Idea for the WP

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Here's my idea, and I would love input as maybe the WP might do it, but I think it would be a project that would require effort from the members.

WP is mainly a forum for people on the spectrum to come and share experiences, and it seems it has the mission on helping us cope with everyday experiences in the process. It seems people come on here in different phases (due to the differences in age, culture, and length of time on this forum). I do believe a study would show that the people who spend a lot of time on this forum have grown beyond some of their Autistic setbacks at a faster rate than those who don't get this forum. A lot of it is the information people provide on here.

It would be pretty cool if the WP had the members take on certain subjects, like a summary of the many conversations we had on here, geared toward specific relevant topics (like a way to get newbies up to speed). In addition, it can also provide resources to link you to and summarize some of the empirical evidence on these subjects (such as all the studies we post on linking Autism to cortisol levels, vitamin D, and mercury) listing the weak areas of the studies as well (bias, bad judgement calls on variables, etc.). What would also be great is a how to video or powerpoint on some topics, such as the Aspergers version of how to behave in a job interview type thing. I'd love to see one done on the herding instincts and people individually vs people in groups. In fact, I've been kinda planning to do the Powerpoint/videos in the back of my mind when time permits because I have a friend who taught me so much with body language and people skills, I wish I could put her things somewhere for other aspies to learn from. I think winter will be a time where she'll have more time to work with me on it, but I'll be busy with school. So, we will see I guess, but that shouldn't stop the many of you from starting on a project like this.

The reason I say this is because I see so much great advice given, but it's hard for another guy to see it beyond the thread's popularity moment unless he searches topics and reads through some of the chit chat we have. And a lot of advice is great but could be worded better as well as some are worded so eloquently that you almost don't want it to get lost. In addition, we often seem to change topics within a thread, so it gets lost there too. And, I've noticed we tend to jump around ideas when we talk, like here's a great take on eye contact, and I totally disagree with whatever someone said about that tv show...but the info on the eye contact embedded into a useless paragraph my be beneficial to someone if it were written by itself.

Please be more specific. Exactly what are you suggesting?

I was hoping more people could make some suggestions of specific concepts, but I guess I have too many main ideas going on at once, so I'll clarify.

IDEA 1:
Members' Advice Articles
i.e. Stimming, Butting in Conversations, Eye Contact, Sleep Problems, etc.
Then each article would be a summary of advice and discussion on said topic, and then provide links to the actual discussion.

IDEA 2:
Resources
i.e. Diagnostic Criteria, Autism and Mercury, Autism and Vitamin D, Mirror Neurons, etc.
Then each article would be a summary of the studies that exist on the subject (abstracts maybe) giving notice to flaws in the study as well as links to where you can read (or on some occasions purchase) the actual study. Kinda like compiling the empirical evidence on Autism.

IDEA 3:
WP How To Videos/Power Point
i.e. Job Interviews, Effective Eye Contact, Read Body Language, Talk Without Speaking, etc.
Like Utube videos almost and use of Power Point slides in the videos to help give advice to Aspies to succeed at certain things if they so wish to do that. This one is almost like creating a therapy, so it would take some time and research to compile the information in addition to the time to produce the videos.

IDEA 4:
The Social Behaviors of Humans series
i.e. Herding Instinct, Person vs People (exploring how behaviors change from individuals to small groups to large groups to mass behaviors), Theory of Mind, Empathy vs Sympathy, etc.
like a documentary observing humans in a similar light to how we observe animals on the Animal Kingdom...



It would be cool too for all these ideas to have a place for members to rate (WP rating) like with stars or something, like AAA rating, customer rating, etc. how helpful or accurate some of these things are.

BTW, Idea 3 and 4 happen to be my favorite.