My WrongPlanet.net vision (everyone please read/reply)

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I have a great vision for WrongPlanet.net. I think of WrongPlanet as a continually evolving and improving community and entity. Currently, I don't think WrongPlanet.net is reaching its full potential. I think we're starting to realize what a unique community we are but that's only getting us started in terms of reaching some goals that I have set.

As a result, I am creating a new WrongPlanet.net involvement campaign where members will be able to create and run (or just participate in) specialized groups to help further the WrongPlanet.net cause.

Right now, I'm also happy to announce that because of some generous donations, I've set up a WrongPlanet.net advertising campagin in which ads for WrongPlanet.net will appear when someone searches for Asperger's Syndrome.(although we still need tons of money, so please join the bandwagon and donate.... NOW!)

To adequately finance this advertising campaign, we really need more money. I currently have the budget set at 45 dollars a month, but a good portion of this money is coming out of my own pocket. Ideally, the budget should be more than 100 dollars per month, but please keep in mind that we also have to pay for bandwidth, which is expensive as well (thats where donations come in).

Please people, if you don't want to donate financially, I totally understand, but please help by joining the new involvement groups which I'll talk about in detail later.


In terms of a long term goal, I plan on hiring psychiatrists who will have a chatroom to help those who are having problems too severe for members to be able to help with. WrongPlanet is on the verge of something great, but we have to all come together and work towards our goals!!


EVERYONE
PLEASE POST YOUR OWN IDEAS AND PLEASE REPLY TO THIS TOPIC!! !! !! !! !!

Count this as me stating my wish to not have any psychiatrists pushed at me no matter what I am saying. If I ever get to a point that's supposedly beyond the range of everyone else to deal with (I think frankly that viewing some problems as "only for professionals" encourages actual friendships to be much more shallow) it's probably because of something psychiatrists once did to me, and telling me to talk to a psychiatrist because of it is tantamount to, as one friend put it, sending an ex-Israeli-hostage to the Hezbollah for "treatment". I think throwing psychiatrists into the mix is a really bad move, if people want to see a psychiatrist they should be able to make that choice without the coercion of an Internet group saying "Your problems are too much for us so you should see a shrink." It shouldn't be part of WrongPlanet policy to insist on anything of the sort, and I don't think psychiatrists should be a feature of WrongPlanet.

OK, no psychiatrists, but I'm talking about people who are suicidal. I was just thinking about prior incidents where a psychiatrist might have saved multiple lives.

I think psychiatrists in a seperate chatroom is a very good idea if it is affordable. No-one would be forced to see them and they should stay out of the main threads as far as a proffesional capacity goes but they would be there for people that needed them.

thats what i had originally intended. I don't see how having a separate place people could go to get help would do anything but help.....

But it wouldn't be affordable until we were A LOT bigger.

anbuend, Alex isn't talking about pushing therapists on anyone. What I think he means is that a chatroom with therapists would benefit this community by relieveing some of the pressure on the community to be a full support system/therapy group. It would be a chice if one was involved with the therapists or not. Not that people would be forbidden to post their problems on the forum, far from it, but therapist would provide a whole 'nother level of support on Wrongplanet. I think it's a great idea, Alex, and I'm happy to help in any way I am able. WP could do some great things.

I'm looking forward to hearing more of your ideas.

BeeBee

If this is a practical goal, you have my support as usual Alex.

Please don't dwell on this. I was just saying what might happen 10, 20 years down the line. Everyone, please comment on the other ideas.

What about an arrangement with an already-existing organization of crisis counsellors? That would be far cheaper than hiring a psychiatrist to be on-duty here 24-7, but would still give us an easy and available way to get in touch with someone if we thought there was danger. And a crisis line center would know what to do in terms of finding official help for people who were outside of other members' region.

Anbuend has a point, though, that we should never force help on someone who states that they don't want it, unless we have good reason to believe other people's lives are at stake (like a person has stated they acquired a weapon and intend to use it). Plus, there are already a fair number of members whose friendships with other members offer better help than a psychiatrist ever could, so I don't think we should back away from any risky situation just because it's risky, and say "a professional should handle this". Someone's got to be the one to reach out first.

Last edited by pyraxis on 31 Oct 2005, 5:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm too tired to have any pre-formed ideas for groups tonight, but would be happy to assist with involvement groups. Leave it with me and when I've worked out what I want to say here, I'll post it.

Actually, considering my planned course of study, when I am fully qualified, I will gladly be the WP.net psychiatrist for free.....

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Last edited by Ante on 09 Nov 2005, 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Some of the moderators already unofficially do this, but you don't have to be a moderator to offer friendship to other people on the board when you see someone being ridiculed or ignored.

I'm not sure a psychiatrist would have, at least no more than any more than any other form of detention may have -- detaining someone to stop them hurting people may have saved lives, but whether the psychiatric element to the detention actually helps people varies wildly. (To clarify, I've failed to turn people in to psychiatry even when I was at risk from them, because I knew the particular people and knew that psychiatric detention would only harden their resolve to do harm. I opted for protecting myself instead. So this isn't theory for me.)

But what I was saying, is that the only times I ever contemplate suicide are times that are influenced by my experiences in the psych system. I was not saying that suicidality wasn't what I was talking about, I was saying that psychiatry doesn't always help in that instance and should only be optional.

Somewhere to be able to post your art and poetry

Better quality blogs

Reward point systems + different ways to earn points

proper dating/friendship section, like in a link, with better quality profiles and stuff, like dating sites, but also a friends site where people can PM other aspies using their profile.

More forums on this board.

I dunno, making one of those short movies that they play at movie festevals?

Online shop

Real Pen pals for lonely people that like to get snail mail.