Pages: 1 2 3  Next -- Posted by iamironman at 11:27 am on June 25, 2007 Hello members, moderators and guests, I would like to welcome you all to the official LiveWire newsletter! In here you can find important updates about the site. You will find inspirational stories form your peers. You will see things through the eyes of other members. You can hear likes and dislikes of fellow members. And most importantly, you will have a good time reading this! Each week we will have some sort of game, in which the winner will get 25 points from me personally. This week is a word game. I will give you two words, and you have to see how many different words you can find by mixing and matching the letters. The words are, "Support Leader." All words must be at least 4 characters. Post your words here, and who ever finds the most by 24 hours from now will get 25 points! From the eyes of a support leader – 25th June 2007 By: Periwinkle Subject: What belongs in ehelp? Every support leader knows that ehelps come in very frequently and deal with a great variety of issues. Blinking in my inbox now are people wanting help with contraception and sex, people whose friends won’t listen to them, people struggling with self harm, people whose families seem to be falling apart around them. Almost every teen issue has a home in livewire’s ehelp system. And at the top of each ehelp: a little red button marked ‘vote to delete’. I, personally, rarely click that button. Some support leaders click it several times a day. Others have possibly never clicked it in their lives – but should they? What really belongs in livewire’s ehelp system? By definition, it’s ‘emergency help’. Help for emergencies. No, not the kind of emergency you call the fire brigade for – we can’t do much about that. No, ehelp is for emotional emergencies. Those times when you need serious help, fast. So let’s pretend we only allow true emergencies into ehelp…oh, hang on. How do we define an emergency? Is ‘am I pregnant’ an emergency? It might be for the person posting; we don’t know. What about people with long, complicated situations who haven’t received the attention they deserve in the forums or don’t want to post there, for fear or flaming or for the increased anonymity the ehelp system offers? Are they emergencies? Looking at that, it’s pretty clear that the ehelp system isn’t just for emergencies. It’s for people who don’t want anyone to know who they are, people who aren’t being listened to anywhere else and also people who, for whatever reason, aren’t members of livewire but seek help here. The topic of what really belongs in ehelp has been widely discussed recently in the SL forum. DoomMaker is one of the more prominent members who are in favour of deleting ehelps with less information or which are not as serious, which he made clear in his topic ‘No votes to delete’. ‘They're rarely urgent, as displayed by the post content. It's usually just a failure to understand the site,’ he says. The Professional disagrees: ‘I like to just say to myself, "While this may not be a big deal to me, it probably is to them.”… I'm not willing to vote to delete simply because of shortness/coherency.’. Many SLs are clearly not in favour of definitive guidelines over what belongs in ehelp, but without them, there’s no clear answer to the question. What do I recommend you do? Just think about what you put in ehelp. There’s always the forums as well. Ehelp, at least for the moment, is for everyone, but use it with consideration. If you have a minor issue, perhaps try posting in the forums first – you’re likely to get a much more varied response. However, if you feel like your problem merits a flash in the sidebar of every support leader and the detailed help that you will receive, don’t let anything stop you. We’re here to help, whether your request is flashing in the top of the sidebar or the bottom.   -------------------------------- This issue may seem a bit thin. But it is only the first one. So please, everyone, help out! Send in your stories, send in your opinions on features, send in reviews on the site. Anything that you think people will want to read, send it in! We have, as I type this 110,190 members, making us the largest teen support forum on the internet. And out of all of you, some are bound to have stories. Some of you have something that others will want to read. So send in your ideas, and see if your name will show up on here next time. Peace, Hadley Sheffield. -- Posted by Periwinkle at 11:29 am on June 25, 2007 Hehe. My thingy I wrote is the only thing in it I'll have a go at the word game...it's not like I have a million other things to do - oh hang on a minute, I have...ah well -- Posted by Rosaur at 11:33 am on June 25, 2007 Is that all that will be in it? -- Posted by iamironman at 11:34 am on June 25, 2007 Quote: from Rosaur at 2:33 pm on June 25, 2007 Is that all that will be in it? This time. Next week will have more. -- Posted by davjs at 11:46 am on June 25, 2007 Periwinkle raises some good points about the deletion of eHelps and I applaud the work that went into Edition 1 of the LiveWire Newsletter. -- Posted by Briley 07 at 11:51 am on June 25, 2007 Wtf 8 deleted posts? Yeah maybe I'll give a story eventually. -- Posted by sarah mae at 11:55 am on June 25, 2007 Well this is fun!  So this will be weekly, then?  Will you be running it each week? The debate on eHelps have been going for quite awhile, but I very much agree with Periwinkle in that what may not seem like an emergency to us may be an emergency to another. Well done! :) -- Posted by cyberpunk at 12:11 pm on June 25, 2007 I already asked iamironman if I can have a section, and he said that I probably might be able to on next weeks issue. Although Periwinkles article on "What belongs in the eHelp" is good, it's evident that there wasn't enough time to stir up a good newsletter! I like the article, but we're going to need a lot more work put into the next ones. To some members: You don't have to read it. It's not obligatory. So, don't complain? -- Posted by RedRevolver at 12:35 pm on June 25, 2007 Quote: from davjs at 11:46 am on June 25, 2007 Periwinkle raises some good points about the deletion of eHelps and I applaud the work that went into Edition 1 of the LiveWire Newsletter. I really want to tell you to shut up. Wow, I have to work out my anger issues. -- Posted by Thriftweed at 12:39 pm on June 25, 2007 Quote: from RedRevolver at 5:35 am on June 26, 2007 Quote: from davjs at 11:46 am on June 25, 2007 Periwinkle raises some good points about the deletion of eHelps and I applaud the work that went into Edition 1 of the LiveWire Newsletter. I really want to tell you to shut up. Wow, I have to work out my anger issues. dont make an ehelp theres a whole forum for it its no emergency ok if you put it on the wrong place well your an idiot -- Posted by MariJani at 12:40 pm on June 25, 2007 This is a good idea. I semi agree with periwinkle in the fact that what is not important to me may be important to them.  However, I do think many of the questions do not belong in their. -- Posted by DoomMaker at 12:48 pm on June 25, 2007 Please include my following points: "It is not what is 'important' to us, rather what is urgent to them, and if someone wants urgent help with a 'stupid' issue, it should stay. However, this is usually not the case." "If we do not set some guidelines on what should go in ehelp, we may be sacraficing help to people who desperately need it. Ideally we could help everyone, but this isn't the case. If we reserve ehelp generally for more serious issues, we may minorly upset a few here and there, but most will learn to post in the right place. If we allow everything, we shortchange people who are in dire need for help and ill train support leaders to deal with serious issues." -- Posted by Curly03e at 12:53 pm on June 25, 2007 sounds interesting -- Posted by Spice at 12:57 pm on June 25, 2007 Nice one Periwinkle =] -- Posted by DefaultTo0 at 1:06 pm on June 25, 2007 I really like the idea of a LiveWire newsletter.  However, I don't think that there should be a new announcement every week about the next edition.  How about putting it in the 'news' section linked to at the top of the forum? -- Posted by iamironman at 1:07 pm on June 25, 2007 Quote: from DefaultTo0 at 4:06 pm on June 25, 2007 I really like the idea of a LiveWire newsletter.  However, I don't think that there should be a new announcement every week about the next edition.  How about putting it in the 'news' section linked to at the top of the forum? No one will look at it there. -- Posted by RedRevolver at 1:18 pm on June 25, 2007 Quote: from iamironman at 1:07 pm on June 25, 2007 Quote: from DefaultTo0 at 4:06 pm on June 25, 2007 I really like the idea of a LiveWire newsletter.  However, I don't think that there should be a new announcement every week about the next edition.  How about putting it in the 'news' section linked to at the top of the forum?   No one will look at it there. Correction: No-one will look at it whatsoever. -- Posted by bighead1991 at 1:22 pm on June 25, 2007 I like the idea but it will get really annoying, being an announcement every week. Maybe a sticky per week in DTRM, a new one for each newsletter (take old down after being up). -- Posted by Periwinkle at 1:30 pm on June 25, 2007 Oh wow, everyone's saying nice things about me! -- Posted by Prince o palities at 3:20 pm on June 25, 2007 I think this is a nice idea, but I have to support those criticizing the means by which it is being published.  It will get a little tedious having this be an announcement every week. Would it be possible to make it a locked sticky in DTRM that gets posted in once a week, discussion being done in other topics on an ad hoc basis? -- Posted by The Professional at 3:36 pm on June 25, 2007 Oh dear, I was mentioned. I think, perhaps, I have to sign a waver or something before my name is used, don't I? You may have a lawsuit on your hands here, Periwinkle, Ironman, and David.  :-P Good article.  I'd like to see more in it - but for the first edition, it's acceptable. -- Posted by ManicD at 3:48 pm on June 25, 2007 Livewire newpapers had risen and fallen many times, will this be different? -- Posted by iamironman at 4:14 pm on June 25, 2007 Quote: from The Professional at 6:36 pm on June 25, 2007 Oh dear, I was mentioned. I think, perhaps, I have to sign a waver or something before my name is used, don't I? You may have a lawsuit on your hands here, Periwinkle, Ironman, and David.  :-P Good article.  I'd like to see more in it - but for the first edition, it's acceptable. I'm a Jew. Meaning lawyers galore in my family. Brind it on -- Posted by dreamweaver at 8:40 pm on June 25, 2007 Good job guys. An announcement once a week?  I dont see no problem in that, as I don't see no big deal in it.  I mean, it is once a week not once a day. -- Posted by iamironman at 9:05 pm on June 25, 2007 Thanks dream! So is no one entering the word game? -- Posted by Space Ace at 11:08 pm on June 25, 2007 need a political column? -- Posted by kristin09 at 11:26 pm on June 25, 2007 yay? -- Posted by xoxo1234 at 11:35 pm on June 25, 2007 Oh, this is cool! Great article Fern. :] -- Posted by hithere at 11:48 pm on June 25, 2007 Quote: from iamironman at 9:05 pm on June 25, 2007 Thanks dream! So is no one entering the word game? i'll enter, i just have 12 more hours to find words -- Posted by dimebagmatt at 2:15 am on June 26, 2007 Quote: from davjs at 7:46 pm on June 25, 2007 Periwinkle raises some good points about the deletion of eHelps and I applaud the work that went into Edition 1 of the LiveWire Newsletter. I almost thought your name was in brown!   Panic over though, it's red. I think it's a good idea to have the newsletter, keep us all up to date on current affairs in our community. Pages: 1 2 3  Next