We’re thinking about merging this section, what do you think?

[MichaelMumsnet]

Hi all,
We’re doing some work on making the Talk boards more useful and user-friendly for both regular and new users. After looking at some stats for the site, we think we could boost activity on the whole by merging some of the lesser used sections.

We’re proposing to fold the topics in this section into the General health area.

This should increase the number of topics in the section - and hopefully lead to more posts and responses to members.

Addiction is a sensitive mental health illness. Merging it with the general health board is not appropriate as it will attract those who make judgments without having the first idea of what the individual is dealing with.

It's a very bad idea. Better to have less posts but those who are responding do so with empathy.

In my experience because of the taboo around addiction it can be hard to find personal accounts online. Those families affected by addiction need to hear others' stories before they share their own, and sharing your own story helps avoid codependent behavior which can be very destructive in itself. Merging this section with general health issues will make the posts harder to find. Please reconsider.

I agree that for people not living with addiction it can be difficult for them to empathise with the situation - I was very judgemental before it affected a family member. Because it is a sensitive issue I think it is helpful to have a designated area for people who are affected. There can be crossover with mental health, but merging with General Health would be a bad move IMO

Bad idea. For all the reasons mentioned above. Making users more aware that the section exists, or where they can find it would be good, but not merging.

Dreadful idea. Addiction is extremely specific and doesn’t usually garner the appropriate response or support from those who haven’t been directly affected.

Please do not merge the boards.

Please consider a specific Teens and Drug use section in Teenagers , desperate parents looking for support do look there .

Bad idea. I've seen some genuine cries for help on the alcohol support board where people have been given mostly good advice.

Addiction is a very specific and life threatening illness. Many of us who give advice have first hand experience and if we help one person it's worth it.

There are many, many more topics that could be merged/archived - which I'm sure you'll be able to do by running a query on recency, frequency and relevance.

Which I guess is what you have done and using this method to check the relevance criteria. So good stuff.