Is WrongPlanet cliquey?

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I think that WP members are welcoming in general and that the fact that there are always many new members joining and posting makes it rather comfortable for new members. I cannot compare WP with other online forums as I've never used any.

One thing I noticed, though, is that a group of autistic people such as this one (WP) is pretty much the same as any group of people in general. I was a bit disillusioned by that although logically that's understandable. If you can say something funny or clever, you will be popular. If you are awkward, you will be ignored. I don't think most members would purposely exclude/ignore other members on WP but some regular members may pay more attention to certain other regulars and ignore others. That, in effect, is cliquish behavior and it's not surprising if that puts some new members off.

Thanks, that was a nice post.

I might struggle with the nice, friendly, polite bit ... oh, and the concise bit too <_<. (I'm just joking, although with all jokes there is a kernel of truth... :-/)

The avatar is definitely a good point. I'm not sure whether to reprise my beloved Blinky or go for something new....

I don't really ''know'' anyone on here. I used to, but those members that I got to know suddenly have disappeared from WP, or just don't use it as much any more. I don't take in people's usernames any more. I just treat this forum like everyone's anonymous. Sometimes I wish it were anonymous, because often when I write a post about something that's making me feel anxious, I just get people writing posts what imply ''oh there goes Joe90 worrying about something else again - just go to a psychiatric doctor and get yourself on meds and deal with it'' like I'm insane or something. So I have to keep putting reminders in my posts saying ''I am already on meds which do help with depression and self-esteem but I still get anxious of things because that will never go away''. I still rather be anxious than depressed and self-loathing though. I bet some members here are glad to not hear me whining any more about how much I hate having Asperger's. That's definitely a thing of the past.

No!

dont agree that its cliquey,though there can be small pockets of cliqueism which is just people who all know each other through friendships-it used to be worse some years ago when they overtook every thread with their injokes/private chat.
it can seem like something is going on if are not getting answered whilst say a massive post count user has a lot of e-buddies answering them, but there are a lot of reasons for why people dont get answered often.
have been here since 2005,am a regular and have had threads that werent answered or not answered quickly-and many posts that dont get replies, but people just dont relate to experiences of mine and beliefs very often,have been told by a user that some people are scared off approaching because am LFA-which falls back to being unable to relate.

its hard to take in being on a support site,especialy if are not mentaly feeling the best but try not to take it personaly-have not been here long enough to build up a reputation.
post a lot more so people can get an idea what are like and know what they can relate to and what they cant.
hope this makes sense,have had night meds and had to re edit many times.

And cat avatars can be confusing. I get Callista and Verdandi and the one who says "egg" confused.

I like TallyMan's avatar. It is pretty distinctive.

I still like Blinky, but think maybe it's time for a change. He also looked better against a white background rather than pastel shades of blue and green... :-/

Heh, don't worry, you can bang on about the same few things over and over, and I won't tick you off for it - hell, I do the same thing myself :p

In seriousness, I really do. My current bugbear is the NHS and the total lack of aftercare or follow-up of any kind - hell, it could almost count as a special interest... >_>. I'm actually on citalopram for depression and anxiety myself. A few months ago, I was almost climbing the walls with anxiety. I felt agitated and on edge the entire time; there was a constant feeling of being on the edges of a panic attack. The citalopram did help with the agitation at least, but it didn't knock the generalized anxiety on the head; I would need to be knocked out with a sledgehammer for that to happen.

Sadly, the citalopram doesn't even appear to be helping with my depression any longer, although there is still one more dosage raise I could make (from 30 to 40mg). However, I seem to habituate each new dose change fairly quickly; probably the same would happen if I went up to 40mg...



I take everything personally - it's a character flaw of mine <_<. I have worked hard on not taking things personally and by and large have mostly succeeded: the "red mist" rarely descends anymore. But I still am a bit prone to paranoia sometimes.

Don't worry about making sense; I got the gist of your post perfectly. If I had the energy, would love to start posting more. I'm seriously struggling with fatigue at the moment. I've just raised the dose of my thyroid med; that'll hopefully make a difference for the better, but it'll take a while for any change to be noticed - about a month.

Haven't re-edited this post, but it's taken me forever to write it! It's a relatively short one for me as well... :-/

A agree a big wall of text is a pain.

I will read long posts but please break them up a bit with plenty of spaces.

Large post counts don't impress me.

On the contrary!

If your post count is outrageaously high- like over 7,662 I just assume that your're some kinda loser who doesnt have a life!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

But seriously: its like anything else. The more you participate the more you find common interests with folks, and the more you can find things to talk about. Folks dont participate because theyre accepted.Its the other way around.They appear to fit in because they participate.

And they say we don't do or get sarcasm.

I think people with a post count of in and around 850 are great.

Must admit, I really struggle with the walls of text when I'm tired.

People here at least seem quite good about breaking them up into paragraphs, but even so sometimes the words turn into a blur as I look. Once that happens, all is lost. I just have to scroll past and come back at another time.

*yawns* Good grief, it's not even 3am yet >_>.

I would be surprised if many people on this site even had the social energy or interest to form cliques.

This is what occurred to me right now that might appear to be cliquish:

There are certain topics that have been discussed repeatedly on this site, and people who've grown tired of them sometimes respond in a flippant and/or dismissive manner without thinking about the possibility that the original thread poster is new to the site and/or new to the topic. Sometimes, several people do this, and they interrupt the thread to joke amongst themselves about the topic or even start chatting about something else altogether. But that's mainly because they've been on the site long enough to have something to chat about, I suspect.

As for the tone, I'm not sure what you mean because there are different tones in different sub-forums. I'm not sure that I've noticed an overall tone.

After the way other people being cliquey has effected us do you really think we would do that?

I think in general no, but mini cliques I think have formed. They tend not to last however. I suspect their is a strong anti-clique nature at work among autistics. Maybe not a genetic predisposition like an autistic tendency, but perhaps a learned reaction, the result of usually being outside of cliques irl.

As far as the idea of elitism, I do not think that is anywhere close to pervasive. It does seem to be a minority held view, but is normally heavily contested/rebutted when it shows up.

I don't think I am capable of being cliquey because I still don't understand how to relate to people and I don't understand the point of it. I don't think I could keep up anyway.
I don't post much, but sometimes a thread catches my interest and I feel like replying to it. But even though I don't contribute much, I do feel like part of a community here and I like that.