I can't answer any questions about John Lester, or Brigadoon, or second life, etc.... Those are questions that only JL can answer.

But I can help you with some of the questions that you have asked about this community.

I would like to invite all of you to read a thread posted by DocJohn (he's the guy that runs Braintalk2). He recently posted a thread in the ommunity and Forum Feedback forum to explain how this site is run (finances, servers, etc...).


Here is the link-
http://forums.braintalk2.org/showthread.php?t=2615


If you have any other questions about this community, please don't hesitate to ask.

Liz

PS - I'm not trying to stop your discussion at all, please feel free to continue to discuss this subject. I just wanted to pop in to answer some of the questions that have been asked about this community.

Little Mischief: Brigadoon is a community John built for people with asperger's syndrome. He built it at a site called Second Life, which is a very complex and interesting computer "world" where people can adapt identities and actually build a community, create products, have meetings, and do whatever they want. It's a virtual community, and it's been taking off recently. John was hired after he put an island in Second Life called Brigadoon as a place for asperger's folk. He had developed a reputation for building online communities, and Second Life has no got a good deal of investor money, and has hired more staff. John has had a blog where he speaks about Brigadoon.

http://braintalk.blogs.com/brigadoon...sts/index.html

He speaks about Braintalk on that blog as being part of an overall community for neurological patients, and at one point talks about using braintalk money to build brigadoon. Having donated to braintalk when the servers crashed last, I was a bit peeved to think my donations were going to what is to me an entirely different endeavour.
Not that it isn't worthwhile; it clearly is.

It's been my belief, with nothing to really back me up, that John let our community die while working on brigadoon, partly in the hopes of seeing if we'd migrate over there. Afterall, one of the reasons he was hired was his expertise at building communities, and I wouldn't be surprised if the board of directors expected that he'd be bringing clients with him. But that's all speculation.


I'd like to see JL's books for his nonprofits.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if JL's interest in asperger's wasn't a tad on the self-interest side, which is not an insult, but might explain what is clearly, to me at least, a lack of empathy for us.

We are not virtual folk moving about a virtual world. So I'm not thrilled about BT1 coming back. I'd have preferred to just see BT2 develope and grow and hopefully become a trustworthy place.

As I read the postings on the newly resurrected OBT, it seems that John Lester (JL) has his adamant supporters, some detractors and some folks on the fence.

IMHO I think it will be very difficult to bring all those folks back into the same community based on how they are interacting at present. Lines are being drawn in the sand.

DocJohn's BT2 seems like a good option for those folks who won't feel comfortable going back, or who simply want to start afresh -- particularly if the archives are not resurrected at OBT.

From personal experience, I know that it is not unusual for people who run/own/moderate forums to burn out.

And people do simply walk away from forums that they own/moderate -- but usually they make an effort to explain this to the participants and hand the management/moderation over to someone else so that the community goes on without a major interruption.

Perhaps, after many years of OBT, the Brigadoon/SecondLife format is just more exciting for JL -- and OBT has run its course for him?

If that's the case -- and I'm only thinking aloud on this -- perhaps he should be upfront about it.

It would make everyone's decision so much easier.

Best, Dottye

You've managed to be far more succint--
 

--than I could be about these very important issues. I envy that. :)

Good post, Dottye.

I also suspect that Liza Jane's speculations are accurate--I had hinted at some of these points in my thread on BT1, but she has expanded on them quite well.

I suppose, other than the very real question of getting the archives back--said archives of data being the REAL value of Braintalk beyond the community connections--the major concern is some sort of explanation/assurance that such outages/losses will not keep happening.

I agree that the available evidence indicates that JL does not seem much interested in Braintalk anymore. I did make the point, though, that Braintalk and its posters are originally what made JL famous in the on-line world, and enabled him to found Brigadoon, and probably got him his demanding but lucrative job . . .in the end, partly due to this, he owes the debt of respect and honesty to the Braintalk community, and should answer any reasonable questions about the past conduct and future nature of the site.

To get ethnic for a moment, I (we) are asking JL to be a mensch (a stand-up guy).
Or to put it another way (in the words of a website I would love to one day create), to "admit to his s--t".

But, glenn, I can afford to be succinct and a little dispassionate.

Because while I gained much from the community, and care deeply for the folks on the PN and celiac forums, I did not personally -- as many of you did -- expend my life's blood in doing the research and finding the links and compiling the voluminous amount of research material that made the board so unique.

I reaped the benefits of that work, and the benefit of the kind and helpful personal contacts.

Had I been in the shoes of those of you who did the work (as I did on a non-competing thyroid board) ... I suspect I would be hopping up and down with my hair on fire. ;)

Everything's relative.

Best, Dottye

With two major crashes in a few years and the recent crash with no explanation of what was happening for long periods of time, and with the more egalitarian atmosphere here, to me its a no brainer of where I think effort and energy should be expended.

Aspergers Equals No Empathy!!!
 

Boy did somebody hit the nail on the head with that one!!!

I've lived for the past five years learning all I could about people with Aspergers or AS as they call it. People with AS are called aspies.

They can be quite brilliant and THEY ARE ALL, ABSOLUTELY EVERY ONE OF THEM, COMPUTER GENIUSES.

They prefer their solitude to socializing. A doctor in Vienna. Hans Asperger, well the syndrome was named after him.

Europe is absolutely busting out with cases of Aspergers.

They now say that 1 in 166 kids have an autism spectrum disorder.

I know where all the adults are!!!! They are playing Second Life.

oh well, it is what it is. Not fair but it is what it is.

I wonder how many of you on these boards have actually ever heard of Aspergers Disorder.

I know that before my son was diagnosed with it, I had absolutely never heard of it. I went to my first support group meeting in NYC over 4 years ago.

Alan and I sat down in a group of over 50 men and 2 women. AS occurs in men much more than woman.

I will never forget seeing all these bright intelligent men who all had nervous breakdowns after they went to college. Some were physics majors, math specialists. All were on meds and all had anxieties and some had Tourettes.

Some were squatting on the chairs, stimming (severe autistics flap their hands), milder ones stim. It's like your fingers have a mind of their own.

Most interesting that meeting.

Just wanted to share.

Melody

and...
 

I am still upset/concerned about the money issue. This is what John says on his blog:

""Project Brigadoon is financially supported by Braintalk Communities Inc. However, we would like to give people who wish to directly contribute to Project Brigadoon the ability to make donations online......
I am using BrainTalk Communities Inc. as the organization to receive and process the funds. Since BrainTalk Communities is a non-profit organization, all donations are fully tax deductible, and all donations made through the "donate" button on this Brigadoon blog will be used *exclusively* for Project Brigadoon.

All donations to Project Brigadoon will be used to help pay monthly land rental fees, as well as to potentially purchase more land as the members of Brigadoon grow....

-John Lester (Second Life name: John Prototype)BTW. Money was needed for this because Second Life is really a world, and to own an island on Second Life means buying the land there, and paying real money to do so. So, I am concerned that money we donated to buy new servers actually bought "land" in a cyberspace world. Not exactly what I'd intended when I gave him $1000.

And non-profits have real responsibilities. I'd like to know why he won't address making the cash flow statement public.

He's probably still buying islands!!!!!
 

He's going to be the Bill Gates of Second Life!!!!

mel

From a mom's point of view
 

Lara:

I read your post with much interest. I have followed Tony Atwood's writings for many years!!!

He wrote and made many points about Aspergers.

Now let me hit you with a mom's point of view about Aspergers. And this will be my final word on Aspergers because I went through a private hell and now me and my hubby have had to re-route our thinking process in regard to our son.


ASPERGERS

Severe meltdowns, severe tantrums, as early on as age 2 and they never stop. Severe rages. Very rarely following rules and regulations because they do not apply. Being incorrectly diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, and oppositional defiance disorder.

Telephone calls home every single day from teachers, principals, and social workers because your child is disruptive at school or at an after school program.

Being suspended from kindergarten because from the first day of school on, when the teacher says "gather round children, it's story time, and your child says to the teacher "get real, I want to play with the blocks".

Being suspended from absolutely every after school program, every single day camp. etc. etc. even Karate classes.

Bullied at school because the aspie never fits in anywhere.

Brilliant in school, getting 100 or more on every single test that they take.

Will not obey a teacher, will not do what they are told, etc. etc.

Arrogant to the point of annoyance!!!

And an inability to have any empathy whatsoever about what this does to a parent.

Lara, I lived this. And I correspond with many many moms of kids with AS who have gone through and are now going through the same behavior that I dealt with.

It is an autism spectrum disorder. Very hard to diagnose and even harder to treat. There is a therapy called Applied Behavioral Analysis but the person has to want to change.

Many aspies do not consider themselves to have anything wrong so why try and change them.

It's kind of like a belief system. You either think the way they do or you don't have a relationship with them.

I can't tell you how many moms I speak to who have children who are now in jail because they, and I quote "the rules do not apply to me"!!!! And all of these young adults have been diagnosed with Aspergers Disorder.

I get e-mails every single day because I belong to an aspergers support group!!!

In my case, I found absolutely nothing positive about having a son with Aspergers. The moms I correspond with, well let's just say, we are of a mind set.

It's a real challenge to continue to have a relationship with a young adult who couldn't care less about his parents' feelings.


Sorry to include this off-topic on a neuropathy board but because of the link with JL to Second Life, and your most interesting post, I just had to give a mom's perspective!!!! And I have no idea if you have Aspergers, or a relative has aspergers.

And I mean no disrespect. I just wanted to give a point of view from the parent's perspective.

life can suck sometimes, believe me.

melody

P.S. I promise, only neuropathy and funny stories from me from now on.