Friday, June 3, 2005

Day 929 - Goodbye to the Compulsive Gamblers Hub

It appears there is a good chance one of my tools of recovery may be unavailable soon.

I have mentioned on this site in the past about the Compulsive Gamblers Hub (www.cghub.org) and have a link to it on the right.

The site has been around in several variations for over 5 years now offering a place to gather up information on gambling addiction, including links to other sites including this blog, facts and figures, and more.

But the MAIN and by far most popular feature of the site was the "posting board" which allowed anyone who desired a chance to journal and communicate with other problem gamblers worldwide almost instantly. At its current peak there were over 1100 people registered on the site with an active core of about 200 I would guess. People posted daily about their lives and gambling. There is a mixture of people there...some strugglers, some newcomers, and some people with considerable abstinence. Many went to GA, too many don't. As it is in GA meetings, some would share toooo much, and some were toooo nice for me. But, as also in a GA meeting, it was easy enough for me to take what I needed (and there was PLENTY of that!) and leave the rest.

In the end this "ease of use" which made it so popular proved to be the site's downfall.

Inevitably people with divergent viewpoints on the best way to arrest our addiction presented themselves, often in hostile manners. Some like me, tried to impress that as useful a tool as the board is/was, my experience has been the relapse rate to be considerably higher for those that try to quit gambling using ONLY this support. Others resented anything to do with GA and some "moments" shall we say followed.

Most, including myself were never rude, and only offered my experience and hope as we know it to others. I am not here to judge anyone. Unfortunately others did judge, gambing ads started appearing, and even threatening posts and e-mails to members of the board.

Various methods to control this activity were tried, but people always managed to find a way to complain about it. Finally, the site webmaster Charlie P. decided he could no longer dedicate the time to effectively control things without losing his serenity. Hence tonight he announced the site is on its last days.

There are other chat rooms, yahoo groups, and of course blogs out there. But this one had it's own flavor. Its own form of caring and love. It's own open-mindedness (most of the time..).

I will miss it. I wish Charlie P. well. I hope other posters on this board manage to find their way to some of the other outlets I offered as alternatives to them.

Mostly, I hope some of them see this as an opportunity to try to get to a face to face Gamblers Anonymous meeting.

John

P.S. - San Diego Padres back on the winning track again tonight!!

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