What is the purpose of this forum?

I do think people should able to talk about things that matter to them, but I also think people should be able to say when something upsets them or they don’t think something is appropriate.

I actually felt bullied for having a different opinion. It made me feel like being different isn’t acceptable here either, which is really sad because I thought this placewould be different from the outside world.

I’m not saying people can’t disagree with me. I just think we should be able to have different opinions without it turning in an argument.

SpiffyVoxel said:

I get that social media and other platforms can be stressful and even toxic — that's the main reason why I left those spaces — but bringing such discussions here risks bringing the stress and toxicity along too.

That's my concern. I'm trying (not always successfully) to ignore the stuff that isn't autism-related.

The last thing I want to encounter here is the sort of 'free speech' that takes no account of whether it hurts others. I feel that an autism forum needs to be a safe space, which may mean safe from the sort of opinions we see on social media about non-autistically-related social issues. I've moderated groups on social media and I understand how difficult that can be in terms of rules and sheer hours put in to govern a site, but it may be that we need some boundaries around this. I wouldn't want to see it going so far that it breaks this forum.

I agree, and I use this site only for these purposes: discussion about autism challenges, sharing experience related to our autistic traits, sharing my creativity (sorry, it's not necessarily related to autism) but maybe little, the owl from my story has autistic traits and loves infodumping about space. I'm sorry if posting these pictures is inappropriate for this forum. But I'm happy about people posting their creativity here, often related to their intrest.

I usually ignore political discussions, recently I saw that there was a post about banning burqa. It's probably about banning it in UK? But it has nothing to do with autism, I have no strong opinion about it and I think it may hurt someone who wears burqa, came here for support for themselves or someone else and finds out, that they are actually not welcome here. Autism affects people of all races, origins, religions, etc.

My feeling is that autism should be the primary focus here. There does seem to be a lot of 'off-topic' discussions being started of late, and honestly I feel that those shouldn't be here.

I get that social media and other platforms can be stressful and even toxic — that's the main reason why I left those spaces — but bringing such discussions here risks bringing the stress and toxicity along too.

The only exception would be where other areas of life — politics, social care, education, etc. — intersect with the lives of those of us on the spectrum, but some moderation would be required.

Regarding the 'free speech' aspect… I think some folks too often think that it's something just for them, not for others. In reality, your 'freedom' to spout nonsense if also my freedom to call you an idjit.

Yes, people can and should vent, within the rules of this forum, and discuss how to support themselves and/or others. That, to my mind, is the main benefit of this space — chances are that someone else here has been in that situation too.

I would prefer it if we were discussing autism, the challenges we face and our successes in navigating them and our sources of autistic joy, offering support to each other. That's what I come here for!

I do have concerns that social media has accelerated a trend towards people posting and saying whatever they want to, however much that may hurt others. I avoid Facebook, X/Twitter, etc for that reason and hope this place can be kept/made free of toxicity.