My experience as a forum participant (R&R forum only [Resource Realizations, the seminar marketing group]) was that the forums themselves are probably 75% sham. Any time I went onto the R&R site, it ALWAYS listed AT LEAST 3-5 people online at the same time, whether it was 12 noon or 3:15AM. There would frequently be a change/addition in number of participants online, but there would be no indication of additional folks submitting messages. Messages were old, and a new single message each week was the norm. Granted, this site is not the busier BBS one, but there still is some traffic. However, other than the gushy effusive "Love and Hugs to all my fellow XXX seminar participants in San Diego [or wherever]. This weekend was AWESOME!!!", the real posts were sporadic and infrequent. Two times mothers posted about uncomfortable feelings from their kids' letters from Dundee. Following immediately were rah-rah letters from other moms (or staff???)...you know, let the kid work it out, he is lying, etc. I forwarded these mother's email to former Dundee parents, and the forum parents were invited to pursue the information if they so desired. I don't know if they did...but I do know that Dundee was shut down for abuse.
In this Fornits thread, I was stunned by Anon posting that *hundreds* of parents post to the BBS every day, and that they can say anything negative they want. I adamantly disagree with that, based on the reports of parents who were there. I did not have access to the BBS; it required a password and student number. Oh, BTW, our grandaughter ocassionally refers "jokingly" to herself as Number 4, her ID number at Casa, used instead of her given name. Makes her sound like something out of the old Patrick McGoowan TV show "The Prisoner", which was about as creepy as any WWASPS facility.
As a testament to the incredible gullibility of WWASPS parents, they may really believe that *hundreds* of parents post every day about the kids they cannot talk to directly, nor send mail to directly, nor check on personally...the kids who have been warehoused "off-site". When I went to the linked site offered on this thread, it turned out to be a password-protected front page. Why did the Anon even bother to post this page? Anyway, that site listed 58 people online when I was there. 58 people??? At midday??? Out of 2000 kids incarcerated, 58 parents are talking with each other on a Tuesday at noon??? This is really stupid, but, if you believe that, then you probably also believe all the fantastic, gushy, desperate plaudits in The Source (each "story" written in the same syntax, the same verbage, the same style...hhmmm...as the editor. What a coincidence!)
BTW, how did I get on the R&R forum site? I asked for a password, and was given one. Simple as that. On the Casa by the Sea site, some areas are public, but others, including photos of the kids, are password protected. My kid said that once a month, they were all rounded up by family, given new clean uniforms (khaki and white, not the navy sweats that "Worksheets" kids live in), posed on bleachers like a grade-school class picture, photographed, and then marched back to Worksheets [or wherever]. So much for checking on the condition of your kid via an Internet home page.
Anyway...I've become a horrible cynic, but WWASPS has tutored me well. Don't believe anything, especially when it is hidden behind the smoke and mirrors of WWASPS.
