The number of special interest forums has diminished the cat racing community by defining and splitting off groups and sending them off into small paranoid corners.
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Worse still, the separate forums allow the fragile and tender ego's to take their toy's and go home.... or attempt to throw someone out of the "THEIR" sandbox.
....
All in all the community is diminished... the conversation then degenerates into drill baby drill... or boobs or personal attacks. Why bother?
I would venture to say that these traits appear in all manner of genre on the internet... music, arts, sports, technology, etc.
And what's wrong with boobs? They are often the first thing we see in life (most of us were born with our eyes closed, and I'll leave it at that
). Form and Function, art and engineering all becoming one....
Yes, the art of conversation (brevity, especially) is dying. The "roadblocks" to saying what you really think are removed by the anonimity of the internet, and this fosters not only dysfunction but (ironically) societal alienation.
So go log on to WOW or second life and pretend you exist. I'm headed to watch the sunset at the beach (sans tar balls, thank goodness) and just listen to what the rest of nature has to say. It's great this time of year. T-storms usually clear up at 19:00, and the clouds produce dramatic hues of color. Still waiting to see the green flash, though...
