How do people judge abilities/functioning level online

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I see it happen. I don't understand it. I'm curious about it.

If you make guesses or assumptions about people's abilities or functioning level online, what happens in your mind?

What information or impressions are you using to formulate your guess / what is the basis of your assumption?

Is it really all just writing ability, and if so, what parts of a person's writing are you looking at? Some aspect of their vocabulary? Their grammar? The length or complexity of their sentences? How much/little they write? What they write about? How well you understand them? (If it's some combination of these things or all of them, is everything weighted exactly the same way or are some things weighted heavier than others?)

If you don't make guesses or assumptions about people's abilities or functioning level online but you have your own questions or theories, please post them if you can and if you want to.

I try not to assume, but I know that for some, even on this website, ASD = can't judge situations and must be in the wrong.

I do not think I can really determine someones abilities or functioning level based on what they post on the internet. I suppose I could determine how well they write, then again much of the time on forums people don't necessarily go back and edit and make sure all grammar and spelling is correct so what they type on a forum might not even actually reflect their writing abilities entirely.

I assume the people I am interested in are being truthful, so I assume that what people say about themselves and their functioning level is accurate. But I know we all have our own point of view, our own perspective, that may not be shared by others. And if anyone isn't being truthful, well, I don't really want to let that matter or twice my brain up caring.

I don't think it is easy or accurate to judge people's daily functioning or abilities from forum posts.
One would overjudge some people's and underjudge others often, if judging by writing skills.
What people say about their own functioning and abilities is highly subjective, as it is their own perception of themselves.
Two people could have similar functioning and abilities, but self-report completely different things, such that people reading their posts would think they are at completely different levels.
Some people may overstate their deficits or problems, while others understate them, and the same for strengths.

Here is a thought if it is hard to tell somebody's functioning level online does it really matter?

Other people might judge my functioning wrongly if they interpret what I say about myself through their different standards.
For eggsample, I consider stimming to be nothing of a deal at all, as it is something that I have always done most of the time, private, public, doesn't matter and don't care.
But if I say I stim all the time, someone reading my post might think that I am lower-functioning than I am, if they consider stimming to be a lower-functioning kind of behavior.
Another eggsample is if I say that I presented my poster at a scientific conference, people reading that might think that I am more high-functioning socially or more verbally skilled than I am, since presenting requires talking to many people, but ackshuly presenting a poster is not like socializing at all and only requires that you talk about what you did, what you know clearly since you did it to make the poster.
According to my own standards, I might judge others too.
In summary, one's own standards might be basis for judgement of others, instead of others' language being the basis.

Btbnnyr I am afraid to admit but I have made some judgements about you not because of anything you have posted but I just don't get a good feeling from that cat.

I think there's pressure to conform and have equivalent abilities in many areas. However many of us like you Btbnnyr and like me have wildly variant abilities for different things at different times if going by a "normal" standard.

I'm probably average for something but mostly I'm smart or I'm dumb, good or bad, weak or strong, high functioning or not, easy or difficult in different things with little in the middle.

So I am more at ease just believing what people say.

I don't really.

One thing that is healthy in my opinion is to admit that eberryone makes judgements of others and oneself makes judgements of others.
Judging is something hooomans do, eggsplicitly and implicitly.

I also think that it is useful to know other people's judgements of oneself.
Often, one's own judgement of oneself as a whole or a certain aspect of oneself can go too much in one direction, and new evidence always reinforces previous judgement.
Having a differing judgement from others can help reset one's judgements away from unrealistic eggstremes.

One could speculate about one's "functioning"

But....unless one actually see aperson in action over several straight days, one cannot really assess this person's functioning.

People could represent themselves differently online than how they are actually in person.

If you look at posts you'd guess some people as HFA who identify as LFA and vice versa and much of the time it's the variability in skills IMO more so than how we see or represent ourselves. Someone may seem HFA in their posts but be LFA overall in functioning and they aren't misrepresenting themselves, just showing variability in skills and abilities.