And sometimes they find Wrong Planet when they're searching for "how to get a girl to like me" or something, or some random term--some random long tail search. Those people are people who are frequently older and have gone through life feeling misunderstood and then they find this place where they sort of feel empowered.

[...]

It's funny because I never expected the site to become so big. I thought it'd be just a support group. In reality it's an expansive community filled with so many different people who all share a common experience.

This next question kind of ties into that...what do you see as the biggest impact--good or bad--that the Internet and technology have had on those on the autism spectrum?

I think the biggest impact of the Internet and technology for individuals with autism is being able to communicate in a way that had never been possible before. There was this one guy on Wrong Planet who was a moderator, one of the first members. But he actually no longer posts very much because he was hired by Second Life to be their community evangelist. And he was found because he had a blog about Second Life, and they decided to hire him. This is a guy who was just writing this blog. And Second Life is a place to go--and on Wrong Planet we experience this as well--where you can experience interaction with people, but you could never think that writing a blog about your passion could result in a job.