After losing their HONCode accreditation earlier this year, it appears HealthyPlace has taken another hit, this time to its self-help support communities.

As its members list and latest posts show, its once-thriving support forums seemed to have been taken over by spammers. People who’ve tried to contact the site’s owners have had no response. Meanwhile, Wyeth’s Pristiq advertisements continue to display next to posts for penis enlargement and video porn, making one wonder if Wyeth is even aware of what’s going on over at HealthyPlace.com.

Since nobody seems to know what’s going on, and nobody seems able to contact the owner, we’re posting on behalf of the stranded members of HealthyPlace — please, help your users and let them know what’s going on. And if we can help in any way to get your community back online, please contact us.

This is not the first time we noted when a previously vibrant online community has gone offline unexpectedly. Maintaining an online community is challenging, and you have to be as committed to it as you are for the rest of your site; good intentions alone are simply not enough.

Read a sample post from HealthyPlace (HP) at the end of October about the issue: HealthyPlace.com Forums: HP ADMIN SUX – BET THIS POST IS DELETED

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 14 Nov 2008
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.