I'm one of the people who grew up not aware that "spaz" was ableist or that the term was even referencing any real condition, or ever had. I had a big "Really? OMG!" moment when I did learn--I mean, it was complete ignorance, not even of the "it used to mean that, but no one uses it that way or means that, anymore"--I really had no idea, had never made the connection. I would have winced and said, hey, um, not a good idea if they'd asked me, but they don't know me, and apparently the people who they do know happened to be as ignorant of the origins of the term as I used to be, so I get where they're coming from with both the ignorance and the explanation for it. The mod who insists that changing the name because it's offensive when they're a community who's all about not worrying about what's offensive is still standing at the abandoned clue bus stop, not understanding that this really isn't an example of the kind of "we don't care if fen find us offensive" attitude that they probably set out to embrace, but maybe she'll pick it up, eventually. Some of us take more educating than others.

I went through a whole thing with my choice of name for The Cuttingboard and people feeling that my choice of name indicated malice and pure evol on my part and deciding to have nothing to do with the comm because of it. Not the same thing, being inadvertently ableist and being whatever I was being, but I have a little sympathy, for the one clueless mod, anyway. I'm going to watch for a while and see if I feel they deserve shunning based on more than their error with their comm name (and the issues that one mod seems to still be having. If they repeat, then I'll know better what kind of person she actually is.)