So I tried joining a few ASD Facebook Groups.

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BrokenPieces
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28 Feb 2019, 10:15 pm

It didn't go well.

I'm not going to name specific groups but I had a bad time with each of them (at least three, I stopped counting after that). Here are a few problems I faced.

1. Being misunderstood. I'm very articulate online and in spite of prefacing anything potentially offensive with trigger warnings, people blew up at me and my posts got shut down by mods. This came from asking questions I genuinely wanted answers to, like asking about addiction.

2. Others being intolerant. Again, in spite of trigger warnings on my posts, people wandered in like they didn't exist and blew up at me for triggering them. And worse than that, they bit off anyone's head (not literally of course) who used any terminology deemed offensive by the ASD community as a whole, instead of trying to educate them about why it's offensive. So if someone came in and introduced themselves by saying they're high functioning, they would probably be crying later that evening reading through the responses. Which went right along with:

3. Lack of actual freedom of speech. I mean as it should've existed within the group, as long as the group rules were followed. And if you had a problem within the group and you posted about it (like being misunderstood for example), the mods would take it down as soon as they saw it. I once wrote a simple post that said I was tired of people talking about spoons. It was like I admitted to genocide.

4. Entirely unhelpful mods. Contacting the mods through FB messenger was about as helpful as contacting myself through messenger. Except I would've been more help. Asking them for clarification on matters or if something was okay to post never led me to real answers. I asked a mod for permission to post something about six months ago and I still haven't heard back from her. She said she needed to discuss it with the other mods. That's some discussion.

I've come to understand that I occupy a grey area in which I'll never completely fit in with NTs or NDs. I'm okay with that. I just wish I would've known that before getting on FB. I'm not saying all the groups are bad but the ones I dealt with were like SJWs.



Magna
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28 Feb 2019, 10:49 pm

Disclaimer: I don't use FB. I know people who do, and do daily.

Personally I wouldn't regard FB as reflective of the ND community at large. I view FB in a largely negative light for many reasons including the fact, as you attest to, that it's highly moderated in conjunction with a social agenda bent on shaping and manipulating collective viewpoints. Ish.

One of the wonderful things about WP is the ability for a person to be able to post an idea or a question about something they're genuinely interested in or curious about and more often than not it will be considered by and engaged by the other members. Often, they're ideas or questions that, if posited or asked in the " real world" (ie NT dominant) would be met with reactions we've all known too well. We're far more free here to be ourselves.

For example, I've been wondering today why human males from a biological or evolutionary perspective needed to have the ability to remain virile their entire lives and I'm going to craft a thread posing that question for discussion.



BrokenPieces
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28 Feb 2019, 10:58 pm

Magna wrote:
Disclaimer: I don't use FB. I know people who do, and do daily.

Personally I wouldn't regard FB as reflective of the ND community at large. I view FB in a largely negative light for many reasons including the fact, as you attest to, that it's highly moderated in conjunction with a social agenda bent on shaping and manipulating collective viewpoints. Ish.

One of the wonderful things about WP is the ability for a person to be able to post an idea or a question about something they're genuinely interested in or curious about and more often than not it will be considered by and engaged by the other members. Often, they're ideas or questions that, if posited or asked in the " real world" (ie NT dominant) would be met with reactions we've all known too well. We're far more free here to be ourselves.

For example, I've been wondering today why human males from a biological or evolutionary perspective needed to have the ability to remain virile their entire lives and I'm going to craft a thread posing that question for discussion.


Yeah it turned me off for a while but I came to understand that they don't represent all NDs, or even most of them. But that was one of the problems, that I would ask questions and the reactions were how I would expect NTs to react except much MUCH worse.



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28 Feb 2019, 11:17 pm

Facebook as a platform is almost by nature toxic. There is something about it that makes positive interaction difficult. I wouldn't put too much stock in a bad facebook experience.


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01 Mar 2019, 1:27 am

BrokenPieces wrote:
It didn't go well.


sames. banned from two groups and really not at all active anymore on FB. I'm working on creating agency in my life and doing so on my ownsome for the most part.


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traven
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01 Mar 2019, 3:28 am

when i was on that, two groups i started were deleted at some changement moment
and also i was followed(spied?) by a trail of rosecruciferians, at a point was there a psychiatrist from vienna, that made me laugh much
nothing really changes eh



warrier120
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01 Mar 2019, 9:04 am

IMHO, I think these ASD Facebook groups are just too cliquish. In addition, they don't seem to really be promoting good ideas with what you mentioned, OP.


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serpentari
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03 Mar 2019, 1:32 am

sadly the lack of desire to undestand others is not exclusive to allistic ppl. if u feel a certain community doesnt suit u, just leave it. only way i've found for myself... and sorry it happened to u.


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03 Mar 2019, 8:27 am

Just playing devil's advocate for a moment ...

I have joined groups on FB that were not ASD oriented, but oriented towards my hobbies.

In those groups, people are generally pretty supportive and positive. But once in a while someone comes along who is dissenting, or cranky, or critical of another member. That ruins the whole experience, I don't go to Facebook to find conflict. I don't want someone attacking my posts for no reason. Generally, in the better groups, the group moderates itself, not by banning or deleting, but by encouraging the offending poster to be less critical or by supporting whoever was attacked. The better groups also state in their intro section that such posts will not be tolerated or explaining what the grounds for banning are.

So I think the user experience is different on Facebook than here, and that's good - there is a need for both kinds of platforms.

While we're on the topic, I've found Reddit full of trolls and I just don't go there.


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BrokenPieces
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04 Mar 2019, 4:10 am

Darmok - yeah I didn't. I know that don't represent everyone, thank goodness.

Grahambaster - sorry that happened to you. But good for you :)

Traven - that's weird lol. I started to start a group but didn't feel it was worth the effort.

Warrior120 - I agree, and they're very rigid in their opinions.

Serpentari - thanks. I did leave. One group i'm still in is really more like a brand of clothing and other things for people on the spectrum.

BeaArthur - This is why I'm still on fb. I use it for cosplay groups and mobile game pages. I know in one of my cosplay groups (local to my area) there is someone else on the spectrum and everyone knows. they're really nice and understanding towards him.

And omgoodness reddit. I joined for the writing prompts reddit. I haven't been back in some time. It's not worth it. :| my sister calls it "where the internet goes to die". I think she's right.



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04 Mar 2019, 3:00 pm

BrokenPieces wrote:
It didn't go well.

I'm not going to name specific groups but I had a bad time with each of them (at least three, I stopped counting after that). Here are a few problems I faced.

1. Being misunderstood. I'm very articulate online and in spite of prefacing anything potentially offensive with trigger warnings, people blew up at me and my posts got shut down by mods. This came from asking questions I genuinely wanted answers to, like asking about addiction.

2. Others being intolerant. Again, in spite of trigger warnings on my posts, people wandered in like they didn't exist and blew up at me for triggering them. And worse than that, they bit off anyone's head (not literally of course) who used any terminology deemed offensive by the ASD community as a whole, instead of trying to educate them about why it's offensive. So if someone came in and introduced themselves by saying they're high functioning, they would probably be crying later that evening reading through the responses. Which went right along with:

3. Lack of actual freedom of speech. I mean as it should've existed within the group, as long as the group rules were followed. And if you had a problem within the group and you posted about it (like being misunderstood for example), the mods would take it down as soon as they saw it. I once wrote a simple post that said I was tired of people talking about spoons. It was like I admitted to genocide.

4. Entirely unhelpful mods. Contacting the mods through FB messenger was about as helpful as contacting myself through messenger. Except I would've been more help. Asking them for clarification on matters or if something was okay to post never led me to real answers. I asked a mod for permission to post something about six months ago and I still haven't heard back from her. She said she needed to discuss it with the other mods. That's some discussion.

I've come to understand that I occupy a grey area in which I'll never completely fit in with NTs or NDs. I'm okay with that. I just wish I would've known that before getting on FB. I'm not saying all the groups are bad but the ones I dealt with were like SJWs.


There are some really nasty people on Facebook and social media right now who will lash out at anyone and make a big deal out of this or that. I have been on a couple of those Facebook groups myself and left two of them because they would get nasty and attack others.