Talk:Aspies For Freedom

Untitled
Is anyone aware of the reason why AFF is suffering problems?

It appears to be down more then its up. Anyone care to comment? Emails to the admin have gone unanswered.

Current status
Gwen Nelson here (formerly Gareth Nelson, I came out as transgender in 2018 and changed my name), thought I'd comment on the current status of AFF:

As I see it, we had a set of goals and achieved a lot of them and failed others, but groups like ASAN are doing the important activist work and have grown into an organization nearly identical to how I originally envisioned AFF. We currently keep the IRC server and website up but otherwise all the serious activist work is being done by other groups. While my ego makes me wish AFF got a bit more recognition, I'm happy with how everything turned out in the end - people are still fighting the good fight and I see myself as essentially retired from autism rights activism.

Now obviously this statement of mine can't be used in the article, since this talk page can't be cited as a reliable source (that said, if anyone wants to email me to confirm it's me, gareth@garethnelson.com is still working and is the address I always used back in the day).

Would it be reasonable for me to post a "current status" page on the AFF website or on my own social media (Twitter or steemit in particular) so that it can be cited in an edit to the article?

Failing that, it's quite easy to verify that we no longer run the forum which was where we organized activist campaigns on top of socialisation (ironic eh).

Naturally due to my conflict of interest I won't edit the article directly, but I'd be happy to put a statement confirming all of the above on the website if it's deemed appropriate. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.174.255.69 (talk) 10:34, 30 December 2019 (UTC)

Aspies For Freedom's other resources
"The website of Aspies For Freedom contains other resources for autistic people more oriented towards personal experiences of an autistic, including: message forums and video programming."

As far as I am aware the video programming (called AutTV) amongst several other resources started by Aspies For Freedom have all been abandoned to my knowledge though the forums and IRC network (ChatAutism) remain available, anyone able to clarify this before I edit the paragraph I have mentioned above? Pika Pikachu2005 19:04, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

AFF is no longer suffering problems

if you would like to ask questions just say them to me and I will place them on AFF. as the admins are and have been very busy for a while. hope this helps :) Flardox (talk) 22:31, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Breakaway movement?
It would appear that cracks may be showing in the structure of this organisation.

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=13826 http://aspiesforfreedom.proboards81.com

In particular, the commentary made by the owner regarding copyright and DMCA which looking at it he has no case for. It looks more like he is hurt by the breakaway and is trying to stop it with comments like "Please don't create accounts and/or post there people." (page 5) Is he becoming a dictator maybe? Thoughts? This may be a notable event in the history of this group.  Get  Dumb   01:46, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
 * This has nothing to do with Wiki; please read WP:NOTAFORUM. Chat can be deleted.  Sandy Georgia  (Talk) 01:53, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Excuse me? I'm making a suggestion for possible inclusion in the article!  Get  Dumb   01:55, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the breakaway forum has been removed.  Get  Dumb   09:25, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
 * That would appear to be so as the thread linked above is shown to not exist. Parcanman (talk) 23:52, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Forum Locked
The forum has been temporarily locked I.E no new members at the moment

There has been talk of the forum being Dead and a new forum being created with most of the old members

not sure if this fits in here but I thought that it might add to the article as the forum is losing most of its members.

hope this is useful Flardox (talk) 16:18, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

it it useful-wrongplanet has a 12 page thread on it, damn it grew....the site is down now, join us at WrongPlanet@ http://www.wrongplanet.net/postxf76277-0-105.html

-Warsie. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.3.138.108 (talk) 04:28, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Sourcing
I've tagged this article as needing sources. The four provided are not enough to cover many of the statements made. The opening statement needs sourcing for a start. AinslieL (talk) 10:48, 3 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree that the sourcing needs help. For example, the New Scientist link isn't working for me.-- SPhilbrick  T  12:14, 9 June 2010 (UTC)
 * That's the one that wasn't working for me too. —C.Fred (talk) 13:10, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Self Publish Source
I've just read the cite note about the self published source. Having reviewed Wikipedia:Verifiability I can't decide if it applies to this case. While self promotion and publication are of course far from ideal, that section of the article is talking about the aims of the organisation, and them releasing a statement about those aims - is such a topic ok to use a statement release by the subject of the article? It does seem to meet the 5 points under Self-published and questionable sources as sources on themselves.

Of course one question is whether PRWeb is a reliable source (that's where the statement is posted) although as their about details state 'PRWeb was founded in 1997 to help small businesses leverage the Internet to communicate their news to the public.' and the article is signed by Amy Nelson it seems reasonable to conclude that Aspies for Freedom used PRWeb as the publisher for their statement. Bertcocaine (talk) 20:27, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


 * As no-one has replied to this I've concluded my original assumption is valid and removed the self published source note.--Bertcocaine (talk) 21:36, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

Infinity symbol
I'm probably far too biased to add a suitable description of this one myself, but I have removed the existing inaccurate explanation of the meaning behind the infinity symbol. There is a post on the AFF forums explaining the symbology behind the infinity symbol, but basically the symbol was originally a snake biting it's own tail in a figure of 8 turned sideways, an "asp snake" to mean "aspie forever", coloured in a spectrum to represent the entire autistic spectrum. At the time it was first designed, it was referred to as the "infinity snake", a term which I still personally identify with.

Here is the post from the forums where I explained this:

Originally, myself, Amy and a few others (hi wolfy) were discussing possible logos. Amy proposed a logo that was positive rather than negative, rather than a "no curebie" logo. I don't recall the full details of the conversation but in summary the initial logo idea was what we called the "infinity snake".

An asp snake (asp for aspie), coloured in the rainbow (spectrum), biting it's own tail to form the infinity sign (aspie/autistic forever). However, the snake concept was lost after a while, the only such logo containing a snake being long-gone, but personally I still think of the infinity sign as the infinity snake. Source: http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthread.php?tid=15698&page=1 (requires login)

I will leave it up to someone less biased to edit the article to reflect this.

Gareth Nelson —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.174.255.69 (talk) 14:59, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Website outage
So, apparently their website is down and has been for a couple of days. First, is this significant to the article? Second, how can we reliably source when it went down? —C.Fred (talk) 13:56, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Past tense
The intro says that AFF "was" whatever, but they still seem to exist. Why is the past tense used, then? Are they no longer a solidarity and campaigning group, but only a forum? Could sources be found to support or contradict that? ♫ ekips39 (talk) ❀ 06:01, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Aspies for Freedom is gone
It is absolutely clear that this organisation is closed. The article remains without any recent information as it has done nothing of note, and the official website is empty. There is no forum, with other forums that are breakaways taking over. There is no Facebook presence from what I can tell or any other social media content. I believe it must be assumed that this organisation is now defunct in the absence of activity of any description. and should explain in detail how it is current and with sources please. 2001:8003:58A3:6C01:C0FC:52E3:1CB1:292D (talk) 06:29, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * If you want to declare AFF defunct, you have to provide sources for that! It doesn't work the other way around! Vif12vf/Tiberius (talk) 12:32, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Where's the proof that it does exist now? Don't ask me (or anyone else) to prove a negative. That's silly. 2001:8003:58A3:6C01:6823:356C:AEB3:4258 (talk) 13:05, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * This is how wikipedia works, if you want to change what an article is already like then you must add sources! We cant accept simple assumptions and editors themselves are not reliable sources! Vif12vf/Tiberius (talk) 13:08, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * So you want me to prove a negative? You do realise that's against every logical precept don't you? Anyway - not that's eligible to be added this might help here so maybe you might at least think again. 2001:8003:58A3:6C01:6823:356C:AEB3:4258 (talk) 13:11, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * I found another non-eligible source here. 2001:8003:58A3:6C01:6823:356C:AEB3:4258 (talk) 13:14, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
 * - I have added a missing information template in order to enforce this being sorted out. The current state of the article can be held to be controversial in light of the sources I have given above. 2001:8003:58A3:6C01:C1AE:5E5B:87C8:3F7A (talk) 05:42, 9 December 2019 (UTC)


 * They are poor sources (Quora and WordPress) that include blp violations so ive removed them from this talkpage Atlantic306 (talk) 01:09, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * BLP violations? This article isn't subject to BLP so I put them back for others to look at. I didn't include them in the article itself either which is another reason not to remove them from here. I never said they were reliable. I said they were not eligible. But they do raise questions. So let's have that update on the main article to show they are active today. 2001:8003:58A3:6C01:98BD:E6B6:703C:C8F5 (talk) 02:50, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Current status redux
Hi, Gwen here again - feel free to confirm by emailing me at gwen@gwennelson.co.uk or gareth@garethnelson.com

Since there's some confusion, I thought i'd update the current status - we still have an IRC support chatroom and help people to organise Autistic Pride Day.

I hope this answers the questions about the "defunct" status, if someone can update the article as appropriate it would be appreciated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.174.255.71 (talk) 15:43, 4 June 2020 (UTC)