Re: CAN ANYONE OFFER OPINIONS AS TO WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE OLD BOARD?

[Guest guest]

ok, this is just my humble opinion. I've not been a member of

aspergia for that long, but the way I see it, Edan got tired of being

swamped with requests and having to come to the board to settle

certain disagreements, when he needed to be spending his time

elsewhere. I mean, think about it... if the forum had " run itself " so

to speak, he probably would not be shutting it down. What I'm saying

is, that if certain members would have been satisfied with things as

they were (not making demands on Edan's time, etc), that he probably

would not felt the need to close it. I also think that the latest

thing that happened (him being accused of being another person on the

board) was kind of the last straw. Having said this, I think there is

a certain person on the aspergia forum that has some emotional

disturbance, and not simply asperger's syndrome (does not have ONLY

asperger's, I mean). Again, this is just my own opinion. I think the

best way to deal with a person like that, when both parties are

adults, is to ignore the person. In my experience, people like that

are wanting attention any way they can get it, even if it is attention

of the negative sort. To argue and reply back to a person who is

disturbed in this manner (as tempting as it is) is just giving the

person exactly what they want. My advise would be to ignore those who

seek to antagonize you. I know it is hard to do, but it's possible.

I will admit, there are many times that I cannot tell if someone is

attempting to insult me or not... so I just ask what the intentions

are. People can be taken aback by my questioning the intent, I've

noticed... but it's my only way to find out. If the intent is to

insult, I just leave it alone - it's not worth my time to fire back.

If the intent was not to insult me, then I apologize for taking it as

such, and move on. There is my 2 cents.

By the way, this is crucibelle - I have this same user name on

Aspergia. I'm not sure if my intro post made it through to the group.

-Jeanna

(crucibelle)

CAN ANYONE OFFER OPINIONS AS TO WHAT WENT

WRONG WITH THE OLD BOARD?

To: famsecretsociety

Hello Everyone,

First of all, my continued appreciation for the faith you are showing

each other and me by joining up. Almost every time we look, we have

more members.

I have a quick question.

What do you feel went wrong with the message board at Aspergia.com?

Speak freely, and you have my permission to insult your host without

receiving retributiuon.

The reason I am asking is beacuse I am trying to learn from you how

issues like those we've seen on Aspergia.com could be avoided should

I decide to create a message board of my own at some point.

Your input would be appreciated.

Tom/Zoologist

[Guest guest]

I think it just got to big for Edan to handle on his own, and he

wasn't comfortable distributing power to others. Any group with 700 or

800 people is going to take a fair amount of attention. Perhaps if

mods had been part of the origional design? Bickering is part and

parcel of any social circle.

P.S. I'm bad at being in charge of things, so this is NOT me asking to

be a mod.

[Guest guest]

My take.

Edan created Aspergia because he thought that Aspergerians needed a

community in order to forge a common bond, and he was interested in

talking about Asperger's with others at the time. It was badly needed.

Now that he is apparently no longer perseverating on Asperger's, he

must be bored with the idea of an Aspergian community, except perhaps

as a political tool to get the government to help people with

Asperger's. That purpose can be better served on a theme board like

AFF. Furthermore, the rise and fall of the Aspergia forum may fit into

the Aspergia mythology. " There once was a society, but now it is gone.

The lone and level sands stretch far away, etc. "

Others came to see the value of Aspergia as a community, not just a

site to forge a common bond of Asperger's. It became a forum of

friends. The poll on " why are you on Aspergia " had few who picked for

friendship, but in the short time I was there, socialzing (albeit on a

relatively high plane intellectually) was the primary activity I was

seeing.

I am grateful to Edan for having the forum in the first place. I am

just glad he gave us that gift.

Edan only had about 50 posts and was somewhat distant on Aspergia

forum (at least the secon iteration), and was never really part of the

cool crowd there like Zoologist(the Lion guy) and the others. I can't

blame him, though. Why should he support a bulletin board system that

took up a lot of his time, and when it carries conversations that

pretty much no longer interest him by people who are not really part

of his social circle?

Any kind of replacement community for Aspergia needs a ration d'etre.

AFF has one (politics). Wrong Planet seems like a kids' site (but

maybe I am wrong). The ration d'etre of friendship is an intrinsic value.

Whatever the new site becomes (as the creator of " Aspergian Sanctuary "

I am cool with any result), it should have a threefold purpose.

First, it should be a forum where people, including Aspergians and

friends and family, can learn about it, talk about it, speculate about

it, and so on.

Secondly, it should be a forum where the participants can talk about

general things, like music or politics or their relationships or whatever.

Thirdly, it should be a forum of friends. Sure, people come and go,

but some people stay longer than others, and you can always return to

the place " where everybody knows your name. "

Trolls like Koalajoe should be thrown out pronto.

That is to say, it should be like Aspergia was except with slightly

less tolerance for trolls.

Ideally, folks would chip in and somebody would get web hosting

service, a domain name (whatever.com), and a vBulletin license (the

best forum software, IMO). The person who takes the money sets it all

up and delegates out the moderation responsibility. I don't want to be

that person.

Because we are all Aspies, and we perseverate and then move on, we

should all agree that if the current site administrator wants to

leave, he can, but that he or she has to hand over the reins to

someone else prior to doing so.

The site should be hosted in the US, for freedom of speech reasons.

That's all I can think of.

Bloodswordd/Sword of Blood/Bloodsword

[Guest guest]

Hello Zoo and the rest of the Gang, I don't think It's so much that

Edan was not interested in the boards (or whatever bloodsword said).

But I honestly think that he was too busy to manage such a growing

community and probably a family and work at the same time. I know

Edan has the dedication and desire to make that society grow into

something better but it's not something that can be done alone. We

would all have to be a part of it some how. We would have to form

some type of group business or congress (just without the political

innuendos and bull crap).

Each person would specialize in a certain area, apparently right now

being group moderator is a bit much for Edan so maybe we need to have

somebody who can be second group moderator or chairman. And then

there will be somebody who will work out all the technical glitches

on the site, and there will be someone who will maintain site

security, and another for web design to keep things up to date. It

may feel like a full time job but we as aspies are known to be

technicians 70% of the time .

I just think if we all put our heads together and make it a team

effort the society will grow back into what it originally was and the

board won't go down like the titanic. Because Edan is a nice guy, he

has done alot for us to supply us with these discussion boards and

chat rooms and everything. And there is alot of friendship on these

boards and i want to continue to see that friendship growing,and i

know it will. Because i live in a society of probably the most caring

and understanding people i've ever met. The AS society has brought me

relief from all the stresses of daily life. Edan has done us a huge

favor by getting us this far, lets repay the favor to him by

constructing a group of moderators,technicians,web designers and

security managers to keep the boards up. I hope to hear from you

soon,good luck in all you do.

Signed,

Greg

> Hello Everyone,

>

> First of all, my continued appreciation for the faith you are

showing

> each other and me by joining up. Almost every time we look, we have

> more members.

>

> I have a quick question.

>

> What do you feel went wrong with the message board at Aspergia.com?

>

> Speak freely, and you have my permission to insult your host

without

> receiving retributiuon.

>

> The reason I am asking is beacuse I am trying to learn from you how

> issues like those we've seen on Aspergia.com could be avoided

should

> I decide to create a message board of my own at some point.

>

> Your input would be appreciated.

>

> Tom/Zoologist