Asperger forums, help needed.

Page 1 of 2 [ 20 posts ] Go to page 1, 2 Next

Jono
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,606
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

24 Apr 2016, 1:29 pm

Okay, so I realise that WP rules prohibit promoting other sites and forums, however if I don't spread this message, these forums might get deleted because the host is leaving. So, if what I'm about to post here breaks any rules, can the Mods please send me a PM.

The forums in question are 5 forums on Delphi forums which used to be vibrant but most people have left in favour of social media and creating Facebook groups. Here they are:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/hfasd

http://forums.delphiforums.com/asworks

http://forums.delphiforums.com/asandpartners

http://forums.delphiforums.com/aspielounge

http://forums.delphiforums.com/aspieautiadults

Although people rarely post in them anymore, please take a browse through the old posts to see if there's any interest in reviving this aspie community. Also please reply to this post if anyone is interested in hosting any of these forums. Speaking of which, the current host (Gerry Loc) has given me permission to re-post his announcement:

Gerry (GerryLoc) wrote:

Hello Everyone,

I think I'm finally to go drop off Delphi Forums and stop my paid membership. I have hardly even logged on in ages. I had hopes of building the AS related forums back up as they were 6 to 10yrs ago. But everything I could think of to try didn't help.

I just haven't had the passion for it for quite awhile either, and have finally admitted that to myself - So I think it's time to say goodbye to the forums and save the money for other things.

Now.. when my paid membership drops off, the forums are going to revert to public, no folders were be private anymore.

I have 4 options from what I can think of.

Hopefully, someone else with a paid membership - and is friendly to the AS community is will to take one or more of the forums over.
A Delphi free member can take it over - it will lose ability to have moderators, and private folders. But at least someone can look after it and delete inappropriate messages.
No one takes it over when my paid membership drops, it will continue with no moderators, no one will have the rights to moderate or delete posts - I see it filling up with spam and hate messages over time.
I think I can set it to read only, that way old messages can still be searched and read, just nothing new can be posted. again either that was private before becomes public
Delete it - all old messages are gone for good.
I'm posting this in all the the forums I'm hosting. I'm hoping one of you might be interested in taking it over, or know of someone that would be interested and good for the forum(s). The requirement for taking over the forum would be a paid delphi membership would help, but the main thing is an openness to Aspergers having positive benefits as well as the negatives. We (Aspies) are not lying, cheating, narcissistic, sociopaths that are out to intentionally hurt others. We are very upset when discover we have caused others pain due to our words or lack of words, or our actions. To us the world of the NTs (non-aspergers people) is extremely confusing. This is not and ever has been an Aspie bashing forum, it is a forum to try to help foster communications and healthy relationships. The person taking over needs to feel that is true, and try to continued the forum with that in mind.

I know there is someone out there interested, please step forward and let me know. Email me directly at [email protected] if you want rather than posting here. Please add in the subject line "ASandPartners" thanks

Or maybe you can suggest what options you think is best.

I have really missed the people I 'met' and knew from the forums over the past 12yrs here along with the conversations we've had among the groups, many of you became close friends.

Gerry

His instructions were that anyone who takes over the hosting of these forums must be both Aspie and NT friendly so as to be fair to both. Anyone interested?

Jono
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,606
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

25 Apr 2016, 2:24 am

Bumping this thread. Is there nobody here who used to participate in these forums?

Jono
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,606
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

26 Apr 2016, 1:57 pm

So, let me get this straight. Whenever we feel marginalised or negative stereotypes about us are created and propagated, making us feel stigmatised then everyone is quick to jump on the bloody bandwagon but when it comes to maintaining our own community, nobody gives a s**t? I am completely and utterly dismayed that after bringing you guys this news, this thread gets over 140 views and theres not a single response from anyone besides me.

Seriously, do you guys want these boards to eventually be filled with hate messages and spam so that besides ASPartners, all other AS related forums on Delphi will be both dead and filled with hate speech because there's nobody available to moderate them? Because that is exactly what will happen if they become completely abandoned without being deleted or anyone to look after them. Wonderful.

You know what? If nobody cares about this then I won't bother you any longer.

skibum
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Jul 2013
Age: 57
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,295
Location: my own little world

26 Apr 2016, 2:05 pm

I am just seeing this thread now for the very first time. I will take a look at the forums you posted. I can't take any of them over but I can support them if that helps.

_________________
"I'm bad and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."

Wreck It Ralph

Jono
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,606
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

27 Apr 2016, 3:56 am

skibum wrote:

I am just seeing this thread now for the very first time. I will take a look at the forums you posted. I can't take any of them over but I can support them if that helps.

Thank you. I appreciate it, skibum. Could you send the host a PM? Maybe, just reply to his announcement on the forums because sometimes you don't get notifications that you got a Private Message on Delphi.

ConceptuallyCurious
Velociraptor

Joined: 19 Aug 2014
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Posts: 494

27 Apr 2016, 6:21 am

No need to be rude. I can't see any groups in that forum that aren't available here. It seems they can be locked to read only, solving the spam and hate mail. Anyone needing the forum can join this one and it will still be searchable for people wanting to browse old threads.

It's silly to accuse us of killing a community when we've already got one that has what we need (admittedly bit without kinks regarding CAPTCHA).

If you're so frustrated about it, buy membership yourself rather than expecting other people to for out for a near-dead resource they have no need for (because they can access thus one freely).

It seems you're the only person in that forum his responded to Gary's post too. Time to let sleeping dogs lie.

_________________
Diagnosed with:
Moderate Hearing Loss in 2002.
Autism Spectrum Disorder in August 2015.
ADHD diagnosed in July 2016

Also "probable" dyspraxia/DCD and dyslexia.

Plus a smattering of mental health problems that have now been mostly resolved.

naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,098
Location: temperate zone

27 Apr 2016, 7:50 am

The first aspergers internet community I ever found was "the Aspie Hangout". Was pretty vibrant community for a good long time that I was part of for a few years. It even spawned a spin off site called "aspie castle"- or something like that.

That and the spinoff were both Delphi Forums. Surprised that you didnt include the Aspie hangout in your list of asperger related Delphi Forums.

A few years ago I became aware of Wrongplanet, and at about the same time the aspie hangout had somekind of technical problems -so no one could log in.

The Aspie Hangout has been back up and running, but even a year ago it was a ghost town. I even tried to help it out. Got one person on WP to join the AH. But now its even deader than it was a year ago.

I dunno. Maybe its competion with AspieCentral and/or this site. Maybe its the new social media (though I and many other aspies find Facebook overwhelming and prefer old fashioned social sites like this).

Tawaki
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 30 Sep 2011
Age: 59
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,439
Location: occupied 313

27 Apr 2016, 8:04 am

Those Delphi forums are miserable to navigate on a mobile, which is what I view the net with 90% of the time. The younger crowd uses mobiles, and if the site is a PITA, they will bale.

naturalplastic
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 26 Aug 2010
Age: 69
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,098
Location: temperate zone

27 Apr 2016, 8:18 am

^

Thats probably it.

The mortal wound to those sites is probably the younger generation and their smart phones.

Desk top computers will become a niche market for folks who need them for vocational and avocational use (like graphic arts, film, and audio editing). Everyone else is only go have a smartphone.

Jono
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,606
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

27 Apr 2016, 1:07 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

I think that Aspie Hangout is hosted by a different person, that's why I didn't link to it. I only linked to the 5 forums that Gerry hosts. I agree though that it's kind of sad that most of those forums seem dead.

Jono
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,606
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

27 Apr 2016, 1:09 pm

naturalplastic wrote:

Do you think that the navigation issue is the reason why people left in the first place?

Jono
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2008
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,606
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

27 Apr 2016, 1:43 pm

ConceptuallyCurious wrote:

If you're so frustrated about it, buy membership yourself rather than expecting other people to for out for a near-dead resource they have no need for (because they can access thus one freely).

You can have free membership. Nobody has to pay anything, not to browse post or even to host forums. The only thing extra you get by being a paid member is the ability to have closed and private folders in the forum.

skibum
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Jul 2013
Age: 57
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,295
Location: my own little world

27 Apr 2016, 2:47 pm

I took a look at the first one. It's nice. I tried to navigate on it but the scripts are blocked on my laptop so I can't get around on it. Sorry. I did take a look though. I will look at the other ones as well.

_________________
"I'm bad and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."

Wreck It Ralph

ConceptuallyCurious
Velociraptor

Joined: 19 Aug 2014
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Posts: 494

27 Apr 2016, 3:12 pm

Jono wrote:

ConceptuallyCurious wrote:

If you're so frustrated about it, buy membership yourself rather than expecting other people to for out for a near-dead resource they have no need for (because they can access thus one freely).

I believe it said that it was only possible to assign moderators if someone paid. I'm aware not everyone has to.

Tawaki
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 30 Sep 2011
Age: 59
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,439
Location: occupied 313

27 Apr 2016, 9:23 pm

Jono wrote:

naturalplastic wrote:

Do you think that the navigation issue is the reason why people left in the first place?

I used to frequate the partners board on Delphia, but the PITA part on the mobile just wasn't worth it.

Wrongplanet is almost (it has gotten better) not worth it on the mobile.

Facebook has a mobile phone app which makes groups so much more easier. You can post vids, photos and sound files. You can make the privacy from public to secret. It is just a better experience phone wise.

All my email lists are slowly dying. The people that are hanging on are 60 and up. Forums with threads are toast if they are hard to navigate and with stupid hoops you jump throw to post or log in.

The successful groups I know might have a token email list and the bulk is a Facebook group. I belong to a running group, and the majority of the conversations are on the Facebook page not the email list.

Active forums have taken a huge hit from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. At least the things I am interested in.

SocOfAutism
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 2 Mar 2015
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,848

28 Apr 2016, 8:46 am

Is it the layout of this Delphi site that you liked or the people on it? If it's the people, you could just all move to one of the bigger sites, like here on Wrong Planet or Aspie Central. I ultimately prefer Wrong Planet (obviously) but there are other big forums that people can join together.

I used to be part of a forum for my neurological disease. The site slowly trickled down to me and a couple of old men, and then I left too. The last I heard the rest of the people went to FB, of which I am not a member. It's sad when that happens, but you can still stay in touch on new forums. In my case, I chose not to be a part of their new group because I hate facebook.

Page 1 of 2 [ 20 posts ] Go to page 1, 2 Next

Jump to:

Asperger forums, help needed. Post Reply New Topic

Asperger forums, help needed.