how about a little variety, Alex!

Post Reply New Topic

I think both of you have completely veered off topic to bicker. It looks like there has been some miscommunication.

Equinn is complaining about people's avatars, the pictures people use under their names. Then she is complaining about quotes. Avatars don't bother me, and like others have said, they give life or insight to people's personalities. Quotes used at WP don't bother me because I can over look them. I don't care for them and at other forums, they're used to couch insults and imply stuff people are normally too chicken to say bluntly.

I don't understand her complaint about nudity and she hasn't returned to explain it. Thus, it's premature to start talking about "predatory" behavior.

Lastly, I don't understand why this thread is in the parent forum. It should be at the Wrong Planet Discussion Board if it's about general problems with posts. Unless equinn is complaining about a specific poster that stays on the parent board exclusively. That said, "How about a little variety?" is unrelated to her complaints within her message.

I think a lot of us find comfort in sameness (I'm an aspie, I don't care for change) and I sort of know people by their avatars (or type of avatar, in some cases). As for quotes, I enjoy them. The line that separates the post from the quote is where one ends and the other begins, I don't confuse them.

I dunno. If you like avatar changes, change yours.

Sorry, no. I am Aspie. My point is that it appears that NT people have a tendency to read a lot into situations (in this case written text) that are not there based upon whatever's going on in their own lives. They are not literal thinkers or communicators. You appear to have jumped to several conclusions that were neither implied nor stated in anything I've written.

Yes, I am quite familiar with the terms Aspie and Autie. If you are not familiar with them, I strongly recommend Google or Wikipedia, although Wiki tends to be a bit pedestrian and is prone to not being the most highly accurate resource out there. It can be a bit "tabloidy" at times.

It would be good if the original poster returned to explain her situation further - she asked for input, and I require additional information before I can provide any more to her than my initial observations.

That's right, it's called reading between the lines, and I think the inability to do so has more to do with skills than neurological differences. But you keep going, in trying to draw the lines in the sand, trying to give a diagnostic validity in your disposition of calling yourself an "Aspie". Again, from what I've read and know, the term was coined as an attempt to reach out to those that have been misdiagnosed over the years.

I stand evermore firm, in what appears to be efforts to detract from the possibility of predatory behavior, in showing nudity. Again, what forum is this happening? Although, in this long of a delay and stalemate, for exact information in the possibility, any perpetrator's might have already eliminated evidence, and cut and run. Pathetic!

Someone's image was a bare stomach (don't recall who it was...and it doesn't matter).

So, the nudity isn't really nudity that would be considered obscene or predatory.

There is no predatory behavior to which I am witness or aware.
So, hope this simplifies a rather overdone subject.

I don't understand the strange conversation that has evolved out of the original post. The language is not clear (is this intentional)?

I think the quoting is overdone, too, btw.

Something else, I had thought someone with Asperger's Syndrome was less influenced by commonalities and marched to his/her own drummer. The popular styles and materialism that permeate society is analagous to the signature avators the way someone worded it in an earlier post. This, then, sounds contradictory to the Aspie who would stand apart from the crowd and view the world in a more objective, almost scientific manner. What color/style car would be superfluous to a true aspie. He/she would be more interested in what's under the hood, how it's put together, how many miles it takes to get from one state to another, the aero-dynamics, the category it fits into. So, why the avator? It seems cliquish, too mainstream, too cultish, too NT.

Yes, I'm reading too much into it. It must be my NT ways.

Or, maybe, just maybe, I'm the true aspie amongst a group of pseudo-aspies (joke)


equinn

Cute.

There does seem to be something that could be considered an Aspie subculture starting to coalesce on the internet. (I don't think it would ever fly in "real life" given the interaction hurdles.) Avatars and funky screen names seem to be a part of that - it's becoming part of the culture (if it's not already). I don't know of any cultures on the planet, sans those who have no outside contact with any others, that do not borrow from each other. Avatars and sigs are common on the Internet, on the other "planets" where people go, as it were. Most people who eventually visit WP do not seem to be having their first experience on Internet boards here - they will have been influenced by their experiences elsewhere.

As it was explained to me, being "Aspie" is not an either/or scenario where you're either slammed hard right or hard left on the spectrum - its impact and expression varies by degrees. (Hence, the term spectrum disorder). Just as there are high-functioning Aspies & Auties building our cell phones and manipulating biochemicals, there are also the rainmen and those folks in institutions. It would follow that there are others at various points between those extremes. Not all of us are obsessed with studying the intricacies of widgets or train timetables.

There are, I'm sure, people who are obsessed with car colors, just as there are people who are obsessed with mileage or torque ratios. I'm just as sure that there are other people who are capable of using avatars as symbols to advertise a meaning they wish to get across. I also know that there are other people who just like a given picture and decide to use it because they can do so. It doesn't logically follow that any of those groups can be labeled "Aspie or not Aspie" simply based on what they can or pref to do.

My understanding of "Aspie" is that we're talking about a communication and social interaction dysfunction, which may or may not be accompanied by other syndromes like OCD (for those folks obsessed with, say, car transmissions), sometimes ADD or ADHD, or CAPD (or any of a number of other alphabet-soup-name disorders). Just like anyone else, it's possible for a person on the autistic spectrum to have additional issues.

It's also most likely that there have been excellent scupltors, actors, painters, and writers who are/were Aspie. Science isn't the only way to go here. To assume that all Aspies would have no interest in something, to expect that all Aspies are completely one thing or another is... a little... as you said, you might be making one hell of a long logical leap

You really should meet "Inventor" - you'll enjoy the conversation.

I actually prefer the quote function - it makes it very easy to pop back up a conversation stream to see where it's been and what has been said. Ce la vie!

I don't really understand this but some people might see Cheese, from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which is the guy in my icon as creepy. Also, my sister thinks the Rabbids from Rayman Raving Rabbids are creepy. Rabbids is the name for these crazy rabbits in the game. They're trying to take over the Earth, but generally act goofy and yell "DAAAAAAHHH!" alot.

That's the perfect thing to yell, at most occasions!! !

?

Aspie is simply a shorthand way of referring to someone who has Asperger's Syndrome. There are a number of diagnostic criteria for it. "Autie" is short for "autistic person".

I often misread signature's as part of a post. Once I realise what I've done, I laugh at myself, then move on.
Who exactly is showing naked body parts?


It is both.

The differences in neurological structure and function between autistics and non-autistics are measurable. But you keep going, trying to dismiss our struggles with a simple "it's just your disposition" (you_are_not_trying_hard_enough).

Basically, equinn expressed a concern for a multi-tiered situation and confusion on the Internet with Avatars. That can be used to express yourself and/or used to haunt (brainwashing) with nudity to attract and/or desensitize in predatory behavior, to name but a few of the complications of interactions on the Internet.

While I consider myself playful with glee, I'm not into all the baby names like Aspie and Autie. However, I'm versed on deriving nicknames in affection, associated with interpersonal experiences in feedback. Again, I'm relatively certain that Aspie was coined by Dr. Attwood and a woman whose name escapes me. With an intention to identify those who might have been mis-diagnosed over the years. In what in my opinion has become a "catch-all" diagnosis, that lends to attract those with a tendency toward grandiosity, in the association with an average to high IQ.

Oh no, I would never insinuate those with invisible disabilities aren't trying hard enough. It has become sad that a part of the determination movement that ventured into politics and hate, might have given that mistaken perception. In the powerful way of social and communicative skills needed for that kind of a voice to be heard. I'm still trying to pull it all together and understand, why my son was diagnosed many years ago. Of which, was a stunning situation of pure circumstance, and an accidental finding. That had already been identified as being inaccurate, by a neighbor, friend and teacher with an Autistic child.

is commonly used as a "there's-nothing-really-wrong-with-you" argument against Aspergians. Even if you aren't using it in that way, it can look that way. I was making a point by using a similar thing, but one that can be thrown at NTs. I don't believe it's true of all of them, or of you.

My Avatar is Jerry Stiller coz that's one brilliant cardigan he's got on and he oft portrays a grumpy old man (much like myself).
My sig is a quote from Moby Dick because that's often how I feel about other people.

Misanthrope? Maybe, but at least you get what you see.

There are some authors who argue there is no difference between Asperger's Syndrome and High Functioning Autism. Others are quite strident about there being a difference. It's my understanding that the generally accepted criteria (as much as there is one, given all the arguing going on around it) for placing one in one or the other of the Autie or Aspie categories is pretty much only the timing of the acquisition of spoken language. As I understand it, Autistics are supposedly those of us who acquired spoken language much later (if at all) than a normal child, or acquired it and then regressed. Autistics who developed language skills and then regressed are more likely to have other, more serious issues as well. Persons with Aspergers' Syndrome, while quite similar to people labeled as Autistics in very many respects, typically do not have the late language acquisition and tend to have rather sturdy to exceptional IQs. Many are intellectually advanced at a much younger age than would normally be expected. Hyperlexia is also common in Aspies, supposedly, and does not happen with Auties.

Hans Asperger first described Asperger's Syndrome in the literature in the mid-1940s, but it was not added to the general lexicon of diagnostic criteria until the early 1990s in the USA. I believe that someone first coined the term "Autism" around 1900 - probably in Europe, as that seems to be where most of the research into the human mind was happening at the time. They used it to define an extremely narrow variety of impairments. I think that in the USA the type of autism known as "Kanner" (or some variation of that spelling), which has the severely impacted "nobody's home in this person" stigma, is pretty much what was thought of when the term "Autism" was used until relatively recent times.

Nobody could be diagnosed as having "Aspergers' Syndrome" or "Autism" before the terms were associated with a specific set of developmental issues, hence, anyone who was born prior to those periods of time would necessarily be "identified" late or misdiagnosed with other problems. You may be correct in assuming "Asperger's Syndrome" is becoming a "catch all" diagnosis - it certainly seems to have become a media darling lately, and I am beginning to think that anyone with significant difficulties during adolescence seems to be at risk of having the label of "Asperger's Syndrome" slapped onto them even if it's just a normal, but tough adolescence they're navigating. Just as the schools went wild labeling kids as ADD back in the 1980s, I suspect that we're seeing a lot of younger folks being labeled as Aspies who may well not be.

In any event, I think "Aspie" or "Autie" are just labels, shorthand for identifying a set of issues with which people have to deal. I've got spectrum disorder folks in my family tree back well past the 1940s (potentially back into the 1800s, but the records are not definitive). Some of them were highly intelligent, if not brilliant, while some ended up institutionalized. Autism and Aspergers' Syndrome, if different things, existed in my family well before someone came up with the labels. If they were functional, they were considered eccentric. If they were not functional, the were considered ret*d. I have not decided if I think the new labels are any better than the old ones.

In any event, I'm glad Alex set up this board so that those of us who do share common issues can communicate with each other. Now that he's opened it up to persons who are not on the spectrum, the tone and focus of the board has changed quite a bit, but I still think it's a good thing as long as everyone remembers that the purpose of the board is primarily to support people on the spectrum.

I do have to make a personal comment about something you said. You indicated you considered the use of "Aspie" or "Autie" as baby terms. Perhaps they are "baby terms" in your culture, but they are not in mine - and this board is from my culture. It is quite common to abbreviate words to shorter terms here. I do not think you live in my country, though. You sound English or, perhaps, Australian.

Nan,
Last time I checked, Maryland is in the US. So, Ladybug lives in the US and is likely American.

What is the source for this assertion? The now-defunct Hyperlexia society (the lay people most interested in this condition) claimed that it was a separate diagnosis, or should be. Others believe, if it exists, is a subset of ASD. Still others believe it's merely a coexisting trait that occurs among those with ASD. Early acquisition of pre-reading and reading skills seem to occur among a lot of autistics and not just among a particular set of them.
I have never heard the claim that Hyperlexia is common in Aspies and non-existent in autistics.

Really? Because I was led to believe different, all those many years ago. Although, there was alot of conflict and power struggles going on back then.



In my country of America, as depicted in my Avatar when I was a young woman, abbreviations are generally made with removing the nouns (correction: vowels). We have a melting pot of cultures that are very nice, when they don't become too politically top heavy, in Special Interest power mongering that drowns out the majority in the middle. I'm familiar with the Hans Asperger story, as my Mom could have been one of the 1000 identical twins that survived Dr. Mengele's experiments, but the story can't be confirmed.

Last edited by LadyBug on 24 Nov 2007, 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.