How Should LetsRun.com Handle Posts About People Saying They May Commit Suicide ?

Maximize ad revenue from the Google for this narrow group with very specific marketing needs...

If you ever Google a phrase such as “I don’t want to live” the first result is the Suicide Hotline. Just by reading some of the stories on there is very sobering to someone who may be on the verge of self harm. Call it if you must. It’s just a phone call....

Hopefully if someone did come on here with thoughts of suicide, the normally goofy people who have fun posting here would get together and try to legit help the troubled poster.

Remember, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Stay well.

Wejo sounds like you are doing your best to handle the situation correctly and thats all one can really ask for , because there is no correct answer.

The only issue I see with deleting posts is you don't want the deletion to be the thing that pushes them over the edge if they were getting help.

I almost feel like if there was a 30 min warning before deletion it might alleviate that a bit and demotivate trolls from making up fake posts because they know it's going to get deleted soon. Just a message stating the policy, and that the post will be deleted shortly. Prescreen any posts on that thread and then delete in 30 mins. Wouldn't feel like a surprise slap in the face when it's deleted and people would have time to say something if they wanted to.

In the end, I don't think your approach is bad one, might be worth seeing what other sites do, but seems like a good start.

FYI - another community having the same discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SuicideWatch/comments/1dvaun/what_is_to_be_done_about_anonymous_suicide/

Also, you can't always trust an IP. For all you know it is a Tor connection.

Life is not precious, life is ordinary. Yes, even the life of the privileged white people that post here.

Volunteer Helper wrote:

Maybe ban the word unless they provide a legit email?

Not a robust solution. Automation like that is *hard*. Banning "suicide" completely fails to catch "I am thinking of ending it all", and prevents people from saying "X is career suicide" or "for a 2:10 800m runner, going out in 51 is suicide".

Why are you asking us? We friggin' love self-harm.

I think if it's a registered user then send them an email as you stated.

If it is not a registered user then post that same line in the thread and only allow supportive comments.

It's hard because you can't tell if people are trolling or serious, but I saw the rule of thumb is take it seriously.

Have you reached out to mental health professionals to see what they think would be the best response? Or other moderators/web sites who deal with similar issues?

Don't think you want to try to re invent the wheel on this one. Get some advice, from people who know what they're talking about. I don't and most likely the same goes for the rest of the posters on this thread.

I like the personal message approach, I didn’t know that LR did that. Kudos.

It’s my view that you should very rarely delete threads, only if they’ve been reported for defamation, etc. People should be free to seek help from who they choose, if that’s random forum posters, then so be it.

If they seek professional help in addition to this, even better.

But please don’t delete threads! Perhaps instead preface them with a notice saying “this may contain sensitive material” etc.

I think it would be pretty simple to flag certain words like "suicide" and have a message pop up before they can post and/or not allow the post. The other day I was prevented from submitting a post because I quoted rojo's original post that had the "F" word in it. I got a message in red that said I could not use profanity. So have something like that for words like "suicide" but include contact info for suicide prevention line, etc.

Rutgers case? That wasn't remotely close to the same situation. The offender in that case was charged with invasion of privacy and hate crimes for his actions that were apparently pushed his gay roommate to commit suicide. It involved capturing a sexual encounter on a webcam, etc. Legally it's an interesting case: the NJ Supreme Court ended up overturning the convictions on the basis that aspects of the hate crime law were unconstitutional. But it has zero relevance to this thread.

off base wrote:

wejo wrote:

Legally we have no liability regardless of what we do.

That's not entirely true. I'm sure you've heard of the Rutgers case.

Perfect handling of the situation IMHO.

Refer Depressed people want want to commit Suicide to a professional website.