A board just for posts by autistic people?

No apology needed RecombinantSocks.

TrueColors, I do the same.

I think it would be great have have one board where ASV people, self-diagnosed ones too, can discuss issues amongst themselves.

electra said:

Having one board here is very long way from having an Autistic State!

Agreed, and apologies for the extreme comparison.

Personally I don't pay much attention to the section that a post has been made to. I read the Latest Content page and you don't even see which section a post has been made to and I think that, as a late diagnosed adult, I can chip in to any thread without any qualms about whether it is appropriate.

I try, not always successfully, to take account of the OP's status (sufferer, relative, professional etc) and try to simply ignore posts where people are not listening or have views that are not compatible with mine.

I think that there are issues around validating and controlling who could have access to such a forum. Surely you would allow undiagnosed people - I'm not sure how this could actually be implemented in practice.

Self-diagnosis would be fine. Plenty of ASV people see no benefit in a formal diagnosis and I wouldn't want to exclude them.

If an autistic health professional was posting as an autistic person rather than seeking to do research that would be fine.

Its not a case of causing or being caused offence. A robust exchange of views is good in my opinion. Its about having a safe place to discuss things you'd rather talk about to other autistic people.

We are all very different as NTs are very different. Not every autistic person here will want to contribute on a given posting because of that.

my thoughts: 

-If you are undiagnosed, then I guess officially you are NT. Or is self-diagnosis OK?

-Someone who is unable to obtain a diagnosis may be in desperate need of help, or someone they can talk to. 

-If a health professional posts here, how do we know they are not autistic? And some have been diagnosed in later life after specialising in autism (eg Sarah Hendricx) 

-There is a world of difference between the experiences/life circumstances of a lot of us here. My issues (whatever the label) are very different to those of someone who is non verbal, or has a child who needs 24/7 care. Or to someone who has successful career and no financial problems.

-diagnosis won't necessarily change your views on anything. You may still cause offence to someone!  

*RS - very interesting link on groupthink - thank you! 

Having one board here is very long way from having an Autistic State! I think autistic people are a very diverse group with a range of backgrounds and life experiences.One board wouldn't make us isolated from other viewpoints.

If people wanted to include non-autistic people's responses to their posts there would be a dozen other boards here that they coukld post on, it wouldn't be compulsory to use the autistic-only one.

Parents and carers have their own board here but don't seem to fear being isolated or having a narrow viewpoint.

Not sure I see a significant problem here. I'm not sure what topics would benefit from excluding non-autistic people?

I think that there is also an issue of groupthink en.wikipedia.org/.../Groupthink where there is a danger of isolated, self interested views reinforcing each other in the absence of effective challenges. I think that we can benefit from other viewpoints and insights from non-autistic people. I don't want to have an Autistic State where the views of non-autistic people are ignored!

You can always make it clear in your original post that you are only interesed in the experiences of autistic people and that does happen when people ask whether other sufferers suffer from a particular problem.

I'm not against the idea.

But would it be ok for undiagnosed people to post there?

What about people who have autism but are also mental health professionals?

I'm undiagnosed and know a bit of neurology etc from my training as an animal behaviorist, so both of those could bar me.

I do understand that some people would like to have a board just for diagnosed non-professionals, and I think that's ok if it's what people want.

I think the board title would just ned to make it clear that only people on the spectrum could post. There could be a sticky post reiterating this.

There is a board for parents/carers already. Moderator, please can we have a board for our posts? Seems mad that this is the NAS and there's no specific space for autistic people.

Or we could have a section that people could sign,saying that any psychologist/mental health professional came on,would not reply/get involved in our particular posts.because some parents/carers need to keep an eye on their children. I worry that the community bit says for people on the spectrum,or anybody that is interested in the spectrum-this could leave us open to trolls,or as we found,psychologists not letting us be ourselves.