Our first anniversary: A big thanks

Yes, big day today! Hard to believe that it is one year since we first launched the community.

We now have 1070 members, many of whom have contributed content to the community website. In fact, we now have over 1400 blogs on site, along with a variety of stories, articles, multimedia content and links to resources.

In encouraging people to write about their experiences and views via the blogs, we’ve hoped that this would not only help others but also lead to the development of peer support.

Many people have contributed in this regard, but like all communities, we’ve had those people who come on the site for motives other than those which we hoped would attract people.

For those of you who have been upset and worried by these people, we will continue to do our best to deal with the troubles they cause. As the community grows stronger, it will become more and more difficult for them to have an impact.

I’d just like to take a quote from a comment by Karl Phillips, who has given useful advice in the past (and moderates on other forums):

‘One of the golden rules of any internet forum seems to be that the contentious issues always get the most traffic.

This is because of the 2nd golden rule of internet forums, – that the people who frequent internet forums the most are the most contentious, opinionated and argumentative of people, regardless of the subject matter of the forum.

In the real world people would walk away from such annoying people, but in cyber space they can just go on and on, debating and complaining, offending and blaming without end. It’s the nature of the game.

So, what’s the answer? Well, strong moderation is one answer, but in reality the only way to reduce this kind of traffic is to stop responding to it. In that way you withdraw the oxygen of contention that people like this thrive upon. You help them to understand that they aren’t welcome here.’

Whilst I wanted to reassure those of you who have been worried by some of the people on the site, the focus of this blog is not the negative. It’s about the positive. It’s about YOU!

I just wanted to say how I continue to be amazed by the quality of the blogs (and some of the comments). So many of them have been really good, inspirational, helpful, informative, interesting… I feel so lucky to be able to access this wealth of quality content.

I love it when people come on board and say they have never blogged before, and then proceed to write a really good piece – be it short or long.

It is so nice hearing from someone who has just started their journey to recovery, taking their first steps on this journey but also in wiring in to people here. When I see such writing, it makes me forget the cynics, the disruptors, the people who come here for their own ego.

We must never forget that we are here to help people, and to help people help others! We are about offering ‘opportunity, choice and hope’.

We have finished our first stage of development of this rcovery community. I’d like to be able to say that we’re ploughing on creating all sorts of new things on the site. Whilst we have so many new activities planned, many of these cannot be implemented because they require money (e.g for programming) and people working with us.

Sadly, this site has survived on £5,000 during the last year – ironic when the UK spends close to £1 billion on drug and alcohol problems. We obviously need to attract significant funding if we are to develop further. And we need peope who can work alongside us.

So please bear with us if future developments are slow. We will get there though. One resource we do have is YOU. Yes, you can still contribute, support, help with the words that you put on this website.

We’ll also be coming up with some suggestions for those of you who want to become more involved.

I’d like to thank some special people who have given up time in helping the development of this site. In particular Lucie James, who helped me press the launch button one year ago, and who was such a great collaborator over a four year period. Enjoy that Clinical PhD course Lucie!!!

And to Sarah Davies (another long-time collaborator) and Kevin Manley, also of Cardiff, who have not only helped with this site, but have supported me over the years. Huge thanks to Nathan Pitman for building the site, and to Michaela Jones for coming on board to help us.

David McCartney, Wynford Ellis Owen, Annemarie Ward, The MacDonalds, Prawney and Peapod not just for all the blogs and comments, but also the friendship and emotional support. And to Masha for all those wonderful tools (which will soon get their own section).

To Bill White, an extraordinary man who has done so much for the field and taught me so much, thanks for the special inspiration and the continuing supportive communications.

To Linda, for continuing to believe in me and helping me through those ‘dark times’. And being there.

Thanks for inspiration, stimulation, and making me laugh, to Androcles, Brian White, Carl, Chris G, GuyinGHo, Phil Hughes, Linda, Louis, Mark Burns, Mark Gilman (the funniest man around), Kerry Manley, John Mills, Oliver, Sophia, Tony A, Vesselina, Wulf and many other excellent bloggers (please forgive me if I have forgotten you).

Most of all,

Thanks to you all for supporting the Wired In recovery community.