Why do you forumquest?
 

Serious question. Trying to understand the motivation of those that have thousands of posts on these forums. I have hundreds of posts so I'm not immune from my own question.

I'll start: I have had good experiences on these forums in interacting with other members that are less expressive than I am communication wise. They have reached out to me based on what I have written. As in it has increased my network of people with specific sets of skills that are otherwise hard to find. It hasn't been without any negative experiences of course, but those have been worth weathering for the benefit of the good experiences overall.

How about you - what do you get out of posting so much on these forums? Do you find these forums make you a better person or player? Or do you just like hanging out here?

Boredom. Insanity. It's hard to find cool places on the internet anymore now that Google controls it. Too lazy to sub somewhere else. The Suicideforums forum (I forget the URL) is kinda bad for my health. I can't get up off the couch to go volunteer at a local VA or Church.

I'm ugly and a shut in.

I actually like all you guys even the ones I don't. (Bilbao baggins reference).

I suppose if I could fuss with my computer again I would get on Quarm.

Discord makes me ill. I get nausea when I load it up. Butt not the voice chat or TeamSpeak part. That is kinda cool when u got like 5 ppl to talk to.

Creative writing. Lune started as a persona in 2013 mostly to troll hardcore raiders and hasbinbad. Before MAGA came around, there were some very intelligent conservative posters on this board and arguing with them helped to clarify my own thoughts. At the time I was far.... far less liberal. Also helped me stay up to date on current events and gain insight into the thoughts of people I'd never otherwise encounter or talk to in my daily life. Debate helped me retain some of my writing and thinking skills while being a NEET in my 20's before I went back and got my clinical doctorate. After MAGA came around it was partly about taking out my anger at the movement on some of its members. This was not productive.

I've usually posted during relative lulls in my life, so, sporadically for a few months or years, gone for a few years, repeat. Averages out to .85 posts per day since 2013.

Every once in a while there was creative writing and low-effort EQ content. I've made maps , Lune's Ranger Tips, Lord of the Pixels (from a post in a raid drama thread), and was one of the first RP story writers(pictures were photobucket and are mostly gone now unfortunately). People used to send tells to Kuriak all the time in game, it was great fun. All pretty low key but fun to make.

This forum is a special place. It is one of the few remaining hobby communities in the old style that has mostly been replaced with reddit and other mass-media. I wish it was half as active and populated as it used to be. This box and forum had some of the most hilarious drama ever. I wish J was still around as I genuinely believe they are as good a writer as Hunter S Thompson or James Joyce. Barkingturtle was fucking hilarious and easily could have written comedy for TV. Why do I post now? Who the fuck knows. Love of EQ?

I don't use social media at all. So in a way this is my social media medium.

I also am a big fan of Everquest, especially in the classic-velious era. So naturally I've found myself on p99.

I do ask myself pretty often why I stay and keep posting tho. I like a handful of posters but I likely have more of a negative experience on the forums these days vs positive ones. With that said though the positive experiences I've had at the forums, in general, has far outweighed the negative if you factor in all of the years spent.

You really can't focus on what upsets you in life. If I did. I would never interact with anyone.

I post here for the same reason I talk to anyone else. I'm not sure what the magic distinction is between talking to people here and talking to the RL friends I just happen to live close to, other than everyone who posts here presumably plays or has played everquest. There's a nice mix of eclectic weirdos and thoughtful posters and trolls, it's great. Why fix what's not broken?

I dislike echo chambers, and with the way algorithms work to feed you more of what they believe you want to hear, it becomes challenging to get objective info from the other political side

Most of it comes in the form of propaganda, either written that way in the article or presented that way from the person citing it, but it’s propaganda I would prefer to read and filter out what might be true amidst the bullshit…rather than the alternative which is having no idea of its existence at all. Rarely is something ever completely untrue or true. The gray area of each is for me to to find

Also typing out communication is most likely flexing some part of the brain that would wither without any practice. And since online communication is often far more convenient than in-person communication, it ends up a second rate substitute to in person communication but each still having a unique benefit to the brain

Which is why I scoff at people who mindlessly just post the same quote over and over. Because if I’m correct and having to come up with new succinct arguments flexes some part of the brain where that neural activity is a benefit, posting the same copy pasted line most certainly would not. So spamming is getting little or none of the neurological benefits of posting online communication, if they exist at all. But maybe they don’t

^ erudite r there

Hostility towards reactionary conservatives.

I also do not use social media. If I can make posting here unpleasant for reactionary conservatives, mission accomplished.

next step is to recognize it as a problem.