Published on 12, July, 2020
Several days ago, I found myself on the receiving end of a Friend Request from a new member, which immediately caused me to feel unnerved and suspicious.
I question if it's a generational thing, or if it's just me. At the time that I received this request, there had been no prior interaction on the forum between myself and this member. Furthermore, their member profile was completely blank. Therefore, I had no way of knowing if this person was on a similar wavelength to me, or if we had anything remotely in common.
i have received a couple of these , thanks for this
I am sorry you have been on the receiving end too.
I seem to have an ongoing dialog still with this person and am making a real effort to explain to them WHY they have been reported for abuse on multiple occasions and TBH I have the time and patience to invest and the curiosity to try and determine what is going on.
It might be helpful to either the individual or the greater forum. I'll report back when I complete the task.
Kc says that the mods have responded to him but to a post he has not made, and seems quite nonplussed by their situation.
Either we have here someone who really does need some gentle and considerate help, or a massive mickey take.
If Kc continues the dialog we have going, whichever it is should eventually become clear.
Admins of course have have a better view, but they haven't removed the member yet, so I have to proceed by assuming item 1 is true, ass no one has proven malfeasance to my satisfaction yet, although clearly the new member has not been playing even by the simple rules we have, which is why their prescence has been so disruptive.
But my experience of autism has been that it isn't always easy to define and follow the rules, without some external help..
This member is adapting their approach and becoming slowly more forthcoming, so we'll see what develops.
Thank you for the update I Sperg . It is reassuring to know that the Mods are now in some form of dialogue with this member, who, if I have interpreted what you have said correctly, may have more than one identity.
Bless you for your efforts. This is one of those cases where all of the value is genuinely in the journeying, rather than in the ultimate destination that you may find yourselves at. I commend you - (both.)
We seem to making slow progress.. User is dealing with the mods currently, but they seem to have conflated this user now called Kc with another user who is threatening suicide, so if it is (as it seems to be, from the correspondence I am having) a younger member possibly in a different time zone (judging by the pace of our communication, although my odd hours and intermittent availability don't help!) who may be struggling with "shyness" and "how much to say" issues.
Or I may yet prove again to be a "gullible fool", but I'll press on, it's only time, and I might be spending it in a helpful manner...
Although excessive (by my standards) time has passed, it's too soon to say. I could be being excessively gullible, but Autism is marked by communication issues...