Health Forum

Regular viewers of this blog (not that there are any; even my mum only dips in sporadically) may notice a change in the links opposite. HealingWell is out; Health Forum is in. My new favourite only started on Monday, so far offers naught but message boards and a chat room, has about 15 members to date and boasts a frankly rubbish name. But I really can't recommend HealingWell anymore, save for nostalgics wanting to experience old school totalitarianism.

Earlier this week a good friend of mine was banned from HealingWell. This followed an argument in the chatroom. It was sparked off when a newbie insulted a friend of hers without justification. I don't know exactly what was said. But 'exact' seems a redundant concept when all my friend was told by the site administrator was that her behaviour was 'inappropriate'. HealingWell, presumably, frowns upon people defending those they care about. Her friend was banned as well, for being around at the same time I guess. The site administrator didn't even have the courtesy to tell her why. He got in touch with me after I sent him an extremely snooty email complaining about his decision. This appears to be a man who is impressed by pomposity. He had full logs of the argument, he said, and I didn't know the full story. As he didn't even summarise his side of it, this has to be one of the feeblest defences I've ever heard.

And last weekend the epilepsy forum moderator was summarily removed from her post by the same administrator. She wasn't given any warning beforehand or, again, much of an explanation afterwards. Her crime appears to be to have taken a weekend off to spend with her family. The next day in the chat room she told a member that she'd been fired rather than quit. In a private conversation, incidentally - but the administrator reads logs of these as well when the mood takes him. He read this one and she was also banned from the whole site. Forum moderators are volunteers who give up a lot of their time and have to put up with a lot from snotty buggers like myself. This one had done the role for two years and, you would think, deserved a little more respect. Now I notice that some of her recent postings have been pulled off the forum. Had she been anything of a dictator, I would say this was exactly like a fallen Soviet leader being airbrushed from history.

I know about the rights of administrators to make these decisions and, right now, I don't give a toss. Sites like this are supposed to be for the benefit of their members. This particular member is disgusted and I'm not the only one. So if you have a medical condition you need help with, check out the Health Forum. You'll be part of a new venture right at its inception, you'll get to talk to kind, sympathetic and often very funny people. And I promise, eventually us disgruntled old HW members will calm down and stop slagging off our old site.