Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2015-07-29/Op-ed

I appreciate you sharing your story with the Wikipedia community, Guillaume. It takes courage to be vulnerable and share something that was previously only known to close friends and family. It's interesting to read how you perceive the world and I'm glad that Wikipedia is well-suited to people of different talents. Thanks for pointing out High-functioning autism and Asperger's editors, I'll give it a read. Liz Read! Talk! 17:24, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Wow. That was an amazing read; thank you so much for sharing,. It has given me a new perspective and surely I have learned a lot from it. -  Cwobeel   (talk)  19:35, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Guillom. Your story is inspiring! J e e 09:13, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you Guillaume Paumier, this is very helpful and very interesting. I did also read the essay, which was also very helpful. Invertzoo (talk) 20:26, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Awesome piece! Taught me a few things about how different minds work. Thanks a lot. --Hispalois (talk) 20:57, 1 August 2015 (UTC)

Thank you Guillaume for sharing this experience ! Very enlightening and personal. As someone close to several autistic people, I would recommend reaing Je suis à l'Est, an excellent way for non-autistic people to understand what it can be like and how nobody is actually "normal". It's in French and Spanish to my knowledge. All the best. le Korrigan → bla 14:24, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Nice piece. Far more Wikipedians are somewhere on the autism spectrum (or however it's being redefined lately) that most editors realize. Same goes for the intersection of "Wikipedia editor" and "obsessive–compulsive". A increase in tolerance toward what some editors view as "trivial" work, by editors who self-identify as WP:GNOMEs, would be welcome, as would a recognition that some heat in arguments is natural for some participants even as it's distasteful to others. We have rules about WP:Civility and WP:No personal attacks, but a lot of editors need to read these carefully and understand that they do not encompass "everything someone says I think they should have worded differently or been silent about". A tremendous amount of WP strife could be avoided if editors would just take in stride, and stop reacting with personal angst about, the fact that some people are more sensitive and some less, that some editors care mostly about breadth and accuracy of coverage of a topic and getting it to Featured status, while others think it's more important to ensure a professional presentation even in stub-level articles. these approaches produce a useable encyclopedia, and it's the commingling of different sensibilities and tempers that produces a community that gets fired up enough to do get the work done, while collectively self-restrained enough to do it well and fairly smoothly, especially given how close this entire project is to some postmodern form of anarchism. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  02:37, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

How the Wikipedia community interacts with those on the autism spectrum is an interest of mine, I believe we have needlessly alienated a number of good editors over the years, as well as a larger number of potentially good editors.

An interesting role reversal occurs sometimes in on-line conversation, which is worth remarking on. That is some neurotypicals will reply to the comment they think you made, or they think you wanted to make, or they think you should have made. This behaviour would usually be perfectly appropriate in real-time verbal conversation, where body language feedback, speed of exchange and interruption provide governing mechanisms, but in an on-line text based conversation leads to either frustration, wildly erratic discussion, or conflict.

All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 12:16, 5 August 2015 (UTC).

As the essay pointed out, if someone wanted to create a honeypot for us autistic people, they couldn't get better than Wikipedia. I also believe Wikipedia acts as a honeypot for other neurodivergent people (Wikipedia is very appealing to OCPDers and other ADHDers). As you pointed out, a lot of Star Trek fans are autistic.

There is nothing wrong with autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, OCPD, etc. lives. If we were cured, it wouldn't suck just for us but it would suck for neurotypicals too. We are part of the rich blanket of life. Sure there are downsides to me being autistic and ADHD but there are positives too. It is who I am and if I was cured of my neurodivergence I wouldn't exist anymore. Andrea Carter (at your service &#124; my good deeds) 07:07, 17 August 2015 (UTC)