Why was the 'Autreat & Autscape' discussion moved?

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Yesterday, I posted a thread about 'Autreat & Autscape' to the 'General Autism Discussion' forum. Now, I see it was moved to the 'Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation' forum.
I'm not sure why it was moved...
Are Autreat & Autscape political/activistic events? Not at all, they are social gatherings to which autistics come to enjoy each other's company and to learn from each other. Autreat & Autscape sometimes include specific political/activistic presentations, but these are just a small part of the entire Autreat/Autscape experiences.
Are Autreat & Autscape related to Media Representation? Of course not.

So... Whoever moved the discussion to the 'Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation', are you sure it is a more suitable forum than the 'General Autism Discussion' forum? (I think not...)

I'm guessing it's because the General Autism Discussion is for discussing autism spectrum stuff in particular, such as different traits, people on the spectrum in relation to people off the spectrum in daily life, and other disorders in relation to ASD's. Since Autreat is a group event that has some media representation attached to it, it makes sense to move it into the autism politics section, since it sort of belongs to the Activism category. General autism discussion is meant to be general.

Things move fast in the general forum which makes people want to bump or repeat threads. Where it is now, it will stay on the page longer. I didn't make the move, but do see a benefit to it.

My apologies for a late response, but both MathGirl and DW are correct in their reasoning, and I was the one who moved your thread. That we disagree isn't an issue, but DW brings up a point that I wanted to, regarding threads being bumped and lost in the GAD subforum. An occasional or single bump on a thread isn't an issue, but I have seen threads in the past years where they are kept afloat by a page of bumps or more without much if any actual discussion. In my opinion, I think it best categorized where it is now, and will receive the best exposure for the subject matter in that location.


M.

I had a thought this morning. I think a forum for Meet-Ups and Events would be good. These are activities that by their nature need to stay visible for a long time, but also aren't inviting discussion. We would probably need some strict rules to prevent spammers from advertising events, but it would be perfect for things like Autreat, the conference Jellibeans is working on, and local meet up announcements. Thoughts?

I think a forum for Meet-Ups and Events would be very good!

P.S.
What conference is Jellibeans working on?

Might it be possible to add "meet-ups and events" to the description of the Autism Politics, Activism, and Media Representation section? I thought those things were autism activism.

I forget all the details but I think it will be integrating experts from several disciplines, targeting parents I think. She's got some wonderful experts lined up - I saw a sample of her description - and it sounds really good. She will be posting on the Wrong Planet when it's ready - she has already asked for approval.

I can't see how monthly meet-ups in pubs, like the ones lotusblossom is organizing in London, fall under 'autism activism'. Even events like Autreat & Autscape are not 'autism activism'. These monthly/annual gatherings are mainly for fun.

'activism', by definition, is aimed at spreading the autistic community's ideologies to wider publics.
Autreat, Autscape and local meet-ups are for the autistic community itself. (mainly for fun).

While it may not be political activism, I would say that it does fall under the definition.


M.

I have also seen some meet-ups mentioned in the social skills section, but that section moves fairly fast too.
Even if it's for fun, I still think that autism meet-ups are a type of activism. The point is to help people socialize, feel more accepted, stuff like that, right? Just because it's not a protest or something doesn't mean that it's not a type of activism. That may not be totally clear, but that's why I said that it might be a good idea to put something about meet-ups into the description for that section.
Creating a special section for a narrow topic ends up just creating a slow section. Like if you look around at other AS forums, a lot of the less successful ones have a zillion different sections, but there just aren't enough people frequenting them all. That's why you have to find a balance so that the different sections get enough traffic that posts on them are going to be read, but not so much that threads fall down the list quickly. There are lots of different things that theoretically "should" have their own sections, but if those sections don't get used, then people don't check them very often, and then there won't really be meaningful discussions on them. Putting discussion about something into its own section only helps if it needs a separate section-- if there's somewhere else appropriate to put the topic, then creating its own section would just isolate it and there would be less exposure, not more.
(On a related note, I always have that same issue with organizing things. I want to create a separate compartment or place for all sorts of different things, but if I narrow them down too much, it gets less organized because the different categories are messy and confusing.)

With these types of events, however, I think a "slow" section is actually a benefit, so that the threads take on more of a bulliten board aspect.

I agree with this. (however, in order to give substantial exposure to a 'Meet-Ups and Events' forum, it would probably need to be created within the 'General Discussion' section).

A few bits of input... such a thread would not stay on the first page of the GAD forum unless it was a sticky. There would have to be some limitations on posting on a single event, as it could easily end up dominated by a small number of individuals instead of being an equitable resource for all who desired to share. As you frequently have updates and additions to your threads, I don't think that pushing those together would do any great service to yourself or to others who might well end up competing for attention in the very thread that was intended to provide exposure. Keeping it in Autism Activism, while it might not have the same amount of traffic, will provide you with readers who have more interest in the matter than others... perhaps consider it a form of targeted advertising.


M.

Quoting from Autscape's website:
http://www.autscape.org/about/politics

Fortunately, the umbrella for that subforum is large enough to encompass the whole of the organization then.


M.