Hello
I may have missed the notice, but I thought that the extrememly personal and private story I shared here was going to stay here. It is one thing to share and interact with other survivors, but another thing for anyone in the world to read the intimate details. Is there a reason the database that houses our stories is fully open to websearches?
Now anyone that knows of me or shares my name can find my story on the web. Any ideas? I'd be more upset, but maybe you already told us everything posted here was wide open to the web. I thought this was safer.

Anything that you post on the public side of the forums can be accessed by your username by a Google search usually within a day of posting it. If you look at the Who's Online feature, search spiders are search bots looking for stuff to link to. If you are worried about privacy, if you are worried that someone might know who you are by your username, then pay the $35 membership fee, and doing so will open-up our member-only forums to you, which are not accessible by internet search engines. On our member-only forums we have a member-only art forum where many of our members have posted current and childhood photos of themselves, as well as both a survivor forum and an open forum, plus several other forums including our teen forum too.

One reason that our stories are public is to attempt to get other guys in need who are still out there to see that they are not alone. When I first joined, I read through just a few of the stories and just a few of the current survivor topics, and it was then that I knew that I could contribute something based on my recovery experience. I'm sure that many of our members also joined after reading through some of the stories too. In AA/NA, telling your story in front of a group is considered a measure of progress. Here, the more comfortable someone gets telling their story is a measure of recovery progress too. I know full well how hard it is to share your story in early recovery, but think about the effect that reading your story might have on someone out there who is still alone and struggling?

If you want to read my story I posted it at the end of May of 2008 in two parts, and I am proud to have been able to so easily share it too.

Mark

So, if I pay $35 I can hide my posts here from the whole world? I appreciate the gift of allowing other men to see they are not alone, but if I'll have to do that under a different name... I appreciate your response.

Thanks.

Hello my friend,

You do have the option of requesting that your Survivor Story be removed, if that helps you feel safer. It can be restored at a later time if you wish, or simply retired permanently.

The ModTeam

Yes, please remove it for now. I am happy to share it with other member survivors but I do not want to have it in the wild. It is a huge risk to my personal safety. Wouldn't kill me, but it would certainly make life a lot less fun from here on out. Anyway, I appreciate any help I get. How do I officially make this request? I have pulled a copy of my story so I can post it gain later or in another, more private, forum.

Thanks again.

I'll take care of it right away. And if you do decide to become a member of the organization, it can be reposted on the Member's only side of the website, where posts are not searchable by the general public.

Ron

Thank you very much! I feel better now...