I originally sent this out in the whole emailer that seems to have started it all, but considering it's more about my take on the community than anything else it seems more appropriate to put it here. I tweaked a few things too. Sometimes words are hard late at night.

Hi,
So I haven't read Jim's post but I think I'm getting the gist of it by deducing from the many various opinions. As someone who once recapped the blogs every single day and now barely gets a post up every two weeks I've often thought about what it means to be a member of this community. At the moment I barely go into IRC, I've never been on vent or any of those other things, most of my writing goes to another site, I check the emailer infrequently, I recognize about 50 percent of the names that pop up on the cblogs, and someone actually had the nerve to ask me why my avatar was a screaming banana (because it fucking is, Pendelton). So all in all I'd say it doesn't look too good for me as a community member if we were going down a checklist. However, if someone said I suddenly didn't belong or wasn't up to snuff or something I'd be violently upset. Many of my best friends are from Dtoid. If any one of those 50 percent of bloggers I don't recognize right off the bat (who aren't total asses) needed help I'd jump in. So where do I stand as a community member?

From what I hear of Jim's post it sounds like he would think of me as less of one than I once was. Maybe I am. It sure doesn't feel like "same 'ol Dtod" some times - the one I fell for. I know plenty of people agree with me, I've talked to them about it (that'd be a check in the still a community member column, right?). It's still an amazing place though. Something I want to be part of. So I guess for me the question Jim's post (or reading about Jim's post) really brought up was what is a Destructoid Community member.

I'd have to say it's someone who cared. Not just about games but about gamers, about those around him/her. I mean the people who have stayed, who have been around, they're the people who give two shits. The more people who care, the bigger the site is going to get, the bigger the site gets the more heads will butt, it's just the way of things. Why? Because we all fucking care. We might have differing opinions or lash out at one another, but we do it because we care about the Dtoid community and that simple act makes us community members. It's not about how much we write, or how many inside jokes we know, or if we were around for Niero's first post. The guy who posts an introductory post (FORUMS!) tomorrow, is just as much a member of the Dtoid community as I am as long as he cares. It's about being part of something, and I think we (both editors and community members) forget that sometimes in the flare-ups and controversies that happen. Does it ever surprise anyone else how passionately we can get into arguments here? How many amazingly close friendships are here? It blows me away, and I hope it isn't something anyone takes for granted.

I dunno. I think I've gone totally off topic by now. I've proven no point and rambled for more paragraphs than this emailer has probably ever seen. This turned into a "things that have been floating around in my head for a bit" email.