They can be weeded out via IP addresses (not individually), and many message boards use tools and known strategies, not that anything is 100% fool-proof.
I hope this reaches a level of urgency with the powers that be, since the forum goes beyond helpful. It may save lives because of the people who post, like when a non-melanoma specialist is giving non-optimal advice or someone promotes a magical (aka useless) cure.
Just last night my husband and I were reflecting that after his diagnosis we were going to get a second opinion. Obviously, they can be crucial. But after finding the forum/reading posts and Celeste’s primer, it became clear the recommended plan by his melanoma specialists was spot on, no pun intended.
Melanoma gives the gift of huge anxiety, but the fear about whether proposed treatment was correct was eliminated. And no lost time or $$ going elsewhere. We also know which institutions we’d likely travel to if needed.
That is huge. Doctors have made errors and misdiagnoses with serious and in one case deadly consequences for my family (me, parents, brother), and others – last week with a neighbor – good docs in a thriving metropolitan area. So tend to be on guard and questioning. (The bell shaped curve is alive and well in every field.) But the forum provides ballast.
But after yesterday’s 16 pages and today’s umpteen pages of spam, I wondered if someone brand new might leave, assuming the forum wasn’t working/too dangerous. Please fix it.
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