I just wanted to say what a joy it is to be a part of this community. When I first started going to message boards I didn’t take them seriously. To me I felt it was impossible to really know people when all you saw was the words they wrote. I treated it like a joke. Over the past few years I’ve discovered there are real folks on the other side of every letter. Since I’ve hung out here I’ve met several of you and consider you my friends. The recent Redwolf Incident (heretofore known as the Great Redwolf Incident or GDI) has once again proven how human and caring we all are. I’ll never cease to be amazed how a community that exists because of electronic microchips can be so real.
And if you’re ever in Kalamazoo, let me know and I’ll drop everything and show you around. That should take all of 15 minutes.
I have never been enthusiastic about message boards… until I ran across this one. The sense of community here is, at times, overwhelmingly warm and inviting, regardless of the ocassional flame war that breaks out. I honestly consider every one here my extended family and I do hope to meet you all someday.
This board is an oddity in the world of internet message boards, and I’m extremely happy that I stumbled upon it. You all have honestly become like extended family to me, and it’s funny how you all contribute so much to my daily life and you aren’t even aware of that I think my family here knows more about all of you than you know about them
Thank you all for helping to create what has become a “home away from home” for so many of us
I really appreciate how most of the folk here on these boards (well, at least the Whistle and Postcultural Pub) actually treat each other as if we were at a table together in some pub, or one of our kitchens. Much more friendly than the assumed annonimity that many people online tend to hide behind and throw tings from. I feel like there are real friends here, not just pretend.
There are communities just like this one all over the internet. Pretty much any site in which you linger for more than a few weeks will become a village.
It’s all a matter of the degree of investment you make.
I find a good many to be less tolerant, and frankly, kind of testy toward one another. While C&F gets in its fair share of uproars, it hasn’t that unfriendly feeling you find in so many web communities (boards, lists, etc.).
My thought is that once a community grows beyond a certain size, it doesn’t work. Case in point - my other hobby is electric guitar. The two sites I used to frequent couldn;t be more different. One, the Rickenbacker Forum, feels very much like C&F in certain respects. Except the population is mostly Beatles-obsessed baby boomers. But they (we?) are great guys.
Harmony Central, OTOH, is HUGE. And filled with all sorts of juvenile behavior that makes the makes episodes here seem like high tea at Windsor Palace. The difference is night and day.
This is a sentiment that I’ve heard applied to the Internet in general.
Back when the only people who were on the Internet were computer science
students and engineering professionals, the rules were clear and enforceable.
You didn’t download files until you uploaded some. You read the FAQ before
posting, because if you asked a question that was answered in the FAQ, you
darn well got flamed extra-crispy. Then AOL and other mainstream ISPs
started to take off, and everything changed. There were so many people on
the internet, that the technocracy was overwhelmed. For a while, there was
chaos everywhere. Thankfully, that settled down to certain corners of the 'net,
and now we have something of a free-market economy. If you don’t like how
one board is run, go to another one…
i never thought i was involved in this community until redwolf didn’t say she was ok after the bombing and i worried and worried until word arrived that she was safe. now i am concerned about lambchop and dale and jes in florida facing a hurricane and worrying about them. you must be good people.
But the sentiment is shared.
and oh my gosh i just got quoted over on hurricane dennis!!! TWICE!!