FARK.com - A Fine Howdy For ADHD

I've been a Fark.com participant since 2002 as user Camaroash. Today, when a Photoshop thread about Toys for ADHD kids evolved from pictures of one-piece Lego sets and sedatives (some were great, like the jet-powered go-kart with the machine gun mounted on front) to a mature discussion about the condition, I was 24hr silenced for threadjacking/off-topic posting.

This would be understandable if it weren't for the fact that ADHD was the topic and that's what several members and I were discussing (hyperfocus mode, specifically). I figured it would be fine as I've never read every post in a FARK Photoshop thread, personally. I scroll to the pictures. I figured anyones else not wanting to read what we were talking about would do the same.

Not good enough, apparently. And with that, the thread was trimmed from 92 posts to 43. Well... fuck.

I think some random moderator felt threatened that we were talking about the low grades-high IQ/test scores anomaly. I understand that. Nobody wants to be told that existing isn't enough to make them special by any measure. Sometimes the hand you were dealt becomes an advantage after being a huge disadvantage for a very long time. Some people sing, others build stuff.

FARK is for man-bites-dog news, flamewars and being at the gym in 26 minutes, not deep discussions. My neglect of that seemingly universal fact is my greatest folly so far in my adult life. I feel fortunate that my greatest folly is not only so benign, but so reversible.

If there's one thing FARK was good for, it was variety--perfect for the ever-changing interests of ADD-folk and the like-minded individuals who became participants as a result. Talk about alienating your target audience. I won't be back.

Maybe FARKers like beehphy, posicat, karatekitten13, rynthetyn, ptelg, PhoenixInFlames, Hat Madder and vcoalition would like to form an alliance with the Plasma Lamp to find or start a board where we can discuss such things without being grounded? Maybe not? I'd rather spend my time working on the iMac G4 display to DVI monitor conversion than starting a message board, actually.