My name is Drew and I am a former member. I am disgusted and appalled by the way Louise Maxwell has her favorite members gain up on other people and purposely intimidates people to get what she wants. I was in a relationship with someone who Louise obviously had a beef with for whatever reason it was and she threatened to kick me out if I didn't break it off with this woman. It even disgusted my real life family and I have even spoken to counsellors and therapists and in their own opinions, say that this site is toxic for a person's mental well-being. Louise is not professional psychologist and does not have the proper education or background to help people with mental disabilities, but understands the mentally disabled well enough to use their weaknesses against them and take advantage of it. And she encourages bullying from her favorite members. Several other members made inappropriate advances towards me and she did absolutely nothing to help. There's also tons of gossip and drama in her chat room, creating a perfect hostile environment. And she will purposely try to ban people as means of isolating people from their friends if she doesn't get what she wants from them. I resigned out of protest because of this and encourage this to anyone who has fallen victim to Louise and her favorite members' bullying. Oh one more thing Louise if you or your cronies are reading this, I have started my own group and chat room with several other former and current members, so in spite of all your harassment and bullying, my friendships with them remain stronger than ever.

I've been a member of Soulful Encounters nearly from the beginning and recall most of those complaining. Interestingly a chat room by design is a free flow of idea's, flirting and humor. It would be impossible and dull as hell to have any one person demand compliance to what they perceived to be good form. That turns a chat room into a pit of despair which is no fun except for the person with the impossible demands. Sadly there's also a second site overflow to Facebook which is a different entity altogether. Soulful Encounters obviously has no control over what goes on off site. Louise and Soulful Encounter tirelessly strives to provide a safe hassle free environment for all. Pleasing everyone all the time is an unfortunate impossibility but a really good goal. Frankly from my experience the overwhelming majority of people that felt others were talking about them never engaged in chat except to be offended by a conversation that had nothing to do with them. Life is what it is. You can't demand people think as you do.

Furthermore, to get booted from Soulful Encounters requires a massive amount of bad manners on a members part. Aside from scammer (obviously) nearly everyone that has been booted made REPEATED unwelcome advances towards others. When this occurs they're asked politely to stop. That seem beyond fair. Even if they fail to take the hint the "Ignore" button is the second line of defense. Only the hardy few that really really can't take a polite hint are thus booted. For those familiar with abusive personalities a defining characteristic is to deflect the guilt of their poor life choice towards others. Interesting.

On a personal note as a veteran I welcome others claiming to be veterans with a cordial military greeting. It was never my intention to bust several fake vets and certainly not the mission of Soulful Encounters. Louise feels terrible about those incident which I take sole responsibility. Again it was my mistake to push several "veterans" for clarification about their service even if my motives were pure. For the fake Sailor claiming to have been a member of Seal Team 6 you have my personal apology. On that occasion my honest questioning turned into a less than polite exchange which again was not the responsibility of Soulful Encounters. It was I that lost my cool and not Soulful Encounters. As I recall you offered your story on the anniversary of the Beirut Bombing. This is a personal dark day in my military past I use to honor my friends that were killed. I offer that explanation not as an excuse but clarification to those thinking of joining Soulful Encounters. By the time Louise had discovered the unfolding exchange it was over. Please don't blame her or Soulful Encounters for my actions.

In summation; no one and most certainly not the Internet is perfect. If you wish to engage in a free flow of ideas that is as spammer free as humanly possible then Soulful Encounters is the place for you. There will always be negative people in the world. But for ever really dull bitter person you're likely to meet a dozen happy well adjusted souls.

Carl S. a.k.a. Gimpydog

While I was a member, members in the room made some comments wich I found rude, Louise would read these and do nothing about it, the most she may do about it is laugh. Everyone in the room is too busy getting involved in peoples personal affairs including Louise, these individuals would even talk about you behind your back. This just makes me curious of what they said about me, behind my back. While members would make rude or bad comments, and if another member would make a comment wich is not as rude or bad they would be kicked off the site. In my opinion Louise has favorites and treats those members as so, while she treats other members differently instead treating everyone the same and taking actions when needed. Not sure, how true this is, but I heard the sites not doing to good, but, if the site would be terminated I myself would be please and I beleave others would be as-well. There-fore if I ever hear someone talking about joining Soulful Encounters I will do my very best to talk them out of it. This is un-professional, dis-honest site wich I cannot wait until there dis-continued, I'm surprised they even made it this far.