A suggestion to possibly improve this community

Alice-nice-Alice said:

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions but I actually think it is harmful to have debates around politics, gender, sexuality, religion, race etc here in a autism community.

Well the first obvious consequence of banning discussion around gender would be removing the women’s and girls subform. Because any discussion can become a debate if two people in it have differing points of view. So when you talk about banning debates you’re really talking about banging discussions on particular topics.

now you might counter that autism and gender, particular being a woman, has an important intersection with certain issues that are unique to the crossover of both of them. And I would counter yes but that’s true for everything else as well; sexuality, politics, et cetera. If we couldn’t debate politics here how would we help coordinate and drive political campaigning for autistic rights, surely that is one of the main points of NAS as an organisation and absolutely something we should be talking about here.

now the idea of having a dedicated debate forum is not a bad idea. it would probably help keep a lot of these more controversial threads in that forum. It wouldn’t be perfect and we couldn’t expect threads that happened elsewhere to never get contentious. One thing that would help with that is encouraging threads not to go off topic so that people can make a new thread if some interesting side issue comes up. And potentially something like that could be some new forum rule.

but banning discussion on gender, sexuality, politics et cetera, would have to be done consistently not just when it leads to arguments that you personally don’t like because other people have views and what would not be acceptable would  be a situation in which it’s only allowed for people to express one set of views on these issues and no other set of views can be expressed lest it cause an argument. If one set of views on these issues is to be banned and not discussed then all of them must be. And I don’t think that’s in anybody’s interests.

Autumn_Trees said:

It pacified me enough to not argue with them but I notice the posts/poster is still around. 

In the year I've been here, I've only seen posters leave voluntarily (unless they are spam).

There was a thread where someone was being accused of criminal activity.

I rarely push the 'abuse' button but I did in this case and I was horrified to find that the posts remained in place and probably still do to this day.

Yes, a firmer hand where insults and accusations are being thrown around especially, would be good.

HI Emma,

I think you make a really good point and have articulated it publicly in a way I haven't been able to so far. I find it tiresome when conversations devolve into slanging matches, people start spouting extreme views or if one person is made the target of lots of others nasty responses. It's very unnecessary. 

I recently wrote directly to the community manager of this forum to express concern about a thread that had gone very far off topic and into some seriously hot water - they said they are aware of the comments but can't comment about what they are doing to handle the situation behind the scenes. Basically telling me "we hear you, but we're not letting you in on how this works". It pacified me enough to not argue with them but I notice the posts/poster is still around. 

I personally am a big fan of the 'stop notification' button that becomes available after joining a thread, if I decide it is my time to duck out I click that and simply never return to that conversation - best to let people fight between themselves and move onto cheerier topics. 

It would be nice if the moderators were more visible/active though when things are clearly across the line.

I started a thread 3 months ago on this subject:

https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/32465/arguments-on-the-forum

It became an argument.

I think everyone is different and we all have differing views and experiences.

I don't see any input from NAS about this so I don't think there's any chance of change anyway.

I'd be quite happy for a separate forum for obviously contentious subjects.

I'd be OK with the forum being moderated a bit more strictly when people are obviously feeling offended by views.

Also, personally, I'm always prepared to challenge on the subjects most close to my heart: sexism, racism and sexuality/gender.

For me, when others are offensive, I will always challenge them.

That's how change occurs.

I'd rather not just talk about autism and autism related subjects here as it would make the forum far less interesting.

For example, we wouldn't have any light relief in the form of threads such as the photography and creative ones.

I think people come here first for support and to be around others that can relate. But there’s more to people than just their autism. It’s natural for people to want to talk about things outside of this, with seemingly like minded people. I guess it’s seen as a safe space, a lot struggle with sociability and are quite lonely. But they don’t want to only talk about autism and may not be confident to join in and post in other forums or social media. 

I think what is needed is either a bigger mod team so there is always someone around so any issues getting out of hand can be nipped in the bud. Or if the current team are able to step in sooner - that would stop threads getting too heated. But I don’t think an overall ban would be the right thing to do. 

I have been the victim of a lack of fellow feeling here. Some people on this forum have 'hair-trigger' reactions to certain topics, and no sense of propriety or decency in their responses to being triggered; even if they have fundamentally misunderstood what another person meant. However, I think active censure for people who are actively insulting others is more useful than making topics forbidden areas for discussion.

Purely from my own perspective I tend to stop looking at posts that become debates, especially if they are long answers as long answers are often too much to take in.

I enjoy lightheaded posts, helpful suggestions or experiences and posts of people's pictures.

Except a few posters don’t appear to show a degree of fellow feeling. I have no objection to discussing things but I would prefer them to be discussed in separate threads.

Autistic people are still people, with interests and viewpoints on a wide variety of topics. I quite enjoy when discussions evolve away from the subject the thread starter initiated, as long as there is a logical development. I am, in general, not in favour of prescriptive rules around discourse. People should be, at the very least, civil to each other, but that is already covered by existing rules. I do not see this forum as primarily therapeutic, rather a place where autistic people can discuss anything that is important to them, with others who have some level of similar experiences and a degree of fellow feeling..

I don't necessarily think there's no place for it, but with this place having probably the lightest touch moderation I've ever seen it means that things can get really far over the line. 

I was going to say maybe keeping things to their own clearly marked threads might be an okay compromise, but the more I think about it, the less point I see in these discussions at all. No one is getting more informed or changing their minds; they're dug in and the only outcome is one side getting upset and in several cases leaving this place.

So I'd be okay just saying take it somewhere else. Idk how you make a rule for that though. 

Seconded. (I am autistic and bipolar) The only problem is that posters on the bipolar community don’t always use the contested area.