Venting What have we done to the megathreads?

[SinisterKid]

I could join you Stan on going to town on some of the total and utter shit I have seen about SN recently. The megathread I dont even bother to read anymore. From "horrible side effects" to "too good to be true" are the latest "gems of wisdom" I have seen written about SN. Having worked in gas safety and all the regulations that govern the ventilation requirements of any heating appliance that uses fossil fuels, I know what happens to haemoglobin when things go wrong. Its similar what happens with SN. Its fast, its lethal and most people do not know its happening until its too late. The fact that somehow, people want to demonize SN as a method when its about as good as it gets in its category, is beyond me. I have read most megathreads here, a lot of wikis, lots of sites offering advice about suicide methods. Its been a 3 year search for a method that I am confident will do the job. I have settled on SN. I am not stupid, I am not lazy when it comes to my own death, there are reasons I have chosen it as my preferred method. The PPH backed up everything I have read so the choice was made even easier. When I see someone spouting some nonesense about SN, like you, sometimes I just get annoyed. Some I just ignore, others I try to point out where they might be mistaken, the rest just get short shrift.

I know not everyone wishes to poison themselves. People settle on their own methods for lots of reasons. Death is scary to many people. I get all that I really really do. But scaring people further playing Chinese whispers is not smart and its not clever. I get that people have questions and concerns. The megathread does little to quench those, it just confuses the issue even further. Clean it up, make it current, lock it, pin it.

Please people, I will beg if that is what it takes, but lay off SN now. Its a very positive pain free [as far as we know] method that is pretty easy to succeed with if you follow some simple instructions. If you should find you have anything that you cant find a answer about, then post a thread. But trying to find out how many people have died using SN, how many have failed, if you turn blue or pink or shit yourself, no one here can honestly answer you with a 100% certainty.

 

[*KNAZ*]

I could join you Stan on going to town on some of the total and utter shit I have seen about SN recently. The megathread I dont even bother to read anymore. From "horrible side effects" to "too good to be true" are the latest "gems of wisdom" I have seen written about SN. Having worked in gas safety and all the regulations that govern the ventilation requirements of any heating appliance that uses fossil fuels, I know what happens to haemoglobin when things go wrong. Its similar what happens with SN. Its fast, its lethal and most people do not know its happening until its too late. The fact that somehow, people want to demonize SN as a method when its about as good as it gets in its category, is beyond me. I have read most megathreads here, a lot of wikis, lots of sites offering advice about suicide methods. Its been a 3 year search for a method that I am confident will do the job. I have settled on SN. I am not stupid, I am not lazy when it comes to my own death, there are reasons I have chosen it as my preferred method. The PPH backed up everything I have read so the choice was made even easier. When I see someone spouting some nonesense about SN, like you, sometimes I just get annoyed. Some I just ignore, others I try to point out where they might be mistaken, the rest just get short shrift.

I know not everyone wishes to poison themselves. People settle on their own methods for lots of reasons. Death is scary to many people. I get all that I really really do. But scaring people further playing Chinese whispers is not smart and its not clever. I get that people have questions and concerns. The megathread does little to quench those, it just confuses the issue even further. Clean it up, make it current, lock it, pin it.

Please people, I will beg if that is what it takes, but lay off SN now. Its a very positive pain free [as far as we know] method that is pretty easy to succeed with if you follow some simple instructions. If you should find you have anything that you cant find a answer about, then post a thread. But trying to find out how many people have died using SN, how many have failed, if you turn blue or pink or shit yourself, no one here can honestly answer you with a 100% certainty.

Amen!

 

[fightingsioux]

This is a proper vent.

One of the the important things of this site is to share information for people to understand how to cbt painlessly and safely. I'm a big fan of the SN method so I will focus on that one and perhaps people with a focus on the others can say whether it is the same elsewhere. The SN megathread has had over a 1/4 million views! If you were a Youtuber and got that, you would be making some serious money. Why do people view it? Mainly to understand what it is, what you need and how its done. Every pm I get is because people cannot work out fact from fiction regarding the method. All the information you need about SN can fit onto one side of a piece of letter sized paper, 2 if you want the full explanation. Nobody looks at the relevant PPH pages in the resources section. There are over 160 pages on the subject as well as multiple threads appearing daily which adds even more confusion with some of the replies that are more speculation than fact.

The best way to distribute information is to have one single point of truth which can be updated if necessary. If this was a commercial website, they would have paid people called 'content managers' who would make sure that the single point of truth is protected by managing the content through deletions of inaccurate information. This is not a commercial website.

What we have done is become lazy. Instead of searching for information we just make a post or even worse, a new thread. Then a variation of an answer appears and even more confusion comes along.

Personally I would burn down the SN megathread and start it again as it's obvious that for a lot of people it's providing more questions than answers, which means it is doing exactly the opposite of what it is supposed to do.

Rant over

I just joined this site a few days ago. I'm primarily looking for factual, reliable information. I decided to read through all the mega-threads as a first step, taking notes along the way.

I'm about half-way through, and a I have a few quick thoughts:
As most have already said, the endless requests for basic information that has already been given (sometimes 3 or 4 times!) is the biggest distraction. People seem too lazy to begin at the beginning. The Exit Bag and Inert Gas thread is the best example. The OP gave a well-written, clear and concise, step-by-step set of very precise instructions. Truthfully, no more information was needed for any reasonably intelligent person. What follows is about 40 pages stretching over many months where the same questions are asked about the same information over and over. At one point, the OP becomes rather exasperated and says something like, "I'm not repeating this all again! Just read the thread!" I couldn't blame him.

My second observation, as a newcomer and first-time reader of the threads, has also been mentioned. To much rumor, baseless conjecture, wild speculation about possible difficulties that are so unlikely as to be absurd. It all becomes a tremendous distraction to someone like me who is looking for real, solid information.

 

[Stan]

Ultimately though, those who pose a question rely on a member responding with knowledge to give them a factual response that helps. There has been more than one occasion I have had to correct someone regarding a response that might have put that fellow member in some form of physical or mental distress. I am not a doctor but I really researched SN to the point I even understand a lot more now about human digestion, chemical interactions and reading at a high level, medical reports. Does not make me an expert, but I know enough not to put myself in a position where I do not cause myself unnecessary distress or discomfort.

There may not be a straight forward solution to my vent, but I stand by my opinion that a majority of the SN megathread does more to put people off or confuse them than to give them accurate information on a real straightforward process.

 

[GeorgeJL]

There have been a lot of things that I wanted to do for this website, but I just don't have the time to be on here like I use to. Once I get some time I'll organize the resources section based on quality and popularity of info if I don't ctb first. Besides it doesn't help that my computer has been out of commission for a while. So now I do all my internet activity from my phone, which is a pain in the ass.

 

[GeorgeJL]

Where's the SN mega threat? I'll lock it.

 

[Haku]

Yes, someone actually finally brought it up, why are the Megathreads a mess? Thank you Stan. I have been wanting to make a thread talking about this for awhile, but I couldn't , didn't really have the courage for it. I am one of those people who have tried to look through the SN megathread, but once I saw how many pages it was. I was overwhelmed, only read through the first 2. And I tried looking through the PPH, and I only kept running into information on N, which would be a way I would prefer, but do not want to try, because the Feds in the US are cracking down alot more these days, and if I'm going to pay quite a penny for it, I expect not to get ot confiscated. But I did truly try to research the hell out of the SN method. I learned quite a bit, but didnt have all my questions answered. But luckily I had a friend to help me out with it a bit, and I am truly sorry for the bother, but I am extremely grearful for the help,

 

[dreamsofdestruction]

Yes, someone actually finally brought it up, why are the Megathreads a mess?

But how could they possibly have turned out differently? There aren't even any rules in place to help maintain them?

All they do is say "place all your comments regarding this topic in here."

A place where they do work is the partners megathread, by the way. I guess you might as well create a subforum for that, but since people are only supposed to reply via private message, the thread works (it has clear rules posted at the top too). But for those other topics? Not so much.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

The megathread concept is inherently flawed. Things were always going to turn out that way. We can't really be surprised by people failing to want to wade through such a mire of conflicting info.
Legitimate questions get lost in the avalanche of repetition so it's no wonder people start a separate thread.
I would suggest that sub forums could help instead of megathreads. Each one could have a stickied and locked first post to be updated as required, with users encouraged to start a new thread for each question, so answers would pertain to that question alone.
It would make it easier to research, possibly reduce repetition and decluter the main forum.
Of course it would be work to the undertake this so it's not a simple fix.