Important Message from ObesityHelp

We are thankful to have members like you helping us to maintain and build our community. As you well know, our membership is full of diverse personalities, opinions, experiences, and knowledge.  Throughout the years we have built numerous forums in an effort to support your interests and surgery paths. It is important to ObesityHelp.com staff that our members have a safe place to learn, share, and connect.

Recently, we have had an overwhelming number of report posts and email complaints about varying issues concerning the surgery type forums.  It is apparent that some of our members are finding it difficult to view or dialogue in a select few forums of their choice, without fear of personal attacks, internet trolling, and angry banter.  Having any of our members feel isolated, attacked or subjected to abuse of our features goes against all that we stand for as a community.  Our members deserve better!

We encourage you to talk about your personal surgery experiences, and to educate and support one another, however, we do not condone hate speech, abuse, impersonation, intimidating others, and invading the privacy of our membership.  As we move forward, we do not want to become a heavily moderated website, but it is important for the community to help us spot serious violations as well as to refrain from participating in or inciting “flame wars.”  Please report the abuse so we can look into it, eliminate it if need be, and make future development plans. We ask that before you report, that you reflect on if it is true abuse vs. something that you personally do not like or agree with. The “report post” option submits the post for evaluation; it does not mean you will get a reply back.  If we deem action is necessary you will be able to see that via the removal or edit.  We are aware that you may not agree with our decisions or the time in which we deal with them, but rest assured we are taking actions in some manner to try and make your experience fair and in line with our efforts.  

In conclusion, here is a summary of how you can help better the OH community:  

• Don’t respond or participate in “flame wars” -Report them, don’t support them!
• Don’t interact with “internet trolls”; they feed on your attention– Your best recourse is to ignore.
• Don’t take other member's photos and use them to harass or mock.  We do not condone this and when it is reported, removals will be made.
• Don’t forget this is an all ages’ community.  Flag your images appropriately and select your privacy and adult content settings to best suite your personal user experience.
• Do respond to message board posts in an encouraging, informative or supportive manner. Keep in mind each person has his or her own interaction preferences.
• Do utilize the block tool when need be.  This is an enhancement that many requested; utilizing it is your choice. We encourage you to take the opportunity to create your own personal desired atmosphere. 
• Do Blog, Blog, Blog!  The words you write may help to inspire and educate others. Posting your opinions there will allow people to comment to you directly. 
• Do submit B&A photos.  Take part in sticky posts such as Post-Op Wow Moments and Who Inspires You.  These are opportunities for you to share your successes. 
• Do enhance your profile with your experiences, add your photos, and build up your personal support network by inviting people as friends. 
  

What’s New at OH?

We have many new items planned for release this year! Currently we have a few items that are in testing and should be available soon:

     Profanity filter for the forums: You will be able to adjust your
     settings. (The same setting that is currently in place for photos.)

     Move thread:  This is on the administration side and will allow
     us to move topics that are getting out of hand and detracting
     from the individual forums.  

     OH Groups:  This is in beta testing currently with the Support
     Group leaders.  Eventually in a future release, OH Members
     will have the ability to create and moderate their own groups.

There’s more to come! We’re working to develop new features and enhancements, while trying to keep in mind the most fitting solutions to overall wants and needs.  Thank you for being a member of ObesityHelp.com and for your commitment to helping us to maintain and build a community rich in resources, support, and empowerment!