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August 2001 - June 2017

The School Survival Forums are permanently retired. If you need help with quitting school, unsupportive parents or anything else, there is a list of resources on the Help Page.

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To everyone who joined these forums at some point, and got discouraged by the negativity and left after a while (or even got literally scared off): I'm sorry.

I wasn't good enough at encouraging people to be kinder, and removing people who refuse to be kind. Encouraging people is hard, and removing people creates conflict, and I hate conflict... so that's why I wasn't better at it.

I was a very, very sensitive teen. The atmosphere of this forum as it is now, if it had existed in 1996, would probably have upset me far more than it would have helped.

I can handle quite a lot of negativity and even abuse now, but that isn't the point. I want to help people. I want to help the people who need it the most, and I want to help people like the 1996 version of me.

I'm still figuring out the best way to do that, but as it is now, these forums are doing more harm than good, and I can't keep running them.

Thank you to the few people who have tried to understand my point of view so far. I really, really appreciate you guys. You are beautiful people.

Everyone else: If after everything I've said so far, you still don't understand my motivations, I think it's unlikely that you will. We're just too different. Maybe someday in the future it might make sense, but until then, there's no point in arguing about it. I don't have the time or the energy for arguing anymore. I will focus my time and energy on people who support me, and those who need help.

-SoulRiser

The forums are mostly read-only and are in a maintenance/testing phase, before being permanently archived. Please use this time to get the contact details of people you'd like to keep in touch with. My contact details are here.

Please do not make a mirror copy of the forums in their current state - things will still change, and some people have requested to be able to edit or delete some of their personal info.


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Criticism Threads
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SoulRiser Offline
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Post: #1
Criticism Threads

I'm moving them to Random, since almost none of it seems even vaguely constructive...

If you actually want one to remain constructive, feel free to start it somewhere else, but then you have to state very clearly that you only want constructive responses.

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07-07-2014 12:24 AM
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xcriteria Offline
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Post: #2
Criticism Threads

Constructive criticism/feedback threads could go in the new psychology subforums when they get set up.

But yeah, quality criticism requires a number of things that are (so far) rather lacking on the forums, like people actually understanding each other in some depth. That requires conversation, questions, and so on.

Likewise, interview threads on the forums have almost totally consisted of random, even silly questions based on my experience. There's a very different way to interview people, that's based on actually trying to learn about their life story and who they are. And, on the other side if it, if people shared more about their backstory, situations, goals, ambitions, struggles, and so on, that'd open the door for constructive, critical dialogue.

Maybe instead of "criticism," the question should be "opportunities for growth." It's easy to tell someone they suck, but it's quite another thing to look for ways they could actually grow and improve, and help nudge that along.

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07-07-2014 01:08 AM
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Cianna200 Offline
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Post: #3
RE: Criticism Threads

I don't think constructive criticism is common anymore, only destructive. You can't show and say anything flawed without it being torn down.
07-07-2014 06:53 AM
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brainiac3397 Offline
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Post: #4
Criticism Threads

As far as I can tell, constructive criticism only works if your intention is to help, not be dick using the excuse of constructive criticism and assistance for being an intolerable asshole.

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(06-14-2013 08:02 AM)Potato Wrote:  watch the fuq out, we've got an "intellectual" over here.

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07-07-2014 01:47 PM
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