Email to Laura Feldcamp
I would like you to do me a favour. I would like you to evaluate my idea for a new schizophrenia app/website. If you think it seems promising then I might implement it myself. In case CAMH wants to implement it then I would want them to acknowledge that whatever they build will have been based on an idea dreamt up by one of their outpatients, and my name would appear as part of that web-based (or app-based) acknowledgement. The rest of this email describes my idea.
I propose to invent a version of Twitter just for those living with schizophrenia. This proposed Twitter work-alike is immune to trolls and needs no moderators. Whenever a new user registers, she or he must give their first name and hometown, including state/province and country, as well as their birthday (day and month). The hometown must exist in a geographic database (an online atlas), otherwise they must pick another hometown. The first name must be no longer than 20 chars. (or 25 chars. if it contains at least one space). Whenever a user name is displayed, the first 12 chars. of the user's first name and the first 3 chars. of the user's hometown are displayed, along with an icon corresponding to the user's astrological sign. Clicking on any part of that user name info displays the full version: full first name, hometown, state/province, country, and the name of the user's astrological sign. In case the hometown contains spaces and/or hyphens, then the 2 or 3 chars. displayed correspond to the first letters in each part of the name of that hometown (e.g. New York City = NYC).
Whenever a user publishes a post (which may have an attached image/link/video), it can be public (the default), or just for followers. Users can search for public posts by entering keywords, similar to a search engine, and the top 10 search results are displayed. Every post has an arbitrary size limit of say 500 or 1000 chars. If the user clicks on a search result, that user can optionally follow the user who published the post. Once a user follows another user, both users can send each other private messages, and any private message can be copied to an arbitrary no. of users who follow or are followed by the user sending the message. Any user is free to unfollow another user or permanently/temporarily block a following user at any time. Any follower of the user who published the post is allowed to comment on that post. Any user is free to enter the email of a friend, which automatically sends an email to that friend inviting her or him to join the new app/website.
In case a new user (picking a new name) or an existing user (changing her or his name) picks a fake and inappropriate first name such as Hitler or something too racy or profane (or racist, sexist, etc.), then in the next 12 months anyone is free to report that user for picking an inappropriate first name. Should that happen 3 times (3 different users complain in the first 12 months) then a trial by jury takes place. Eleven random users are selected as jury members (the 3 or more users who complained are ineligible to serve on the jury). All jury members vote on whether the user's name is acceptable (the default selection is yes). The majority rules: if the user loses the election then she or he must pick a new first name. Users cannot complain over and over, in order to prevent users from maliciously ganging up on some poor user whose first name is valid (isn't actually inappropriate).
If this app/website is successful just for schizophrenia then users can pick up to 3 diagnoses such as sz, bipolar, or depression. Users can select any one of their up to 3 diagnoses at any given time, which filters posts/followers by the selected diagnosis.
I propose to call this app/website Psyvaspace. I already own the psyvaspace.org domain name, which corresponds to an old software project of mine which is currently dormant and unlikely to be implemented. The "va" in Psyvaspace comes from Java. I would use Java to implement the app, or probably also for the website, depending on whether Psyvaspace is an app or a website. (I rarely use Twitter and I don't really know hardly anything about using that site, also I don't like Facebook very much.)
Thank you for taking the time to read this paragraph, and I hope you read the previous paragraphs; I know this is rather a lengthy email. I look forward to hearing from you and finding out what you think of my Psyvaspace idea. Keep up the good work handling and working with A4i study participants. Good luck with that app, and thanks again for reading this far.