Why Do NTs Post here?

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She was until I pissed her off and she didn't come back

I also just realised who Soc reminds me of - Olympian Paula Radcliffe

Last edited by SaveFerris on 15 Apr 2018, 5:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

I think NTs have every right to post here. No-one has the right to savage anyone else, whether NT or ASD.

There are some pretty toxic books out there that I would hate NTs to believe represented anything true about AS (they are written by NTs in the main. I wouldn't want my NT relatives to read them and fall into the mistake of taking them as truth. They have learnt from the AS members of the family, as we have learnt from them. As far as AA goes, anyone can go to some AA meetings as a visitor only (some groups are open, some are closed and for members only). But I would not go to them as a visitor if I wished to study alcoholism, as it would invade the privacy of the members. I would read blogs, forums and look at some TED talks and talk with alcohol affected people I know, and have had friends with that issue; all of these sources would be useful.

It comes down to what intentions are: NTs who come here with good will are very welcome in my view. Those with have intentions motivated by ill will had best not come here at all. When the latter do, they don't last long and members can provide those who stick around with some education in the interim. Why not come to the largest AS forum if you want to learn about AS? It makes sense to me.

As far as smartarse comments go, the ones I remove here almost entirely come from our own, though not exclusively. It is not our obligation to educate NTs, but if they want to learn, there is a wealth of material here from AS people which is not as available or diverse in any other place. Alex was wise, in my view, not to go down the exclusivity route. As for NT researchers, I wish more would come here, before forming theories based on their own NT perspectives only. So many are theory driven, and their findings are theory driven, typically with biased sampling and biased results. So exposure to real AS people with some life experience is what they desperately need, though they seem to consider themselves, in the main, above consorting with real life AS people.

Reading studies? Experimental psychology has limits and methodological issues that affect the findings of even the best of them, and is less trustworthy than people think - type 1 errors, type 2 errors, and there are unscrupulous practices in research, like using T tests to evaluate raw data and only reporting the positive tests (alas). Science is a process, and not a perfect process, and never will be. So reading studies would only take curious NTs so far, and they would be affected by the biases and not know it.

To an extent I can understand your annoyance, HistoryGal, though personally I think that we need to take a more nuanced approach. Bad eggs who come here, NT or AS, to troll or cause conflict are not welcome, and the AS troublemakers are no more welcome than the NT ones. But mostly we are good eggs, and some NTs are good egg members too.

Because they can.

Does this mean I should be prohibited from posting to NT support forums? Because I've made more posts overall in those than I have in autism forums. Is that a bad thing?

This. Also many NTs who come here have children, or spouses on the spectrum. But you're right that except for the occasional troll (they get bounced off the site pretty fast)NTs visitors to WP tend to be respectful. If a fellow WP person is giving you grief and is verbally abusing you the odds are that that person is a fellow autism spectrum person and not an NT. That's my experience.

Really? Is THAT why she disappeared? How did you piss her off?

NTs have different reasons for being here. Splendid Snail posted a good list earlier in this thread.
There have also been a small number who simply likes it here.

As long as they don't post trollish content (and most of them don't), I see no problem with them being here.

Simply reading books about it is a poor substitute for talking to real ASD people about the issues they wonder about, and get input from different people.
And as B19 pointed out, not all books on ASD are good.

No one owes them to teach them, but I see no harm in NTs asking questions here. It's a good thing that they want to know more. That is not a threat to us.
Anyone who doesn't want to engage with them are free to avoid doing so.

She has been back since then, Ferris.

Also: Sociology of Autism? Oh so that's what her name meant! I always wondered what SocofAutism was supposed to mean! I read it as Sock

It's probably just my anxiety but she didn't like the terminology I used in a discussion and it really offended her and she stopped posting, but as Skilp has said she has been back but is not as prominent a poster. She did mention her neurological disease had got worse and she read things that are maddening to her - , I apologised but she just ignored or didn't see my post , I don't blame her tbh.

Splendid Snail's list was right on target.

I have questioned whether I should post on this site on several occasions. My testing score puts me in the middle between NT and Asperger Syndrome, but I have a number of salient traits. I can also identify with a lot of the issues brought up by people here.

I've got no problem about anybody joining in here as long as they respect the "mutual support" nature of the group, which is fairly well described in the official rules. I try to judge the action, not the brain wiring.

Because they don't have anything else interesting to do.

Y'all are giving yourself too much credit. For one thing, SocOfAutism was no pushover, and likely wouldn't be driven off by just one person. Second, she had made the calculation that her autism studies (in a sociological vein, hence the name) had pretty much gone as far as they could given her life circumstances, so she had less interest in autism, although she still had family members with autism. Third, other personal situations not related to WP.

She still drops by occasionally. Let's not forget that many, many WP members find it beneficial to take a break from time to time.

I did come here to understand AS, my husband and son are on the autism spectrum, and I do wonder if I am too. I am one of the guilty ones asking for help.

But who better to ask. I appreicate your advice, plus it is nice getting to know people.

I apologise if I have upset anyone.

I've read loads of books, so has my husband, but he says reading them, has made him think he is more indequate.

I just want to understand and educate myself and make my relationship better with my family.

I imagine the hardest thing for mods to deal with is NT’s who want to learn but are unable to, and thus come off as trolling or lecturing.

How can one determine between hostile and can’t get it?

In a world made of lies, honesty is a threat.