This is me trying not to post any more but I cannot not reply to recombinantsocks.
Recombinantsocks your assessment of things is exactly right and we all need to take a balanced view. If I could quote from the article in "Your Autism Magazine", opening paragraph:
"What is the online Community? The Community is a safe, online space where people can talk about autism, share their experiences, questions and thoughts. it works because the discussion is between the members themselves. When you make a post you can be pretty sure there will be several people who will have experienced something like you. So it's support from others with direct experience which people find hugely valuable."
I read that as a good crystallization of what you are defending. what has saddened me is the increasingly overbearing interruptions from the Mods, who are nowhere in evidence in the quoted paragraph.
They appear later in the article: "We have clear rules around what is and what is not acceptable. Members can report anything they think breaches the rules. We have a wonderful team of volunteers (some of whom are on the spectrum) that read posts and act on any reports from members".
Are they really acting on reports from members? Or trying to make the forum into something that belies the first paragraph?
I'm trying very hard not to take any moral high ground. I'm just trying to step back a bit and consider whether maybe I have been over pushy, over critical, rude or irrelevant (and yes I have been all of those things at times - but I mean whether I've really overdone it). So I'm still reading posts, just trying (despite these two contradictory messages), to stay out the way for a bit.
If Bob "Mindfulness" Chase is right, then with my absence, things will balance out again, and the forum may become lively and interesting once again. I might then feel able to come back, and try to conform with the new forum, and not rattle cages.
But Bob has, I feel, made a very unwise move by introducing us to the complaints form. I'm seriously considering using it myself.
This is me trying not to post any more but I cannot not reply to recombinantsocks.
Recombinantsocks your assessment of things is exactly right and we all need to take a balanced view. If I could quote from the article in "Your Autism Magazine", opening paragraph:
"What is the online Community? The Community is a safe, online space where people can talk about autism, share their experiences, questions and thoughts. it works because the discussion is between the members themselves. When you make a post you can be pretty sure there will be several people who will have experienced something like you. So it's support from others with direct experience which people find hugely valuable."
I read that as a good crystallization of what you are defending. what has saddened me is the increasingly overbearing interruptions from the Mods, who are nowhere in evidence in the quoted paragraph.
They appear later in the article: "We have clear rules around what is and what is not acceptable. Members can report anything they think breaches the rules. We have a wonderful team of volunteers (some of whom are on the spectrum) that read posts and act on any reports from members".
Are they really acting on reports from members? Or trying to make the forum into something that belies the first paragraph?
I'm trying very hard not to take any moral high ground. I'm just trying to step back a bit and consider whether maybe I have been over pushy, over critical, rude or irrelevant (and yes I have been all of those things at times - but I mean whether I've really overdone it). So I'm still reading posts, just trying (despite these two contradictory messages), to stay out the way for a bit.
If Bob "Mindfulness" Chase is right, then with my absence, things will balance out again, and the forum may become lively and interesting once again. I might then feel able to come back, and try to conform with the new forum, and not rattle cages.
But Bob has, I feel, made a very unwise move by introducing us to the complaints form. I'm seriously considering using it myself.
