I see a lot of heated discussion on this forum...

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I notice on this forum in particular more than any other forum I've been on, people seem to get their backs up and snap at each other. Sometimes over completely inconsequential things. Is that an ASD thing? I remember I used to get my back up when I was younger but my grandmother sort of smacked it out of me with her shoe, literally and figuratively speaking.
I see that a lot of heated discussions, or rather, insult hurling matches, seem to develop here, and it's usually over something that I figure could have been solved with mellow, thoughtful discussion, and mutual consideration for the other person's point of view.

I have "moderate" aspergers, not severe, so I don't know how to interperet what I'm seeing. I don't know if that's just the atmosphere of this forum, or whether it's an ASD thing that people here seem to get their backs up so much. I'm figuring someone will even get their back up over this thread hehe.

Seriously though, what are your thoughts on this issue?

The only other site Ive frequented was another aspie site. That site could get very argumentative. There were permanently angry individuals with axes to grind. But my guess is that you would find folks like that on predominantly NT sites as well.

Dont think that this site is worse about that than either most aspie sites, or even most sites on the web in general.

Some forums within this site are more argumentative than others. Any forum entitled "Philosophy, Politics, and Religion" is going to have vitriol. News and current events can get heated because of politics as well.

And "the Loath and Hating" forum has gotten notorious (reputedly worse than the PPR).

Other subforums (including "general autism") aren't so argumentative, though scuffles do break out once in a while.

I don't think it's just an autism thing, I think it's an Internet thing. Online, people tend to feel more free to express their honest opinions about things, and there just so happen to be a lot of angry people in this world who want to b***h, whine, and argue. I should know, because I tend to do these things myself sometimes. The world is a crappy place to put it lightly, and venting is one of the best ways of relieving the frustration and anger that builds up inside. It may not be the most constructive, but it certainly helps people feel better about themselves.

I haven't seen a lot of heat on WP. I used to be a member of a users' group for a computer music program, and I didn't see any less hostility there, especially if anybody aired their views on the ethics of pirated software. Not everybody seems to understand that some issues are very thorny and should only be debated with great care.

I think it depends on which parts of WP you visit. I mainly stick to the General Autism Discussion, and I've only seen one really nasty post in the last few months, and the author was banned almost immediately. Things do get too competitive for my taste from time to time, but I think that's just human nature. It's good that moderators are around to lock any threads that get too vitreolic, although we might not like to be suddenly gagged like that.

Personally I find the scroll down key a good way to keep what I read reasonably sweet and rational.

That is absolutely positively NOT my impression at all. Then again I am used to political discussion forums where people really do get very emotional. I find WP fairly mellow and friendly most of the time.

Try this forum if you wan to see some sparks flying:

http://www.discussionist.com/?com=forum&id=1015

I've frequented some pretty nasty forums over the past 15 years, so I'm used to discussions getting pretty heated with lots of vile ad hominem attacks. This site is very pleasant compared to those.

The only subforum that could get somewhat heated is the PP & R Forum.

People are discussing the very nature of who they are. Also for many this is the first time they get to discuss it and everything pours out.

I think quite a few people here on WP have said the opposite; WP is the friendliest. I can't say much about it myself because I've never been a member of any other forum. But when I happen to see some other forums without being a member, I think I see far more blatantly mean/nasty/sarcastic/childish posts there than on WP.

I can only imagine that the OP has only frequented forums that, by their nature, were always going to be exceptionally tame.

Gotta agree with the majority, WP is generally very welcoming. Some issues with people who aren't up to date on the identity politics (as in, we aren't as friendly towards them as perhaps we could be), but generally users are friendly.

Two of my aspie friends think aspie forums are full of drama, more than they see on none aspie forums. They think loving drama must be an aspie thing and they all love it. I think it's the same like I see on other places. It just shows me how human we are.

It comes and goes in phases here. Sometimes things get really heated for awhile, on certain topics...like last year seemed like half the forum got mad at Jerry Seinfeld for implying that he might be autistic, and it took months for things to calm down again. When something like that gets stirred up, things just sort of snowball from there. But outside of things like that, this forum is usually very calm and civil, at least compared to most other forums.

I have been on forums where things usually seemed very nice and friendly on the surface. But behind the scenes there was a LOT of social drama and every once in awhile it would erupt out in the open on the forum in a huge debacle. It was more about social drama and personal arguments between people, than it was about what people discussed on the forum. I haven't seen quite like that happen here. I have also been on forums where people just tended to be nasty and rude more often than they were nice.

Honestly, for a forum with such a large community, WrongPlanet is actually pretty friendly and civil. Most of the other large-ish forums I've been on have had fairly toxic communities.

There are very many people on this site.
Keep a look out for the names that crop up in the argumentative posts, you will see the same small handful of people in all of them, a tiny proportion of the site membership.
They can be found in the PPR forum, spending a lot of time being rude to people who want to believe in God.