Important- info about the forums and me!

[Rich-Admin]

Hi All,

I wanted to say hi to everyone and tell you a little bit about who the final owner of the forum turned out to be, I know it was a spam nightmare around here for a bit so I’m glad I was able to get all that cleared up about as good as it can be.

First let me start off with letting you know why the forums themselves changed. The forums used to run on a free open source platform that didn’t have the type of spam management we needed to do a good job keeping the spammers at bay. With a smaller forum, spammers can be deleted manually, but when you have fifty spam posts a day it gets overwhelming and we needed something more aggressive from the software.

To control spam and provide an overall better experience to everyone long term, we migrated to a non-free software platform that is used by many of the larger forums online. Once I became involved in the site this was the first thing I focused on, but it took about two days to move, so I apologize the board was down during that time, it’s just how long it takes to move 100,000 members.

Also, since passwords were encrypted, they need to be reset on the new software, so if you’re having any problems logging in, that is why. All you should need to do is click the “Forgot Password” link and you can reset it via email. Again, you should only have to do this once. I know it’s a bit of a pain in the neck, but it’s unavoidable if we want to kick the spammers out of here, so I think it’s very much for the best and worth the few minutes of inconvenience.

If you have any problems, please let me know using the contact form on the forum, not this thread, and I will do my best to make sure you get your issue resolved.

Now a little about me...

My name is Rich Presta and I used to suffer with anxiety and panic disorder for many years, and a little over 10 years ago overcame my anxiety and panic attacks. Sine then I’ve written several books and programs on overcoming anxiety disorders such as The Panic Puzzle, The Driving Fear Program, and others.

When I was struggling with anxiety, having forums and a place to talk to others who understood what I was going through was tremendously helpful. Because of that, I want to ensure that people who are where I used to be continue to have places to go online to share stories, get advice, and just not feel so alone. I wanted to get involved in this forum so I could make sure it was taken good care of and remained operational for everyone that needs it.

I don’t have a lot of rules regarding the forum except be nice to one another, no spam, and no blatant advertising. What do I mean by blatant advertising? If you’re reading a book or seeing a therapist that you think is great and you’ve been here for awhile, go ahead and post about it, whether it’s my programs or someone else’s. However, if you have one or two posts and you’re posting links, that’s probably going to be deleted, so please contribute first and add some value.

Yes, it’s absolutely fine to talk about ANYONE’S material or programs that you find helpful, not just mine. This is YOUR forum, not mine, so talk about whatever you want.

You can also find a link to a chat room in the forums, just look down the page, it’s a link within the main forum structure.

I generally won’t be posting in the forums, I’ll leave it to the mods to do what they think best, I trust their judgment, so please don’t ask me questions via the forums, I won’t see them.

If anyone has been here for a while and would like to be considered for a mod position, please let me know via the contact form on the website.

If anyone wants to read my blog and get a sense for what I do, it is here:

http://www.RichPresta.com.

One last thing...

Spammers and anyone who mistreats anyone else on the forums DO NOT get second chances. If you don’t know how to behave on a forum, you get banned forever, it’s very simple and very permanent.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your patience during the transition and I look forward to giving you the tools you need to have the best possible forum!

Thanks!

Rich Presta

[crimsonrose]

thank you for making this site possible

[mikeyboi]

thanks so much this forum is v helpful

[Daisy55]

Is the chat room used at all. I checked in a couple times and no one is there.

[The5thElement]

Hi Daisy - I have been into the chat room and it's been empty also. I figured because I was on the other side of the world with the time difference. Hopefully there are people in there the next time I go in and we can all chat to each other.

J

[chaos]

Been in the rooms and they are always empty

[jessy]

The chat room is always empty , doesn't seem to work :-(

[Pearlchick28]

I was in the chat room but it stopped working after a while

[bclark371]

Can someone please tell me how to add a pic to my profile? Thank u.

[Lin]

Thank you for this forum, but I am not impressed with action not being taken when complaints are e-mailed to "Contact us" about posts which are abusive and rude. Please can you take action when reports of this sort are made please.