Suicide and Online Communities - iFroggy Network

http://tinyurl.com/nc4jck

Dealing with Suicide on Your Online Community or Forums: How You Can Help and Protect Everyone.

My friend Patrick O'Keefe over at iFroggy.com (and the author of "Managing Online Forums" http://www.managingonlineforums.com) has written a really good article on dealing with suicide threats in forums or communities.

This is Child Safety Week in the US, and though the emphasis is mainly on offline safety, I think this is a great article to spotlight for the online world. The safety of young people is just as important online as it is offline. With social networking and media/tools allowing (badly behaved) children and adults to bully and harass young people, there is a greater risk of facing suicide threats (or actual suicides) in the online world.

The article is well researched and well-written, as always is the case with Patrick's work. I particularly like the template style communication that Patrick promotes. When I was at AOL, we always used templates to communicate to the masses and they were very effective. Using templates for communicating ensures that everyone is treated equally and allows consistent communication within your community. It also = less typos, so none of us look like chubby-fingered typo-ists.

I really appreciate the work Patrick does in this field. He's always consistent, thoughtful and informative.

Thanks Patrick :)

Rebecca