Hello lovely Jean
Nice to hear from you
I'm not a bad apple......just mix of metal Micky & creaky bones! Lol
Luckily I haven't endured nasty people on here.
Jane
Xxx

Hi Anne and Jane - nice talking to you both! Anne, if you become my fb friend, jean Boyd, I can invite you to join the group. You don't have to post but just have a look and see what you think. I think being a member of both this forum and the private group gives the best of both worlds. Apart from one or two, you will know almost everyone on fb. The group is 70 plus strong now and usually very supportive and helpful. However, as Jackie so rightly said, we did have an upset recently but this will happen on any forum because we are all different. The main difference between fb and NRAS forum is that we are able to remove offensive posts as soon as they appear, rather than going through a moderator. The NRAS forum and all my friends on here supported, encouraged and helped me through two of the most difficult years of my life and I will always be grateful to the members and to NRAS for providing this forum. I happen to think both the forums have huge value, albeit they are so different. Jackie, lovely to see you on here. I have missed you on fb and I know others have too. X

I've not got on with the more open sites either. I really value the knowledge and comments on this forum as it is.

I'll generally dip in and out and sometimes do the odd 'post reply' but the tremendous value it has added to me is I can be open about any aspect of my conditions and get honest, first hand advice and guidance, no judgements and an awful lot of care.

As mentioned, this gets highly diluted in larger, non-specific sites. Also I would be more concerned about security too.

Interesting thread.

Thanks.

Angie

I've seen the Healthunlocked forum and I do sometimes answer posts on there, but I haven't put up my own post yet. It is a busy site and I do think that there is a bit of dodgy advice given sometimes, in fact NRAS had to put up once a post telling people not to give advice on medication. Also I don't like the layout of the site.

I do read the Arthritis Care Forum, I did once register myself on there, never put up a post and I have now forgot what my username was so I won't be doing any post on it in the future.

Both the above forums are open, anyone can read them, you can put post up on the Healthunlocked forum that members only can see, but it is so easy to register, just your email address and a few clicks of the mouse and away you go. Personally I feel safer on this site with it being membership based and I feel that I can express my feelings to a small group of people that I now class has my friends without fear of family and friends reading what I have put. (It's took me a long time to be able to talk to my family about my fears of this disease) My daughter calls you all my friends in the box, the box being the laptop. I have met a few of my friends at various get together that we have had.

Rich, I am so pleased that you decided to be part of our gang after trying the other forums. I think your advice about benefits is invaluable to members on here, if anyone asks a question you soon pop up with the answer and links. It might be an idea for NRAS to employ you in some sort of role to give advice to people who ring the helpline, I don't know if anyone else would agree.

I know I have not been so active on here lately. Been away a few times, but hopefully I will posting more in the future. We need to keep this forum active and if anyone who reads the forum and doesn't post......please do....we don't bite....just dip your toe in the water and you'll be fine.

Paula

I just voted! :) Took me a little while to work out what to do