DontAskJusTckle
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Here's my take.I've never been one to post personal issues unrelated to kink on fetish forums. Sometimes I post them now in specialized subgroups on Fetlife, but even then I am very careful. If something bad happened in my life and I want only sympathy and kind words, I'll say so. I generally reserve this sort of thing for a blog, not a forum. If I am looking for advice, I brace myself for whatever people may throw at me. Sure, sometimes it's nice to get a different angle from a stranger who knows nothing about the situation other than what you've posted. At what point, though, is enough enough?
So, do you see forums such as this as an outlet for your own personal, well, bullshit?
Like everything, there is a reasonable balance somewhere. There have been plenty of threads where somebody posts a personal issue, gets different flavors of advice, and all is well. Those are of course the best scenarios in which the principle of online community works to most everybody's benefit.
But then there are threads posted about emotional issues, and that's when things can get volatile very quickly. One wrong word, one misunderstanding, one badly timed joke, and it can all spiral.
BrightEyes' policy seems to be a good one to follow. Personal issues, be prepared for stuff you might not want to hear. If you want to share some kind of loss, such as a death, breakup, layoff, etc., that's probably better off in a blog, because the blogs are more personal and likely only to be visited by people you befriend, rather than the huge audience of strangers that comes with General Discussion.
I remember a little while back, there was a guy who was having marital problems due to his wife objecting to his participation in the TMF and his attendance at gatherings. She basically gave him an ultimatum and he chose the TMF. He was looking for sympathy, support and understanding, of which he did get a decent share. But there were some who admonished him to reconsider his decision, and put family first.
Problem was, he'd already made up his mind, and wasn't really looking for advice. Only sympathy and a friendly ear. Was it wrong for some people to give him advice he didn't ask for? Was it wrong for them to respectfully question his decision? These two questions were hotly debated in that thread, with no clear majority consensus.
For this reason, I agree with Brighteyes, that these kinds of emotional issues are better expressed in blogs rather than General Discussion.