Yeah... I stepped into WP (Hmm,. that makes it sound like a dog turd. Unintentional, I assure you!) when I was freshly diagnosed, and the first thread I found was called "So who else likes torturing animals?"
I got the hell outta there fast.
i had a very similar expierience with WP. im glad i found this place, its way more constructive and theres way less mean people.
mean people suck. i find the best way to deal with mean people is usually to kill em with kindness. or just ignore it and move on.
i just read that article...id like to get my hands on one of those machines so i could make some kind of a baby brain wave art exibit.
I post on all three forums. Here mostly. Each is different environments and culture and so you have to have different expectations of each.
I really like AFF. It is small and supportive and very family-ish. It is moderated to a greater extent than the other two forums.
Wrongplanet is not well moderated and has so many members that you can feel really one of the masses. However you also have many posts at any time and thousands upon thousand of diverse opinions. You are also far less likely to run into topics of activism, cure/non-cure, Anti-NT talk and the like which does get to me here sometimes.
INtensitySquared is good fun and a small but fun crowd who do not tend to really get into support type issues so much or the autistic quest for knowledge and so on. They joke around and occasionally give one another a serve.
I guess what I am saying is that if you want support going to i2 is crazy and AFF probably the best choice.
If you like dirty jokes, sexual innuendos, flaming mates, and are thick-skinned with an ability to laugh at yourself and laugh with someone who has just outdone you flaming -wise I2 is good as any place. If you want many, many opinions on many topics and a lot of quick response to your topic and ambivalence in autistic rights Wrongplanet may be your place.
No one place is the be all and end all. They all are or can be useful. Personally. I tend to come here for serious discussion and education and sharing with my friends. I go to i2 to muck around and have fun. I don't much go to wrongplanet. I have probably 1300+ posts here, 250+ at wrongplanet and 200 at i2.
Aliengirl I would stick around here initially until you get some confidence back. I think you are far more "protected" here. Whether you go back to WP is up to you of course. (I strongly advise not to go on I2. I really think that their cutting humour and so forth may be a bit much).
aliengirl: If you ever want to go on the mailing list I co-run, private message me for a link. And if you ever are uncomfortable about something someone posts there, feel free to email me and the other moderators.
We can't stop people from disagreeing with you, but the list is about daily living issues, so we try to keep it on-topic when the off-topic stuff is something that could upset people. (We try to welcome people who believe in all sorts of different views of autism as long as they need help with daily living.) Some people do express views strongly (we're all autistic, bluntness is a given, and sometimes strong language does happen) but at least in one case I know the person doesn't mean any of it hatefully, it's just how he talks. And, for the most part, we're okay there even though lots of us disagree on stuff. So if the topic seems useful, PM me for a link. And that's one place we try really hard (the only exception is basically, if we are both too sick or overloaded to moderate, which happens) to make welcoming to anyone who needs it.
I don't think aliengirl is stupid at all. Most of your posts seem to be very reasoned and intelligent. Perhaps having being labelled as learning disabled has knocked your confidence and set up false beliefs.
Yeah. Even without that label I felt stupid most of my life just by being autistic. I was stunned when a friend treated my ideas as worth hearing, and even more stunned when a large number of people did.
I stop by both AFF and I2 almost daily. If there's something I want to discuss, I usually start a thread here. But sometimes, either I need to curse and swear to get my point across, or otherwise my humor isn't appropriate for kids, so I post on I2. (I especially like the "karma" feature and also the huge selection of dirty emoticons.) Only occasionally do I visit WP. I might post there if I feel like I need to get a wider range of opinions including some that don't agree with me, but that's very rarely.
Each of these sites has its niche. If the online AS community were analogous to a city, WP would be Grand Central Station and I2 would be some sort of nudie-bar/fight-club/rowdy sort of establishment like you might find on the edge of an industrial district. Not sure exactly what AFF would be analogous to.
There's another forum called ZOMG, which I have glanced at a few times. Anyone have any idea what niche that one fills?
Hmmmm....I have always thought of i2 as more of a bunch of rough, foul mouthed and pissed mates at a party kind of atmosphere. Can be fun but not everyone will fit into that environment and culture and it would be pointless going in there with a serious problem....but then you would not go to a wild party and start consulting people about a support issue either. It does not make the people there bad. It is a culture.
AFF is similarly a great site for its intended purpose but coming here to swear, goof around, abuse and make fun of each other and be rude is probably not going to be in your interests. If you were to do this and get a bad time it is not because the people here are bad. Again it is a culture.
Similar things can be said for WP.
ZOMG. I dunno I was thinking about joining but the constant Starbuline threads I found depressing and put me off. (Don't get me wrong I did not know Starbuline very well but she did seem sweet and it was sad) I suspect it is similar to each of these sites in some respects.
Hmmmm.....maybe none of you should go on I2.
I missed the offense or reason for apology
No being silly. This is far more a serious and respectful place. An offense is apologise regardless of intent or meaning.
This is one of the characteristics you won't find on too many forums and it is nice.
I'm another one who goes lots of different places. I prefer places that don't devolve into constant flamewars. And I've got a pretty thick skin a lot of the time but that comes from being treated like crap in so many ways that after awhile it just becomes normal.
As far as I know, bullying is not an NT behavior. It is generally a behavior of people who are able to assume certain kinds of power in a social group. Autistic people (as a group) are less likely to bully because we rarely get to that kind of power, not because we're inherently better about that than anyone else. We possess the full range of human character flaws.
Also, what I find really strange is going to AFF and reading something about "not like those people on WP who ______________" and then going to WP and reading something about "not like those people on AFF who _____________" and sometimes that blank space is filled by something identical in both places.
Don't listen to those idiots... you know that AFF is the better place to be!
At least you know that "Batman55" resides in these parts... WP cannot say the same.
Thanks Rossco - I won't go to I2.
I will stay in contact with my friends from WP but I don't think I will bother posting in the forum anymore.
I'm still trying to find a forum for people with mild learning difficulties, but no such thing seems to exist.
It would be great if there were a community specifically for non-high functioning autistics with learning difficulties.
As much as I like AFF, I often feel like I am too stupid to contribute to some topics and I'm scared I'll embarrass myself.
I heard Batman also feels it like that sometimes.
May make the forums so that people who're not interested in complicated discussions wont have to see them all the time. Different sections.
Stop me if I'm thinking of Apartheid.
I heard Batman also feels it like that sometimes.
Way to fulfill my negative prophecy even more. No, I think I may have some gifts but I'm dragged down from learning disabilities--Soccerfreak explained this phenomenon as being "twice exceptional."
Therefore, I don't belong to the "too dull to contribute" crowd. I'm above that.
May make the forums so that people who're not interested in complicated discussions wont have to see them all the time. Different sections.
Forgive me--I hadn't gone beyond the first statement in your presumptuous post!
Now to the second one: There is no discussion too complicated for me.
There are discussions that have a lot of variables and viewpoints flying back and forth, and a lot of reading to be done, which I don't take part in because my attention span (I have significant ADD) doesn't "last long enough" to take it all in. This is not the sign of a "dull" person as you suggest I am (thank you for pigeonholing me), it is the sign of someone with ADD.
And once again, I'm "above" the learning disabled crowd--it is true that I have a learning disability or two, but I also have cognitive gifts, so I prefer to hang with the intellectuals and sometimes I do a half-decent job of it. Twice-exceptional--not one-dimensional.
Sorry, it wasn't meant like that.
my response to all this is best summed up with callistas response.
It makes me sad that there is so much argument between people who ought to work together.
cant we agree on some things and disagree on others? id hate to see us all divided between "intillegent" and "learning disabled". nobody here(on earth) is one without the other. we are stronger as a whole than divided.
in other words...
i love this place and it wouldnt be nearly as good without batman and aliengirl. your opinions are greatly valued and i think i speak for everyone here, at least on this matter.
in other words...
i love this place and it wouldnt be nearly as good without batman and aliengirl. your opinions are greatly valued and i think i speak for everyone here, at least on this matter.
Yup that is how I feel
Now as to sex talk on forums.
If you are wanting general threads on sex. Without snickering and/or going puritanical, WP does have a section set up for that.
I2? well if you think no one will "hit on you" when you join up, then you are going to be sorely disappointed. In fact that is half the fun. You are fresh meat and have to expect it and roll with it. Not for everyone
Why are people mean and why did he use bad language to me?
Some people have an uncurable mental disease, called NT.
It causes them to be sometimes extremly unlogic and enjoy to use words like "suffering from" for all all kinds of other words, like "have" or "be" or what ever.
Just be a little generous, and try not try to teach them.
Let them chat with people of their kind, and they are happy.
There is no cure for it, and they will never understand, how serious their condition is, not how to use certain words properly.
Just stay away from them.
Why exactly should I stay away from my daughter?
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