Thread subtitle: Help my wife to understand my addiction.
On several occasions, my wife has asked me what the SDMB is and why I post here. I try to give her an idea, but it always makes me sound like a bigger geek than I already am.
I guess it helps to understand that she hates computers. Can’t see why I spend hours a day in front of one.
I’ve tried the simple: “It’s a message board”, that’s never adequate.
I’ve tried to put it in terms she might have heard: “It’s sorta kinda like a chat room, except not really”, she hears chat room and remembers those “on-line affair” stories, instantly gives me the evil-eye.
I’ve tried going for completeness: “It’s an online forum where a diverse and extremely attractive group of people post questions and messages for others to read and reply …”, I get tuned out after “online”.
I think she’s starting to get the picture, now she just can’t see why people bother.
So how would you describe this place to someone unfamiliar with the whole scene?
I tell people, “it’s this message board where, technically, we should be asking questions about publishing or fact-checking or history, but we always wind up talking about our sex lives, our cats and what was on the teevee last night.”
The people who use other message boards are usually pretty impressed when I tell them that the majority of people here actually use capital letters, punctuation and can spell (Gaudere’s Law, don’t fail me now)
People who don’t use message boards usually ask something along the lines of “Why would you want to talk to all those people you don’t even know?”
Imagine a big zoo. Some of the animals engage in competitive behavior to establish who is the smartest, the most witty, or has the deadliest verbal sparring abilities. Some of the animals nurture and groom each other. Some of the animals skulk in the shadows, watching the brightly-plumed ones preen. And some of the animals do nothing but masturbate and throw feces, until the zookeepers kick them out and send them back to Usenet, where they roam free in mighty herds.
