[nabs-l] Forum for discussing social/emotional issues with other blind folks

Tue Feb 19 02:10:40 UTC 2013

Hi all,
I too was envisioning the list as being an informal support group
where young blind adults could talk about social issues like
relationships, getting along with parents, sexuality, etc. I don't
think the list should in any way try to serve as psychotherapy for
people who actually have mental health conditions, although if list
members think they might have a mental health condition and are
looking for professional resources they could ask the list. Ideally,
the moderator would be a list member who would actively participate
and would get involved if there is harassment, flaming or other
egregiously bad list behavior, but who wouldn't necessarily provide
formal advice to list members about the issues they bring up. Many of
these kinds of issues have no clear answer, but it is still helpful to
talk about them with other people who have had similar experiences in
the past or present.
Desiree, if you want to moderate I think that's fine, or if you don't
then I can. It sounds like Mauricio already knows how to set up a
group so maybe he should serve as the technical administrator even if
one of us serves as moderator. We should probably use whichever
interface is more accessible, and set the group so anybody can freely
join, but only subscribed members can read the archives.
Arielle

On 2/18/13, Desiree Oudinot <turtlepower17 at gmail.com> wrote:
> That makes sense, and that's how I would want my list to be run
> anyway. I would rather have a forum where people can talk openly,
> without a chain of command, so to speak. Of course, when steps need to
> be taken to stop a member from harassing someone, for example,
> moderation needs to happen. But in order to foster trust, I don't
> think a heavy-handed approach, or one where too many professionals are
> involved to the point where they may, however unintentionally,
> invalidate other members' experiences and opinions, would work out too
> well. I was just asking because others may not have seen it that way,
> and I was more or less gauging interest.
> With that in mind, let me take a look at the Yahoogroups interface.
> I've heard that they made changes to it recently that made it less
> accessible, or maybe that was Google Groups. I've never ran a group
> before, so this is new to me. Either way, the archives would most
> certainly be private.
>
> On 2/18/13, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> desiree,
>> a blind person who is mature and been through relationships is fine to
>> moderate; professionals can join, but
>> I think the list should be for support, not primarily for therapy.
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Desiree Oudinot
>> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 6:11 PM
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Forum for discussing social/emotional issues with
>> other blind folks
>>
>> Hi all,
>> Since I was the person who  initially raised this suggestion, I guess
>> I'd better speak up.
>> While I do think this is a great idea, and would like to see it
>> happen, I'm not sure I'm the right person to even suggest it. Pardon
>> the pun, but I'm not so sure having the blind lead the blind is such a
>> good idea. To cut to the point, I'm not sure if it would be right of
>> me to moderate such a list when I know I would use it to air out some
>> of my own problems. I'm also not a psychologist, social worker or any
>> other mental health worker. I only bring this up because I'm not sure
>> how formal this group would have to be, and I don't want any trouble.
>> My only other hang-up is that I'm not very good at thinking up clever
>> names, and I'm drawing a blank as to what this hypothetical list
>> should be called. I'm sure others may have some suggestions, though,
>> so that's just a minor inconvenience.
>> So, what do you all think? Would you want the list to be moderated and
>> ran by a trained mental health worker? Would you feel uncomfortable
>> with a moderator who used the list for its intended purpose, rather
>> than just sitting in the background and dealing with problems, both
>> tech-related and within the list's members? Let me know, and I'll
>> think about it some more.
>>
>> On 2/18/13, Arielle Silverman <arielle71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I can moderate, but would prefer someone who is more tech-savvy than I
>>> to actually set up the list initially.
>>> Arielle
>>>
>>> On 2/18/13, Loren Wakefield <theweird1 at centurylink.net> wrote:
>>>> It would be a great idea.  I don't know how those groups work.  But I
>>>> suppose one could find out.  However, I am not sure that I would have
>>>> the
>>>> time to be its moderator.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: nabs-l [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Carly
>>>> Mihalakis
>>>> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2013 3:40 PM
>>>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list;
>>>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>>>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Forum for discussing social/emotional issues with
>>>> other blind folks
>>>>
>>>> Great idea! Unfortunately, i am not qualified to set up, or moderate
>>>> the
>>>> thing, although it is a great idea.At 01:31 PM 2/18/2013, Arielle
>>>> Silverman
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>Hi all,
>>>>>A while back some of us talked about creating a list on YahooGroups or
>>>>>GoogleGroups where blind students and mentors could talk about
>>>>>sexuality and social issues. I am wondering if we should go ahead and
>>>>>create this list to be a separate place from NABS-L and one where the
>>>>>topic is a bit more relaxed so that people could post about
>>>>>relationship issues, family difficulties etc. If the list is hosted on
>>>>>YahooGroups, the archives will be private so no one who is not
>>>>>subscribed will be able to read the content of the list (and
>>>>>GoogleGroups might be that way too; I'd have to check).
>>>>>The NFB lists tend to be a little strict about topic since they are
>>>>>publicly archived and since they are intended to be about a very
>>>>>specific topic. However that doesn't mean we can't create a separate
>>>>>list that is more of a support group rather than a place to obtain
>>>>>information.
>>>>>Does someone want to go ahead and do this?
>>>>>Arielle
>>>>>
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>>>>
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