Separate forum/community for autistic adults ?

My apologies if my post gave the impression of placing the blame, or all of the onus for a solution, on those of us with autism (or parents, or even moderators) - that was not my intent.

I just don't see how we'll find a long term solution to the current stand-off without acknowledging that some autistic behaviour might be offputting to some non-autistic users, or that some parental attitudes can be frustrating for older autistic people.  In neither case do I think that the behaviour in question is pre-meditated or intended to cause any discomfort - hence blame does not seem appropriate attributed to either party.

However, it does appear to me that the 'flash points' I indicated are precisely where the intervention of moderators is most likely, as I have also seen elsewhere online.  I was simply trying to make the case for why I think a separate adults area might mitigate that friction a little, as well as just making the site more functional for everybody that uses it.

I've only become active here recently, so I don't have the benefit of having seen the previous dynamic at work.  It's quite possible that some of the people who are no longer members were precisely the people who helped maintain the previous harmony, and that without them, we may need to look for other solutions besides just "turning back the clock" - in other words, returning to the previous moderation policy may not be the panacea that some people expect, because the community itself has changed in some way.

At the same time, I am perfectly aware of the negative impact that heavy handed moderation can have on a site too - a light touch is preferable on any forum.  My own preference would be for moderators to be made up of regular forum members - the model used by the sites I frequent that I consider most approachable.  But that is not always possible - it is a burden that not everyone is comfortable with at the very least.

My own personal opinion about recent events, based only on my short membership of the forum, is that the moderators here are more likely poorly trained, and struggling to know what to do when a confrontation arises, rather than being heavy handed for political reasons.

If another users reports a post as having offended them, moderators are obliged to act, and I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that they are spontaneously intervening in threads where they have not been explicitly asked to by another site user.

I certainly agree that the situation with CC could have been handled a lot better.  Moderators should always make sure that both parties involved in a dispute know exactly what is being done, and should not post publicly about pending cases unless there are very strong mitigating circumstances.  It would seem that CC was poorly informed about what was happening, and felt that he was being blamed for something to which no blame should have been attributed.  Whether through policy or naivety, I do not want to see that repeated, and I certainly think that some lessons urgently need to be learned by the people who administrate the site.

My apologies if my post gave the impression of placing the blame, or all of the onus for a solution, on those of us with autism (or parents, or even moderators) - that was not my intent.

I just don't see how we'll find a long term solution to the current stand-off without acknowledging that some autistic behaviour might be offputting to some non-autistic users, or that some parental attitudes can be frustrating for older autistic people.  In neither case do I think that the behaviour in question is pre-meditated or intended to cause any discomfort - hence blame does not seem appropriate attributed to either party.

However, it does appear to me that the 'flash points' I indicated are precisely where the intervention of moderators is most likely, as I have also seen elsewhere online.  I was simply trying to make the case for why I think a separate adults area might mitigate that friction a little, as well as just making the site more functional for everybody that uses it.

I've only become active here recently, so I don't have the benefit of having seen the previous dynamic at work.  It's quite possible that some of the people who are no longer members were precisely the people who helped maintain the previous harmony, and that without them, we may need to look for other solutions besides just "turning back the clock" - in other words, returning to the previous moderation policy may not be the panacea that some people expect, because the community itself has changed in some way.

At the same time, I am perfectly aware of the negative impact that heavy handed moderation can have on a site too - a light touch is preferable on any forum.  My own preference would be for moderators to be made up of regular forum members - the model used by the sites I frequent that I consider most approachable.  But that is not always possible - it is a burden that not everyone is comfortable with at the very least.

My own personal opinion about recent events, based only on my short membership of the forum, is that the moderators here are more likely poorly trained, and struggling to know what to do when a confrontation arises, rather than being heavy handed for political reasons.

If another users reports a post as having offended them, moderators are obliged to act, and I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that they are spontaneously intervening in threads where they have not been explicitly asked to by another site user.

I certainly agree that the situation with CC could have been handled a lot better.  Moderators should always make sure that both parties involved in a dispute know exactly what is being done, and should not post publicly about pending cases unless there are very strong mitigating circumstances.  It would seem that CC was poorly informed about what was happening, and felt that he was being blamed for something to which no blame should have been attributed.  Whether through policy or naivety, I do not want to see that repeated, and I certainly think that some lessons urgently need to be learned by the people who administrate the site.