WrongPlanet.net Version 2.0! This is your chance!

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My name is Dan Grover. Along with Alex, I'm the other original co-founder of WrongPlanet.net and I've returned from the abyss to work with Alex on creating a 'Version 2' of WrongPlanet.net. Some of you may remember me from before.

WrongPlanet.net version 2 will have more features, will be better looking, will have more options, and will be overall more polished and professional. When WrongPlanet started, we were the best Asperger's community around. And now we're going to get even better. </marketing speak>

Alex and I have a pretty good idea of what we want to improve on the site, but our users do too. So I'd like to take this time to ask for suggestions for WrongPlanet.net version 2. Any feature, bug, or change you want.

Here's what we've already planned:
- One place to change your profile/avatar/options. The forums' profile editor and profile viewer will be deprecated.
- Easier to use, more intuitive preferences.
- Improved blogging system
- More themes to choose from.
- Unified 'Search' function that searches news, articles, writing, forums, links, and faq.
- Based on PHPnuke 7.5 instead of 7.2, so it will carry the mostly internal improvements that result from that. Seems to be mostly security.
- Brand new front page that better presents an intro to the site for anonymous users, and latest updates in news, forums, blogs, etc for logged in users (look at PayPal or eBay for an example of having two different frontpages for users and non-users).
- Writing and poetry section will allow you to rate and comment on pieces. (maybe we should just have it be an Art section so you can upload pictures?)
- Brand new default design/theme that looks really nice.
- Bring HTML output up to HTML 4.01 and CSS2 standards so they validate properly.
- New chat system if the consensus is that the current one sucks. Otherwise we won't touch it.

Also, you'll be proud to know that Version 2 will have no ads -- we've already removed the advertising from the normal website, since it was a topic of many a fight between Alex and I. The website never supported itself monetarily anyway. Bragging rights will be sufficient.


What else should be added?

Last edited by Nuttdan on 30 Oct 2004, 6:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Hello!

You must be Dan Grover, the other site administrator of WrongPlanet.net. I think this is a great website, but I was wondering, what makes you think wrongplanet.net should be revamped?

We originally had pretty lofty goals for the original release of WrongPlanet.net, but by the time we set to release the site to the public, we hadn't implemented many of them. Some of them we hadn't thought of when we were first making it. I think everybody, though, will stand to benefit from the changes made in version 2.

Also, it shames me for one how standard the site is in terms of it being a lot like most PHPnuke-based websites. We have done a lot to remedy that and have done a lot of our own coding. But it's still very Nuke-like. And the developers of PHPnuke have made some bad decisions in its design, mostly in the end user experience. A lot of things about it are very unintuitive, geeky, and obfuscated. And a lot of the English language localization strings are just poorly written with bad grammar and spelling even. So we're really taking the engine that the site was made with and crafting it, through the magic of opensource, to someone that's how we (and you) would like it.

I'm gonna post my own ideas too just to have them recorded here.

Maybe there should be a unified FAQ section that combines the forum FAQ and the other FAQ

Last edited by Nuttdan on 30 Oct 2004, 5:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

After a period of time it is good for a message boards (and websites in general) to go through improvements. There are also upgrades to boards to better serve the members.

I'd like to be able to view who is viewing a particular forum, responding to that forum or even as some message board have, the specific thread in a forum a member is posting in at the moment.

I also believe (but it's ultimately up to you, Dan... and Alex) if I have more access the the statistical information the general membership doesn't have access to. I may get ideas from viewing that on a regular basis.

I'm not trying to sound overly critical; but, even though marketing speak may be good to persuade NTs, it's unnecessary with us aspies. I don't need some salesperson to tell me what I like. I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself; and I'm sure many of my fellow aspies agree. I must say, though, you've got the salespitch style down pat.

Anyway, in regards to the chat system, I'd like to see WrongPlanet.net link to an existing Asperger's syndrome IRC channel because a plethora of them already exist--with participation spread too thin over so many aspie channels. I'd like to see more cooperation and an acknowledgement of the greater aspie community spirit. WrongPlanet.net, Aspergia.com, AspiesForFreedom.com, SpectrumHaven.com, etc. are not in competition; we all share a common neurological difference; we are friends and allies.

I didn't mean to talk down to you. I'm sorry if I did. It can be easy to forget your audience. In any case, I've watched one too many Steve Jobs keynote speeches.

We aspies are, I think, people who can more easily see through the fluff and get to the real value of things, I agree, but I think we all appreciate, along with good substance, some style. So a little bit of marketing is always nice, though, since if you've got a good product, you should pitch it.

In the end, we're probably going to have a Flash "tour" of the site or something for newcomers. Nothing overdone -- some have complained of a shallow, sort of banal "corporate" aire to this website, and we want to do what we can to make it as unique and well-crafted as we can, in code and in spirit, to remedy that.

I think my return might change some of that direction of the site, or at least a couple have hoped that. And I don't mean that as an insult to my dear co-admin. I've pretty much been gone since a couple weeks after the launch. A couple users urged me to come back, saying the site has gotten worse. But we've got over 640 registered users and most of you seem to be content, so Alex must have done something right for the site to have enjoyed the success it has in the past few months. We've grown almost as big as the original Aspergia.

Unity in the aspie community would be nice. There has been quite a chasm formed between Alex and Amy, a former co-admin, to my understanding. And there was some real messiness with the IRC issue from what I remember.

But I think a lot of the original Aspergia stuff could be used here. I really liked the duality symbol that aspergia used, I was actually considering carving that into my jack-o-lantern yesterday (ended up instead making the hackneyed but cool pi symbol on a pumpkin). And I like the orange bracelet idea, though the orange bracelets themselves have other meanings in various cultures.

As far as uniting the aspie community goes, I think a little competition is a good thing. A few other sites have sprung out of the dust of the old aspergia, and I, for one, would like to do what we can to further this neat spirit of aspie community that's picked up in the last few years on the internet. And I don't think that the existence of several sites goes against that virtue. Your point is well taken, though. There have been some negative feelings between the aspie communities.

One thing I'd like to see with other aspie sites is implementing some form of RSS syndication -- as we will be doing in Version 2 on our site. Syndicating links to other aspie sites' news might be a neat way to cross-promote and ultimately benefit the end user. What do you guys think of that idea?

As far as chatrooms go, that's kind of a toughie. The trouble with IRC chats is that, in a lot of cases, the person whose site owns it has the admin rights. WrongPlanet.net cannot ensure the relative safety or quality in any way of external sites. So if we touted another site's chatroom as the "Chat" feature on our site, we would assume some sort of responsibility by virtue of that endorsement.

Another problem with chats is that some people do not have IRC clients and do not want to use some clunky Java applet to connect to those channels. We've fumbled with a couple web-based chat systems on here. The latest, in my opinion, doesn't look so good. But it's very hard to find an agreeable, compatible chat system. Alex, can you fill me in on the IRC server we're using now?

In addition to your comments about version 2, what do you guys think can be done to unify the aspie community? I think Neant is onto something there.

Though the only improvement I'd really like to see now is a spell checker, given the deeply suspicious way any progressive debate on improving things for Aspies (and ending the discrimination we currently experience at work and in welfare situations) seems to attract some unusually profficient and convincing trolls to some sites, I think eventually we'll need a verification "entrance exam" for all members?

I know this will disturb some, but others, like myself, would like to be able to know what exactly we are talking to, and it would create a better guide for visitors too. Can it be done? I think so, and at least that we can determine who is autisitic or not, as the consistent results of the AQ test (still under develoment) and C&M test (a "Micky Mouse" version of a test for something else) indicate. Even now perhaps, it could be arranged so that all members had to indicate their C&M, AQ, and EQ/SQ ratios in their signatures?

I'm working on an improved test, though it's a considerable time off yet, so maybe Dan, you could start thinking about ways in which it could be implemented, in a way it can't be faked? Then we can sit back and whatch who comes in to try and derail the project...

One thing I would like to see improved is having the "Jump to Forum" actually work!! I have tried it numerous times and all I get is a "Module not Active" error message. I think it's a great feature, but only if it works! I even filed a bug report a while back, but nothing appears to have gotten done about it.

Sincerely yours,

mentalman

I'd like writing, articles, and poetry to appear immeadiately, no matter which user it's from.

Mich

Gwynfrn, you write of discrimnation; but having a test is only applying the outside world's standards to Wrongplanet. Personally, I've been tested far too much and do NOT want to have to prove to 'a supportive community' that I meet what they think the standards should be. I should NOT have to take any test if I don't want to. In reality, if WrongPlanet was to impose this upon the site, I would leave.

I agree. Are we so paranoid that we have to test members by Simon Baron-Cohen's yardstick before allowing entry? Not very welcoming is it? Sod that.

dunc

We will work on fixing that for Version 2.0.


I agree and I'm sure that Dan does as well. However, people who keep creating new sites and speaking negatively about WrongPlanet.net make it hard for us to collaborate with these other aspies. If any of these sites would like to work with us, we'd be happy to collaborate, but Dan and I can't do anything unless we the other sites agree. I tried multiple times to start a joint chatroom between wrongplanet and AFF, but I got negative reactions from the AFF chatroom people because I didn't want people to tout their admin powers like they had some sort of trophy. One site that I *have* experienced positive communication with is Aspergian Island. I will try to look into collaborating with them.

But what Dan said about our not being able to ensure the relative safety or quality in any way of external sites holds very true. In fact, I've experienced some very poorly run chatrooms over time, from many of the aspie sites. The problem seems to stem from the dealing out of admin privelages which are used and touted as if they were some sort of trophy. In the WrongPlanet.net chatroom, unlike every other aspie chatroom that I've come across, we don't openly tout admin powers; if we need to use them to remove a spammer, we first have to activate these powers and then they are removed. This helps keep the channel temperature down (look at the freenode faqs, they explain this philosophy).

Well I said it'd disturb some, but I didn't say anything about excluding anyone. Look around though, and you'll see evidence that certain interests are determinedly trying to undermine any recognition of the positive aspects of autism; right now, they do it by sending people of suspiciously un-Aspie like outlook to fill "Aspie" sites with irrelevent or demeaning descriptions of AS and related issues.

Personally I'd prefer a world where people like myself where recognised for our productive potential, not excluded for trivial reasons like "interpersonal skills" (which have sod all to do with the work of an engineer or programmer, say). So how will we get this protection from discrimination? Like every other right anyone has; someone somewhere fought to win it! How though would we organise ourselves (no one is going to do this for us) if opponents to such ideas can just send in trolls to derail any such debate?

If every posting member had to display a marker, so we all knew what their own relevance to the debate may be, we could perhaps make progress, but at the moment it depends on the alertness of the moderators, and we gullible Aspies really are easily fooled by those who's main modus operandum is the "managing" of other people and their opinions. Don't kid yourself this can't hapen; it already has!

sorry, chaps and chapesses, but i haven't a clue what the problem is here.

gwynfryn - what is it exactly that you're objecting to? and how would an "entrance exam" solve this - i could say i had and AQ of 45, and be lying through my teeth. i know that at least one member here has an official diagnosis, and a very "low" AQ, for an aspie. like burglars, and really determined troll will get in and wreak havoc, if they want to. it's probably a matter of cure rather than prevention, i feel, and that's not just up to the mods - we're all responsible to inform whoever that something nasty is going on in the state of denmark, as it were.

V

I'm sorry, gwynfryn, but I'm not sure what you're referring to. What interests are you speaking about, and how is this affecting the outlook on autism?



Well, I think we'd all like that, but you also have to face the reality of the situation. We do have difficulty with "interpersonal skills," which is something that happens to be very important in the world we live in. If you are suggesting that members should not talk about these issues here, then where else can we be allowed to talk about them?

Perhaps what you need to do is organize a group of "proactive" aspies together to start this anti-discriminatory group which will fight towards the issues you are currently addressing. This site is not designed for that sort of thing, rather, it seems to be made more for people with AS to come together and meet and discuss related issues.



You speak of fighting discrimination, but you're also proposing that we employ it right here on this site. First, I find that somewhat hypocritical, and I hope you'll rethink what you've said and realize the same. Second, as I already stated, this site's purpose is not to "debate" of the future of aspies in society. Yes, that is one of the things that you can do here, but I don't think that you should be trying to redesign the site for specifically that purpose.

Mich,

I don't entirely understand what you mean by that. We decided we want to approve the content that's submitted before it's published on the writing section, just since that part of the site is intended to be a more polished, finalized showcase of aspie writing, as opposed to the forums where needing that sort of pre-approval would inhibit the primary purpose of discussion in the forums. So I think the current system works well. Let me know if you have any other ideas, though.