Poll: Should this forum be a space for people with autism?

All sounds less inclusive to me.    

Don't we also have to respect everyone's bonkers self-declarations of anything these days or be classed as a bigot? 

Today, I'm a bumper-car.  

Morning Plastic,

Is being less inclusive necessarily a bad thing?

Morning Plastic,

Is being less inclusive necessarily a bad thing?

That's interesting - I've never written a 'letter' in my life - only faxes or e-mails - and I always use my normal informal language no matter who I'm dealing with -  starting with 'hi' and ending with 'cheers' - but my auto signature includes what I am - C.Eng etc. so the reader can judge who they're dealing with and at what level to pitch a reply.    By appearing immediately friendly / non-threatening, I find it puts people at ease so they settle into a rapport faster than endless fake formality.

No, these are conventions which have been taken from speech and prescribed to written communication. They have no semantic value. They are what we term as modes of phatic communion (language used for general purposes of social interaction). And they are a wholly neurotypical invention.

No one really wants to know how someone at the beginning of an email or text or latter and no one wants to send someone their best wishes or regards at the end of an email or text or letter.  If they do, that's a wholly different thing. But you may include it as part of the content rather than as phatic opening gambit.

The point is these are all learned behaviours and they are all neurotypical, which stems from the belief that you cannot communicate clearly and openly without resorting to formulaic niceties, which mimic the falseness of face-to-face communication.

Dear, ___ (are they really dear to us?)

I hope this letter finds you well. (Do we? I just want to complain about something. I just want to enquire what time something opens. I couldn't care less about the state of health of the person opening or responding to the letter/email.)

I look forward to hearing from you. (Do I? No. I may expect to hear from them. I may or may not want to, but I'm certainly not always looking forward to it.)

Best wishes, regards....

(Really? )

I find whenever I post, I almost always have to go back and fix all my spelling and punctuation errors and put in missing words afterwards.     

It's also why I tend to write in very short chunks.

If you're writing war and peace maybe. For a quick work email not so much no. Maybe you re read once or twice quickly but not over and over. And forum posts are meant to be more free flowing, more like in person speech.

Intentionally learning neurotypical behaviours

I can't see how masking behaviour translates to written words.    How would anyone notice?

Peter said:

by re reading things 15 times self censuring looking for anything that might ofend

But isn't that just normal / good communication - trying to get the correct message across?

In writing, some people are good at it, some not so good - I can't see how this is masking.

by re reading things 15 times self censuring looking for anything that might ofend some one or put their nose out of joint. This is what I did in my old job for writing emails (it still didn't work)

Intentionally learning neurotypical behaviours can apply to all forms of social interaction, whether they be verbal, non-verbal, in person or virtual. Text messaging is simply an extension (in electronic form) of interpersonal communication.

Just floating the idea of creating a space (or system of identification) in which NDs can interact without having to mask for NTs.

How do you mask on a text-based forum?        

I'm afraid I still don't understand. Here, we are the majority. If a NT person comes to this site, it's more likely because they wish to understand someone in their own life. By masking, you would be providing incorrect information which wouldn't help the NT, nor the Autistic person. 

Even NT people mask to some degree. On line, particularly in a place like this, you could be yourself. Most people wouldn't know you in real life.

I guess the same reason why we need to mask for NTs in general.

Why would you feel the need to mask for NT's on this forum?

No, I can't say I am.   I would probably need to own a car before a bumper sticker.  

I'm not trying to exclude anyone. Just floating the idea of creating a space (or system of identification) in which NDs can interact without having to mask for NTs.

Are you bumper-car-ist?

Who are you trying to specifically exclude?