Are you a multiple forum apnea support 'addict'?

[DreamDiver]

How many other apnea support forums do you belong to?
What are your favorites?
What do you like about each the most?

[Mary Z]

I belong to this one, Sleep ApneaBoard, and SleepGuide. I like SleepApnea Board for the amount of information available (Software, machine clinician manuals. handshakes for the clinical menu.) I like SleepGuide because it's fun. Cpaptalk has the most content.

[DocWeezy]

I started out on a different forum because it was the first one I found. I lurked there for a couple of weeks, posted a couple of questions, and then some kind soul sent me a PM about this place. I haven't been back since. The folks here are truly helpful, generous, and basically flat out wonderful. Even though there are occasionally problem posters, it is a very small price to pay for the experienced and knowledgeable advice that people give so freely here.

Plus, humor crops up here and there and that too is worth its weight in gold (even though my monitors and keyboard have suffered greatly when I read a funny post before I swallow my tea).

Weezy

[Madalot]

This is the first forum I found and haven't felt like I wanted to check out any others. I like what I get here.

[KatieW]

I lurked at the other forums, before I found this one. I've never gone back to the others.

[jimnsc]

Found the Sleep Apnea board first and found great technical information there but I was so new I had no need for that and didn't care to chime in. Found cpaptalk via Google right before I even got my equipment and just liked the camaraderie here and also the willingness of the experienced to help you with questions, etc. Great bunch and I don't even visit the other one except occasionally. Call me a cpaptalk bum!

[DoriC]

NO, NO! Cpaptalk is my only drug of choice!!

[BlackSpinner]

I found the Yahoo site first but this one is so much better. Yahoo has a 48 hour post delay while they censor all posts - I don't believe in censorship,I resigned from it a week later.

Other sites I belong to are Ravelry (a knitting site) and some arts forums. I also belonged to some programming forums but I dropped those when I decided retire from programming.

[Hosehead4ever]

This is the first forum I found and haven't felt like I wanted to check out any others. I like what I get here.

Same here. Haven't felt the need to go elsewhere.

[wesnkat]

Yes I am
I started with apnea board when first diagnosed,then just started learning about the many problems that come with being a hosehead.Then started looking for info and found this forum,also a couple others.
I have about settled on this forum because of the people that are so straight forward with the knowledge that I need.
Plus the fact I am so satisfied with ordering machine and supplies from the people who sponsor this forum.

[DreamDiver]

I googled some information once about flow limitation and went to a forum that I forgot I'd joined a long time ago. I pretty much hang out here too.

[BernieRay]

When I started researching for a new machine last summer, I lurked on several sites. For whatever reason, sifting through the good, the bad, and the ugly for reliable information that met my needs was most easily found here. Because of that, this is the only one that I've created an account on.

Now that we have a thread with other sites mentioned and what folks like about them, I may get sucked into visiting some of those sites. If that happens, it's all ya'll's fault!

[Wulfman...]

How many other apnea support forums do you belong to?
What are your favorites?
What do you like about each the most?

Categorically.......
None.
This one.
This one has a free flow of information and is virtually un-moderated.

The thing I "like" about the others is that they're so highly moderated and restrictive on the flow of information......and most of the users usually end up here......sooner or later.
If the best answers you're allowed to give the new users is a variation of "Go back and talk to your doctor, DME or RT" (who are probably at the root of the problems to begin with), that's not being very "helpful" in my opinion.
I peek into a couple of them once in a great while to see how few postings there are. When you see the date range of the posts on the first page of the forum (categories) in months or weeks.........that's pretty "dead". The page of this forum usually overflows each and every day.

I'm glad this was the first one I found (over six years ago). I never registered on any of the others.


Den

[Slinky]

Four - I think. It seems I registered in some at first and then never found my way back to them for quite a while. I'm in and out of the 'puter room all day so I check the 4 "regulars" on and off thru out the day and evening.

cpaptalk, of course, is my favorite hands down. Originally because it was the busiest, and then in short order, I realized it was also informative; great, sharing, caring members; freedom of expression *wicked grin*, heck I could go on and on about cpaptalk. All of it good.

I like sleep guide, talkaboutsleep and apneasupport as well and each for different reasons, but they all have something to offer and I've made friends at each and .... couldn't desert them now. I'd forgotten about 2-3 others I've "found" and then "lost" that I occasionally "find" again.

[jnk]

I have posted at two others. I still post at sleepguide once in a while. I tried to join one that wouldn't let me join.

I read at some others, but this is the only one that gets "addictive" for me.

I got fed up with some foul language and nastiness here a while back and posted more elsewhere until the bad taste left my mouth. Had a series of health scares in a row around that time that made me try to back away from getting emotionally involved with posting here, but just ended up posting as "who" when some questions came up I wanted to comment on and then when I wanted to go for comedic effect. That didn't go over so well, but people let me stay afterward.

Now I mostly post here because I feel like people know me well enough to know my strengths and my weaknesses. And some highly experienced posters here know how to correct things I get wrong without getting nasty about it. That makes me feel comfortable here. We all need to have one another's backs as we try to help newbies and one another.

This place gets pretty entertaining sometimes. Some threads are boxing matches. Others are tea parties. Others are scientific discussions. Others are serious medical assistance. Others are total nonsense. Some threads are a mixture of all of the above.

Other places have their strong points, but Johnny seems to run the nicest one of all, from where I sit. Good help on tap. Not canned or watered down.

I think we need to do all we can to help fellow patients in every location, so posting elsewhere is good. The more of us that also post elsewhere, the more of us there are to send people here whenever people need the sort of help that is most easily obtained here.