Support is....

Well Said!!

YAY KATE, 
I just want to say that without the support I have gotten on here from all of you I probably would have just given up, I have failed so many times before and felt defeated and discouraged like so many of us have with our weight issues. Don't change what you are doing on here, you are truly helping many people with your stories and experiences... You guys are are all winners to me, thank you for sharing with others who feel hopeless that there is hope and support!!!

 Thanks for this post Kate and thank you for all thesupport you have given me the 1 year plus i have been here.
wendy

Thank you Kate... Well put!

I agree 100% Kate. Very well said! Advice I give to newbies or preops is to try to avoid negative posts because they will not help you. Doesn't everyone have those people at work that brings everyone down? They are everywhere. I choose to be supportive and positive...makes my life better.
Sherie

I posted this on another "topic,"  just a little insight on what a "newbie" may be feeling about the posts on here.  Kate I appreciate this post because it's the truth and your posts are always read with appreciation on my part... anywho here is my previous post

I agree with you!  I am a pre-op lurker and this is the first time I've said this or much of anything really.  I am so tired of the drama on this site.  It's not just the con-banders but the pro-banders as well.  Just a lot of negativity here.  It's hard to make MY own decision because people put their opinions out here in such a negatively intense way.  I would take what people say MUCH more seriously if they just put their own stories out there in a factual way.  Then I go over to the revision site and I see people that are on here.. **maria** ... talking like a teenager... and bad mouthing the lap band site.  How can I take anything she says seriously because of the way she puts it out there.

I have been trying to limit my time on this site because of the way people post and attack each other. I gain much more when I PM someone than reading some of the garbage posted on here. 

Just a general post to everyone out here, mostly Maria... US newbies are OBVIOUSLY trying to gain the most knowledge before making a life long decision.. that is why we are on this site.  If I was just jumping Blind, into this.. I wouldn't be on here.  I would be on my way to the operating room.  I've looked at EVERY board on here including, DS, RNY, Revision etc.  I've read tons of articles and researched this to death.  I'm reading everything because this is a HUGE deal.  I'm not stupid, I'm not impressionable,  I'm not un-realistic.  So when people constantly use SCARE tactics to try and sway my mind to LOVE the lap band or HATE the lap band.. it makes me angry.. it does nothing to change my mind.  It makes me lose respect for your opinion, not use it in consideration.  Further, I don't know if I would even want to come here post-op for support, because of a select few whom make this a negative forum.

What does help me are your stories, your factual experiences, your questions and respectful answers, your kind words, your inspiration, your support.  I LIKE to read your horror stories, I like to read your positive life changing stories.  Just put it out there without the SCARE tactics.  That's how I will make my decisions... but the progoganda is tiresome and and entirely unhelpful.
Just my two cents. 

~Then I go over to the revision site and I see people that are on here.. **maria** ... talking like a teenager... and bad mouthing the lap band site.~

I say pretty much the same thing on there that I say on here. The only difference is that ppl on there understand what I'm talking about b/c many of them have also been attacked and accused fo being the problem when they stated their band issues on the band forum here. There was a post on there recently and about 4 or 5 ppl posted on the same thread that that had happened to them! (And NO..............I did not start the thread!)

~What does help me are your stories, your factual experiences, your questions and respectful answers, your kind words, your inspiration, your support.~

Hmmmm! And yet when I do this I am still attacked on here! Now you are new and u don't know the history on here. Many on this forum are completely unappriciative of my story and factual experience! In fact many get completely IRATE when I tell it!!!

And yes I do beleive u think u have researched this thourouly, just as I thought so! Obviously I did NOT! There was someone posting on here just a few wks. ago making all kinds of moronic statements about how much she had researched the band and how it was right for her, and how there was no way anyone was going to cut up her insides, rearrainge them, blah, blah, blah, blah! She also didn't llike what I had to say on the band forum and very much ATTACKED  me on here for saying what I do about the band and telling me I am WRONG! So where is she now? She found out what the band is really like and she has since changed her screen name.............is on the VSG forum now...............and trashes te band! And all this occured in a matter of 2 or maybe 3 wks.!

Maria,

We don't get irate when you tell your story...it is the WAY you tell your story that is just hard to get past. Here you have a newbie, who is the person you are trying to reach with your message and she is being "scared off" by your posts, not because your experience isn't valid, but by the immature nature of your posting style (text-speak, making it all about you; red, bold font and refusal to use the spell check feature) you come across as a defiant, spoiled teenager. I am not saying that is what you are, but that is the impression you create.

As I, and many others have tried to tell you, you will get your message across if it is a bit more user friendly and if you would stop telling people who are having problems they are doomed to failure eventually...I wonder how many have you blocked because they just cannot handle your constant rants and ME,ME,ME attitude??

Yes actually some do. And how I tell it is irrelevent. I don't get on  here and tell ppl that have had possitive experiences that they shouldn't post on here b/c mine has not been good. I don't tell them they can only post in a manner that I approve of. I don't tell them they can only use specific colors and fonts that I approve of. See it works BOTH ways!

From what I have observed it seems as though 5 have me blocked. No big deal. I don't force anyone to read what I post, either on here or on my blog. If anyone doesn't like my content, my choice of colors, my font size. That is fine. They are free to ignore it. Would kinf of make life simpler for them if they did that don't you think???

But you profess to want to help them make a better choice....if they are ignoring you, for whatever reason, you won't be able to do that...I am honestly trying to help you understand the contradictory nature of your posts...exactly the way you responded to Caidkin...

I want to help newbies make a better choice...
and
If they don't like my way of posting or my font or whatever, they can ignore me..

Like I said, I am trying to help..