Let me tell you about STW.
Actually, let me tell you about something else first.
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I’ve been a user (and later moderator) of an Internet BBS (Monochrome) since the early 90s (yes, before the web existed). The userbase there was originally students and most of the current users are long-standing residents. Add to this the ‘security through obscurity’ of Mono, it means that we have a very specific demographic; we’re mostly reasonably bright late-30-somethings / early-40-somethings, with arguably a higher-than-average ratio of geeks / Aspies.
In real terms, this means that the place has a fairly unique atmosphere. Chat can be witty, sublime, passionate, intelligent, pedantic, and occasionally full of the most hostile bickering you could imagine. What it doesn’t have is a raft of 14-year olds LOLing and ROFLing about the place.
And you know, I like it a lot. It’s comfortable, it’s basically how my real life friends interact; we won’t hesitate to argue like old married couples and call each other names that I can’t repeat on here, but that’s fine because deep down there’s a lot of love and respect for each other. And after nearly 20 years, many of the spods on there are my real life friends.
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I used to think that Mono was unique on the Internet, till I discovered STW. Cos you know, this place is exactly the same. It’s a very similar demographic, a good degree of wit and intelligence, very little immaturity, some really really interesting debate, and a couple of token bellends. You could argue that that’s a small price to pay but you know what, it’s not even that, it’s part of the atmosphere. Without opposing / conflicting views (and sometimes outrageously so) we’d all be sitting around talking about the weather.
So. STW. Please don’t change. Bickering can be [page down]ed past, threads over five pages can be ignored (cos you know, you don’t have to read everything), or in STW parlance, just MTFU. (-: