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Thank you HG. I don't like to see rudeness either. Thank you so much for saying something. I really appreciate it.

I understand these people were sensitive, and I didn't know that until later on, because I'm relatively new to the forums. I just won't bring up personal matters or talk about people on a personal level. That's the solution.
Once I get to know the regular posters on the forums, I will know how to speak properly to them. If I went "too far" with what I said? I don't know, depends how you look at it. I already explained I won't do it again and apologized, that's more than enough. I hope you can just forget and move on, even if you are a very sensitive person.
Thanks for understanding.

The OP shouldn't be made to feel guilty for asking something he feels curious about. I'm sure he didn't mean to upset anyone. When I first came to this site, I wasn't very knowledgeable on how wide the autism spectrum really is either. At first I thought everybody here was like me; high-functioning and mild. I didn't think those who are more affected by their autism were that capable of sitting in front of a screen and posting their thoughts and feelings. Yes, I was uneducated. But you can't expect a person to know everything.

We're good. Apology accepted.

Nah, no guilt trips. Just stated how I felt and left it at that.

Okay.

Welcome aboard the good ship WrongPlanet.

I purposely put you on the defensive to see how you would respond. Apparently you're not a troll. You were sincerely ignorant.

So you're forgiven.

To answer your question: there are parents of autism spectrum folks who are NT (neurotypical, ie not autistic/aspie) on this site. But they rarely venture outside of the parenting subforum.

There are large numbers of self diagnosed folks who not officially classed as autistic but suspect that they are on the autism spectrum. At least half of those folks probably are indeed on the autism spectrum, and even the half that aren't are usually misfits who might as well be on the autism spectrum. So this is a good place for them.

Then there are a small number of NTs who just have an interest in autism on this site, post in many subforums, and who are upfront about not be autistic themselves (like a certain lady who goes by the name of "Sociology of Autism").

I cant say for sure that there aren't NT folks who are masquerading as autistic on this site, but I have never seen evidence of that, nor see why great numbers of non autistic folks would be motivated to pretend to be autistic just participate in an autism website.

There are plenty of articulate sounding folks on this site who are socially isolated and socially crippled in offline real life.

There was one older gentleman who used frequent this site who was a successful engineer, and very articulate, and with massive IQ. But he would frequently make a fool of himself by doing things like taking things literally, and not reading between the lines. Situations where less educated members (but with a tiny bit more NT mentality) would not step on the land mines.

The point is that you see all kinds of combinations of awesome high ability and aweful disability in the same individuals on this site.

I think this community of Autistics is pretty cool.