Yes! It is wonderful to express compassion to people and I'm not saying to quit doing that!! In fact, "compassion" for newcomers & other people who only have time to read this board twice per week instead of once a day (or more) is WHY I'm bringing this matter up. I am coming from the point of view for "compassion" for those people who don't have the time to read this board every day - don't you all remember reading many postings in which the person said "I check this board once a week." It used to be that you could just check once a week & be able to see all the postings - not that way any more even if the messages & replies did stay on for 7 days! ANYWAY, REGARDING EXPRESSING COMPASSION TO EACH OTHER - COULDN'T THAT BE EXPRESSED BY AN EMAIL TO THE PERSON INSTEAD OF POSTING ON THE BOARD (granted they do put their email down). SEEMS TO ME IT IS MORE SYMPATHETIC & COMPASSIONATE ANYWAY TO DIRECTLY EMAIL THE PERSON INSTEAD OF POSTING A ONE-SENTENCE REPLY THAT THE WHOLE WORLD SEES. When people email me directly with their comment it DOES FEEL more compassionate & caring than when they post on the board. As far as the comments about me learning more about support groups - YES, that's another reason I say to cut the unnecessary chit-chat - this IS a CAH support message board and IS the only regularly posted-on CAH board on this whole internet. It is just going to get busier and busier as more & more people find this board (us "old-timers" have seen this is happening) -- so given this board is just going to get more & more crowded with people -- we do need to try to control things here.