How do I get my LiveJournal on the Autism Hub?

Post Reply New Topic

I noticed an LJ on the Autism Hub, although there doesn't seem to be any contact information on how I can get my blog postings listed there as well. A little help?

Huh, that's odd; when I went through the review there was a contact address. We've had some technical issues lately and the thing had to be revamped... I don't know who to contact, but maybe Alex will know; he's on the hub too.

Alright, I sent Alex a message via the Contact Us link, if it'll get through to him.

When i started my blog, i noted Autism Hub and literally followed their instructions to "download a badge" for my blog. that was all the information i knew about, and i thought one could just download a badge. Thee were no other visible instructions or contact details.

Some days later i was "reported" to Autism Hub for not following due process - by an anonymous reader of my blog who - I later learned - stated they had no problem with the content but a real problem with me not following due process. I was sent an email that told me I was being a little unethical for having the badge up. The man who emailed me was - in all fairness - really decent about it, and I explained i had acted in good faith. He was very balaned and very communicative and open about the whole misunderstanding and i appreciated that. I then asked him if Autism Hub was some kind of 'elitist" club for certain autism blogs that were subjectively selected. i also stated if this was the case, I had no interest in applying as I am not interested in that kind of thing.

He said there was a long list of applicants wanting to be on the Autism Hub, and now that they were notified about me, i could go on the list and my blog would be considered.

I never heard back from Autism Hub again. (unless the email they sent was filtered out as spam...I doubt this however, as i check my spam regularly. )


As a nearly fifty year old aspie woman - well - 47 - the whole process seemed like young adult kid stuff in the end - a kind of college enclave committee of young autistic adults who say yay or nay to others.

HUH???????

This kind of overseeing blogs for approval doesn't sit well with me, and i do know some of the older and more mature aspies agree with me. It smacks of a kind of elitism - the kind of stuff the NT world has heaped on many of us aspies and autistics for a long time.

It and many other such incidents online in the autism activism realm also alerted me to the reality that the autistic community is as political and hierarchical as the real world and there are problems with this, in my view. But that is life, and my solution for me alone, was to retreat and not partake in any of it, in the end.

What I do now is lecture to government departments and at conferences as an independent AS woman - to other people in my country about autism and the realities of living with it and how we need to be understood and how society actually needs to be educated about it all in order to effect change. That means I can have a clean and clear message and reach people who want to be reached, without all the mess and energy wasting time that is a part of politicking and "who's in and who's out" mentality. I have already been able to help some aspies working in the public service in my country, whose department heads now understand the reality of AS workers in their departments. And that made me feel far, far, better than getting into an autism "group" of any kind, online.

I personally find it problematic to see these kinds of hierarchies in the autistic community.
At the same time - each to their own and maybe some kind of approval process is necessary in order to check against unsavoury content and trolls who are really abusive and difficult.

the irony is there are so many autistic "groups" and yet I am autistic (an aspie) and don't fit into a group ANYWHERE!! !! never have and never will.

What I do know is that it is somewhat interesting to note how many older aspie speakers and writers actually go it alone and pursue a single-minded approach to helping others in their community. I can name quite a few who do so. And in the end, this is what suits me.

I'm not interested in all the elitist stuff I have seen. it's so darn NT!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

I know what you mean Millie. I don't think I've seen any of those groups you refer to (but to be fair, I haven't been blogging online in a long while - I tend to write stuff down in journals these days). But I think some heirachy stuff does exist in the Autistic community. I've come to the belief that it's impossible to have a large community (evidence seems to suggest this) without having heirachies of some sort begin to form.

Personally, I have always ignored heirachies and groups and gone (like you) and done my own thing, whatever that may be and whatever pleases me. Who I "associate" with is only restricted by time and personal preference (when I say personal preference, I mean that literally (not in a hierarchical or favouring sense), and it is really quite lenient - a person would have to be extremely nasty and bigoted etc for me not to be friends with them) I don't intend to change.

It is for this reason I have refused to acknowledge any one friend of mine as a "best friend", (although sometimes I use that term depending on the context, but it could be applied to any friend of mine), and why I don't buy into all that "top friends" crap you seen on blogging and communication websites, because all it really does is excludes people, and I know the feeling all too intimately.

In my last years of school I was disapproved of and frowned upon by people because I was close friends with a guy who was several rungs above me on the popularity heirachy (in fact, throughout my schooling everyone was several rungs above me; I was allocated to the basement ). It never stopped me from trying to make friends indiscriminately.

I absolutely agree with what you are saying in both your posts, Sunshower. I think the clique and hierarchy stuff may indeed be human nature.

At the same time, I do know my experiences as a perpetual outsider have taught me to be VERY VERY inclusive and VERY careful about the tendency to align, to strategise, to deem some things better than others. As you say, many of us have been relegated to the "bottom rung of the ladder" over and over again in our lives. My hope is to always try to refrain from ANYTHING that creates the rungs in the first place. I have lived on the bottom rungs all my life. I choose to pull the ladder apart - in word, in deed, in life...as best I can.

People can agree with me or not.
One thing I do love about my Asperger's is that it has given me - later in life - the capacity to truly consider and care about others who are excluded. That is a really wonderful thing for me to hang onto in my life.