*This forum sucks*

[mysterionz]

But if you go to just some random Discord to try and talk to people? You don't know who these people are, they could be someone who hates you, are rude to you, tell you to commit you-know-what like what happened to you, you just don't know.

100000%. I hit most of the targets that trolls seek, “weird”, overweight, double chinned, discord mod cartman wannabe there ever is.

 

[mysterionz]

Yeah, this is exactly why the only Discord server I'm active in is a group chat among friends/acquaintances (and a couple people who are actually in a relationship) that formed from a subcommunity I was part of on another forum.

I know all these people and we've known each other for varying years as well.

But if you go to just some random Discord to try and talk to people? You don't know who these people are, they could be someone who hates you, are rude to you, tell you to commit you-know-what like what happened to you, you just don't know.

My dad uses discord but only ever for MMORPGS (massive multiplayer online role playing games) he plays with his buddies. He met one of his close friends because of WoW.

 

[Progster]

The fact that most surprised me here is that social and humanistic topics, such as history, literature, religion, films and music are often special interests. I HATED these subjects at school.

I think you need to look at the reason for the special interest, rather than what the special interest actually is.

For example, a couple of mine are languages and music. In the case of music, basically, it's a stim. It also helps me feel calm feel good, helps regulate my emotions. I also enjoy collecting listening data and statistics, and trying out new music. It's something that I can lose myself fin for a while, and I feel a strong compulsion to do so. Collecting data, writing metadata and building up a music database also serves an innate need to organise and catalogue.

Languages: these started as fascinations for other countries, other places and cultures, and before I knew I was on the spectrum. They are a kind of escapism, wanting to emerse myself in a different culture, language, etc. They language ones have one thing in common: they started at times when I was under a lot of strain, down and depressed.

So apart from being interesting hobbies, they have a trigger and serve a function, and both the trigger and the function they serve are in some way related to autism, and it really doesn't matter what the actual special interest is, whether it be sports or languages or maths or dinosaurs, you will find that in autistic people, they serve a same or similar purpose.

Many people here feel this way about sports - it very much depends on the individual. The spectrum is very broad and is influenced by many factors - environment, genes, personality, etc. So although autistic people will have many traits in common, you get a very large variation in individual personalities and traits - as indeed you get with people in general.

 

[Lemon Zing]

I don't think people troll on here that much, if ever. There's a lot of forums online where the moderators don't give a crap about stuff like that, favour longtime posters, and maybe even encourage bad behaviour. So thank your lucky stars this forum has moderators who step in when needed.

 

[Magna]

I don't think people troll on here that much, if ever. There's a lot of forums online where the moderators don't give a crap about stuff like that, favour longtime posters, and maybe even encourage bad behaviour. So thank your lucky stars this forum has moderators who step in when needed.

I agree with you. Within the last few weeks this forum has had more new members introducing themselves in a short time than I've ever seen since being here. I used to frequent a different autism forum and when it would get a spate of new members it almost always resulted in a good number of those members being trolls to the point that any new wave of new members was very suspect to me on that forum.

 

[Angular Chap]

With autism becoming more and more talked about, it's natural to get more and more new members, and that's a good thing. More people to share their stories, more people to learn from, more great people to interact with.

Of course, there will probably be a few trolls, scammers and spammers in there, but I'm sure the mods can deal with that.

My concern is getting a wave of the "autism is cool and trendy" crowd, but I don't think they would find as warm a welcome here.

 

[Mr. Stevens]

My concern is getting a wave of the "autism is cool and trendy" crowd, but I don't think they would find as warm a welcome here.

This is a genuine question: what does this look like when you see it? I know the idea of people jumping on an Autism bandwagon is out there, and I've met therapists who seem to view things that way. But, I've never really met someone who seemed to fit that stereotype. So I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious.

 

[mysterionz]

I use the names Erika or randi online

 

[Mr. Stevens]

I sometimes use Mrs. Stevens.

 

[Angular Chap]

This is a genuine question: what does this look like when you see it? I know the idea of people jumping on an Autism bandwagon is out there, and I've met therapists who seem to view things that way. But, I've never really met someone who seemed to fit that stereotype. So I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious.

You know, now that you've asked me and I've thought about it, I can't actually give any specific concrete examples! Well, sensible and mature examples that we could talk about, not delving into certain areas of the internet...

I guess I'm just needlessly concerned about an uptick in more unscrupulous behavior coming here. Maybe I'm just thinking that unscrupulous people view things as more eyes on Autism = a way to make money at our expense by pushing traffic to dubious social media accounts, sites and blogs and fake treatments and cures. Maybe I'm just needlessly worried about the happenings on social media making there way here.

 

[chameleonov]

I've been on different internet forums for 2 decades since I was a teen, and what I honestly can say is these forums are not really meant to solve any issues, they are here for people who seek attention and need confirmation, they want to be seen and heard so they can feel good about themselves, and have this "you better recognize me" mentality. It's a recreational activity, almost like a young woman who dresses like a bimbo so all the guys can look at her with lust and she feels affirmed and wanted. And as a human being I can understand that, wanting attention. But it doesn't really solve anything or answer any questions. A lot of people are just posting stuff they don't know anything about, or they want to sound clever. I definitely regret posting many things in the past decade.

Wrongplanet was pretty much the worst forum I've ever joined. Filled with moderators that have narcissistic tendencies. So I guess this forum isn't as bad(and that's saying something).

 

[autism-and-autotune]

Speaking of forums, etc, where are all autistic at? i know this one, and there is not much people in here, and the wrongplanet but never joined, there is some place i don't know about?

Good question. I don't really...enjoy? wrongplanet. I don't understand how the forum works.