Ladyhawk lurked, for quite a while. (I dropped the 'e' as my way of tailoring the name to me.)
The forum offered a wide variety of topics. Everything from total and complete virtual silliness to in depth discussions on the books and the movies. I followed conversations, for quite a while, without saying anything. I gradually become familiar with individual names. I discovered the way a person wrote was as individual as one's appearance. I didn't have to see the name to know who'd written some of the comments.
I'm still amazed by the fact there were people from all over the world chatting with each other. The magic of the internet to connect the world.
Typing my first comment was easy; hitting the post button was terrifying and elicited a battle between deleting it and actually being brave enough to jump into the fray. What if they didn't like me? What if I sounded stupid? What if I didn't fit in?
Many of the people could argue the books with astonishing skill. Some hated the movies and others preferred the movies over the books, but most of us felt the movie added to our love for LOTR. I watched a heated argument rage for days. In the end, the two ended up agreeing to disagree, only to end up arguing again about something else. I was in awe: People could argue without being nasty and remain friends.
I lost count of the number of times I'd type a comment and hit delete.
Those heated arguments were really something, weren't they? They could be upsetting from time to time, but it was awesome to have everyone so passionate, and in the end agreeing to disagree sometimes cemented relationships better than having a sweet chat together. There were lots of those, too, though; it was definitely a real community, even though we couldn't actually see each other.
ReplyDeleteIt was terrifying for me, at first. Funny, I felt like I learned how to fight in a healthy way from those arguments. :-) Amazing how so many of us have kept in touch over the years. What a blessing.
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