Ptsd Blogs - Your Thoughts?

[Friday]

Fleeting Q... Along the stubbed toe line

Any possibility for a checklist of all the CritA stressors that can cause or contribute to PTSD in a box somewhere on the blog as a unifying theme? Tick the boxes of the ones you've got, then only show the ones with the boxes ticked, maybe bold the primary for those of us who just had to keep adding things to our CV? That way when a person is on any blog homepage they can see Natural Disaster, Childhood, First Responder, Military, Combat, Medical, Domestic Violence, MVA, Kidnap, Torture, Sexual Assault, etc.? Or a grouping of whatever stressors?

 

[Owl.]

Hey, some of us may be years into this shit and still don't know what their primary actually is! lol

Interesting idea overall, though. It'd take me right out of the game, but interesting nevertheless...although it might be done with a lot of discipline in tagging and a "frequent tags" tab on the homepage or something?
That's assuming I actually understood you correctly and the idea is to make it easier for people to find content/people talking about exactly the kind of trauma they're looking to read about - and I might be way off here, Lord Scatterbrain has sprinkled his fairy dust all over me again. :sorry:

 

[joeylittle]

I don't see any automatic way to screen for quality.

Definitely can't do that. But I think where you've gotten to is a great way to curate the blogs that are on the platform.

I think there's a lot of value added to the MyPTSD 'brand', for lack of a better word, in having a regularly populated, well-curated blog grouping. It's actually a subtle way of tying things together without narrowing the focus so much so that it feels like an echo chamber.

And it establishes itself by its cumulative quality.

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.

I think there's a way to communicate this that signals 'you're among friends' as opposed to 'you might not be good enough' - because the flip side is that making the join-up process interactive with an administrator (anthony) helps take you through the steps, instead of leaving you all on your own.

In your experience is there a point at which diversity begins to negatively impact a blog, or as long as it's well categorized and organized do people respond well?

No, as long as the authorial voice (aka you) is applied throughout. In other words, the connective material can be as simple as 'you'. But if you don't put your own voice into it, then it will work better as 'an assemblage of links about space travel' or whatever, very single-focus. I think what a reader responds to in a blog is just honesty, whether it's in point of view, narrative voice, or passionate interests. Just my two cents.

 

[anthony]

@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.

Yes, it has the default settings for content management. I believe 4.2.2 you can use a password or make a post private, though that obviously defeats the purpose of content, as nobody can see it except you... but yes, those options are there.

Any possibility for a checklist of all the CritA stressors that can cause or contribute to PTSD in a box somewhere on the blog as a unifying theme?

I don't believe that is something that would go down well with most, as what people share should be up to them, especially publicly / even with other admins.

still don't know what their primary actually is!

Not sure I understand you completely. Are you talking about what I have written in relation to knowing your primary reason to have a blog?

Reading your above, I feel you have meshed that with your trauma versus what I'm talking about, being your primary reason for having a blog.

If I'm understanding you in relation to not knowing what you're really doing in relation to your PTSD, then that in itself is a primary reason for your blog, being to help find yourself, which does not reflect the three primary examples I gave of the wrong primary reasons to start a blog, being you place your failure at 95% in the first few months.

People who start blogs to make money, try and obtain some type of deal with another, or to feel validated that people will love them, are all in the top reasons blogs fail. The blogger will give up quickly as they find, they won't be making money instantly, they won't be getting a corporate deal, nor will people be kicking down their door to be best friends and chat buddies with them. They're the three top unrealistic reasons for starting a blog, and why 95% fail who start with such primary reasons.

If your blog is to help you find yourself, as an example, then that is your primary reason. Again, it does not meet the above high failure reasons, thus your chances of blogging success and helping yourself to find yourself, understand your PTSD, whatever the cause, just increased dramatically purely because your motive are not unrealistic.

 

[Owl.]

Aah, sorry, @anthony, I should've tagged Friday in this. The bit about "not knowing one's primary" in this case was meant to be in reply to her having one's primary kind of trauma bolded on the list. :sorry:

Still, thank you very much for your explanation!
I've actually been thinking about this a fair bit (keeps the brain distracted, it's brilliant! :) ) to try to figure out what direction I'd like to take with a blog like this. The main thing I've learned from being in a relationship with someone who isn't is that being fairly outspoken about the whole "this is what I have, this is what that means and these are the things that help me through each day" can make small, but significant changes for the better in a life.

The thing is, not everything I try works, and some things that DO work, I forget about on a bad day, If I were to start blogging about that kind of thing right now, I'll admit it'd probably mostly be a diary of small successes and epic failures with the "end goal" being to weed out the bad ideas and have the successes outgrow the failures.
Not quite sure (just yet), but I'll keep thinking about it. :)

Again, thank you and the best of luck hammering out the details on this thing! :)

 

[Fadeaway]

The more I think about it, I think it would be good for me It would help me improve on my communications skills. More importantly give me a sense of purpose .

 

[Ellabella44]

I think I'd read a few blogs before jumping in and starting one up. I have never blogged, but I have had a monthly cartoon that was screenshots before. And my therapist keeps saying she can see me writing a book with my interesting metaphors. Would need a direction to head off into to keep it on track. We have gone further into diagnosis in therapy and its officially cptsd if you need that info to even be considered.

 

[anthony]

Ok... whilst the site still has a lot to do, I feel the best way to get through most of it is with actual internal feedback, thus for anyone who is interested, please fill out the contact us form at PTSD Blogs or PC me here, so I can discuss things with you and get you established.

The site has an admin ticket system, all private, and has admin FAQ system, which will build from questions raised through it and the admin peer forum that is there.

I'm only looking for one or two people to begin, as that will take time when combined with many of the fundamental aspects that will come from setting up an account.

Who wants to go first?

 

[anthony]

Ok... the multisite setup wasn't playing as nice as I thought it would, and become quite clunky and yuk to use. I do like the concept though of isolating out a blogging platform, thus I have changed it around today to just be an open blogging platform for anyone with PTSD, or supporter, to register and blog to their hearts content.

If you register there from here, and have history here, use the same email as used here and then PC me, as I will take your account out of the moderated group and give you direct live publishing.

The new blurb:

PTSD Blog is a common blog for anyone suffering or supporting someone with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to write and talk with others who understand.

If your posting is about PTSD, about supporting PTSD, and such relevance, then you are welcome here.

Link Removed