Ability to refer people in need of psychological support to established resources

[overdrawn98901]

@MMA-block

Some forum members are having a very hard time, I’m sure those who are having a terrible life, we don’t even know, they keep it all to themselves.

We actually cannot tell if anyone is lying or not. This is an Internet forum, for all we know these individuals are LLMs. Not to say we should assume bad faith, but we can’t draw meaningful conclusions from anonymous text.

Regardless, this is better to treat on a case by case basis with decisions left to moderation if they wish to call authorities to intervene. Having some blanket rule or generalization is over reaching. Also, people can struggle and share their thoughts, and also not need psychological assistance IRL, so the nuance is very very careful. I’ve moderated other forums which had some mental health issues, and I will assert this isn’t PGs domain.

I think this recommendation is a knee jerk reaction to one instance on this forum. I think rather than dropping suicide hotline numbers or psychological assistance for every country (which now even implies this is a dangerous journey), it makes more sense to simply add context in PG to be careful in not isolating oneself and to take sequential steps into privacy. The root cause of the original situation was going very deep quickly, whereas the mitigation is to take it slower and learn more as you go along.

Lastly, if you see someone struggling, just be kind to them, listen, and understand their plight through empathy. Feeling heard while struggling can really help out, and this is what we as a community can do best. Dropping hotline numbers seems cold. If someone asks for those numbers we can provide them, but I don’t think it’s a good first response to most situations.

[bigdzi (BigG)]

@jonah

I just don’t see the connection

Ha @jonah no wonder. How would you be supposed to see something that does not exist even?

[LukewarmNinja]

@MMA-block

I would like to continue the dialogue and reserve the right to make a decision on the solution.

I think this decision should be in the hands of the mods.

[bigdzi (BigG)]

@LukewarmNinja

I think this decision should be in the hands of the mods.

@LukewarmNinja why you think so?

[MMA-block]

@overdrawn98901

We actually cannot tell if anyone is lying or not.

If someone lies, he goes to the page with recommended contacts, which were created and protected by entire states and human rights organizations, if he does not lie, he will stay on that page.

@overdrawn98901

add context in PG to be careful in not isolating oneself and to take sequential steps into privacy. The root cause of the original situation was going very deep quickly, whereas the mitigation is to take it slower and learn more as you go along.

Sort of a safety precaution of going down the rabbit hole of the Privacy Guides knowledge base? That makes sense.

[LukewarmNinja]

To be clear - I’m referring to the idea of changes to the forum, no user should have that power.

No one here is qualified to make a judgement about another’s mental state, including the mods in the context of a post or comment.

In the last couple of days I’ve seen two users get accused of having mental health problems.

The first time was someone being called paranoid because they are concerned about their country’s corrupt cops.

In this thread it was suggested someone giving up on their privacy journey is have a mental health issue.

[overdrawn98901]

@MMA-block

Sort of a safety precaution of going down the rabbit hole of the Privacy Guides knowledge base? That makes sense.

Exactly. Mental health is important, but slapping some phone numbers on the site feels like virtue signaling.

I think it’s a great topic to discuss how to takes steps in privacy without making it miserable. I don’t think we should come at this to be therapists and psychiatric consultants after tough decisions are made - I think it’s better to ensure we set people on a manageable path and not hiking Mount Everest first thing they do.