Publicity for WP?

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How many people feel that WrongPlanet needs mentions in quality news-media such as PBS, and The New York Times?

It's important that quality news-media offer stories on WP to encourage discussions, fresh perspectives, and even new WP members.

I would expect an influx of new members, some good and some bad actors. I would rather see a PSA type autism campaign that informed the general population. Similar to the current “awkward silence” tv ad running. I would like to see the population of WP grow, just with positive people. Possible chance we lose WP in total if a lot of bad actors start overworking the moderators. I think they have better things to do like designing their uniforms.

I think you have a noble idea; for above reason, I’m adverse to change.

This site has been mentioned a few times, mostly in articles about the neurodiversity movement, but it has been a really long time.

I fear this site becoming a s**tshow if this place became a big item in the news.

The audience of news-media such as PBS, and The New York Times tend to be thoughtful/educated and hence more limited in audience size than most media sources - hence opportunities to encourage more beneficial perspectives than negative perspectives here on WP.

Advertisers or external publicity for WP is entirely in Alex's hands, as the site owner.
But please - do feel free to suggest ideas to him.

I think it would help some people to find us, but possibly attract a lot of trolls or people wanting to exploit us.
Some people like to make fun of us on other sites, so it would be reasonable to be cautious.
You only mention two American outlets so it should be more world wide, if it happened.
It seems most of us managed to find WP on our own.
Politicians and policy makers might want to have a look at our opinions, though.

I think it would make the place feel less private, which I wouldn't like. But I'm happy for new people to find it on their own.

There always seems to be a small but important flow of new members who were recommended WP by their doctors, which looks like an excellent advertisement to me - and a reminder that amongst all the noise in PPR and News and Current Events, WP is still a support site.

While doctors mentioning WP to their patients is a good recruiting mechanism for WP, when I think of advertising I guess I think more along the lines of generating revenue.

It could help us. I feel like WP has gotten some bad publicity. I've seen some of the other ASD forums talking sh*t about us.

As mentioned in this disc. thread, the audience of news-media such as The New York Times, and PBS, tend to be more thoughtful/educated than most other news-media outlets. Hence, such an audience might also be encouraged to assist WP in curbing negative results.

Especially with PBS, there would likely be very little in the way of negative results via PBS publicity of WP.

It might attract both good members and trolls, but my concern would be something else. How comfortable would anyone here really feel with posting personal issues if this site trended often? I mean, sure we're using nicks and so, but I would be more awkward about it if I knew it would be a higher probability of it getting publicity outside of this site. The general audience, no thanks. I would not enjoy any of the forums I'm on to get media attention

Last edited by Redpaws on 20 Feb 2022, 5:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have seen some of those. Many of those people are former WP members who were banned or quit WP, so they have an ax to grind. Also we are still the biggest autistic forum, so we are the biggest target.

So they're just people who are butthurt because they got banned? They made it sound like we were a forum of psychopaths.

As mentioned, the audiences of such media outlets as 'The New York Times' and especially 'PBS' tend to be more thoughtful, and educated than average audiences. I remember 'PBS' news-stories over the years on the Autism Spectrum - stories which considered an audience receptive to detailed, thoughtful perspectives.

The biggest concerns here might be sentiments of doubts, and negativity becoming like a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts - sentiments too often reflected here on WP - sentiments which may discourage helpful perspectives here on WP.

RELATED: The discussion-thread 'Publicity For Asperger-Autism Network (AANE)?' here in the 'Autism Politics, Activism, And Media Representation' Forum might also be of interest.

Bad idea. Doing so would only attract more trolls, covid deniers, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, Trumpsters, and right-wing nutters; all of whom would only add to the already contentious environment.

Last edited by Fnord on 22 Feb 2022, 12:12 am, edited 2 times in total.