Separate forum/community for autistic adults ?

@ Bob C

You asked about other web-communities that folks use.

I've joined two other sites where I read and post, and I feel that they are quite good examples of some of the issues with finding a community where one can feel comfortable.

AspieVillage.  This is a really nice, quite small and close knit community specifically for adults on the spectrum.  I love it to bits, and the people are great.  But that can also be it's weakness - the fewer people there are on a forum, the less likely it is that you will find someone who shares the same experience that you wish to share.  The few other UK base sites that I looked into seem similar in this respect, and it took me a while to settle on AspieVillage as the one where I felt most at home.

WrongPlanet.  Exactly the opposite problem.  It is very comprehensive, but used by so many people that several people can add new posts in the time that it takes me to write just one - the sheer quantity of posts can be very overwhelming.  As with several other sites I looked at, it is also dominated by users from the USA - so posts relating to UK specifics (e.g. disability law etc.) tend to be marginalised and hard to find.

As I mentioned before, I think we need to recognise that for many people, when they or a loved one first receives a diagnosis, the NAS site is the first resource that professionals will point them towards.  Getting a diagnosis can be confusing and frightening for some people, and sometimes people are looking for help with an imminent crisis - neither of which are the best time to be trawling the internet for an alternative.

Ideally, I feel that folks should be able to come here, and easily identify a "sub-forum" where they are likely to find people in a similar situation to themselves.  It is very difficult sometimes to think of a search string that will isolate only those posts pertinent to a given situation (the word "adult" can easily show up in a post about the education of children, for example) - and it would be wrong to assume that all users have extensive experience of using internet forums.

Hope you find this feedback useful.

@ Bob C

You asked about other web-communities that folks use.

I've joined two other sites where I read and post, and I feel that they are quite good examples of some of the issues with finding a community where one can feel comfortable.

AspieVillage.  This is a really nice, quite small and close knit community specifically for adults on the spectrum.  I love it to bits, and the people are great.  But that can also be it's weakness - the fewer people there are on a forum, the less likely it is that you will find someone who shares the same experience that you wish to share.  The few other UK base sites that I looked into seem similar in this respect, and it took me a while to settle on AspieVillage as the one where I felt most at home.

WrongPlanet.  Exactly the opposite problem.  It is very comprehensive, but used by so many people that several people can add new posts in the time that it takes me to write just one - the sheer quantity of posts can be very overwhelming.  As with several other sites I looked at, it is also dominated by users from the USA - so posts relating to UK specifics (e.g. disability law etc.) tend to be marginalised and hard to find.

As I mentioned before, I think we need to recognise that for many people, when they or a loved one first receives a diagnosis, the NAS site is the first resource that professionals will point them towards.  Getting a diagnosis can be confusing and frightening for some people, and sometimes people are looking for help with an imminent crisis - neither of which are the best time to be trawling the internet for an alternative.

Ideally, I feel that folks should be able to come here, and easily identify a "sub-forum" where they are likely to find people in a similar situation to themselves.  It is very difficult sometimes to think of a search string that will isolate only those posts pertinent to a given situation (the word "adult" can easily show up in a post about the education of children, for example) - and it would be wrong to assume that all users have extensive experience of using internet forums.

Hope you find this feedback useful.