Need help to get my sister interested in online communities!

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Hello all,
I am writing because of my little sister (22 yrs), who is autistic. I discovered this site / community a while ago (probably about a year) and drop in from time to time to read up on what people write. I love discovering that she is not alone and that there are so many people like her, and that there is a sense of community and support that exists here.

BUT I can NOT get her interested in this or ANY forum or online community. I will admit I have not been TOO persistent, but I have mentioned it to her more than once. When she stayed with me for a month this summer, I deliberately aksed her to come and see what people like her write about the same PROBLEMS that she has and we discuss all the time.... absense of social skills, friends....etc, she is not a very happy person.

Any ideas on how I can get her interested in participating in forums and communities online? She is ok with the computer, she shops online, uses email (but shared with my mom and dad), and mostly spends time online looking things up (trivia, facts, etc.) She is also into computer games, but not online games, such as Age of Empires, Heroes, etc.

I also totally sucked her into the Sims game this summer, when she was staying with me. Which she totally ignored when I first offered her to play (kinda like with this site), by the end of the first week, she wasn't parting with the gameCube. So I know that her initiall reaction is just natural denial of anything new. She would probably love to communicate with people online once she gets into it. But HOW to get her into it??? Thank you all!

Welcome to WP!

not quite the response he's looking for i think. being courteous is great and all but if it were me i'd be more interested in replies actually pertaining to the subject matter.

Hello no1kika, welcome!

Maybe you could leave a paper to your sister or, even better, send her an e-mail with the address of the forum?

So as she can take a look for herself whenever she wants and without being looked at when she does?

maybe try to correlate to her some of her other more prominent interests to the site?

on the other hand some people of our condition are more accepting of it like talking on here and venting, questioning, because we have people to relate to, but others might not because they lack acceptance and don't like doing anything that reminds them of it. sites like this tend to be a huge reminder.

Thank you for the responses! I appreciate it!

I did try to get her to look at this site personally when she was staying with me. I do talk to her a lot about her condition. She is always compaining and asking advice on how to act with people, etc. etc. I feel like it would be such a good influence on her, to see that she is not alone. I think the worst in her life is that she DOES feel alone. All she has is us, her family, and of course we love her, and spend time with her, but we can't treat her like other people do, so she runs into social problems everywhere. She has no friends, NONE, never has. People just don't like her. She's pretty well adapted to other aspects of life, going to school, getting ready for a job, but this social aspect is just killing her!

I would think it's pretty neat to find this place for someone like her. I know that when I find unusual communities that happen to share my interests, I get pretty excited.

PS. I did send her a link AGAIN recently to this forum, and discussed it with my mom to get her to read up on it. Don't know what that will lead to.

Welcome to the Wrong Planet community, no1kika. You also may wish to check out Wrong Planet's "Social Skills and Making Friends Forum": http://www.wrongplanet.net/forum7.html
All the WP best to you and your sister.