Aspergers

[robfisher]

Having been around people who suffer from Aspergers Syndrome I find it very sad that "normal" people can't make room for people less capable then themselves. The Asperger kid is always the one taunted on the playground and gets banned from the swingset. It seems that bullies never grow up, they just join forum boards and keep on bullying. It's sad. Get that weirdo outta here! That's the answer.

[ACK]

Amen, Rob. There's a real simple solution available if someone doesn't like another member's posts. DON'T READ THEM! That's real easy to to when the "offender" starts the thread. Life is just too short to go out of your way to read something you know you're not going to like. May be a bit trickier when he/she responds to another thread but I have faith in most people's ability to ignore petty distractions. It may help to remember that a thread does not "belong" to the original poster. It belongs to the board and all members have the right to reply.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't know Slow and I don't know any of those who take umbrage at the way he portrays himself but I do know bullying when I see it. It's a lot easier to bully someone from behind a keyboard.

Can't we all just get along?

[PaulC]

Okay, before this goes too much further. Over the last six weeks I have been monitoring Slow's post and went from chastising him to chastising the bullies. Sometimes with a PM and sometimes on the Forum. Once Slow saw that he had an Admins support he proceeded to break several of our rules. No religion, no flaming and couple of others. I tried to explain to him the consequences of his actions by PM. He chose to ignore my suggestions and continued his merry rampage by posting the same in other threads. Our, the Admins, rules of conduct are quite specific and, to the best of my ability, I followed them to the letter. Unfortunately He left me no options. I do not like what I had to do but he made his bed. I am sorry if some of you feel that I have been harsh but, as I have said, we also have rules to abide by.
I can only hope that this is an isolated case. In saying that, if any of you have contact with him, get him to contact me at [email protected] and discuss his situation one on one with me.
Cheers
Paul

[Woodbutcher]

That was a fine response Paul and made your position clear. I would have left off the PS. It was not necessary to challenge another forum members post. Just a small burr under the saddle that did not need to be there. The only reason I posted this was that snipe. Other wise I would have moved on.

[PaulC]

[quote="Woodbutcher"]That was a fine response Paul and made your position clear. I would have left off the PS. It was not necessary to challenge another forum members post. Just a small burr under the saddle that did not need to be there. The only reason I posted this was that snipe. Other wise I would have moved on.[/quote

Fair comment. I have removed it
Cheers
Paul

[robfisher]

Paul, I apologize to you as sincerely as a man could. My post was not meant to be directed at you although I can plainly see why you would feel the need to defend your position. I'm sorry.

I meant to direct my post to the bullies who pick on those who are natural targets. There are always those in any society who are targets for the bullies. The hits start coming as soon as the kid hits school age and it continues their entire life. Forums are no different. Most of us have never met each other outside of our forum persona. Forum bullies may be perfectly nice people in the real life world. They may not be. But to peck on another, instead of just putting them on ignore shows how small some people can become behind a keyboard.

Once again Paul, I'm sorry. You did what you had to do. I understand that. I also want to say thanks for moderating. You're way up there on my list for that one thing alone. I wouldn't have what it takes to do what you do. Thank You!

[PaulC]

Paul, I apologize to you as sincerely as a man could. My post was not meant to be directed at you although I can plainly see why you would feel the need to defend your position. I'm sorry.

I meant to direct my post to the bullies who pick on those who are natural targets. There are always those in any society who are targets for the bullies. The hits start coming as soon as the kid hits school age and it continues their entire life. Forums are no different. Most of us have never met each other outside of our forum persona. Forum bullies may be perfectly nice people in the real life world. They may not be. But to peck on another, instead of just putting them on ignore shows how small some people can become behind a keyboard.

Once again Paul, I'm sorry. You did what you had to do. I understand that. I also want to say thanks for moderating. You're way up there on my list for that one thing alone. I wouldn't have what it takes to do what you do. Thank You!

Hey Rob, all good Mate. No need to defend yourself, I think we all know where you are coming from. Thanks for your support.
Cheers
Paul

[Shadow Catcher]

I have an aspergers diagnosis and have learned to compensate, part of that is learning "rules" in getting along. A typical aspie trait is not being able to "read people" even that can be learned when you realize it is understanding visual and auditory cues, I still get it wrong.
There can be positive aspects to what is considered a disability, one of the aspie expressions in me is an obsession with information, what you see here concerns teardrop trailers.

[mary and bob]

edited out comment

[robfisher]

From the thread title I thought it was about people with Aspergers, or do we believe Slow has it. One of our grandkids is diagnosed with Aspergers, and he is a very talented, nice, giving, sincere kid. I would describe him as a little quirky in that he can become obsessed with something, like a camera he has and can tell you everything about it, or he had a dislike of bugs for a while. A little hyper at times maybe, but really a great kid. He does get taken advantage of at times, mainly because he is trying to please others. And to add to his problems he has a severe peanut allergy, plus a few other allergies. Rumor is that Einstein had Aspergers, so you can't say people with it are less smart. Our grandkid explained it to us this way, "I see things different than other people do". And that may not be a bad thing.

Since I was the one who started the thread I'm probably the one who should clarify what it was about.

Bullying. The thread was meant to be about bullying. Aspergers gives us an open door to talk about it.

Whether Mike deals with Asbergers was not my point. My timing with the thread tied the subject to him but nobody but a professional has any business saying a person has Aspergers. And no professional would ever say someone has Aspergers without some one on one time with them. I cleary was not the person who brought Mike into the discussion.

Bullying is a problem on this board. And those of us who have close family members who deal with Aspergers have experienced an inordinate amount of bullying. It's evil, malicious, small minded and the people who get hurt are wounded for a lifetime.

Because of bullying a person that many of us love and respect has been removed from our society. I can't imagine how much he must be suffering. He has lost his family. And our whole community is smaller because he is gone. When things got too quiet on the board Mike was always there to bring up a subject and maybe get a dialog started. I for one will miss that. Mike also got Walk the Winds going. Sure, he needed help to pull it off but this man, with all his heart, birthed a gathering. Most on this board will never do that for the community. My hat is off to Mike, and all the Mikes of the world who rise above their circumstances and bring something to the party.

There are those in the world who just need to be ashamed.

[PaulC]

Well said Rob
Cheers
Paul

[Tamarack Lady]

Thank you, Rob.

I probably have no right to comment as I am merely a "lurker." I have no expertise to offer but do check-in daily.
However, in my humble opinion this thread is a most important one for the forum. It is setting a tone.

Was mike inappropriate sharing some of his "love life"? Of course. I simply skipped those. Did he talk about
his faith in his god? Yup. Again, optional reading for me. As for his enflaming thread...I felt he was "set up" for that...and the bullies won. Again, my opinion.

What mike brought often were questions where peoples' responses showed varied solutions..or made one think. He kept the forum active. He commented positively on others' ideas. And he was a "true believer" in teardrop camping.

I believe Mike is intelligent but struggles with socialization issues. How do we respond? I would choose compassion and understanding. What will the people of this forum choose?

Wendy

[PaulC]

Thank you, Rob.

I probably have no right to comment as I am merely a "lurker." I have no expertise to offer but do check-in daily.
However, in my humble opinion this thread is a most important one for the forum. It is setting a tone.

Was mike inappropriate sharing some of his "love life"? Of course. I simply skipped those. Did he talk about
his faith in his god? Yup. Again, optional reading for me. As for his enflaming thread...I felt he was "set up" for that...and the bullies won. Again, my opinion.

What mike brought often were questions where peoples' responses showed varied solutions..or made one think. He kept the forum active. He commented positively on others' ideas. And he was a "true believer" in teardrop camping.

I believe Mike is intelligent but struggles with socialization issues. How do we respond? I would choose compassion and understanding. What will the people of this forum choose?

Wendy

The decision has been made with an offer for Mike to contact me directly. That has not happened yet. Time will tell.
Cheers
Paul

[S. Heisley]

Sometimes, even adults need an imposed "time out" to reflect on things. That can be a good thing. It's only bad if we make it bad.

[mary and bob]

edited out comment