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Forums

For those of you who are not familiar with forums, they are websites where you can type out a message or opinion and post it onto one of their webpages, or threads. There are two main types of forum.

Open forums are where anybody can see what you have posted, so be very carefull telling everyone that you have gone off on a cruise for a month and your home at 2 Foolish Drive, Little Snoring will be empty.

Closed forums are where postings can only be seen by members: the people who run these try to ensure that everyone who is a member is genuine, but of course, any system is open to abuse. Nevertheless, there are lots of very friendly and helpful people out there, ready to offer support, sympathy and advice.

A chatroom is where you can type messages on screen and others who have clicked to join in can read your message, and everyone else's. It can get muddled if there are several people there due to typing delays.

Messaging is like sending emails, but onscreen and faster. You can, in effect, have a typed conversation with someone, and on some sites they call these conversations.

Science for ME is a friendly forum that welcomes beginners and experts alike. It focuses on the science, but also has lots of support and humour.

Brainfog is a small, friendly site and is more like an online coffee house.

Facebook

Facebook is really just another forum, but is vast and covers all sorts of interests. There are very, very many ME groups in Facebook, and I cannot possibly do them justice here, so I will just list a few that I know.

Remember that some can be open groups and some can be closed, but to join any of them, you need to join Facebook first, and that means that you will need to enter some details about yourself: there are privacy controls in Facebook, but they are not that easy to work through. You do not have to join Facebook to see what is posted in public groups.

If you are new to all of this, join one of the forums first to get used to the system, and you will be able to get advice there. Just remember that anyone can post anything: there is an enormous amount of rubbish out on the web about ME, so it is well worth exploring these good sites first.

The ME Chatroom

The lighter side of M.E.

Invest in M.E.

ME/CFS/Fibro Group for sufferers and carers

Parents with ME/CFS and Fibro