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Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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 Posted - 09/20/2007 : 10:24:45
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Dear Members,
I would like to ask you what you think of this proposal.
"FACE BOOK"-LIKE PERSONAL BLOG FOR EACH MEMBER
We are about to create a "Face Book" like addition to our community. Basically, we propose to give each member their own blog. Like "Face Book", this personal blog would have a "wall" on which the blog owner and his/her visiting friends could leave their comments. The blog owner could also post pictures or videos (they personally have made, not pirated) in this blog. Access to this blog would be controlled by the blog owner (using a "friends" and "ignore" list). The blog owner would always stay anonymous, so pictures etc. would never give their real identity.
"PRIVATE MENTORING" IN THIS PERSONAL BLOG
An additional feature of this personal blog would be "private mentoring".
The blog owner would be able to invite one person in our community to be his/her personal mentor. The mentor would have to be an adult and of the same sex as the blog owner. Requests for a mentor would have to be submitted to our administrative staff who would make the necessary arrangements. We would ensure that certain popular community members were not over-loaded with requests for their being a mentor.
There would be a private message space or "wall" in the personal blog for the blog owner to communicate with his/her mentor. Other visitors to the blog would not be able to see these private messages.
Thus the blog owner would benefit from the comments of his/her friends, as well as the private communication in the blog with his/her mentor.
PRIVACY
Internet search engines will not gain access to these blogs. Thus Google (etc.) will not index the contents of these anonymous personal blogs. Therefore only invited friends will ever be able to read the blog.
SUPERVISION
In order to ensure that these personal blogs remain therapeutic, periodically a member of our administrative staff would monitor their contents. Likewise, the blogs would have a "notify administrator" button. We have a medical and ethical responsibility to ensure the safety of our community members using these blogs. Also, our present code of ethics would also apply to these blogs.
WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
Our community discussions are extremely beneficial. However, we believe there also is an important role for private communication with a few friends, and with a mentor.
The development of this proposed personal blog seems to be the next logical step in the evolution of our community.
This is just in the early stages of development (but will be running by October). I would greatly appreciate your feedback on this proposal.
Phil Long M.D.
Administrator 
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| e-pea
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
5919 Posts
Gratitude: 1353
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Posted - 09/23/2007 : 14:08:05
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| sounds pretty cool. neat idea. |
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| aquamarine
Amazing Member (1000+ posts)
1238 Posts
Gratitude: 325
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Posted - 09/23/2007 : 21:29:54
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I worry about a couple things:
1) "friends" who can view. vs. those who cannot...might make others feel otracized, or unliked...in fact they would be "unwelcome". That could hurt some people's feelings.
2) I don't get that the mentor must be the "same sex"...is it to prevent relationships? If so, what about people who are gay, or lesbian or bisexual? I don't think we need the same sex policy if, like you say you are monitoring the blogs.
As long as we have the option not to be involved I think for some it would be great.
...Aqua
Good points Aqua, Refusing Entry To A Personal BlogIn Face Book, the blog owner specifies who are the "friends" that can enter the blog. We may differ from Face Book, in that I'm thinking that we could have 3 levels of readership of the personal blog. - "Public": Parts of the blog could be for everyone to read. Only "pests" would be excluded, but everyone else could enter the blog to read these "public" postings.
- "Friends only": No one would specifically ask to be the blog owner's friend. The blog owner would secretly grant the status of "friend" to certain visitors. "Friends" then could read special posts marked as "for friends only". This way, the "non-friends" would never realize that they were being excluded from reading certain posts. Likewise, when a "friend" responds to a "friends only" post; their response would not be displayed to "non-friends".
- "Mentor only": The blog owner could communicate privately with his/her mentor, and this communication would not be seen by anyone else.
Mentors Being The Same Sex As The Member The "same sex" provision is borrowed from AA. In AA they discourage opposite sexed sponsors (mentors) because of their bad experiences with people seeing sponsors as potential romantic partners. We appreciate that some of our members are lonely and lacking a romantic partner. Somehow, we want to stress that a mentor is very different from a friend or potential romantic partner. A mentor must be objective and caring without being overly emotionally involved with the member. Our community will have to work out clear guidelines on the role of a mentor, and how it isn't synonymous with just being a good friend. The model for a mentor that comes to mind is that of a therapist. A therapist is expected to be warm and caring, but not to be the patient's "friend". A therapist must have the emotional distance and objectivity to honestly tell the patient the truth. A therapist must also have understanding that comes from years of experience (or training). In addition, a therapist must be mentally well and able to "set reasonable limits" on the demands of the patient. We don't expect our mentors to be therapists, but I believe the therapist-patient model of interpersonal conduct would be a good model to emulate. We should put it to a vote whether members and their mentors should be of the same sex. It is a very interesting question. Phil Long M.D.
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| Niney
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
2393 Posts
Gratitude: 640
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Posted - 09/24/2007 : 22:59:24
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I agree with Dr. Long on the mentor issue. I believe the mentor should be the same sex as the person looking for a mentor. Otherwise it could get complicated.
Niney
"Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible."
Helen Keller
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 09/29/2007 : 17:05:01
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Dear Members,
The New Personal Blogs Are Almost Here
We have almost finished creating our new personal blogs. These blogs will include all the features currently in our Profiles (e.g., My Mood Calendar, My Thoughts, etc.) as well as all the features in My Diary (for paid subscription members).
There will be 2 bulletin boards in each personal blog. One bulletin board is for visitors and friends. The other bulletin board is reserved just for the communication between the blog owner and his/her mentor. The blog owner will decide whether or not they want their mentor to view their (paid subscription) diary.
Bulletin Boards For Special Interest Groups
Within a personal blog, the blog owner can create a separate bulletin board for a special interest group (e.g., Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). The blog owner can then post a notice in our community that this new special interest bulletin board exists in their blog. The blog owner then becomes the administrator for all the posts in their blog of that special interest group.
In this way, our administrative staff can delegate our administrative duties to the blog owner to run his/her own special interest group.
Three Levels Of Readership
The blog owner will identify if each post in the blog is:
- "Public": for everyone to read.
- "Friends Only": for only "friends" to read.
- "Mentor Only": for only his/her mentor to read.
The blog owner will secretly select who is a "friend". Thus, unlike FaceBook, members will not apply to the blog owner to be a "friend" to get access to the blog. Every member will have access to the "public" part of the personal blog; but only "friends" will see the posts that the blog owner marks as "for friends only".
Likewise, only the mentor will see the posts that the blog owner marks "for mentor only".
Pictures, Audio and Video Files
The owner of the personal blog can post pictures, audio and video files for other members to view. Because we are legally responsible for the content of these blogs; our administrative staff will periodically check all of our personal blogs for forbidden content (e.g., hate literature or pornography etc.).
Visitors to these personal blogs can click on the "Notify Administrator" button if they find objectionable content.
We currently have these personal blogs running, but we have to finish our beta testing before they will be released. I think Mark has done a fantastic job, and we will be releasing these blogs next weekend.
Phil Long M.D.
Administrator
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 09/29/2007 : 17:15:45
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Dear Members,
I would like to have feedback about your use of FaceBook. What features do you like best about FaceBook?
We would like to program the most popular features of FaceBook into our new personal blogs.
Phil Long M.D.
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| Altered
Starting Member
2 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2007 : 22:24:06
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Well, I used to use Facebook, until I re-read their terms of use agreement. Facebook says in their user agreement that basically, you grant them copyrights to your images, posts, videos, everything posted on Facebook, from here to eternity, as long as they remain on Facebook. I doubt it would hold up in a court of law, if someone sued Facebook, but I'm not willing to wait for that day. So, I deleted my account there, as have many friends of mine that were using Facebook as a place to show friends their art work.
Here's the section of their Terms of Use that I'm referring to:
"By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."
You can read the rest of their Terms of Use here: http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
So, if these blogs are being patterned on Facebook, I would have to ask what your Terms of Use are going to be. Would we retain all rights to everything in our blogs, whether or not we deleted the content? I would also recommend that the powers that be here take at look at The Experience Project, here: http://www.experienceproject.com/. There are some similarities between Facebook and The Experience Project, but The Experience Project is more in-depth, in the ways that people can express themselves and relate to others.
And I would have to agree about same-sex mentoring relationships, with exceptions for those that are gay. It's just wise in a therapeutic setting to try to minimize the risk of romantic attachments that can form when trying to gain mental health. Romance and therapy is just a recipe for disaster, and can cause incredible setbacks for people trying to learn to form trusting, healthy relationships. So, for our gay and lesbian friends in therapy, it would perhaps be wise to have opposite sex mentors. The only exception to this, I think, would be for folks that don't want their sexual orientation known, just because if it's known they have an opposite sex mentor, that's effectively outing them, before they may be ready.
So, for mentoring relationships, I think it's good that they are subject to approval, so all of these factors can be evaluated. As long as the goal is to minimize the chance of romantic interactions between mentor and "student", then I'm all for it. If the goal is only "We have to use same-sex mentors, period, end of discussion.", then no, that's just silly, and isn't sensitive to what gay and lesbian people may need.
I Agree With You Altered, You are extremely well versed on these issues - many thanks! We will be the opposite of FaceBook. Namely, the member will own everything in their personal blog (not us). Thus our artistic members can safely post their art without fear of losing ownership of their art. Administratively, the only right we would have to retain is the right to delete objectionable material from a member's blog (or ban the member). We will specify that a mentor has to be of the same sex for our straight members, and of the opposite sex for our gay and lesbian members. (It's not perfect, but we will explain this rule is to discourage misusing the mentoring service as a dating service.) Keep your suggestions coming Altered; you're really making us think! Phil Long M.D.
Administrator |
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| EmergingArtist
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
9136 Posts
Gratitude: 952
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Posted - 09/30/2007 : 08:09:48
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quote:
Originally posted by PhilLongMD
Dear Members,
What features do you like best about FaceBook?
Hello Dr. Long,
I like the edit profile feature where I can rearrange my page, collapse/minimize photos and info.
-EA
unemployed
thirty-one-year-old Korean-American
married woman
diagnosed bipolar 1993
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 10/06/2007 : 17:21:38
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Dear Members,
If our beta-testing goes well, Mark will be giving us all our new personal blogs tomorrow (Oct.7/07). In subsequent weeks, we will add some very important features to these personal blogs.
Version One of Our Personal Blogs
Every member who has posted at least 15 times will receive their own personal blog. A member will be able to create/delete forums, boards, and topics within his/her blog.
- Members will post their comments on any "topic".
- There can be numerous "topics" to a "board".
- There can be numerous "boards" to a "forum".
The blog owner will be able to delete the posts of anyone writing in his/her blog.
Since the blog owner can create new forums, he/she can then easily create a forum for a special interest group (like "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder") within his/her blog. Other members then could be invited to post in this new special interest forum.
The following features (previously found in the member's "Profile") will be transferred to the member's personal blog:
- "My Mood Calendar" (which can be made public/private)
- "My Social Network" (which can be made public/private)
- "My Thoughts" (which is always public)
Any member of our community will be able to view the posts in this first version of our personal blogs, but visitors not registered with our community will not be able to access these blogs. Likewise, internet search engines (like Google) will not be able to gain access to these personal blogs.
Second Version of Our Personal Blogs
Next weekend, we will release our second version of our personal blogs. The blog owner will have the ability to designate certain members as being "friends". The blog owner will be able to restrict access to certain forums only to his/her "friends".
This feature is unlike FaceBook. In our personal blogs, community members will not ask to be given a "friend" status. Instead, (secretly) the blog owner will designate who will be given "friend" status (without being asked).
Thus, in the second version of our personal blogs, the blog owner will be able to have 2 types of forums: public, and private (visible only to "friends").
Third Version of Our Personal Blogs
The following weekend, we will release our third version of our personal blogs. The blog owner will have the ability to designate one other member as being "mentor". The blog owner will be able to restrict access to certain forums only to his/her "mentor". In this way, the blog owner and mentor will be able to have a private conversation hidden from the view of the rest of our community.
We will discuss more about this mentorship program in 2 weeks.
Purpose
We are creating these personal blogs so that our members can have a private, secure place to communicate with their friends (and mentor).
Also, our new personal blogs will permit our members to run their own forums and special interest groups (complete with pictures, audio and video files).
I welcome your feedback on this proposal.
Phil Long M.D.
Administrator
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 10/07/2007 : 14:15:15
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Dear Members,
Every member who has posted 15 or more times, now has their own personal blog.
You access your blog by clicking on the gold "My Blog" button on the menu in the upper left of the screen (underneath "My Picture").
You can visit my blog at:
http://www.mytherapy.com/discussion/mytopicblog.asp?uid=2326&topicid=76235&page=
Have fun with your new blogs !
Phil Long M.D.
Administrator
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 10/14/2007 : 14:07:36
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Dear Members,
We Now Can Assign "Friends" To View Our Personal Blogs
We have a new feature for our personal blogs. The blog owner will be able to select his/her "Friends" from a list of all our members (who have posted at least 15 times).
"Friends" will be able to access the blog owner's private forums that have been designated for "Friends Only".
This "Friends" Feature Is Different From FaceBook
We will assign our "Friends" privately (to avoid upsetting others who aren't designated as a "Friend"). Thus our members will not apply/ask to be put on another member's "Friend" list.
The owner of the blog will never tell others who is or isn't on his/her "Friends" list. When members enter a personal blog; they can't determine at first glance if they are, or are not, on the blog owners "Friends" list. All they see on entering the blog are a number of forums. However, if they were on the blog owner's "Friend" list, they would see additional forums that are (secretly) designated "For Friends Only".
Why Have Parts Of A Personal Blog "For Friends Only"?
There are a number of reasons why we wanted to give more privacy to our members:
- We want to promote closer friendships in our community: We want to support close, confiding relationships between friends in our community. However, quite appropriately, our members shy away from confiding to others in a public place (especially if it can be "Googled"). Thus we created these private personal blogs.
- These personal blogs can't be accessed by internet search engines (e.g. Google).
- Access to the public parts of these new personal blogs is restricted to those members who have posted more than 15 times.
- Access to the private parts of these new personal blogs is restricted to those members who have been designated by the blog owner as being his/her "Friends".
- We want to let our members form private, special interest groups: There are many groups that lack their own private meeting place within our community (e.g., Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual groups, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder groups, Addiction groups [to porn, sex, as well as alcohol/drugs] etc.). Now, a member can form such a private special interest group in the privacy of his/her own blog. The blog owner will be able to control who accesses the private special interest group by assigning membership only to "Friends". Likewise, the blog owner will be able to function as the administrator of the private, special interest group (with the ability to delete anyone's posts in the blog).
- We want to show your "Friends" on a "Social Network" calendar: This calendar will show the daily "mood" of each of your friends, and link to their posts in our public community. All that is required is that your friends daily fill in their mood in their Mood Calendar. In this way, at a glance, you can see how your friends are, and what they are posting.
- We want to prevent predatory individuals from abusing our community: There is a legal requirement that websites protect their users from sexual predators or other lawless individuals who prey on the unsuspecting. FaceBook now is facing a major legal accusation that they have failed to protect their members from such predatory individuals. We believe that our personal blogs will protect our private, confidential communication from being viewed (and abused) by these predators.
Where Are We Going?
We believe that social networking websites serve an important function to bring people together. However, for our mental health community, we believe that both public and private communication must be supported.
There is a feature of FaceBook that is troubling. I don't think individuals should ask to be given "Friend" status. It is very upsetting when someone asks to be a "Friend"; but is rejected.
In our personal blog, no member will have to apply for "Friend" status. In fact, no member will even know if they have "Friend" status in the blog. In this way, we believe that we are protecting our members from being pressured to give "Friend" status to strangers. Likewise, we hope to prevent members from feeling rejected by not receiving "Friend" status.
We hope you like these new personal blogs.
Phil Long M.D.
Administrator
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 10/27/2007 : 12:45:48
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Dear Members,
We Have A New "Senior Members" Calendar
Mark has given us a new calendar, called "Senior Members". This calendar shows the daily posts and "mood cards" of each of our Senior Members (i.e., any member with more than 100 posts).
Clicking on the name of the member will take you to their blog. Clicking on the "view post" command will take you to their post for that day. Enjoy!
Phil Long M.D.
Administrator
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 10/27/2007 : 13:22:25
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Dear Members,
4 Levels of Readership For Your Personal Blogs
You will soon be able to designate 4 levels of access to your blog forums:
- "Public": for everyone to read
- "Senior Members Only": restricted to only those members having 100+ posts.
- "Friends Only": restricted to only those members you have selected as "Friends".
- "Mentor Only": restricted to only the other member you have selected to be your "Mentor".
Please Don't Ask To Be On Someone's "Friend" List
We want to avoid what is happening at FaceBook with their assigning of "friend" status. Total strangers are pressuring FaceBook members to give them "Friend" status. This proves very embarrassing for many FaceBook members who just want to restrict their FaceBook to the friends they know.
We are trying to avoid this problem by not having members in our community ask to be on another member's "Friends" list. Members in our community will assign their "Friends" privately.
In a blog, a "non-friend" member will not be shown the forums that are designated "Friends Only". Thus, just by looking at a blog, a member will not know if they have "Friend" or non-friend status.
It is our hope that this will better protect the privacy of our members; as well as protect the feelings of other members who aren't on the blog owner's "Friends" list.
Phil Long M.D.
Administrator
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| Niney
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
2393 Posts
Gratitude: 640
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Posted - 11/03/2007 : 14:25:01
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Hi Dr. Long or Mark,
I have a suggestion for the new blogs. I would find it really helpful if when we reply to a post that we could see the post we are replying to. I like to be able to refer back to the post to make sure I am addressing any questions or subjects I'd like to comment on. I don't always remember everything that was said in the post.
Niney
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
-- Angela Monet
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| Niney
Incredible Member (2000+ posts)
2393 Posts
Gratitude: 640
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Posted - 11/03/2007 : 15:42:18
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Here I am again. I'm trying to insert a photo and when I use the "insert image" button all that happens is I get this [img][img]. I can't figure out how to post the photo.
Also, are we going to be able to preview, edit or delete our posts in the blogs?
Niney
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
-- Angela Monet
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| Administrator
Administrator
15007 Posts
Gratitude: 3353
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Posted - 11/03/2007 : 16:15:19
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Hi Niney,
Re: Seeing Who Is Posting
In your blog, you can see who has posted before and after your post if you are in the forums that initially come up as you click "My Blog".
You can't see who has responded to your posts in your blog's "My Thoughts".
Re: Inserting Pictures in a Blog
We will shortly have a better way of inserting pictures into our blogs that using the present "Insert Image" {img}{/img} command. Mark will soon implement our usual "Upload Image" command (that allows you to post pictures from your own computer or the internet).
The trick to the {img}{/img} command is that you have to paste the URL address of the picture between the first "{img}" and the last "{/img}".
Thus, in this example:
I wrote the code as:
{center}{img}http://www.mytherapy.com/discussion/thumb/XLIPYKQLGYXJMMVBABKNQZWQWPELIONH.jpg{/img}{/center}
Note: I have substituted "{" for "[" etc. so that you could see this code.
Phil Long M.D.
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New "Face Book"-like Personal Blog
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