I'm leaving WP indefinitely

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I concur. With Tallyman, Viper and Cornflake all leaving, what's going to happen to us now?

Very sorry to see you go Tallyman, as well as the other mods I'm afraid of having WP turn into those forums that have been inactive for years with no new members or posts, like virtual ghost towns.

^ Have faith. Not all of us have abandoned the compound to the zombie hordes.

That is at least partially up to us.

Absolutely. Too much responsibility on too few people [Alex, Cornflake, Tallyman,etc.] and not enough personal responsibility taking. These people have done so much for other Autistics. It's way past time to start working together for the benefit of all of us rather than expecting a few to do it all.

I wonder if part of Alexs' lack of communication with the mods [which they greatly deserve] was at least partially due to a frustration on his part , that, despite the plethora of opportunities for Autistics afforded by WP, that we, as a group are not using WP as a catalyst for personal and united growth.

...I'm not really sure what "personal responsibility" would entail in terms of the running of an online community. I mean practically speaking.

Beyond the staff issues, and speaking in terms of the user-base only? I actually think the community as a whole is relatively tame and seems to be able to sort through conflicts way better than a lot of other communities I have seen.

In terms of too much responsibility on too few people- I'm not sure how many staff members there "usually" are for WrongPlanet at any one time [I have been unable to find a list of active staff]. But for this particular board- when it is functioning properly- I can't imagine it actually necessitates a huge number.

I guess I'm just confused about what you specifically mean here- this can't be complete anarchy, and there is only so much personal responsibility each user can take due to the actual nature of an online community?

ALex built WP, nourished it, and watched it grow. He did big things. [ he still is] I imagine that he saw WP as a catalyst for other Autistics to do big things together.. Well, I don't see a whole heck of a lot of that happening, which would almost have to be frustrating. Enough so that I can understand why he would not spend much time with a project that has to have become to some extent a dissapointment.

I thought it was a support and resource community for those on the spectrum?

That's the objective. Sometimes, it's not met.

I sincerely doubt it.

My theory is Alex obviously has Asperger's. Part the diagnostic criteria is poor social reciprocity which is what we saw. A lot of people on the spectrum to due executive functioning are poor multitaskers I think the between the show and WP was it was too much and WP was ignored. Now that the show has been cancelled
he has apologized and said he was overwhelmed. He is communicating with us.

One person can't do very much. A lot of people being mindful, supportive can make a big difference. We can post stories where autistics have been accepted by NT's such as the Autistic person who was voted Homecoming King. I am not saying WP should be all happy and whitewash the very real severe difficulties. That we would be figured out quickly and is not helpful because it makes people struggling feel bad.

...just going to say: it's likely a personal, overly defensive thing and I will totally own that- but I get kind of frustrated when people start quoting diagnostic criteria for ASDs at me.

moving on:
My question had nothing to do with what alex has or has not done and, as you say he is continuing to communicate and attempt to get things back in gear. Let's not derail that.

Now that that is settled.
I was asking for clarification of what "individual responsibility" really means in an online community.

For me? it really means specific communication for one- as someone on the spectrum, I need specific communication [sorry, that might be irritating, but I'm attempting to speak for myself and not at anyone else about something they may have already been diagnosed with].

I have a hard time just estimating what someone might possibly mean when they use very vague and general terms, particularly when they are realistically difficult to apply, as I described.

And this board was not being run by just one person, by the way. There has been a staff of multiple people plus all the efforts of the users. If the thing being communicated is that the community effort toward support should continue and strengthen? ? I totally agree.


That we should all do that thing where we oggle at someone because they mad home coming king and OMG it's so amazing they did that because AUTISTIC and how shocking they could do that! ...that's kind of uncomfortable. Like everytime I see stuff like that. There are a lot of arguments that could say making an autistic person a homecoming king is not actually accepting them as they are or knowing anything about them. That's my personal view point, obviously.
I don't think I'm the only one who has a hard time with stuff like that [personally or from general perspective].

We should probably focus on making the very good things that exist in this community great and not pretend they don't already exist.
They clearly do.

Nor should it be a place used for making excuses about ones disability. Alex has the same disability as most of the rest of us; and yet you're still defending him - Don't you see you're making excuses for him. Last time I checked, Asperger's was not an excuse, nor were any of the symptoms.

Inexcusable - IMO.

I would absolutely agree with this as a general statement.

I'd also suggest that speaking about a person in third person who is now regularly active on the site [though may not have been prior] might be counterproductive.


It would probably make more sense to either address a person directly or speak about the site and it's functioning specifically.

Just putting up a explanation theory. Perhaps you were not around when I knocking his lack of communication two months ago when the a lot of people were complain about another issue. Maybe you did not read a few months ago and last week when I wrote Hollywood was getting to his head or when I replied to one of his his posts and told him he should make a choice Hollywood or us. As it turned out the show was cancelled and the decision was made for him. Now that he is active, I acknowledged that. You want every word I write that is he is a complete as*hole with no good qualities, read another poster, you won't get that from me. I find it awkward to not acknowledge ASD on a ASD support site. That includes your black and white thinking about this topic.

If Alex can't correct his absentmindedness (or whatever the issue that's often kept him from attending to the site in a timely manner), he should delegate some of the executive decision making to someone who will reply to moderators & other site feedback with reasonable timeliness & efficacy.

Failing either of those his apology won't end up having much credibility.

We will miss you, Tallyman. It was a pleasure to work with you back in the day, when I did.

It takes a decent number. As a public forum with a relatively high profile, that has a presence across the globe, there is work involved that the membership never sees. And the job is exhausting and frustrating at times; with very little positive feedback or reward; it is really easy to burn out. You can bend over backwards to help someone, spend hours on their behalf, and make an enemy anyway. That is just the nature of the beast, but it means the team is almost always looking for someone new to replace someone no longer willing or able to continue. I have no regrets about the time I spent doing the job, the people who take it on believe strongly in the value of this place, but I do think members should realize it is a lot more difficult than it looks for a whole variety of reasons.

Anyway. I've been a member a long time and the forum is still here. And that will be true next month, as well. I'm not worried. But times like this always make me sad.