Managing a community can be interesting

[Rapscallion]

Over the last twelve months or so, my moderating team and I have noticed a trend towards people claiming the latest fashionable ailment - Aspberger's Syndrome. Anyone else getting this?

I'm getting more members as a ratio than exist in society, though it could be because genuine 'aspies' are able to fit in better on an online forum.

My team and I aren't worried by someone genuinely having this particular afflication, but truth to tell we can't tell a blind bit of difference between them and other posters (possibly due to the electronic nature of the environment), and we wonder if there is a huge overdiagnosis, or if people are just claiming this as a way to be special. We've even had people announce it as part of their "Hi, I'm new" posts.

Is it just us?

Rapscallion

[cheat-master30]

Originally Posted by Rapscallion

Over the last twelve months or so, my moderating team and I have noticed a trend towards people claiming the latest fashionable ailment - Aspberger's Syndrome. Anyone else getting this?

I'm getting more members as a ratio than exist in society, though it could be because genuine 'aspies' are able to fit in better on an online forum.

My team and I aren't worried by someone genuinely having this particular afflication, but truth to tell we can't tell a blind bit of difference between them and other posters (possibly due to the electronic nature of the environment), and we wonder if there is a huge overdiagnosis, or if people are just claiming this as a way to be special. We've even had people announce it as part of their "Hi, I'm new" posts.

Is it just us?

Rapscallion

There are two reasons that this could be happening/is happening:

1. You actually have a decent amount of people with that affliction joining, and the ratio is high because your message board is far smaller than society in general and the proportion of those at your forum would still only be a small portion of of the proportion in general society. Not really impossible.

2. And/or they are faking it. Also possible, and because of a ton of reasons:

1- Trolling to get attention
2- You can be anyone, so they did so for no real reason
3- To manipulate users

Trolls should be banned, those trying to trick your members into donating to them/helping them and hoaxing the forum should be banned but anyone else should just be allowed, whether they're actually suffering from it or not. Because as you said, if there's no seemingy difference between those with this and without, why should you really care less?

[Xandar]

One thing is that Asperger's is often used as an excuse to be impolite. I ran an online game for a while and there were a few people who would say that they were -- almost everytime after they got in trouble.

[Rapscallion]

Well, had anyone started begging for funds, they would have been tachied within a couple of posts or so. I don't tolerate advertising - I run the place out of my pocket, so I'll be damned if anyone else makes money from it. I've not seen anyone attempt that.

The forum's mostly for people in customer service. Had it been for social disorders, then I'd have expected pretty much everyone to be discussing it. What baffles my team is that we get so many people, and considering that customer service involves human contact, then it's a decidedly high ratio.

I've got no problem with anyone who treats other members with respect, and the self-diagnosed/genuinely diagnosed 'aspies' (the term used by several identifying themselves this way) don't seem any different from anyone else in this regard.

Probably just one of those things.

Rapscallion

[deezelpope]

<i>As the parent of a child with Aspberger's, I can tell you that it isn't fashionable. And I think it's rather odd that they seem to be coming out of the woodwork at your place. </i>

[Wayne Luke]

Originally Posted by deezelpope

As the parent of a child with Aspberger's, I can tell you that it isn't fashionable. And I think it's rather odd that they seem to be coming out of the woodwork at your place.

Maybe they think that they will be like Bill Gates.. He is rumored to have Aspberger's.

However, Aspberger's is simply one of the conditions on the Autism Spectrum so people might try to identify by it if they even have mild autism as it as it has less negative connotations.

[UncoderMom]

Maybe you get a lot of hits in from google? Perhaps they did a search on Asperger's and came across your place?

Just a thought.

I own a parenting site and there is a HUGE increase in the diagnoses of Asperger's. Even children as old as 9 are JUST getting diagnosed.

[Rapscallion]

Interesting thought, though I do check the logs every week, and referring search phrases haven't come up with that. "men kissing men" comes up regularly (a customer went on a homophobic rant and the two male assistants kissed to send her into a fit - not what comes to mind immediately, so I thought I'd explain that), but I don't remember seeing anything about Aspberger's.

I'll keep more of an eye out, since it's a reasonable point.

Rapscallion

[UncoderMom]

ROFLMAO! I get some weird turn ups too. I get a lot of clicks in for myspace graphics but thats prolly becuase of the customized profiles. I also see where my user names are googled. some a lot. I have one banned member that gives me like 120 hits in a month.. LOL She must piss a lot of people off. haha

[Rapscallion]

Heh - I have one member who uses a nickname her colleagues gave her, but she didn't realise until after a couple of years that it's the nom-de-plume, so to speak, of a female actress in the adult industry.

Rapscallion