at a personal level for your blog.

Manual process is decided... a conversation to ascertain applicability, to try and limit the frauds as much as possible.

 

[Kefira]

Manual process is decided... a conversation to ascertain applicability, to try and limit the frauds as much as possible.

That seems like about what you can do, especially knowing that we get the stubbed toe types here, and as @owl1982 mentions that may only get worse if the blogging platform succeeds and more people are drawn to it from other parts of the web rather than this community where it's fairly easy to weed those out quickly.

I'm very excited to see where this goes- seems like a really good opportunity for people who otherwise would be overwhelmed by the process. I create and manage blog and social media content for other people as part of my job and I still struggle with coming up with a good plan for myself. Way easier to see what other people are doing wrong than to get something started with little to no help and a ton of limitations.

@anthony you mention the platform is going to be using wordpress. I assume that means there will be access to the standard set of scheduling/publishing tools, label/tag organization, comment management and the like as well as privacy settings for posts.

The change to the existing content up on the site does seem (at least to my mind) a little less intimidating for those who will be on the fence when they arrive. I'll be really looking forward to more updates on this as it comes together.