Announcements

Facebook Connect

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:18:15 +0000

The ASDFriendly forum is now linked to Facebook.

This is a purely optional feature that users can ignore or use at their own discretion.

If you want to connect your accounts, then once a day your ASDf status can automatically synchronise with your Facebook status, and your ASDf avatar and picture can be taken from your Facebook profile. You can also synchronise personal profile information.

If you wish to connect your ASDf & Facebook accounts (and I stress that this is a personal choice - you don't have to) then:

Click on your name in the top right corner of any forum page
Click on "My Profile" in the drop-down menu that appears
Click on "Edit My profile" on the right, just below the cartoon of the children
Click on "Manage Facebook Connect" in the menu on the left. It is the third item from the bottom.
Log in to your Facebook account.

The process will then warn you that this will give the forum software permission to access your FB status updates, profile information and picture - this does not give any ASDf mod or admin access to your account, and the ASDf software does not save your Facebook password. The process verifies to Facebook that your ASDf account has permission to use your status updates and profile pictures for ASDf.

I know that this sort of thing is a bit sensitive, so that's why it is important to stress that this is optional.

If you proceed, you can then decide what information from FB you want on ASDf. As you can see from my profile, ASDf does not display my real name, uses only my FB profile picture and copies my FB status. This information is updated once a day.

And you can remove all Facebook information from your ASDf account at any time by following the first four steps above.

In the future, I hope to fully integrate the ASDf Facebook Group and App, and start increasing the functions of both.

The New Look Site

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 20:26:01 +0000

I'd like to introduce you to the new look ASDfriendly!

There are loads of thank yous I need to say to people. Firstly a huge thank you to everyone who's donated money to the site over the past two years through fundraisers, Christmas cards, garage sales and general kindness out of their own hard-earned cash. None of this could have happened without you.

Secondly a big thank you to the wonderful Mel from emtwowebstudios who has done us proud. As you can see from the design, she absolutely gets ASD and the slightly mad but very supportive community feel on ASDf. She's done a wonderful job and I hope you like it as much as we do!

And then there's Bart, who's spent his spare time skinning the forum to match our new front end (but he's left the old skin on site for those of you who don't like change - have a look at the drop down menu at the bottom left of the forum page!)

Many thanks to everyone who's pitched in to help with the new local info pages or who has volunteered to help with them, to Munchkin who wrote the info for newbies and to everyone who's given us quotes or ideas for the site. These should be an incredible resource for everyone and we can keep adding to them as new things happen in each region. If you can think of anything else you know about that you think we should add, just let us know and we'll get it up there.

So, have a wander around the new site and enjoy! I hope you like what's happening to the place

Norton Antivirus Security Threat Warning

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:06:05 +0000

Thank you to everyone who has told us about this.

For some reason, Norton has decided to issue a "Security Threat Warning" to its users about ASDFriendly. They aren't telling anyone why.

The website hosts and designers of the bulletin board software we use have run a thorough scan of everything, and there is (as of the time I posted this) no security problem on ASDFriendly.

Norton's website does have a procedure for appealing against their decision, but advise me that it will take at least two weeks before they even begin to look at my appeal.

We have absolutely no idea why they have done this and, because it is a warning that they are issuing (with disclaimers) only to their own users, we have no way of legally stopping them.

Just to repeat: ASDFriendly has undergone a thorough security sweep, and the software has been upgraded in the last 48 hours. We are hosted by a reputable company which also wrote the software we use for the boards, and they are paid an annual maintenance contract to ensure that everything is OK.

The problem, I'm afraid, is Norton.

I have started the appeal procedure to get this security threat warning removed - please bear with me.

Thanks

Gareth

Get Some Popcorn.

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:15:32 +0000

Pass It On

Mon, 24 May 2010 19:25:48 +0000

ASDf now has a leaflet.

Click here for the download - it's a fairly large pdf file, so may take a while.

If you want to promote ASDf, please can you print a couple of copies of the flyer and take it with you to meetings, schools, appointments, paediatricians - anywhere where it can get to another parent who may be interested.

Please pass it on - either as a paper copy, an email attachment, or by sending the link.