WP vs "NT" Forums

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Most of the NT forums I've been on have been quite nice, although I haven't had much exposure to them.

I was quite active on Gamespot back in the day, and it's forums were moderated well (almost to a fault,) so one couldn't really troll, or go off topic.

The System Wars forum was the exception to this - filled with trolls and trolling.

What I have learned at Babycenter was BBC=babycenter BF=breastfeeding FF=formula feeding, SAHM=stay at home mom CD=clothing diapering, all those terms. There are tons of terms there like GOAT and HIPPO. HIPPO is where you skip reading posts before making a reply. (I forget what it stands for of course) and GOAT is when you read everything in the thread before replying. I also forget what it stands for but at least I remember the meanings. You learn all these things when you are there. Even some people there have asked what do these terms stand for such as HIPPO and GOAT. And there were stuff I picked up on by figuring out what it means. Topics is a big give away.

Oh yeah they do have a fun group called "No offense but..." and you can say anything you like but you have to post "no offense" first in your thread title. I have even seen a thread in one of the birth clubs called "No offense but..." and it's where you can say anything without being accused of being rude and stuff. Hey even NTs also think people say "no offense" thinking it's a free ticket to say something offensive and you aren't allowed to get upset. They don't like it either so I learned it's not an NT thing because even they get irritated by it too. I have seen people there complain about people saying "I don't mean to be rude but.." and then they say something rude. Same as "not to be rude but..."

I have learned a lot there.

FTW Me Iz sEein lez of dese ard 2 rd psts on ere. LOL @ dat.








This is my bad idea of a joke... sorry...

Ima gonna let down the tires on your rice burner! And turn that cap around and pull your pants up.

are you saying i can't spell english? it's totally possible, i'm french ....sorry if i have hurt your eyes

First, this is sort of a 'support group' type message board, so we're all coming in with the idea that we're supposed to help each other. Second, we all know we have something in common; either we have AS or have another mental illness that makes us suspect AS, or have a family member with either of the above. These two things go a long way towards civil discourse.

As far as AS people posting differently, somewhat. The grammar here is indescribably better than most message boards. The avatars are almost never scantily clad females. There's a good deal less stupidity and trolling, but I think that's mostly attributable to the stuff from paragraph one. I see many many fewer of the character smiley faces.

My other experience with message boards has been those related to sports and video games. The sports boards have quite a bit of intelligent discourse but you have to sift through lots of trash talking and rah-rah go team stuff to actually find it. The video game boards tend to be a few adults trying to discuss something and a whole bunch of kids posting dumb stuff to get attention.

I think you will find that, the better the moderator's are at moving topics, closing down and banning behavior that is against the rules of conduct, the better the forum. Some topics or groups are just powder kegs, but allowing personal attacks has the same result as encouraging them.

That wasn't aimed at anyone. I was just doing a little 'Ali G' kind of thing which seems to happen on the other forums a lot. Votre anglais est très bon (My French is not so bon... Thanks google translate!)

On the plus side, people here are realitively civil...although I cant say that for the PRP section. After being pounced on like a duck on a junebug for having faith among a hoard of militant athiests, I tend to stay out of there. I am sensitive so I dont like arguing with folks.
But the rest of the site is very welcoming, honest, helpful, funny, tragic, and the people here think like me.

Sometimes I get anoyed on some threads where there is no real discusion going on, just folks stating what they think about a topic but nobody interacts with anyone else. Those threads can be lonely sometimes. But thankfully this doesnt happen all the time.

However compaired to other forums...ya'll are more willing to accept my quest for political truth more so than folks do in other forums. I got ate up in a homesteading forum about trying to get farmers to recognize a bill that was in the works that could really impact them. I was slaughtered and told that I was paranoid. All I can say, is if they have been through what I have been through, they would be paranoid too.
Then there was the weather forum on accuweather...I had the nerve to state an opinion that since the results have been monkey-ed with on both sides of the global warming debate, then obviously nobody knows what is really going on (seems logical to me...right) Ohh they slaughtered me with words that I could not understand and basicly told me that I have no idea what I am talking about. I still claim though that there is proof that both sides of the climate debate, scientists put data stations in places that best prove their point rather than uniformly over the globe...based on that evidence...we have no idea what is really going on as far as the climate goes.

The only other forum that I have loved as much as WP is on dreammoods, the rant and rave section. There are some really awesome people there and there is not much trolling, bulling, "socail dogmas" and so on...they are pretty real. The worst though HAS to be craiglist. There is no moderation there, I dont think, and people are really obscene, rude, racist, sexist, homophobic, neo nazi etc etc. Really makes me wonder about humanity.

But all in all, I rate WP with a 11 on a 1-10 scale as far as great sites. I love the people here although it took me a while before I really felt accepted, but it was worth the wait. I am glad that I did not give up. I think some folks think I am NT-ish because I have had so much social training that I could pass for an NT to an untrained eye...but unlike an NT, it is a good act, but still an act.

well anyway that was my critical analysis of WP compaired to other sites

Most NT forums i have been on are quite good however the only problem is in a NT forum is if you disagree with that members comment it becomes an argument and then other members start to gang on you which i think is rather amateurish.

You know what, I have been realizing aspie forums are more safer than NTs forums because on Babycenter I have noticed when someone asks a curious question, it turns into a flame fest and attacks and false accusations. They accuse the OP of being judgmental and acting like she had an agenda with her question. But here when you ask a curious question, it doesn't turn into a flame fest and people are more logical and rational and explain things in their post than getting all heated up and upset. It's rare when it happens here and it's not as bad when it does happen. It's worse over there. Sometimes it gets bad here but it's rare when it is. But here I have seen a few users getting accused of being trolls because they were posting too many threads asking questions. So no much different here but I have finally seen the difference.

I mean in society it seems like it's a crime to be ignorant by not knowing about something nor understanding. Hello, how are they supposed to learn when you are mean to them about it? If they ask a simple question, why be all mean and rude to them about it? At least here we are more mature about it by explaining to the person just to educate them. But on BBC, not many are mature about it, in fact the meanies stick out more. I mean everyone is ignorant because we don't understand everything or know everything.

I honestly feel houlier than thou most of the time because of how lot of people act and I don't act that way so it makes me feel all superior and better than them. I often feel I am more mature and have better skills than lot of people. They have things they still need to work on.

Of course not all none spectrum people act this way because not everyone there acts that way. That's why some people there have created no drama groups and people join them because they also get sick of the meanness so it's safer to post in those groups to avoid drama.

This is probably the only forum I like. See the other times that I have been on forums I've gotten in a lot of trouble.

I realized a lot of other forums are particular to popularity mentality.

Not so recently, but about a year ago I joined a special interest website. Well lo and behold it had a lot of insulting and rude comments.

Now I was treated poorly, very poorly. But the people who insulted me never got in trouble. No matter how many times I brought it up to the mods and admins and how much reporting I did.

One time they had a section for RP and I said, "Can someone please give me an update on what's going on? The RP is going by a bit fast and I have school and work." [btw, this is a summary I don't remember my exact words, but it was very close to this]

Well a member replies [who was very popular a lot of members liked her a lot]: The RP is going fast get over it and read the RP.

Well I reported to the mods, they told me that it wasn't rude that she was just making a statement.

The admin is rarely there so I couldn't contact him. And even so the site had a lot of background politics.

Well not to long after, maybe three days. She got no warning, the mods weren't really willing to do anything and somehow they didn't see her comment as rude.

She writes, "Guys this RP is going by fast and I have a headache. Can't focus."

I replied, "Its just a headache get over it,"

I got a whole lot of s**t. Negative rep, I got banned for 2 days, and she was protected.

On the same site one time a girl on a thread about glasses wrote, "Glasses are nerdy and don't make people look cool,"

Now this girl is not only the girlfriend of a moderator, so she gets special treatment. But she is also really popular, has a lot of friends. And they are like I know right. They are talking about how ugly glasses are.

And I simply stated, "You realize that is very rude, that some people actually have a need for glasses. You also realize that people have been probably bullied their lives about wearing glasses."

She replies, "I was only joking,"

So now she's excused because she played it off as joke. But she wouldn't have flooded the whole thread about how glasses are ugly if she was joking. She then proceeds to send me a visitor message telling me I'm uptight and should learn how to take a joke and wrote a long paragraph about how I was always playing the victim on the forum.

I report it to the mods, I tell the admin. Once again, "she was joking" and "she has the right to say what she wants".

Soo again because I'm not getting results, I reply to her. I tell her that there are just things you don't joke about. I told her you wouldn't go on a thread about rape and "joke" about how the rape victim was asking for it. I told her that she wouldn't go on a abuse thread and "joke" about abuse. That maybe she should learn what a joke is and what a joke isn't.

I get banned for a month, for harassment [when she was the who VMd me first], and being rude to a member [when she VM'd me first].

VM stands for Visitor Message.

All though I cannot yet fully compare WP to the forums I have been. I do feel this is a really nice community and I think I will do well here.

I think WP is a great resource and the people here are knowledgeable and supportive. It really is a breath of fresh air to read so many thoughtful and intelligent posts.

The other experience I have had with forums has been very difficult. I was an admin on another forum, but I wasn't in charge, there was another admin who owned the site. Most of the members were teens and I felt very protective of them. The forum was very busy, and it was a lot of work to constantly have to wrestle the abusive posters and get them to desist in their attacks. During that time I was voted favorite member, because people recognized that I had their best interests at heart.

But then things devolved, partly because I couldn't tolerate the meanness and cliquishness. The admin in charge promoted one of the most abusive members to moderator, and that was when I quit. But I couldn't let it go and got myself into all kinds of arguments. I still feel sorrow over having had to leave after all I put into it. It took me a long time to see all the landmines that were waiting to get me, and they eventually got me. Now I'm very wary of forums, but WP feels very safe. I hope I'm not being clueless once again.

[quote="bee33"
But then things devolved, partly because I couldn't tolerate the meanness and cliquishness. The admin in charge promoted one of the most abusive members to moderator, and that was when I quit. But I couldn't let it go and got myself into all kinds of arguments. I still feel sorrow over having had to leave after all I put into it. It took me a long time to see all the landmines that were waiting to get me, and they eventually got me. Now I'm very wary of forums, but WP feels very safe. I hope I'm not being clueless once again.[/quote]

This statement I can pretty much agree with. Sounds a lot like what I had to deal with myself.

The few NTs forum I go are great, but then again there are small, and frequented by nice and smart peoples.

Honestly... that was asking for troubles.


Indeed, even more so that there isn't that much moderation.

There are jerks in any spectrum, clearly. There is a difference though.