What has been your experience on WP?

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I think I've experienced a bit of everything.

Positives: It most likely saved my life and sanity. I made lifelong friends. I learned to understand myself and others. It helped me express myself in written form. Words come much more easily for me in written form and this allows me to explore thoughts or emotions which would otherwise be inaccessible. It's mentally stimulating, which is good for my stroke recovery (I play a lot of word games which help with vocabulary retention etc). I've found a lot of new music, new books, new research, and new "news" that I wouldn't otherwise know. I didn't even know about Covid until I read it on here.

Negatives: The worst has been related to trolls or insincere people who willingly hurt others. Security has been an issue for me and I take it very seriously. Gaslighting and bullying are also a problem - whether it's against people's religion, their political opinions, their personality, or even their abilities on the spectrum (ableism). I've seen people ridiculed for their mental health, for their spelling / grammar, and even for who their friends are. I'm a rules-based person and I like rules that are fair for all -- and enforced for all -- but yet accommodating to our different abilities and situations. At a certain point we should all have a second chance if we screw up. I don't like when people are permabanned especially if they have mental health concerns. This is a lifeline for some of us, and revoking that access can be disastrous. Overt double standards or perceived injustice can really set me off, and that's not healthy for me or for whoever's involved. On a technical level, I also find the PM configuration really antiquated and annoying, as well as the frustrating search system. If I can't remember how to spell someone's name or the name / subforum location of a thread, there's no way to retrieve it.

Overall - It's addictive, and it's a good forum. It was my first forum / internet chatting ever. I came in with a lot of baggage and trauma, and I feel like it's really helped me. That's not to say some changes shouldn't be made to keep it this way.

^^^you took the words right outta my mouth

I agree with Isabella Linton. This place has its positives and negatives.

This site is generally a supportive site and most of the members are very welcoming and can empathise well.

However, like all internet forums, some members can be argumentative or personally attack one for having different views, and some people can be too blunt and tell you what you might not want to hear. There's been a few bully-type members here who have picked on me and made me feel insecure about myself. Thanks to one member (who got banned for being an argumentative jerk), I now feel embarrassed about my fears of PAP tests.

Sometimes this place can be too logical and not understand some of my NT-like thinking, which I find frustrating. Also this place turns every normal human feeling into an autism trait, or scaremongers about the likelihood of autistic people being thrown into Nazi camps for whatever reason or autism means having autoimmune diseases and so on. It's enough to make me want to quit WP forever.

I have grown enormously, in the 8 years I have been here, and not because I ate too many pizzas.

I have had to deal with a lot of bullying, and it toughened me up nicely.
A thank you, to the ratbags that were putting in the boot.

As Nietzsche said:
"Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

i hope you don't think i'm one of the ratbags.

To be honest, not the worst by any means, but not the best. It's 50/50. Half of me, and a part of me, likes it here, and I've gotten help and assistance, and reassurance, that things are going to be okay. The other half, I feel, there isn't a lot of black people, or black autistic people on here, or from what has been revealed, or from what I gathered. There isn't much LGBTQ support or acceptance here. I notice whenever I post in a topic (and it's not even an old or ancient topic, I could understand.) replies immediately stop. Hmm. smh. I don't know. lol. Just little, obvious, blatant things I've noticed. So yeah. But the former 50% experience I mentioned earlier, I think is stronger, and WrongPlanet isn't that bad. I'm gonna give the benefit of the doubt, and this place generally isn't that bad, but yeah, I said what I said. There is some bad parts, but I see some greatness too. Thank you.

There aren’t a lot of “minorities” here, true. But there are more than you think there are.

There’s a considerable amount of people here who are of “alternative” sexuality—whether gay or asexual.

I stay out of the cesspits of politics and religious discussions and the like so I don't know what it's like in there, but elsewise I don't really notice too much in the way of bigotry. Maybe some leftover misunderstandings from older folk who grew up in a time where it was considered normal, but by-and-large I don't see even the casual homophobic cultural artifacts that you might encounter elsewhere.

Also, fellow lgbt+ member here! Ayyyy!

No idea about the lack of black autist population, though typically I don't really consider race at all unless it has to do with geopolitical culture, in which case it's geopolitical or cultural thing, not a race thing. I'm also an international mix of like 5+ things, so things like racial identity are meaningless to me lol.

As far as dead-threading goes...I wouldn't worry too much about it. The special dynamic of places like this with people like us make it generally unsuitable for many types of conversational back-and-forths. There's also a lack of function showing how many people have read your specific comment or what they think about it, so a lot of the necessary feedback for determining your comments' reception is just completely absent.

Oh yeah, and back to the topic of lgbt+; It seems that the age population here is somewhat older than most places on the internet, so many of us are probably far more secure and knowledgeable regarding lgbt+ issues and don't have all that many things we feel the need to discuss. And I'm sure the combo of autistic AND lgbt+ has only made us even more naturally reclusive, not wanting to wanting to bother others about our difference.

My feeling is: The "cesspool" is a microcosm of our Internet society. It's nothing more than that. There's much more of a "cesspool" in Reddit, Facebook, places like that.

• People like to troll the messenger when they cannot refute the message.

After trying out every result of autism chats and forums on Google, seeing the complaints of the people especially men, and constructing a list out of them, I can say it's the best website and not only the best but the only one which is worth it and does not inherently harm its community by unprofessional modding and disrespect which builds up already overwhelmed individuals which they preach against, and by not overmodding content and having areas for religion debates and political ones, as well as discussing adult content. Besides being well populated. Cheers to success!

I see much care in the community for newcommers (even to gross levels but it helps hypersensitive people stay), which has been badtalked and underestimated as being the opposite on WP in other places.

There are obviously lacks in structural build, because we can't ignore parts of the forums, only mark them as read so they appear white for a while until new posts appear. But then again every once in a while we may find things we didn't think we would post in, either that would help us keep the mind clear or that we can relate to due to a recent event. It's like an interesting clutter to a garbage diver. Where will I find the treasure today?

_________________
My Pepe Le Skunk. I have so much faith in our love for one another. Thanks for being an amazing partner. x

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