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I think these have already been mentioned in this thread, but anyway:

1. The frequency of meet-up requests doesn't warrant the creation of dedicated forums to handle them - threads pop up occasionally in Members Only or Random Discussion and last for a week or so as the event is planned.
It's a simple matter for interested parties to bookmark them in their browser.

2. The method used here is pretty standard (BBCode tags) and this, or other very similar techniques, is used on many forums.
The image isn't physically included within the post because that would mean a huge change to the WP storage requirements. It would also increase loading on the server because of the additional bandwidth required to download the image, and thus increase costs.
A link to where the image sits is embedded instead because it's much more efficient from a storage consideration and more in keeping with the way the web works.
There are many companies available out there charging very little (small-use accounts are often free) to host images: PhotoBucket, ImageShack, imgur, etc and like the free smilies I mentioned earlier, can provide ready-formatted strings to simply copy/paste into your post or PM here to have an image displayed.

I can live without the option of posting pictures here.

However if we had the forum United States divided into 4 sub forums southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwestern regions than I bet there would be a decent amount of activity as far as meet ups and other random topics.

That idea, aside from the "likes" is worth at least experimenting with for 6 months-1 year to see how much interest it gauges.

But the site isn't really about meet-ups and random topics - it's a resource and community for Autism and Asperger's etc and while there is some social spin-off from this, it's not the main aim of the site and history has already shown that what little meet-up activity there is is handled adequately by the existing structure.

You speak of adding functionality to WP as if it's a simple matter of lazily waving a hand or clicking on a button somewhere.
It's not.
This functionality does not exist and must be written from scratch - time-consuming and expensive, never mind the debugging and testing - so there never will be a 6 month experiment to see how a "like" button goes because the "like" button doesn't exist, and there is no imperative to create it.
As I said - the forum software as it stands is not under active development; WP is also about the text of posts. While there are certainly some annoying bugs, the general sense appears to be that this purpose is served adequately at least.
As it was in 2009:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp2326311.html#2326311


Would you like to PM me with details of the problems you're having with posting images?
It's curious (to me, anyway) that you said the free smilies mentioned earlier didn't work - yet they're provided as they are (a selection of ready-formatted copy/paste links) because those are all standard, well-known techniques of getting images displayed on forums - and linking images is equally as "ordinary".
Didn't you also have problems with embedding YouTube images, that turned out to be a browser/iPad oddity?

I'm just curious how meet-ups would be viewed as something bad or not even considered as an idea for people that are in our shoes (many of us don't have friends in real life). I don't get how you don't agree that at least a trial run whether that involves re-writing some of the software.. That a trial run with some of these ideas would be beneficial to the site and the users.

When I mean trial run, I was just saying 6 months because you guys seem opposed to these ideas. If it were up to me they would be permanently implemented.

What do you mean "a trial run"?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/trial+run

They're not. It's just that there has been no overwhelming demand for the forum structure to be altered to incorporate specific support for the idea - because it appears to be functioning well enough already.
Why make work to create something when there's no reason to do it?
No trial run of anything will be possible without a substantial rewrite of the site code, and this site code is not under active development. For better or worse, it's running in a "what you see is what you get" state.
Code does only what it's initially written to do and if it's not written to do something from the start, then that something needs to be written from scratch later on.
Therein lies the issue.
Nope, you're still missing it. Doesn't matter if a trial is 6 minutes, 6 weeks or 6 months - the capability to do "X" doesn't exist at all and I can tell you from personal experience with coding that it's likely to take more than 6 months to write, iron out the bugs, implement and test a "like" button before any members get to see it - all on software that's already been heavily patched (further complicating the coding process) and is way past its "best before" date - just so that (I quote) "... would make some other people's comments unnecessary."
It seems such a complicated way of helping stop people from actually posting something. You know, talking to someone.

And it's still not up to moderators what happens with the site code anyway.

Also the fact that it has the potential to turn wrongplanet.net into a popularity contest. A lot of people on here do not have great social skills and are not interested in "making friends" as such. How would the new poster feel if they posted a topic or comment with no likes as opposed to a long term poster that has posted an arbitrary comment with 100+ likes? I personally think this alone would not be in the best interest of a forum like this one that is based around people with a social disorder.

^ Yep, this exactly.
Raised several times already but I'm getting the impression that any social site needs to run like Facebook these days...
But this isn't Facebook and the target audience is entirely different. That can't simply be ignored.

Personally, I can't see any necessity in having a 'like' button.

We all have social disorders on this site. It's not like some people have it and some don't.

While I respect that you think that a "like" button would turn wrongplanet into a popularity contest, I think you fail to see how a "like" button could enhance wrongplanet into the ultimate haven for people on the autism spectrum. Why not try it out? And then let it run indefinately until we start having complaints or users start to post less? Everything good in life comes with risks, sometimes they are rewarding sometimes they aren't.

It's unlikely that a comment would get more than 2 or 3 likes anyway.

Because it doesn't exist. There is nothing to try out.
The work and expense required to create and implement it is not justified by the benefits you claim it will bring.

What's the point of this thread then?

For people to post suggestions of things members want to see. Not to debate the point endlessly until everyone gives up and you get your way. You think it would be a good idea - there are some people that agree with you and some people who don't.

But you don't get to decide anything - and you don't get to throw a tantrum because people don't love your idea.

In relation to this version of the software? None. No point whatever.
It is not being actively developed so repeating requests to try things out with it will not happen - for the reasons already given.

Lol

How did I throw a tantrum?