Why does the site lock serious questions?

I am new to the site, just browsing around and viewing the subjects, questions and comments. I'm confused as to why do you "block" a user or sentdrude comments to them if they post a question about suicide? Eating Disorders? Or any other serious subjects...

like that. Aren't those the people that really do need help? Don't you think they could be on this site asking for help? Wanting to talk with others who have the same problems? These are innocent people going through hard times, that need someone, anyone. They need help to know that they are not alone. I think this is a great site and it is helping out a lot of people. Why can't we reach out and help the rest? The People who really really need it?? I hope you understand where I'm coming from..

Ok, since I'm one of the owners, write a lot of the policies, etc, I'll be happy to help on this topic.

We lock questions where people are trying to hurt themselves, become anorexic, etc, only after giving positive advice. The reason we do that is to prevent other people from jumping in & encouraging them.

Next, according to our terms of service, we'll delete suicide questions on site. We might have a few, and I hope if we do, they have positive advice on them. 99.9% of the time if somebody posts that, they're trying to get attention, and they aren't serious. However, if we DO have an instance of somebody being hurtful, mean, or spiteful, we have a "report abuse" link next to every question or answer.

AND, we have a link on the profile page, and a link on each photo page to report abuse, and a link to report abuse in fun mail.

I take this issue incredibly seriously. Every single abuse report we get, I review personally, and follow up where appropriate.

Sure, I could have other people do that, but, I care FunAdvice has been around for almost five years now. Currently, we get more than a million people on the site a month, and more than 65% of the people who visit are from the US.

The site is too big, unfortunately, for me or anybody else to read every single thing that happens on the site. So, we rely heavily on the abuse reporting system, volunteers who have stepped up to have extra responsibility (the advisors) and our small team to review as much as possible.

Unfortunately, we can't catch everything, but we take the issue seriously, and if you notice something wrong, use the abuse link. Otherwise, we might miss it.

Perhaps, as you seem to be interested in helping out & like us, making the world a better place, you could let us know via the contact form OR the abuse links on how we can improve.

I think they are blocking them because the questions are flooding the question boxes. a while back I was looking through the questions and 90% were about things like suicide and anorexia. I do think they need help, but not from other kids. they need help from more trusting and knowing than teens.

Dear hurtnme, since you have been browsing this site (and BRAVO for you for looking around) you will probably have seen that there are often times when these heavy problems have gotten advice on how and where to get trained and professional help. Indeed you can help by spreading that knowledge. Even a super psychologist couldn't solve these sorts of problems through a website. So as far as I've seen, the advisers give then a nudge or a phone number or website to get the kind of help they need. Then they lock the question because that’s all anyone can do here .All any of us can do is open the doors to these people, they have to decide to go through.

I've been on this website for about 10 days and I've seen an unbelievable number of the same questions on self-esteem, weight loss, depression. All of which take years to correct.

I do think this site is wonderful for people to vent and get help. Its sad that there are some people out there that would be rude and not give the correct advise. I will keep my eye open for harmful situations and try to help people out. I know the mind is a powerful thing in a humans body and when a person gets down or depressed, I believe it's hard to over come. Maybe if more people would volunteer, take a step up and help people out, it would also help themselves out. Thanks for all your hard work and repsonses.

Absolutely- FunAdvice has such a high standard of professionalism and regulates answers/questions judicially.

Also, he's right. Most of these questions ARE people just wanting attention. I mean, young women asking how to make themselves anorexic? <sigh>