Genuine PhD-dom isn't all misery, bitterness, sarcasm and unpleasantless. At least not in my department.

All I'm saying is that I've been pleasantly surprised lately to see a few posters actually responding tactfully to the sillier questions instead of tearing people down. I mostly ignore those threads myself. If you've got nothing nice to say etc...

Just out of interest, have you actually answered a question catchianthe?

I guess the reason the company runs this forum is because the constant updates on it helps boosts the search rating for the phd funding part of the website that gives them revenue. The higher up the search ratings the website is, the more they can ask from universities to advertise PhDs. Thus they have little interest in the content of this forum itself. Thus it is actually those seeking funding that mean this forum is here in the first place. As far as I'm aware the organisation that runs this forum is a profit making business not a charity.

Since finding this forum I'm actually amazed at some of the problems that people encounter as apart form the usual stress of 'life' my PhD was nothing like anyone elses on here and I never had any issues with groups / supervisors / students. Saying that, I was given a lot of support by strangers when I was just submitting and having my viva and I really appreciate the fact someone who didn't know me, took the time to reply...

I think 'harsh' messages fall into 2 categories.. they're either constructive criticism, in which case.. it might not be nice, but it's something for the OP to build on... or they're pointless abuse, in which case, that person shouldn't have posted.

I don't reply to the funding questions... but I don't post on them... I try and help when I can and if I think 'Oh For crying out loud.. get a grip'.. I tend to click off and read something else...

According to the administrators in my department, findaphd.com charges very little to advertise (about 1/10 compared to Nature and New Scientist) and many more appplicants cite it as the place where they saw the project advertised. So no bad-mouthing please because it seems to be a very good resource. But I agree that people should distinguish between the discussion boards and the actual 'finding a PhD' part of the site.

**But I agree that people should distinguish between the discussion boards and the actual 'finding a PhD' part of the site.**

Absolutely agree. I think the intergration of the forum within the whole "find a PhD" umbrella is misleading. While I appreciate that there are those out there who are lazy and cannot be bothered to put in the legwork to look for funding, etc, there are equally those who probably don't realise the protocol too. It's not clear - we wouldn't repeatedly receive these requests otherwise.

I think the forum needs a complete overhaul anyway, given the suggestions that have been posed on the 'Improvements' thread (Off Topics). Rules, regs and forum etiquette should be placed in a "sticky" at the top of the thread list.

I couldn't agree more. A little bit of work by the Moderators would resolve much of these issues at a stroke.