AutCraft

Happy Mother's Day to all who are, were, or have been put into the role of mother. 💜

Sign onto the Autcraft server any time on May the Fourth and May the Fifth to receive a free Star Wars head in your inventory! Make sure you have at least one empty spot in your inventory and make sure you are signing in at a location that has your regular inventory, so not RP world, or minigames.

May is Shiny Month!! On Autcraft, all mobs drop heads. Animals, monsters, all of them. The chance of a head dropping is low, but given enough time, you should be able to collect them all. But what's more, if a head does drop, there's a small chance that it could be a shiny head. These are extra rare versions of mob heads that drop very even less frequently. Except for the month of May. You see, May is shiny month, which means that heads will drop more often, and so will shiny heads! For the entire month of May, drop rates will be increased. Not only that, we'll be adding new shiny heads to discover! Some of these new shiny heads will be available starting on the 1st of May, but others won't become available until further into the month. This will give everyone an equal opportunity to be the first to discover brand new shinies. Oh, and before you ask... no, we won't tell you what the drop rates are. And also no, we won't tell you what mobs those new shinies will belong to. These are things that you will have to find out for yourself. Good luck everybody!

Not being heard is a big part of an autistic child's trauma later in life. It's better to be told "no" a thousand times in a thousand different ways, and have the reason why explained each time, than to be told "no" once and never get a chance to ask why.

We've added a new feature to the item displays where you can now attach them to a wall, or floor, or chest... pretty much any surface. The way this works is very simply... first, you create the item display, for example: /itemdisplay create GUNPOWDER Then, you put your crosshair on the surface that you want to attach it to and type in /itemdisplay attach That's it! This is still a work in progress as some items don't line up quite right but we'll keep working on this to make it work well with every item. Also, just placing an item display in the world using coordinates is still possible as well so you have options to make these look just the way you want them to! We encourage you to use these at your base, especially where you usually have a lot of item frames or signs to indicate an item. Item Displays cause 0 lag for you or the server and definitely look better.

Happy Easter!! For Easter this year, we are featuring our classic Easter Egg hunt but this time, it's at a new spawn. So... we are giving you all 2 full days to find them all. There's 10 of them, they're all on the surface so you don't have to go into the mines this time. What isn't 2 days long, however, is the Easter Dragon Egg. You can only get that by signing onto the server with at least one empty inventory slot before midnight, on Sunday night. #autism #Minecraft #Easter

Autcraft has a new spawn! When players join the server for the first time, or type in /spawn, this is where they will be. We've worked extra hard to make this spawn not only look great, and feel fun, but its our most accessible spawn as well. Everything is easy to see and a short walk away. Everyhing is very clearly labeled and explained. An "info center" is right there, complete with explanations and examples of the most common commands that players will need to know. Also, this spawn features a ton of life, with animals everywhere, mannequins in places to greet people, and of course, the new copper golems working hard in the storage areas. There's even an area prepared for the new "baby mobs" that are featured in Tiny Takeover. (update coming soon!) It was an absolute joy to see the players flood in at midnight when this new spawn went live and all the things they discovered as they explored. Also, with this update, we introduced 3 new plugins for players to use at their own bases: /itemdisplay /textdisplay /mannquin With these plugins, players can now decorate and label and add life of their own to their own bases with ease. The commands are very intuitive and easy to use so that even the youngest of children can figure them out. I, AutismFather, will be going live on Twitch at 12pm Eastern so that we can explore together, learn the new plugins together and, as an added bonus, celebrate Autism Acceptance Day together. twitch.tv/autismfather/ It is April 2nd, Autism Acceptance Day, and that makes us very proud to show off our players and what they've accomplished, and more importantly who they are, because the world deserves to know that autistic people really can come together and create the best community on the internet. #autism #minecraft #AutismAcceptanceDay

New Spawn coming Thursday, April 2nd - Autism Acceptance Day! Autcraft has come a long way in the last 13 years, and so has its spawns. Going into our 13th year, we will be introducing our 7th new spawn, heavily inspired by the Age of Copper update. For this spawn, we went with a Steam Punk look, using lots of copper but also making things look natural and fun. As always, our current spawn and all past spawns will still be on the server and players will be able to visit these places any time they want, but going forward, all new players and anyone who types in /spawn will be taken to the new spawn. We've worked very hard to make this new spawn, not only beautiful, but also our most accessible spawn ever. The most important things to see and get to are front and center, the first things you see. And the "portal room" is no longer a room but more of a platform meaning you can see it and go into it from all sides. One thing we love most about this new spawn is how alive it is. There's new mannequins around, with some familiar faces, there's copper golems actively working away, and best of all, natural life everywhere. Animals spawn in everywhere but also we have a farm set up where, when we do update, will feature the new Tiny Takeover baby mobs. We know players are going to love this new spawn and we can't wait to show you! #Minecraft #autism #AutismAcceptanceDay

It's okay. Breathe.

We've seen some concerns out there that Autcraft is "autism parent" centric rather than "autistic self-advocacy" focused. 1. I am an autistic parent of an autistic son. He was 8 years old when I started Autcraft. 2. Most of our admins are autistic parents of autistic children. 3. One of our admins is an autistic adult that does not have children at all. 4. Over the years, our staff has consisted of autistic adults, autistic parents, neurotypical parents of autistic children, autistic aunts, autistic brothers and sisters, as well as neurotypical brothers and sisters. Autcraft works well because of our diversity, because we weigh and measure all suggestions and decisions together, hearing perspectives that are not our own. When we added in visual aids for players, it wasn't because I can not see... it's because some of our players required it. When we choose not to include flashing lights in our events, it's not because I have epilepsy, it's because some of our staff and players do. We have players from all over the world, in all walks of life, all living with very different strengths and weaknesses. No one person has all the answers. It's only as a team, a diverse group of people focusing on a common goal, that something like a community the size of Autcraft could ever function at all.

Normal is not something you are. Normal is something you feel. In the autism community, the discussion about "being normal" comes up a lot and how "normal" isn't real, how nobody is truly "normal", how "normal" is just a setting on a washing machine. To me, "normal" is how you feel when you've found the right people. Your people. People who understand you, who relate to you, who like the things you like, people who support and encourage you. That's how you feel normal. When you like the same strange things, you eat the same strange foods, you have the same strange quirks... all these "strange" things are only strange to the wrong people. To the right people, your people, there's nothing strange about it at all. When you share those "strange things" together... they begin to feel normal. You begin to feel normal. Stop trying to "be normal" for all the wrong people. Stop trying to be more like them and wondering why you feel like you don't belong. If you don't feel normal, you're with the wrong people.

Back in 2013, before Autcraft was a reality, I asked around to those I know for advice, and pretty much everyone I knew said that a community of autistic children just could not work "Autistic people lack empathy" and "Autistic people lack the communication skills" and "Autistic people rage too much" and on, and on, and on.... I was told that Autcraft just could not work. Almost 13 years later, Autcraft is going strong, having passed 20,000 members on the approved list, and it is the subject of countless research articles and scientific papers on how and why Autcraft works so well. If you believe strongly in your goals, and your goals can help others, maybe even save others... take that leap and figure it out. While others may think that you're being unrealistic, you may just be the one to set the example for everyone else to follow.

Starting today, when one player hugs another on Autcraft, both players will see hearts appear over their heads for approximately 5 seconds. This helps to give a visual indicator so that you can more easily find each other but also to help reaffirm the action. Only the 2 players involved in the hug will see the hearts, all other players do not. We've also made it so that you can now hug your pets, or virtually anything else of yours too. Now you can do /hug cow, and the closest cow to you, within range, will display hearts above it. This works with pig, chicken, wolf, cat... even creeper, zombie... just make sure you spell the name of the entity correctly, for example: /hug armor_stand Now players can show their pets some love by giving them a hug and their pets will return that love! Many autistic people love the idea of hugs but can't often handle actual hugs in real life due to sensory processing issues... this can cause a hug to feel uncomfortable or even painful. By being able to hug in game, and visually see that love returned, our autistic players can share in giving and receiving hugs without sacrificing their own comfort in the process... the only thing left, is the love.

Many autistic people can relate with feeling like a burden. This is why we often apologize for even doing anything to catch your notice... like if we have a question, we feel terrible for asking it. Are you neurodivergent? Can you relate to this?

How does a moderated Minecraft server become a lifeline for autistic youth? Our interview with Stuart Duncan of Autcraft digs into community, safety, and impact. Read it: wix.to/I2Ox9NH #Autism #Neurodiversity #Autcraft

"Bullying makes you tougher" in the same way that not everybody dies while not wearing a seatbelt. In other words, anecdotal evidence of the survivors never reflects the ones we lost. It's called survivorship bias and it needs to stop.