Thank You button

[sober_life]

There are many many great posts here, many just need a simple thank you, but we have to reply.

Is it possible for the group conscious consider asking the web master if this option can be implemented ?
I have seen it on some other forums, it's simply a button that's titled " Thanks" and when it is pressed, the user name appears under the post.
Just thought I mention this, hope it's considerable to do and not an added cost.


Thanks !

[PaigeB]

I could use that thank you button right here & now!

Let's see what other folks have to say.

[Niagara]

What a fantastic idea.

[ann2]

I agree it would be nice to have a quick method of saying thank you. I just don't want anything that resembles a like button because we're not here to get approval for our shares but to continue the conversation. Sometimes when we go to the effort of saying thank you we find we actually have an experience related to pass on.

I occasionally send pm's to the sharer by clicking the pm option under the username on the right of the share. I figure that's more like what might happen in a meeting -- looking for the person at the break and saying thank you. It's a nice way to make a connection

Ann

[ann2]

The pm option next to the share also has the result of quoting the share in your thank you, so you get to keep it in your outbox of pm's for awhile

Ann

[Niagara]

From another perspective, a newcomer who perhaps doesn't feel confident to post might be willing to use that function and begin to get involved. I do understand what you're saying about approval for shares though and continuation...good point well made (wish I had a thanks button for that )

[clouds]

I agree it would be nice to have a quick method of saying thank you. I just don't want anything that resembles a like button because we're not here to get approval for our shares but to continue the conversation. Sometimes when we go to the effort of saying thank you we find we actually have an experience related to pass on.

I occasionally send pm's to the sharer by clicking the pm option under the username on the right of the share. I figure that's more like what might happen in a meeting -- looking for the person at the break and saying thank you. It's a nice way to make a connection

Ann

I think this is true too, because when I write to thank someone I can sometimes validate what I found was helpful to my sobriety, and it can develope it and throw even more loght onto an already helpful post. Piling up more positives rather than otherwise. If that make any sense at all!

[PaigeB]

From another perspective, a newcomer who perhaps doesn't feel confident to post might be willing to use that function and begin to get involved. I do understand what you're saying about approval for shares though and continuation...good point well made (wish I had a thanks button for that )

[Craig]

Thank you for for your help it is really appreciated

[ann2]

Thank you Craig for being here!

[katherine7]

There are many many great posts here, many just need a simple thank you, but we have to reply.

Is it possible for the group conscious consider asking the web master if this option can be implemented ?
I have seen it on some other forums, it's simply a button that's titled " Thanks" and when it is pressed, the user name appears under the post.
Just thought I mention this, hope it's considerable to do and not an added cost.


Thanks !

I hope so, thank you.

[Noels]

Good evening everyone. I was sitting here after reading some of the latest shares and the responses and an enormous feeling of gratitude filled my heart and being.
I didn't want to chirp on the postings and was wondering how I could say thank you to each of the members with whom I have been communicating with when I saw this thread.
So just to let each and every member know that you are wise beyond your realisation and although my responses to particular situations don't always appear to be the norm you have helped me in a few days more than you can ever imagine.
I am grateful for this site where we can share, ask, agree or disagree, .... I am grateful for each one of you. Your experiences, views, opinions and beliefs.
This is the best aa website and I thank you.
Love and light
Noels

[ann2]

Hi Noels,

I have to agree with you. I share that feeling and it's important to remember that even though people may not be responding, we are still affecting others through our shares.

In a regular meeting this is often the case as well. Someone may speak and the impact on the listeners may be profound, but no one may in fact respond. You just never know

I think it's a HP thing.

Hugs,

Ann

[PaigeB]

If we had a like button or a Thank you button I would hit it right now LOL!

One reason I think we don't have one is it is too easy. I much prefer Noel's thank you! And thanks for taking the time to write it!

[Buckeye1988]

By Ann2

Someone may speak and the impact on the listeners may be profound, but no one may in fact respond. You just never know

The purpose of a like or share or thumbs up button would be to help show us that we are not alone. Its not about seeking approval, for me. It's is important to know that we are not alone.

As far as I can tell this was the meat and potatoes of the early AA fellowship. You can hear for yourself various AA speakers online, for ex: Clarence Snyder talking about men, combat veterans and hardened criminals would attend meetings around Cleveland and break down and cry at these meetings surrounded by love and acceptance.

If I've been to 500 AA functions; meetings, conferences roundups, men's meetings etc I've never EVER seen a man be able to completely break down and cry at an AA meeting in this day and age.

And let me say something else about AA meetings that anyone with an 8th grade education can pick up and read about in the Big Book and understand that meetings today resemble nothing like that in the past. Ex: A Vision For You pg 162 "Then, in this eastern city, there are informal meetings such as we have described to you, where you may now see scores of members."

Please note the word 'informal'

I've been to church services that are less formal than today's AA! It's a damn religion in itself void of almost ANY spirituality.

"In addition to these casual get-togethers, it became customary to set apart one night a week for a meeting to be attended by anyone or everyone interested in a spiritual
way of life.

"Aside from fellowship and sociability, the prime object was to provide a time and place where new people might bring their problems."
A Vision For You pg 162

I'll elaborate here: Early AA meetings usually went like this. You showed up one hour before the meeting (have you ever heard the slogan Show up early, stay late in AA? That's where this started) At that time the room was filled with old timers. During this hour people especially new people could talk about there problems, ask questions etc. Then the meeting would start and what do you think tge topic or discussion would be about? Well, it was time for the old timers to share their experience around what said and asked in the first hour. Then what? The whole meeting would invade some local restraunt food and fellowship. Who could feel alone in that environment? Not many.

This is not the case today. Loneliness plagues AA today. This hogwash about "you are not alone" is so far from the truth that its almost comical.

Anyone care to PM me for examples out of my experience please do and I'll elaborate. I've spent a lot of time sober in AA in places like Phoenix, AZ, Southern CA, Ohio, and Minneapolis and other places sporadically whike travelling. I've seen untold numbers of people wash in and out of AA that were only given a handshake and a list of phone numbers to call. traveling. Was rarely any listening to problems or fellowship after.

You know, I tried an expirement once in Phoenix. I called every number on the list I was given, for a week straight. I left several voice mails and texts, and I remember one person answering the phone from a list of about ten names. Two of the numbers were fake,

I think the heights of loneliness in my life have been being abandoned as a child, serving time in a combat zone, sitting in jail and the years I've wasted trying to make meaningful connections in AA.

I think the problem for me is that I've read the big book and studied the history and for some reason thought that it would be that way today. I guess I had an expectation of AA and I shouldn't have. Gullible. Naive. Stupid.

Not finding what I was looking for or thought I would find, like most people I've endured my time in AA alone in a sea of gossip and cliques living silently in pain and emotional anguish because no one in AA cares. Who can you talk to about it without it being used against you at some point or you get labeled? Then the time comes where, in my opinion I'd be better off getting drunk or high and I have been.

I'd rather tie one on then get into a brawl in AA and end up hurting someone or myself, but that's what it often leads to. I've seen it happen several times guys fighting in the damn parking lot over something in the big book. These are not isolated cases either and if ANYONE think AA is a vibrant healthy community like it might have been 50 years ago then all I can say is Take the blinders off because you are in deep deep denial.

Going to meetings year after year and commenting and sharing and maybe getting a nod from someone that they liked a comment I made isn't good enough. I think the word the big book uses to describe how we ought to work with other alcohols and each other is 'intensive'. Well, there is NOTHING intensive for me that I've seen in AA except for a small, very small community of people in Minneapolis putting on a 4th Step workshop, but that was for a very brief period of time. And I couldn't stick around. But that shouldn't matter. That same intensity should be the rule, not the exception in AA.

Thanks for letting me share!