Deleting irrelevant and ridiculous postings

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Hello

I am disheartened by large number of postings that are purely irrelevant and ridiculous to those who are in need of an arena to discuss our disorder legitimately. As tolerant as you all may be, this trend is painfully apparent. In response to my gutfelt disgust in this phenomenon, I requested that my membership be cancelled. My request was ignored - why?

Please, if you use your intellect when contributing - don't be offended. However, if you are one who doesn't, be offended! I was an avid supporter of Wrongplanet.net throughout its formation and would be again if the dead wood could be discarded.

It seems all the intellects are ineffectual, dead, or disenfranchised. What are we, now the diplomats have halted? Ignorance and idiocy reigns, where our once great kings have faltered!

I I can honestly agree with you TyroneShoelaces. I hope I'm not one of those people you're decribing. Please say if I am or not.
It feels as if some people belittle your intelligence on this website too by writing irrelvant or silly responses that doesn't that the thread seriously.
Even though I agree that this should be a forum to only discuss AS, we should still put thought and intellect into our topics.
Sometimes I wish that I could have an intelligent conversation here but the shallowness and fluff topics get to me.
The forum acts like a child's forum rather than something intelligent and mature like Aspergian Island or Aspies for Freedom forum.
I personally feel that people here not taking the forum seriously is an insult to the creators of the website who worked hard to give us a website with so much resources. I can't speak for Dan or Alex and they might even like the forum as it is!
I just fully agree with you TyroneShoelaces.

I too have noticed some friction building between members of this community. But the conversation on any message board is bound to get a little stagnant after awhile, especially ones like this one that focus on a narrow range of topics. If you find me to be a redundant and non-contributing member of this community, I apologize, but this is just who I am.

I think that this community has plenty opportunity for growth, but in-fighting amongst us will be the real death of this community.

The reason I joined this site was to share my experiences with other people like myself, and to contribute in an intelligent and thoughtful manner. I would leave this site immediately if I thought I had posted something stupid and ridiculous. I also believe posting any frivolous material on this site defeats the purpose of why this site was created. I think it's unfortunate that there is some dissent amongst the ranks especially when Alex and Dan did a positively brilliant job to get this site up and running. I as a member of the Asperger's community want this site to keep running and keep growing, and I think it would be a tragedy if for some reason this site came to an end

I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to when you say "irrelevant" and "ridiculous" posts. If I have done either of the above, please inform me in PM, as I would like to know so I can avoid doing so in the future.

I thought this was a forum not only to discuss AS topics, but also for AS individuals to come together and socialize. Isn't that why the "general" topic is marked "general"? If this is the issue, perhaps you should make a subforum purely for AS issues, or one that is purely for nonsense. Many other forums I've visited have some sort of "chaotic" section, where people get out all their rants, and weird but random things they feel they want to say.

Hi Tyrone. Wrongplanet has many members, and what may be important to one may seem irrelevant to another. Its all about personal opinion and freedom of choice. If a member feels that they want to post about a certain topic or issue it would be unfair to stop them because someone else may find it too fluffy. We do have a lot of younger members here, they may like to see things in a more light hearted manner and not have serious discussions about any difficulties they experience. We do have an area here for mature adult discussion, where you could post on issues that would not be suitable for the other areas of the forum. With so many happy members we must be doing something right!

TyroneShoelaces and others,

I am very glad that you have posted your concerns. I strongly believe that people should discuss their grievances. In the real world I have often seen people terminating their acquaintance relationships without a word. I hope that this would not be the case in this community. Also, I believe that there are members on this board who might not have an extensive experience in social interactions, both online and otherwise, and who can benefit from such a discussion. I belong to this group.

Criticism can be either constructive or irrelevant. I believe that yours is the former. I can imagine the general reason for your opinion, but I can only speculate about the concrete details. That can easily lead to wrong assumptions. Since I am, quite surprisingly to me, one of the top 10 posters, sheer statistics leads me to assume that your criticism may be directed at some of my posts and threads. If this is so, I kindly ask you to PM me with your concerns. Please be as frank as you can. I try to keep an open mind and I do not take offense.

I must agree that I would like to see more serious discussions taking place on WrongPlanet forums. I have tried to post some serious matters, but I received little response (many thanks to those who responded). I can clearly see that people whom I hold in high esteem post less and less with every passing day, and I wonder why it is so or where they have gone.

I value tolerance a lot, and now I would like to say a few words in defense of lackluster posts. Some members appear to come here simply to socialize. They might find comfort in just posting messages and receiving responses, despite lack of depth in topics that they discuss. Yes, this is a form of chit-chat, that not everyone likes. But should we forbid this type of interaction, knowing that for some it is the only way out of isolation? Also, as Amy noted, there is a lot of room for misuderstanding the issue of importance and relevancy.

Another type of topics that I believe might be the target of your criticism are those that are intended to be on the lighter side. I started a couple of threads that I wanted to be funny, hoping that they might elicit a smile in someone who needs that. If you find my humor not good, then I sincerely apologize. I think that such topics belong to separate humor forum, but that has not been created despite my suggesting so. Having such a forum would enable people who prefer serious matters to stay away from jokes. Also, on few occassions I disguised serious matters in humorous style. I am aware that this might be confusing.

As a conclusion I would like to say that I am against discarding the so called "dead wood". I do not even want to speculate what personal distress it may bring. On the other hand, the site would surely benefit from raising the overall level of discussions (logical tautology). This can be achieved by members starting serious and mature discussions, and just ignoring irrelevant responses. This goal would certainly be missed if members take the disheartened attitude and retreat to side lines.

That's all that I have to say. Thank you.

I am new here and I have enjoyed ALL topics and conversation, so far. I never understood the idea of greater and lesser forms of communication. I believe, in my life, I have learned more from small children, older people, (some with only a third grade education) and from severe/profound mentally challenged individuals and even animals than I have ever learned from books of higher learning. No communication is irrelevant or ridiculous. Everyone has something to contribute. Everyone is an educator of something and therefore, for me, every topic and opinion is relevant. I hope that those that have read this topic will not shy away from posting anything for fear of ridicule. So many of us have had to deal with ridicule our whole lives. It feels good to be somewhere that you can be yourself. I understood this to be a general forum. If I have offended anyone by being myself, then I am sorry, but as a great sage once said, "I am what I am."
- Patti -

Okay, which threads can be considered irrelevant?

A lot of them seem on spec to me and the signal to noise ratio seems quite high.

Can we earmark some specifically?

Well, to me it's both. A child's forum for us who have FINALLY escaped from horrible "kids" message boards/forums (like the ones on Nick.com) and also intelligent and mature (Nick.com was definitely NOT mature, let alone intelligent [I still can't understand why they have over 3 million members with such lame games and tyrants {like NICKMyst and NICKzoedog} who called themselves "moderators"]).

I have an idea-- let's make a forum JUST for discussing AS/autism and have all the "dead wood" and "fluffy" posts stay here at General Discussion. Isn't that what it's for? General discussion?

You pretty much want a place here to discuss AS/autism without the "dead wood" and "fluffy" invading. In that case, why not add a forum? Say, Asperger's Discussion or something like that? Then moving all those General Discussion topics about Asperger's Syndrome there? How about that?

Mich

I agree with Mich - some of us can be a little frivilous, but it is probably in light of carrying a fairly heavy load that the rest of the world puts on us. There is no harm in making light of what others build up to be a mountain. I sometimes don't post anything, because nothing sparks me off personally, but I can see they are of interest to others. I think a separate 'full on aspergers' forum is a good idea. I find the members only section quite heart wrenching at times, with some fantastic posts. I often don't respond to those, because I don't think anything I can add to them would be constructive or helpfull - they are just poweful essays. Sometimes it is easier to communicate on less substantial issues - at least you know (thought) you are not going to hurt or offend.
And yes - I do apologise if I've been a bit fluffy at times....

I would like to agree with most of you that stated what is important to one may not be so interesting to another.....
so that is why all the topics are stated on the subject line and if the subject matter is not interesting to you, then you do not have to read it...

also, when someone answers your post- I have only found that people are turely trying to help and give advice and tell about their situations (which would be only relevant to them- since it is their experience)... we are all unique individuals with different experiences and with different views on things-

if we all agreed on everything and we all liked the same things and found the same things important; then we would not be here......

we are hear for the same reasons; to be ourselves and learn from others experiences, and to give our input...without being judged....or criticized.

Michele

Ok - this is my major concern. I have asked, in a thoughtful manner, to have my membership cancelled, but this request has been rejected.

As a number of you have said - what is relevant and pertinent to one is not to another. For this reason, I wish to leave.

No Magic - your posts are generally interesting.

Earmarking what I would view as ridiculous posts?

i.e. "What do Aspies want most?" - I would have said most of us have similar aspirations to the general populace in this regard.

Someone wrote a joke on the "Eligible Odd-Bods" forum - the purpose of the thread was stated quite clearly, and yet all instructions were ignored.

These are only two of many examples.

The header of this website says "WrongPlanet.net - The online resource and community for those with Asperger's Syndrome". I think there is some degree of false advertising in this statement. What about "The online resource and community for every Tom, Dick, and Harry"?

It is true our scope is not of interest to everyone. We have a specialized target community and audience. At the same time -- and here's why I embrace contradictions -- we are irrevocably human beings and part of a larger picture. Some Aspies certainly grow up thinking everyone else is like them until cracks start to show, and I would encourage all manner of reasonable question-asking here.

"What do Aspies want most?" is a sensible and perfectly valid question to me, because while I'm sure humans want to be happy and have world peace, there are certain AS-specific threads that emerge: i.e. Aspies might be more keen on picking "intellectual satisfaction" over "tons of $$$" or "hot babes/guys". So that is a difference. I don't want anyone to be afraid to ask a question like that... isn't that the Aspie way of curiosity?

As for flaming and threadcrapping, that is unwelcome and hostile in my book, and likely always will be . I do encourage precocious curiosity... we have some bright young minds here who are not the greatest at social graces and they wish to learn. I encourage this learning.

A joke every now and then is fine. I was before told I was too serious and needed to learn to lighten up. I have found it to be of ginormous benefit.

On my part - there is no infighting - I'm not picking a fight with any one member. It is the collective direction that the forums are heading in, which upends me. Thankyou for your support, "the_enigma" - I'm glad that someone else objects to the quantity of inconsequential [fluffy] garbage that has begun to surface.

All people aim to take often vastly different things from life, whether they have a learning disability or not. For this reason, I made an example of the question "What do Aspies want the most?". Indeed, I would suggest, that if you have queries such as this, it is highly-likely that you do not have AS at all.

In life, I am the silliest bugger you could meet, but I feel that this topic calls for seriousness.

Greg,

I heartily encourage you, if you have objections with certain members and posts, to take it up with each of them. And feel free to name more posts you have a problem -- since you said "large number of postings" -- so that the community can decide.

You may not be picking a fight with any one member, but then:

I've actually heard the preceding query time and time again from numerous Aspies. Myself included. Why make such a probability judgement on the crux of a single statement?

This forum has a far less "fluffiness factor" than the chill-out lounges of most. The description of this forum says: Talk about anything not covered in the other forums here. From shoes and ships and sailing wax, to cabbages and kings!

A specialized "fluff forum" could be created if there is demand. Aspergian Island has a lodge, and this is a fine model:

http://www.musicmademe.com/asp/viewforum.php?f=9

It's no big deal.