Aspies For Freedom

If it was on youtube nonprofits we would have direct comeptition with autism speaks.

There's a lot that could already be done for competition, this site for example.  I've been coming on here for around a year or so, and have yet to even once see the Wiki or the Library work, instead I just get errors every time I click on them.  The past few times I've gone to the chatrooms, there's rarely anybody talking or even signed in.  Also, the Calendar feature works, it rarely ever gets used.

Fixing up this site would go very far towards forming a "competition" with Autism Speaks, etc.  Look at the sites for your most hated Autism organizations, notice how they're built, unlike this site which is intended primarily for it's own users, if this site were designed more like that of the Autism Speaks site, with tons of useful information cited with sources (the wiki/library), and a more user-friendly environment, not so focused on the forum itself.  If the site looked a lot more like that of a major organization, like Autism Speaks, people who have never heard of what we stand for might take the site a little more seriously.

You gotta remember, if you want to tell NTs something, you have to learn to tell it to them in the way they're used to hearing it or they'll lose interest.  The excuse of that "I'm Autistic, and you're going to have to deal with that" doesn't work on NTs, we have our language, they have theirs, and they don't speak, understand, or often even acknowledge ours, so the only way to get through to them is to speak their's, no matter how hard that may be.

NTs look at a well designed website, with colorful graphics and pictures, and links to huge amounts of information, they get intrigued.  When they look at the basic configuration of MyBB, with the newest news headline being over a year ago, it doesn't look as intriguing.  This site serves it's current purpose of serving the community forum with no problem, but at this day and age, for an organization to be taken seriously, they need a good website which is geared towards providing useful information that we want them to know, like that Autism is not a disease, etc.  You want to be able to tell someone about AspiesForFreedom, but when they go to aspiesforfreedom.com and see a basic forum package as the bulk of the website, rather than masses of information, it doesn't say much for the organization.

We won't be in direct competition with Autism Speaks for a little while, they're a multi-million dollar non-profit organization with hundreds of splinter groups and the resources to reach the masses.  We on the other hand are a grassroots campaign with little more than an online forum at our disposal currently.  Come on, we're aspies, we're supposed to be the ones that spend so much time thinking, let's get thinking about what we can do to improve our image, the YouTube idea is a good start, but there's a lot more that's going to have to be done before we really start getting people to turn away from Autism Speaks by masses.

The unfortunate side effect to getting our name out there, is that all this website work that has to be done, is in fact, work that has to be done.  If the moderators would consider fixing the Wiki, and making it the first thing you see when you log on to this site, and then if we all could contribute with the information about Autism Speaks, as well as about what Autism and Asperger's really are, and what they mean to us.  If this was all presented right away to anyone who types in aspiesforfreedom.com it would get the point across so much more effectively.

Another unfortunate side effect this would have is that although so many more people would be coming to the site for truthful information, which would be great, the problem is that there would be a sudden influx of NTs in the forums and the chat rooms, treating us like the child-haters they think we are.  But the more we get our point across, the more they'll start to understand.

Agreed - and I should point out that Gareth has mentioned a few times that he is looking for people familiar with PHP and myBB to help him do so, as he doesn't often have the free time needed.

I'm studying up on these slowly, but if there is anyone willing and able to help with this any faster, please raise your hand...

I have too much time, and thats my goal with aspieweb.net (long term).  Right now there is not much traffic so I doubt if it will do much to support the cause

Nice thoughts, and WELCOME TO THE BOARD!!

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This kinda defines what NT is

http://www.aspieweb.net/aspergers-syndro...-vs-normal