Effetto Forum

One of the side effects of IAM, was that it gave us the illusion of a supportive community. People could spend time on IAM and get the impression that the whole world was on their side -- that what we were doing was "normal" and "acceptable". I think this made it easier for some people to push their journeys farther than what they were really comfortable with, and as a result there were some people who found themselves in difficult situations that they couldn't handle...

I hate to think about it, but I think BME shares some responsibility in a couple of suicides, where BME helped convince people it was a good idea to modify themselves far past what they were personally ready for in the real world. I think it was hard for people to be held up as heroes on BME, and then get beat down by the flesh-and-blood humans they interacted with on a daily basis. Of course this is ultimately the person's own responsibility -- and the fault lies with a cruel and unaccepting world -- but it definitely haunts me.