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    • #24010
      cat438
      Participant

      I can’t believe the difference in GT since I started in June, 2011. This site was my savior when I started recovery and there new posts daily by lots of different people. It is almost like a “ghost town” now. I would love to think it is because everyone has moved on to a wonderful gamble free life, but I don’t think it is the case. I wonder if it is because of the changes that have taken place. The first major change that I remember was that UK residents were no longer allowed to be part of GT. The second is the new updated website. I would love to know the thoughts of others who use this site. Wishing everyone a wonderful gamble free day!!!

    • #24011
      p
      Participant

      Hi i too wold love to see more people post. I am quite adaptable to change but not all people are like that. I have had to change many things in my life, places i lived, people i knew, things always changed, i always challenged myself and went with it though i knew it was sometimes scary.
      I think change scares a lot of people, and its just the unfamiliar, i am sure that when everyone gets used to posting again and feels more comfortable and familiar with things they will post again.
      The best thing you can do is just keep posting yourself. I will too.
      If there is one or a hundred posting, my posts wont change.

    • #24012
      charles
      Moderator

      Hi Cat and P.

      You are right Cat, it is a little quieter at the moment and I think P is right, the recent changes will no doubt have made people less comfortable as they adjust to those changes. Unfortunately some may even leave the site, change is scary. Even stopping gambling is scary as it’s likely the biggest change most of us have made!

      I would have to add that we need to be honest, another reason things have got quieter is how bad the old site had become in some areas. The lags and connection problems made many of the groups unusable and certainly that would have put off new members and old alike.
      Thats changed now, no lags and good connections mean the groups and helpline run better, discussions flow and people receive better support. Yes change can be scary but change can also be for the better, I think it is in this case.

      As P says, the best thing anyone can do is to keep posting, old members will get used to the new site and of course new members will find us. Unfortunately turnover of members at any recovery site, on line like this or face to face like Gamblers Anonymous or others, is fairly high. The people that have most chance of success are the ones who keep posting/getting to meetings. No coincidence.

      At GA I always say that the most important person in the room is ME!! Thats not to say I’ve got any superiority issues lol because that answer is the same for all of us. If we aren’t in the room we can neither receive support nor give it to others.

      So I would repeat what P said, the best way to get more people posting is to keep posting.

      On a personal note I would add that whilst I hope all old members do return to posting etc there may be some who decide not to. Before they leave I would ask them a question – what support are you going to use instead? We have all seen the posts which begin ” I used to post here but then stopped……..” they usually continue with whatever horror story has happened since.

      I am a Compulsive Gambler myself and if we could do it on our own then we wouldn’t have a problem in the first place. It’s important to use support both to initially stop gambling and then to continue using support to stay stopped and maintain recovery.

    • #24013
      vera
      Participant

      All very true Charles…but!
      why is it so difficult to find older threads and why can’t we enter groups if we are late? If the sign “Full” appeared, I would accept that, but knowing that group is most likely empty, frustrates me. I feel like kicking down the door! lol!
      One more question!
      Any chance of making entry to a casino as difficult as entering GT!
      Hard to teach old dogs new tricks!

    • #24014
      janey1
      Participant

      Older threads have been difficult to transfer over to the new site from the old site, I’m led to understand this is a pretty common problem when moving data on large, somewhat unwieldy sites like our old one. We have recovered as much as we can really at this stage so all I can suggest is that new threads are started in place of the old ones as they work perfectly well. If anyone has a strong attachment to an old thread and wants us to attempt to recover it they can e-mail in, but I would ask that they think long and hard before making this request as we are a small charity with limited resources and it can be very time consuming to respond to these kinds of queries.
      With regards to the 15 minutes restriction on group entry. This is something we have been considering for a while. What had started to happen, before the group attendance reduced due to “lags” etc., was that people didn’t want to be the first person in a group so they would leave it a while before logging in….of course when lots of people do this it means there is no one there until five minutes before the group ends and not a lot of work can take place in five minutes I’m sure you’ll agree 🙂 We also had a think about how face to face groups work and the impact it can have on groups members when people come in and out at will. It can sometimes be a little disruptive if people in the group, disclosing pretty personal issues, feel like they are in a room with a revolving door and others can come and “poke their head in” then leave. I personally don’t think that’s particularly conducive to a safe and comforting environment. If people know who’s going to be in the room with them for the next forty five minutes they can make an informed decision on whether or not to share.
      If we look at what goes in to attending a face to face support group we look at preparing emotionally and physically…we might consider what we’ll talk about, how we’re going to get there and what we’re going to do to make sure we arrive on time. All of these thoughts put us into the right frame of mind for accessing help and by the time we get there we’re ready to really work on recovery. With online support people drop in and out as they please, they take what they need from the support and then leave and that’s the beauty of it…….. but it does leave the groups open to being used like chat rooms. So, by asking our members to arrive within a fifteen minute window we hopefully create a little bit of structure and encourage people to plan their attendance and arrive with an idea of what they want to share during the session. Although we still don’t ask you to change out of your PJ’s if you don’t want to so you can still reap the rewards of accessing help online 🙂 
      The fifteen minute window is something we are trialling for a short time to see if it has an impact on groups, if it transpires that it’s not working in the way we had hoped we will either only apply it to certain groups, change the amount of time in which you can log in, or abolish it altogether. For the moment we ask you to try it out and see what you think and if you still don’t like it in a few weeks time, when there are more people accessing the site, drop us a mail and let us know. If you want to drop in and out of groups with a greater degree of flexibility you can still use the un moderated groups or helpline and you can also use the forums whenever you like.
      I hope that makes things a little clearer 
      Janey

    • #24015
      cat438
      Participant

      It does take a while to adjust to changes and learning all the new ropes. I think it is going to take a wee while until we get comfortable with the changes. I do hope that everyone continues to post and eventually we will get to know the site better and it will feel like “home” again. I think the “old timers”, now I don’t mean age, but in my case it would apply were so comfortable with the old GT that it is taking a while to feel as if it is still GT. It’s like we got rid of our old comfortable slippers and we are breaking in new slippers and it takes a while until we get comfortable with them.

    • #24016
      Anonymous
      Guest

      Wow great thread, its got me posting!!

      All so very true, I have been negligent over the past few months with my support, sporadically, needless to say I have gambled sporadically too. No coincidence.

      Am doing champion now though, support well I’ve started doing a lot of talking again!

      Geordie.

    • #24017
      vera
      Participant

      Well look who turned up out of the blue!
      Good old Geordie!
      Take about the devil!
      I ‘ve been dropping your name a lot lately G!
      Mental telepathy or what!?

    • #24018
      bettie
      Participant

      It would be really helpful if the open chat was easier to find. I only found it because someone posted (p?) to go to the (closed) helpline!
      The few times I have been able to log in, sadly, I find no one there. When I was “new” the open chat was a life line. Not quite sure where I would be now if the people were not there to help me. I used to hang out there looking for new bees too. A little step 12 as it were.

    • #24019
      janey1
      Participant

      I see where you’re coming from and we would love to provide additional cover, ideally we’d like to operate a 24/7 service, but unfortunately we live in the real world where these services are expensive to run and as you know we already do what we can with the limited funds available to us. What I would ask of all of you is that you use the services that currently exist, (the forums, groups and helpline ), to a greater degree whilst they are running because at the moment we are in a bit of a chicken and egg predicament. In order to justify expanding the service the things we are already providing need to be used regularly and they need to be well attended.

      With regards to the the un-moderated groups, would it be at all useful if we set up a section in this forum for people wishing to meet others in those groups to specify times and days they will be there so they are not “missed” by others?

      When we are able to expand our coverage we will let you know 🙂

      Kind Regards
      Janey

    • #24020
      cat438
      Participant

      Janey I understand that as a charity there are limited funds and sometimes you need the numbers to justify more funding. I think your suggestion of having something in the forum about the un-moderated groups would be a help.

      I know that I started this thread as for a while it was so quiet and no one seemed to be posting, I am noticing that more people are posting again. I believe that it just takes a little while until people start to get used to the changes.

    • #24021
      adele
      Participant

      Hi Janey –

      You said:
      ‘With regards to the the un-moderated groups, would it be at all useful if we set up a section in this forum for people wishing to meet others in those groups to specify times and days they will be there so they are not “missed” by others?’

      I think it would wonderful to be able to specify times for chats here … would it be necessary to be group specific? (CGs separate from F&Fs) Personally, I would like to see it available to the whole community – other’s may feel differently.

      And if there was some way to set up a “I Need To Talk To Someone Now” section where someone could go and others online could be alerted that someone was there needing to chat…. I don’t know … I can see how this might pose problems, and I know nothing about programming … but you see what I mean don’t you?

      Right now with so little participation, it is nearly impossible to find someone there because the time slots are so broad.
      On the old site, the un-moderated chat rooms were somewhat like a bulletin board in that you could see who had logged in and logged out. I remember trying to leave a message there once for someone saying I’d check back in at a certain time if they wanted to chat. But I think the time zone issue was a problem…

      Is there any way to display a bank of clocks that show the current time in different zones?

      Thanks so much for all you guys are doing! I hope this works out somehow. I will send another donation soon …

      Adele

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