Honest opinions needed!

[Tinkofhousepan]

Hi all,
We hear all the time about People of all ages going through a dark time with no one to talk to. When someone is drowning in feelings of loneliness or inadequacy or is being bullied, even a few kind words from a stranger really helps.

I am starting a website for people who are feeling hopeless and at the end of their rope to post as little or as much as they want to about their situation and then others give them a few kind words of encouragement to let them know that they are a person that is unique and special and worth something.

The idea is not to criticise the poster or offer advice, but to let that person know that someone is thinking of them.

Do you wise people think that this would be something that could actually help people not feel so alone? Or am I totally wasting my time?

That sounds a nice idea to me, could help people feel like they're less alone or that there's others going through the same thing.
Just be on top of the moderation though, as sadly some people can't help themselves and might just inject negativity in as well

Every post would have to be OK'd before it was accepted.

it's a lovely idea but I can imagine that it would be constantly trolled.

I think its a lovely idea providing you can keep on top of keyboard warriors. Good luck OP.

I agree that every post would have to be checked and ok'd by admin and I suspect to begin with it would be fairly arduous. But there's code that can be written to pick out words and phrases that would be inappropriate and those posts could automatically be flagged.

I just think that it's a small thing people could do to help others

Nice idea but very time consuming. Would need moderation 24 hours a day or all posts vetted before publication.

The latter could upset some people as it could take a while for their thoughts to appear and so could just be part of another system that had let them down.

it could be good.

I agree and I wouldn't want the poster to be upset so I'd generate a pm template to thank them for posting and to keep checking for replies as each one is vetted? It seems like a bad idea.

It's what we do on mumsnet. So not innovative.

There's already a website like that. It's called elefriends.

There is already a website exactly as you have described.

A - already exists

B - are you or the possible mods trained/qualified in mh support? Cos honestly if not I think it's irresponsible

C - troll central if you don't have the right knowledge and skills to mod

There is a website called 7 cups...that does exactly what your talking about...if you want to help they do train people up to be listeners....

I was going to mention elefriends. It’s moderated by Mind.