One other thing, Rolling, do NOT threaten anyone else here physically or otherwise or I will report you. There is none of that crap here, you dig?

You say you're mature? Act it.

All of us, okay?

Take it down a notch and save it for those who earned it.

Scot

It's obvious people can't refrain from hurting each other, and I include myself in that crowd.

Moderators, Mikey and Lloydy, perhaps we should close this thread until we've all cooled down a tad.

Everyone I hurt, unintentionally, I'm sorry.

Let peace come back. Bill's right.

Please, let's all calm down.

Scot

Dear MS Members,

The Board of Directors recognizes and appreciates the many contributions and tireless efforts of Thad and “tallsteve”. Our decision was certainly not a reflection upon their abilities or commitment. We began the discussion to close the chat room about one year ago. This decision was not a “knee jerk” reaction to anything. It was instead a thoughtful, deliberate and difficult decision arrived at by each member of the board.

This isn’t about our “image”. Quite the contrary, the board has a fiduciary responsibility and more importantly a sacred responsibility to anyone who comes to this site to answer just one question. “Is it safe?” The answer must be yes and we must be prepared to do whatever is necessary to provide this answer. The liability associated with operating any program including the chat room is ever present. It is not enough to say we have posted a warning or several pages of guidelines when or if someone is harmed. The "facts" of our efforts would be lost in the public outcry of why we provided a chat room that has been misused and brought harm to vulnerable people.

On many occasions we have talked to users about setting boundaries and posted appropriate use guidelines on the Chat Room page. In spite of our efforts there are those determined to abuse our members and guests and ignore our guidelines. Given the real time nature of a Chat Room it is very difficult to control this behavior or assure the safety of our users.

As you know, MS is experiencing financial hardship. At this time we cannot afford to purchase hosting or software that would provide you and us a safer alternative. As volunteers all of our energies are focused upon rebuilding and restructuring MS and having to make painful cutbacks.

Our history is rich with lively debate and disagreements and I’m sure this decision will not be an exception. We do understand how few the resources are for survivors and more importantly the many friendships some of you have established with others in the Chat Room. This discussion board provides a safe and supportive place to continue old friendships and make new ones.

I apologize for not being able to respond to you sooner and for the lack of an explanation when the notice was posted.

Well I would like to start by saying sorry to adding to the crap in this thread. I should have been able to express my feeling in a more construve manner. So once more Im sorry.

Fred,
I'm still a little confused as to your reason's. I just want to make sure I understand. The reason's are because 1) There isnt a way to keep it safe at this point. 2) No money to keep it open. Like I said please forgive for not understanding the reasons you posted. The money thing .......ok understandalbe.....The keeping safe though I'm not sure about..how is the chat room not safe? And if it is a money thing how much is needed to keep it open? You say there's no money to buy a program to run a "safe" chat room. How much is needed? Why not go back to the "chat space" format we had a few years ago? I know that in that program the host can ban someone's ip address so that would keep it safer.
James

I have responded to this lukewarm travesty of an announcement to President Tolsen, and am reconsidering my membership.

If I choose to leave, I will ask for a refund and suggest every member do the same.

If this is about money, let's show them how much we value it, since they tend to put it more above us. Take a look at this thread and they should see the damage they've done.

I said it in my PM to the President, he and the board should be ashamed of themselves.

All the moderators and administrators, you are innocent in this, and I hold you in high esteem, as I do all the brothers and sisters, but I'm ashamed of the board and the president.

Scot Carr

Rolling, I apologize for taking my anger out on you in some of my PMs. I was intemperate in my responses to you. I will also be removing my postings to you. Obviously my anger and frustration was directed at the Board, and you got in the firing line, not your fault; worse yet, it seems that there is nothing we can do, we were kept completely out of the decision making process. Peace, Andrew

I'm very disapointed in the answer we got from the Board. It didnt really answer anything or at least in my mind. We did get an apoligy for not being told the reasons for them doing this sooner but they never told us why we had to ask. And it was something more like someone running for office trying to side step an issue (imho). We asked some very direct questions and didnt get a direct answer to them. Sorry not trying to keep this going I just want answer's to the question's asked.
James

I honestly don't think we're going to get the answers James. This is a very autocratic board.
There are so many reasons for keeping the chat room open. So many people at MS really depend on it and it is a medium that many guys feel comfortable in. Unfortunately, it seems, there are some bad seeds that have spoiled it for everyone. People aren't always what they claim to be. Legitimate young people have been hurt and presumed survivors have been anything but ...
I'm not sure what the answers are, but I sure as hell hate the process that was (wasn't) taken to get here. I am once again disappointed in our leadership. It seems to me that the one major problem seems to be authentication of members. People claim to be whatever they want and take advantage of the vulnerability of others. We had a very famous situation like this about 18 months ago. Obviously it has happened again in some way. Perhaps there needs to be a way to verify who people are before they are allowed to anonymously use the chat and discussion boards. I would feel comfortable with that mechanism. It might cut our membership in half or less, but so be it. It might also be an idea to turn the MS services into a pay per service organization with a free 30 day trial period, that might solve the money problems. Peace, Andrew