Curious - Open or Closed
Personally I'm OK with it either way.
In my neck of the woods we have 'Closed' AA meetings where ONLY alcoholics are in attendance. This allows me to open up and share things that only another alcoholic would be able to understand.
We also have 'Open' meetings where family, friends and even the 'just curious' are allowed to attend. They are allowed to give their opinions and offer advice from whatever viewpoint they come from.
The way SR is set up there are several forums going and as long as you are a member of SR you can take part in any of them. But should we?
If you as 'Friends and Family of Alcoholics' want to have this forum closed, where all conversation threads come as opinions from friends and family, I'm sure that most that aren't in this category would respect that.
On the other hand, do you want the other perspective? Do you want to hear from the former alcoholic bad spouses, family, or friends that have gotten better and can possibly give you insite into how to help yours.
Personally, I am a recoverying alcoholic/addict. I have never had a wife or kids when I was still using, but I did have an alcoholic father when I was growing up and a mom, dad, 2 sisters, 2 brothers, grandma, and a host of others that were watching me destroy myself, and them during those days.
In addition, I am now married to a recoving alcoholic, so I feel that I'm qualified to speak from either prospective. I can keep my opinions to the 'Friend and Family' vector, the 'Alcoholic' vector, or both.
As I said at the beginning - I'm OK with it either way, but I think it needs to be made clear one way or the other. Perhaps there should be 2 forums. One closed, one open.