Be aware, the entire world reads our forums!

[Clark]

Recently LDO! was shown as the only on camera means for sellers in the Philippines to connect with buyers in "Tales from the Organ Trade" on HBO. We immediately tightened our moderation of the Looking for... forum and changed our policy to bring in that forum more closely in line with our mission, to serve living donors.

Now, the AJT Report, https://livingdonorsonline.org/ldosmf/index.php?topic=5883.0, quotes from three of our more prolific posters, all from a single discussion thread.

Please try to bear in mind that this and several other of our discussion forums are open to being read by anyone in the world, deliberately.  All are members only to post, but very few are members only to read.

[tantemorte]

What I write on here, I want it to be read & noticed...after all, that is why I participate instead of sitting in silence. I don't see a problem with being quoted either.
BUT.
If I am to be quoted,I want it to be under my permission.
Quite frankly,whoever took those posts from here needs to be held accountable for using posts from here without either/both the website's & the poster's permission, especially seeing as it was published & not properly credited or permitted.
Perhaps there needs to be a disclaimer of sorts up front about not taking post contents without express permission of the poster. 

[Snoopy]

It's a good point that people post here to be read.  However, it's also true, especially on a board with the wonderful, supportive atmosphere of LDO, that it's easy to lose sight of the fact that we are not posting only to an audience of our little group of friends.
  Be well, Snoopy

[Clark]

If you're interested, take a look at the site usage statistics available via the link at the bottom of the main forum page. We've experienced significant usage change this year. It's been more than this full calendar year since we tightened our content policies to exclude appeals for recipients, presumed to be primarily from criminal brokers, trimmed our seeking a donor posts to just the past 12 months, and trimmed our menbership to just those who've ever posted and those who've never posted but at least have logged in during the past 12 months. Simultaneously, we closed an old Facebook group and opened a new one.

Readership is stable here at about 1.3 million pages viewed for the year, but new memberships are down 50% over last year, as are new original posts and replies. Contrast this with the growth of the Facebook site, with more than twice as many members as we have now, and in which there are many more daily original posts and replies. Personally, I find the breadth and depth of both original posts and replies inferior on Facebook. I don't find it fosters thoughtful, caring, crafted writing, but quick responsiveness.

Despite this apparent devaluation of our service, I still propose to serve our core audience, those considering becoming living organ donors, those who have, or have not, succeeded in becoming donors, would be recipients, successful recipients, and all these folks' family and friends. We also recognize transplant professionals, the media, and the general public are part of our audience. If the majority of these diverse people find the Facebook group more to their taste, we'll continue to moderate it within the limited possible means provided by Facebook.

If you want to get more deeply into a topic with thoughtful correspondents devoted to living donor well being, there is no better resource anywhere than right here. Just remember, a lot more unregistered guests are reading the boards they can see now. Just log out and you'll see what they can see. If there's demand, we can create more private forums. This hasn't proven popular in the past, but this is just a reminder we can if folks are interested in that.

Best wishes for a great new year in 2016, all!