Addressing community tension and account concerns

@Adrian_Scope

Hi Adrian I understand someone wanting to open a new account if they can’t remember their details. But to open new accounts or reopening old accounts and deceiving people I feel is not on and surly shouldn’t be allowed.
There has been a lot off lies and nastiness on the forum for the past few weeks.
It’s so unfair that decent members are forced to stay away due to this.

I totally get you want the community more settled as most members do to but I feel there’s been a lot off things done that can’t be forgotten.

Thanks

Most of this has passed me by, though it was hard to miss people upset and leaving and threads closed - seems to be a nasty undercurrent somewhere I've managed to avoid and of course as a nearly newbie I shouldn't recognize old members under new names.

People have been a bit fraught over the election, the proposed PIP changes and the uncertainty of what's next. I think it's pretty much Basic Human that people who are upset, irritated or whatever about something in particular are liable to behave less well in general than they otherwise would.

I wish it was that easy but when you’ve built up friendships on here only to find out it was all a lie is hugely upsetting.

The other thing I’d like to say to the people who haven’t seen a lot off the stuff that’s went on it’s probably because posts were getting took down rather fast when it’s not going their way.

It’s really sad this has happened but it has happened and it’s been so hard, when you put your trust in people online or in real life and they break that trust it’s not so easy to move on from it.

I just tend to avoid threads where I can see there's just an argument going on, but I hope the desire to return to 'positivity' isn't going to seek to exclude people with Mental Health problems who struggle with understandable anxiety and stress and need somewhere safe to vent their worries. Perhaps a dedicated thread topic could be set up to help people who need this type of support that can then be avoided by people who either don't wish to engage with it or don't have the energy to offer that support.

I hope the moderators will be mindful of drawing a distinction between people being deliberately provocative and those who are just struggling with their mental health. Poor mental health is not an excuse allow abusive behaviour of course, but without a good understanding of how MH works, it can be too easy for some to seek to exclude someone as a first reaction. On a forum for people with disabilities, people should be able to see this as a safe space and not have their anxieties criticised or excluded out of hand. Please can we make sure that we only remove language that is against the rules, not seek to remove people who are "being negative"