I tried WW about three years ago thinking the support would be the key to my finally losing weight. I went on the boards and the people there were HORRIBLE. I'm talking literally outright mean. "Don't be a f***ng idiot...you are b*tsh*t crazy...God, deliver us from noobs" was a VERY common type of comment...AND THIS ON THE NEWBIE BOARD, posted by people who had been on the board for years. Common as in, probably every 2-3 posts.
If anyone said, "We're new here...of course we're going to ask questions," the "gang" would chime in with dozens of sneering, laughing posts: "Newbie Bingo!" with a list of "stupid things newbies say," "Why don't you leave the board if it annoys you?" being one of them and garnering a "B" or whatever. Anyone who tried to defend the new person got screamed and jeered at. One woman who wasn't liked for sticking up for "newbs" was told her son, who was in certain sports, was gay and that the person was "just mad because your son is a f*g," etc.
I'm serious about this. Dead serious. I'm not exaggerating even one word.
Or if someone posted, say, something about TOM being off the month they started WW, the non-newbs (on the newbies board, remember!!!) would sneer and post links to adolescent "Your Period and You" pages and that sort of thing since they were "too g*d d*mned stupid" to be able to "figure out what the hell a period is."
No, I'm not exaggerating. Not even a little.
If anyone said they were rude, they'd ALL gang up and sneer, "We're cranky because we're hungry...and also because newbs are so freaking stupid - slapping forehead" and that sort of thing.
Complaining sometimes got these posts deleted. Rarely did they get anyone banned; it took an act of God to get someone banned. And ten minutes after that person was banned, the same person under a new username would post, "Hi, I used to be --- (old username)" outright, and the person's "friends" would chime in..."I'll bet it was that mentally retarded (some new person's username) that got ya banned, hon" and a string of probably 20 sneering, laughing posts would follow, with the mods doing nothing, including when they ganged up to laugh at a "stoooopid mod" by name (yes, literally by name) to accuse that mod of having been the account deleter.
WW's reason when I contacted them? Because those people were "longtime paying members" and they didn't want to lose those memberships.
Since the low calories were unbearable and the people were horrible, there was really no percentage for me in paying to be humiliated, and I left.
Sorry to be so graphic with the swear words in this post, but people really do need to know. If things have changed in the last three years, please correct me. If you join WW, go to the meetings...don't do the online thing. I can only imagine (hope?) that the meetings are much better than this, and with that support perhaps there's a chance of succeeding.
Last edited by Glendora : Sun, Jan-23-11 at 13:29.
|