When you ask a question and only get one reply

You're getting a few replies now.

This forum is much friendlier than the photographic forum I belong to.   There the people have enormous egos. Once, one person complained about not getting replies.  he only  got one reply . A very nasty one.

You belong here as much as any of us do, firemonkey, IMHO (likewise that other forum that we both frequent.)

Starting a thread which no-one else responds to can happen to any of us; it has certainly happened to me often enough. That's just part of the social dynamics of an internet forum. Unlike in real life, where being ignored often is a form of social rejection, on a forum, it usually just means that no-one felt they had a pertinent or helpful answer.

So, does that mean that your question was "irrelevant"? No, that would be the wrong word to use, IMHO. It is just that the technical minutia of the constantly shifting categorisations of the autism spectrum are, firstly, something that most of us are simply not qualified to speak about, and secondly, only ambiguously and indirectly related to what we do know - the experience of living with particular traits. Even those of us with a formal diagnosis can struggle to see the connection between what the experts write about us in our assessment reports and the day-to-day consequences of being autistic (or whatever other condition we may have been diagnosed with.) We also rarely know what other possible diagnoses the people who diagnosed us may or may not have considered.

If someone describes their experiences and asks us what we think, we can answer by pointing out what similarities we see with our own experiences. But when a question is essentially asking, "what would a trained developmental psychologist think", we're not equipped to answer that because we've only experienced being diagnostic subjects, not being diagnosticians.

Thinking about your threads here and on that other forum, I'm pretty sure that when you ask about and describe your experiences, you do generally get more responses. Not getting lots of answers to questions about the technicalities of diagnostics isn't a reflection of how other members perceive you, it is just a generic limitation of peer-to-peer support networks, and would apply to anybody, regardless of how similar or dissimilar they might be to other members.

I see. But feel free to comment in any way you want to my replies.

If everyone just starts commenting in solely positive ways it is fake. Life is definitely not all roses and I prefer a note of criticism to an answer that is positive just to be positive. Not very useful in my view.

My non -positive opinions have in the past been very hurtful.  And people have not forgiven me. 

So now I resist the temptation and remain quiet.

I saw that, but didn't have anything I felt I could contribute, not really knowing what atypical autism was, nor really knowing what a PDD-NOS was exactly.  Personally my suspicion would be that you just submitted the NAS forum equivalent of a googlewhack...

I can't see what needs rephrasing . It was quite straightforward .

I've seen this one, but it's a difficult question, as you might need someone who is an expert in the diagnostic manual and ASD to answer this. I didn't feel confident to give you an answer without lots of research. I know that PDD-NOS is in DSM-4 but became part of ASD in DSM-5. But I am not familiar with the definiation of atypical autism at all. The lack of reply was mainly my insufficiency of knowledge on this topic, and I would need to do more research to give an answer.

Have you tried searching wikipedia? 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pervasive_developmental_disorder_not_otherwise_specified 

"A pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) is one of the four autism spectrum disorders (ASD)^[1] and also one of the five disorders classified as a pervasive developmental disorder (PDD).^[2] According to the DSM-IV, PDD-NOS is a diagnosis that is used for "severe and pervasive impairment in the development of reciprocal social interaction or verbal and nonverbal communication skills, or when stereotyped behavior, interests, and activities are present, but the criteria are not met for a specific PDD" or for several other disorders.^[3] PDD-NOS is often called atypical autism,^[4] because the criteria for autistic disorder are not met, for instance because of late age of onset, atypical symptomatology, or subthreshold symptomatology, or all of these.^[3] Even though PDD-NOS is considered milder than typical autism, this is not always true. While some characteristics may be milder, others may be more severe.^[5]"

According to this paragraph, they say "PDD-NOS is often called atypical autism"

Oh come on Former Member, stop taking things negatively. 

It means you need to rethink and rephrase your post!

tintal said:

Lastly, maybe your question doesn't relate to many people.

Which suggests it's an irrelevant question for these forums, and a sign I don't belong here.

Ah I think I've seen that one, but it says nothing much to me. And couldn't look into it to maybe find an answer.

Atypical autism I'd have to look into and I thought they no longer 'do' PDD-NOS. 

I agree with . and often when the post is long I feel it deserves a long answer, and I have no time for that. So then I often write nothing. 

I haven't seen your posts, I don't think.

Often I only see posts when someone writes a response. The site is not always cooperating either.

I had no answer to my question. Might have put it in the wrong spot or no one knew what I was writing about.

And personally I don't have time to read really long posts as I've often got stuff happening around me that I need to tend to.

When you post a question, why not give a bit more context. I've never heard of PDD NOS. That might help.

Also, when looking at the number of replies, also look at the number of views. The post you mention with 94 replies has ~1200 views. Yours has ~70. 

Lastly, maybe your question doesn't relate to many people. They're not going to reply for the sake of replying. If they did, their reply would not be helpful to you.

I get that as well and I can very sensitive about it.  Pretty much accepted myself as a complete misfit and then we you do kindof fit you become super anxious that you are going to screw it up!

It's just that I'm very sensitive about not belonging/not being wanted online as I've always found it hard to integrate with others socially

They might not have understood the terminology. They are rather old-fashioned now. Why don't you check your thread again? 

Robert124 said:

People are dealing with their own *** and don't have time to.contribute. 

Firemonkey.  Sometimes it is hard to take low or non responses personally.  I haven't been on the forum recently, as Robert123 kindly expresses, I am one of those who has been busy of  late and rather emotionally drained.

Sometimes it is that the thread is rather emotionally pertinent or challenging, or posted at times when I am feeling more vulnerable. Sometimes others have written far better responses that I could. Sometimes my own self-esteem is so low that I don't think any reply I make would be of merit.

:) 

It was about atypical autism vs pdd nos . 

Replies to the posts listed below mine - 17 ,10,94,8,12,11,10,13,2,14,41,9,92,11,28,14,8,15,18,   so obviously people have time to respond. 

Personally I think non-positive opinions are valuable as well.