The autistics.org forums are back up and running.
They include a forum called Support for Children of Curebies. Which is exactly what it sounds like. I’ve run into a lot of people online who do not want to be cured, but whose parents want to cure them. That’s a place for them to meet. It’s open to only autistic people, but be aware that it’s the Internet, our screening techniques are not perfect, etc.
If you are autistic and want to be added to the autistic usergroup (which will allow you access to that forum), IM me (I’m silentmiaow) and I’ll add you. Autistic in this case means anything considered autistic “spectrum”, diagnosed or undiagnosed.
Also — THIS IS A SEPARATE TOPIC ENTIRELY AND NOTHING TO DO WITH THE AUTISTICS.ORG FORUM — this topic has links to where to find text-only Second Life software.
Ballastexistenz 
Do you click on Download Binary, or Download Source code? (I’m trying to install this thing for second life, the one that doesn’t require video card/updated computer.
When I was trying it this is where it gave me the following error.
To run this application, you must first install one of the following versions of the .Net Framework v2.0.40727
Contact your application publisher for instructions about obtaining the appropriate verson of the .Net Framework
Also I can’t IM you since I can’t get on this but want to be added to that forum!
The autistics.org forum isn’t on SL at all. You’d have to sign up for an account and tell me which account it is, in order to be listed as autistic (and therefore as able to read that).
Sorry, this is probably silly, but how can the forum administrators know whether someone is autistic or not? Is there some kind of diagnostic test, or are people just taken on trust? Identity politics (at least in its exclusive-spaces form) strikes me as extremely hard if not impossible on the internet…
Okay, I got mixed up when you said IM and assumed it meant we had to IM you in second life before getting on autistics.org. Now I understand it just means send that private message.
Also, I still can’t get the second life thing to work :( Even that text one. It shows that error message.
I am so pleased there’s sites like autistics.org. I can’t make some people understand that I don’t want my son to be cured. And I don’t want to be cured. I would like my son to have help with the things he finds difficult, but I’m not going to impose a different way of thinking or perceiving the world on him. So many things seem geared towards getting autistic people to fit in with the non autistic world. Well what about non autistic people fitting in with the autistic world?
shiva: The forum specifically says to still be careful what you post there, because the Internet is public. It’s an extra measure of security (it won’t show up on search engines, etc), but not foolproof because obviously someone can lie. If someone’s discovered to be lying, then can be thrown off, but obviously people can lie and people just have to live with that fact.
This has nothing to do with identity politics though and I wish you wouldn’t throw that label on it.
Well, i think it does (have something to do with identity politics), but “identity politics” for me isn’t a negative label (i think feminism and the whole of the social model of disability can be described as identity politics, and completely agree with them)…
I think exclusive spaces can be both a necessary and a good thing – while not a woman, i support the right for women to have women-only space if they feel they need it. Likewise queer-only space, trans-only space, crip-only space, autie-only space, etc, etc. I just don’t think it’s possible for such a space to exist on the internet, where by its very non-corporeal nature identity is unverifiable…