Being a server for autistic people, many of whom feel alone, or misunderstood, and some are depressed, even suicidal, or full of anxiety, or fears... many of them just want someone who will listen, or spend time with them, maybe even make them feel important. On top of that, there's the security.A lot of posts have been shared across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more about Autcraft over the course of the last year and as such, literally millions of comments. Almost every time, there are the same negative comments over and over again so I thought it would be good to address some of those here and put the record straight.

-- "How many players does Autcraft have?"

As of right now, there are 18,878 players on the whitelist from around the world but of course, not all of them player at once. 

-- "Now that the news is out, trolls are going to destroy this server in no time."

The Autcraft server was started in June 2013, so we've been around for a while, including MANY news stories, a TED Talk, in Time Magazine, we're in The World of Minecraft, the official book about Minecraft's first 15 years, I spoke at Games for Change in New York City, been interviewed by PC Gamer magazine, BBC, CBC, and more. The word is out. So when I see people comment on posts saying "Well, now the trolls will hear about it and ruin it all" I can safely say... trust me, they've tried. We've dealt with trolls, hackers, ddos attackers, and more over our 12+ year journey. They don't stop coming. We're still standing.

-- "Sheltering kids isn't the answer, they should be taught to stand up to bullies."

We aren't "hiding kids away" or "sheltering" them. These kids still go to school, out into the public, they still deal with bullies on the bus... we give these kids an opportunity to not be afraid for an hour or two out of their day and just enjoy a game with friends. Is that so bad? Shouldn't everyone get that opportunity?? It's not any different than a bunch of manly men around the bbq on the weekend, sharing stories with their buds who they feel safe talking to. Everyone needs a place to not be afraid of being teased or judged or harrassed or thought of as "less than".

Children shouldn't have to toughen up and face bullies, bullies should be stopped. Blaming victims for not being tough enough is a slap in the face to the families who lost a child to suicide and is not an acceptible response, in my opinion.

-- "It's not very inclusive if it's for autistic people only."

Autcraft is for autistic people but also friends and family are welcome to join. It's not "autistic only" but rather... autistic friendly, consisting of people who treat each other with respect and kindness, who support and encourage each other. Mostly this is for safety reasons, to give autistic people a safe space. If it was open to the public, it would be a much, much larger job of keeping people safe. But also, it keeps our numbers down since we are just one server trying to accommodate a lot of people. If thousands of people came in all at once, all the time, we'd have to spend an insane amount of money on a network of servers and that's just not realistic.

-- "Why did he have to quit his job?" and "Why does he need so much money when I started a Minecraft server for nothing?"

I do not charge for Autcraft and never have. We're nearing 19,000 players and I've never asked for a single one to pay anything. I accept donations, and donations are far and few between from families who already have to deal with special medications, special foods, special clothing, therapy, and more. I do make enough from the kindness of others to support myself and my children and pay for the server itself, but not much beyond that... and as times get tougher for people, I make less and less. But I don't complain about it, I just budget more. I refuse to charge for Autcraft because the children who need it most are the ones who have parents that either can't or won't pay for it.

I do not have another job because Autcraft is what I do from 8am to 2am daily, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for 12.5 years now. I monitor the server, I manage the staff, I do the programming, I do the event planning, I talk to players who are feeling down, I spend time with players who are new or feeling alone, I manage our social media accounts, I do the graphics, I create the designs, including player heads, I am constantly being interviewed or consulting for other companies who wish to do the same....  long story short, I can not possibly have a full time job and do this too without the server, and therefore, the players, suffering from it.

-- "What makes Autcraft any different from any other Minecraft server?"

Being a server for autistic people, many of are depressed, even suicidal, or full of anxiety, or fears... many of them just want someone who will listen, or spend time with them, maybe even make them feel important. On top of that, there's the security... we don't just automate stuff and leave for the day. Myself and my staff and are there, monitoring, making sure nothing bad is happening. While we do that, we also watch for the good things too. We reward players for being helpful, and kind, and friendly, and generous, and supportive. We recruit from within too so my staff are made up of parents, siblings, friends, and of course, autistic people themselves. Those who prove themselves responsible and able to treat others with respect, we offer them a position to do more. They must be 13 or older but we give people roles with responsibility and I've even personally written letters of recommendation for some of them who have gone on to get great jobs.

It's not that we have strict rules or good plugins (although we do!), the biggest difference between Autcraft and other Minecraft servers is that we are there, and we care, we understand autism behaviors and we don't punish, we encourage families to play together, and we reward good behaviour, not pvp skills. 

-- "Where can I get more info?"

We have our main website for registering and for players to do things, like register, post in the forum, etc, is https://www.autcraft.com, but if you are just looking for more info about the server itself and what makes it stand out, visit https://www.autcraft.info

And if you'd like to donate, please visit https://www.autcraft.com/donate

If you have any questions that are not answered here, please feel free to ask in the comments.

Thank you!
- AutismFather