Greetings! I am Stuart Duncan or probably better known online as AutismFather.

I created Autcraft, the server for children and their families in 2013 when I noticed many parents reaching out to other parents in hopes that their autistic children could play together because they were being attacked on public servers so much by bullies and trolls.

Since then, the server has added over 16,000 name to the list of approved players and been featured in many research papers, news articles, a TED Talk, and even Mojang's own "Meet a Minecrafter."

I started out with a diploma in Radio Broadcasting, became a writer about autism after my son and I were diagnosed, and then started my Minecraft server, where I finally found where I truly belonged and have been ever since.

I am most interested in helping people, but beyond that, , , , and in plain ole, simple, wholesome, kind videos and news. I try to look for the "good news" more than the bad.

A few links to give you a sense of who I am, if you're at all interested in learning more:
Research: kateringland.com/would-you-be-
TED Talk: ted.com/talks/stuart_duncan_ho
Meet a Minecrafter: youtube.com/watch?v=ToWAdmRKvL
PC Gamer: pcgamer.com/meet-the-dad-who-q

I look forward to sharing more about what I do but more so than that, I look forward to learning more from all of you.

Thank you for reading my message. Nice to meet you!

@AutismFather Welcome! And I am ecstatic to see you join us! It may be useful to look at means to verify your identity. I recall you mentioning this problem on the Bird Site and it would be great to head this off here before someone acts a fool!

@Romaq Yeah, I'm really not sure how that works here. The info I see says to just add the link to my website and then add that to my profile, which I did, but aside from the website itself having a checkmark... I'm not sure how I get one for my profile.

@AutismFather I'm not terribly sure myself, I just know it's a "thing." I'm heading home early, so I can take a look and victimize myself, same as I abuse my own alts on my own server just to know how it works. One of the reasons annoys the hell out of me because it's so difficult to do alt testing. But I digress... I'll get home and see how to do.

Obviously, I welcome anyone else jumping in to help @AutismFather maintain identity to head off future issues by bad actors.

@AutismFather @Romaq I see you're verified for autcraft.com, so that looks fine to me if that's the official server. :)

@trinsec @AutismFather I think that's the one that matters on Mastodon. I also think anyone, "verified or not" can put :verified: /:/verified/:/ in their handle, essentially making THAT pointless. But you are the only one who can use that link to the website you control, so my understanding is that is the one that matters.

@trinsec @AutismFather I would also note people like @freemo and some other inimitable people I follow are as "verified" as one can get in this venue, but they don't use "verified" in their handle. They don't need it. And that's how I think of you. But I'm still happy to see you making use of the web link verification for future incident proofing, as much as one can on this platform.

@Romaq

Verified in the handle is intended to be a running joke, its not real in any sense.

That said if you truly want to be "verified" use keyoxide or keybase. Check out my profile for an example of both. The green highlighting and check mark are somewhat akin to verification and the process "proves" your identity against your other online identities.

@trinsec @AutismFather

@freemo

Thank you. @AutismFather has in the past been the target of attacks as his server is dedicated to autistic children playing . I am particularly interested he maintains his unique voice toward that end.

@trinsec

@AutismFather Welcome, Stuart! And thank you for what you've done in the #Minecraft space!! 🙏

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