Thanks, Mel, I too googled "Brigadoon" but I didn't get the hit for the Brigadoon project. I found the website after reading your post, and googling for "Brigadoon Project." Interesting.

Second Life -- not for me. I have enough trouble managing my first life!

And a nephew introduced me to the Sims, even buying me a program as a gift -- I failed miserably. No interest, gave it away.

I remember when your son was diagnosed and how it explained some things for you and Alan.

Thanks for helping me find this information.

I just went to the Brigadoon website and copied and pasted the following!!!
Those of you who have donated to Braintalks will REALLY find this most interesting!!!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Donating to support Brigadoon
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.

Therefore, we've just added a donation button to the Brigadoon blog (in the left column on this page). This will give people interested in contributing to Brigadoon the ability to donate online using Paypal or a credit card.

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.

Thank you for your generosity and support. By donating to Project Brigadoon, you will be helping a group of people dealing with Asperger's Syndrome and Autism to become more independent and confident in themselves. Thank you.


-John Lester (Second Life name: John Prototype)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


well, well well.

comments anyone??????

mel

If no timely updates were forthcoming while braintalk was out for three months, I wouldnt hold my breath about it becoming more open to scrutiny, or suggestions or changes. I think they will let the grumbling go on a short while and then the bannings will begin.

The other projects of JL are what non-profits call 'umbrella-ed' under BT. That means that while they are under that 'umbrella' of one non-profit, they must maintain separate accounts & bookkeeping while or until their own non-profit status is established...usually a period of 3 full accounting/tax years.

After that, individual non-profit status can be established or not...meaning the smaller organizations can continue to use the 'umbrella'..I don't think there is any time restriction. BUT, THE BOOKS HAVE TO BE CLEARLY SEPARATE, and usually- fees are paid for the admin support. Does this help? - j

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

--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