I really enjoy forums. Despite being very much an early adopter of modern technology I never really took to the Internet for discussions. I'd seen how useless Facebook is and didn't enjoy finding out that half of my friends could barely string a sentence together in writing, 'liked' foul things and made homophobic, sexist and racist comments. I think that site brings out the worst in people, and got sick of the inane shit everyone blabs on about. That put me off Twitter etc too, and the internet resorted to being for emails, porn, illegal media downloading and work.
When I signed up to this site in December last year I only wanted to comment on something I'd noticed when rewatching Buffy/Angel with my girl. I can't even remember what. Despite everybody getting deeply offended by almost everything I posted I quite enjoyed the community here and stuck around way after I'd run out of Buffy related things to discuss.. and that's a major part of what forums are about; community.
It's interesting to be a part of a community that has all types of people from all over the world, mostly well educated with one thing in common. It feels like a wonderful escape from work and the pressures in reality, I know it's not real and half of you are people I probably wouldn't pay any attention to in real life but when I come on here I feel like a different person. Admittedly a worse person considering the reactions I seem to get, but it's nice to have something that's just for me and that none of my friends etc are involved in, because they usually only want to talk about my work and rarely the possibility of Xander getting pissed.
When the intenet first started it was forums that it was almost exclusively used for, in the years since then they have barely evolved- they are almost exactly the same as before just with a lick of paint and some fancy 'post reply' animations to appease the ADD generation. There is just something about this form of communication that works, I don't know if it is the leisurely pace at which you can post, the information you can accidentally stumble across or the fact that you can contribute as little or as much as you choose but it just feels right. If you'd told me six months ago that I'd always have a BB tab open on my Mac or spend half my time in the toilet reading about Spike and Anya on my iPhone while squeezing out a child sized turd I would have laughed in your stupid face, but it's now true.
Whenever I have five minutes spare I have a look to see what's going on here, to see Bananabuffy's latest song, Zobo's exploits with her crazy sister, Washburne being serious, Ms Trick being French, Darla trying (and failing) to hide her fun personality behind some stern modding, Caitaintdead being a sexy drunk butch skinny dipping mentalist and many other people and their strange ways. Even if these things here piss me off sometimes I'm still glad to read them because they are a gateway to another world and much as I am conscious of how uncool it really is to come here, I don't care because the place always makes me smile.
So we have established that forums are about a sense of community as well as an escape from the real world. There is one more thing about them, and this is what I believe will stop them from ever being extinct- their addictiveness. I am the sort of guy that had always looked down on people that are always on the net, and to some degree still do- I find it pathetic that anybody would choose it over a real life. However, this place has made me reassess those feelings and while I could never endorse excessive internet usage, thanks to BB I now understand it. There are a lot of lonely people out there in less then ideal situations and I truly believe places like this can help them get through shitty times and bring some joy to otherwise empty lives. Because of that I truly hope forums are here to stay.
