Former Users

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There might be a better place for this, but I wanted to know if anyone could help me recall the names of a few former users.

There were a number of users who had cat-based avatars who were active in the early-mid 2010s. One of them would often insert the word “egg” into words like “excellent” (eggcellent). I can’t remember their name but while they were friendly, they also weren’t someone who left a particularly strong impression. Another was Callista, who I had forgotten the username of until recently; a very insightful poster who had interesting things to say about autism. I don’t really read General Autism Discussion routinely any more, so maybe there are still people having those sorts of discussions, but Callista was foundational to me actually developing an autistic identity, as well as teaching me about gender identity. They were very cerebral and never got involved in any bickering.

The other person with a cat avatar, I am really struggling for a name on. It might have started with A. They had a lot of the same qualities as Callista, but were slightly more emotionally involved. Their profile pic was a black and white cat, not in good focus, moving towards the camera; there was an orangey-brown background which was mostly on the right of the avatar.

I also want to identify another person. She was a liberal feminist at a time when there weren’t many on the board (PPR was mostly guns, god, and Obama). Her profile picture was a vaguely Picasso-esque portrait of a woman with an oval-shaped face. I think her username was a portmanteau of two words. She was American.

Does anyone recognise either of those users based on my descriptions? Both stopped posting around 2016, as far as I remember.

I think one was called verdanda or something like that and maybe another was called something like grrrlllll. Not sure though

I well remember Callista, and the use of "eggcellent" - but not who used it.

That other person sounds like it might be Verdandi:
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=43055

Another "A" member with a cat-based avatar might be anbuend:
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=175

Both had a huge influence on me.

The last may be hyperlexian:
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=37875
I don't remember the avatar before the current one, which was (at the time) relatively new.

Btbnnyr was the egg person

Verdandi was the other one with the cat picture.

Flipping eck I feel like Jean Baptist searching for them

I remember those. I got in a few arguments with them (all three of the cat ones). I think it was in the stupid "Aspies are normal too!" thread I made years ago (do not bump the thread!!)

Her username was spelled something like btbnnr and she typed eggscellent.

The other one you may be thinking of is abuend and he died. He went from Amanda to Melvin if I remember correctly.

Another user who had a cat avatar was TheyGoMew.

LKL ? The Picasso like image.

Btbnnyr was skeptical of self-diagnosis when that controversy was raging here on WP. She was not mean about it as many were at that time.

Callista was very knowledgeable, passionate, and level-headed regarding autism. I benefited from her being a regular poster when I joined WP 9 years ago. Her Autism memorial has moved but has moved to Wordpress

Members here that said it was easy to get diagnosed with AS or that it gets misdiagnosed often made me wonder if I was one of these fake aspies. I always felt so insecured about my own diagnoses. Then I decided if my psychiatrist saw more people like me, he would have described my condition and diagnose me with it. Now I wouldn't feel like a fraud. After all, my mom had been telling ne I am not a real aspie since I was 15. Then she would act like it's a real thing I have.

IstominFan was a pretty serious cat person, though I'm not at all sure if she fitted the OP's specifications (probably not). I think she had a posting history under another name earlier in her WP career as well, but I can't recall what it was.

I think btbnnyr was an autism researcher at a Californian university, possibly in Los Angeles.

Verdandi and LKL were the two people I was thinking of.

There were a lot of “cat people” at that time. For me at least, Callista and Verdandi were the pinnacle, with Btbnnyr also very good but someone I found myself disagreeing with more often.

I have no memory of abuend but I do vaguely remember TheyGoMew.

I remember hyperlexian although we only interacted a few times.

Verdandi had a black cat as an avatar, I believe.

Callista: I didn't interact that much with her; but I know the name

Btbnnyr: She was a person who had definite notions about autism.

Abuend: No memory, probably before my time

TheyGoMew: Same as Abuend

Hyperlexian: Very smart person, befitting the name.

TheyaGoMew had strong opinions about autism. Thought if you were a schizophrenic, you can't be autistic. I did ask her once what if an autistic person got schizophrenia after being diagnosed with autism in childhood, are they cured now. She provided no answer. She had other bias opinions about the spectrum and seemed to think autistic people can't be evil and lie and do crimes.

But bad people exist is all groups. Being autistic doesn't make you an angel or immune to lies and criminal behavior and bad people exist everywhere. It's pretty ableist to say someone isn't autistic because of it or because you don't like their opinion or because they have a mental illness like BPD.

I remember I often disagreed with her about autism. She just thought lot of people with it were not.

Anbuend apparently was Mel Baggs aka ballastxistence (if I have spelled that correctly). I knew her under both those names but never made the connection.