I joined my first forum late-07. I’ve always been a nerd/geek prior to then but joining a forum…it changes you, man. I was learning internet culture left and right and before I even knew what the word meant I had myself a pretty good knowledge of memes. So then a few years later, I came across here, and after a buttload of lurking I finally joined as of ~3 months ago.
To be honest, I can’t exactly state why this place is so intriguing. I love contributing to society, so the research is definitely part of it. I know I don’t contribute a huge amount, but hey, one raindrop raises the sea.
I guess it would be more that the community has similar interests. It’s hard talking to people IRL when you try to start conversations on things they have no clue about which then leads me to utterly futile attempts to get them interested [cough] Homestuck. A whole website dedicated to documenting online culture is bound to have members with the same interests or at the very least even have a clue what you are talking about. And if they don’t have a clue, whaddaya know? They can click that fancy-schmansy search bar on the top right, type it in and BAM they know about the clue you were talking about. It’s a great 2-in-1 package.
I have yet to find a deal breaker for not coming back. Hundreds of active members, frequently-posted-on forums, the IRC (which I’ve only been on, like…twice but that will probably change soon), a fraktastic amount of pictures and content to comment on, and the list keeps going.
You guys are pretty cool. Well played.