Occam Thoughts: Community

The time is 1:56 am in the morning here in the waking world. I'm a few glasses of wine relaxed and have been thinking a bit about the site. I don't often have an outlet to just speak my mind in the waking world. Being an adult and all means that 98% of the people I encounter won't appreciate my Baby Jessica macaroni art. But here, I can talking about all sorts of random shit and someone usually gets it, or at least gets a chuckle out of it. The reason I have loved and continue to love this site is that we share ourselves. For many of us, we aren't just screen names and words on a screen. We are people and even though we may never meet, we build relationships online. We come to respect one another, even when we disagree and think the art for Darksiders 2 is amazing.

A long time ago when I was relatively new here I started giving out decoder rings to people who posted their intro cblog. I think I was inspired by the Little Orphan Annie decoder ring from A Christmas Story. I still chuckle at "drink more Ovaltine." Have you ever had Ovaltine? It tastes like grandma pussy mixed with a mint julep.

Ok, Occam, focus. We have a point here.

So yeah, these decoder rings and the message to thrive with the community and give us your thoughts and words and ideas so we can love you may seem kinda hokey but I mean it. I have made some amazing friends on this site and if Destructoid were to be shut down tomorrow, those friendships would continue. That's a legacy, folks. I'll always owe Destructoid a huge debt of gratitude for being the place in which I would make friends after a very long time of me thinking I was pretty much going to be a hermit for the rest of my days. I made those friends by taking a chance and joining an Friday Night Fight on xbox 360 and stepping outside of the hermit world I live in and just talking with cool people. I made myself step out of the rather comfortable status of being a lurker into something far more awkward. It worked better than I could have ever imagined.

Its a scary thing to be a new member on a website. There are established groups, in-jokes, rules, specific language, personalities and lord knows what else you have to encounter and deal with to become part of the site. I went through it and felt very discouraged that people didn't really comment on my blogs and my front page comments were largely ignored. But I kept trying and every time someone responded to what I had to say, in all my rambling glory, it pushed me forward to try and get to know the community better and let them get to know me. That's why its so damn important that we as a community show love to new members. Its an intimidating thing to post that first blog or intro post on the forums or say hello in Outer Heaven but you have to remember that this is a person reaching out and putting themselves out there for all of us to engage. If you love the site and the people here, just try and make them feel welcome. Encourage them to post and come back.

Also, regarding the cblogs, if you see something that you think is front page worthy, tell Andy Dixon. He's a gentle lover and a badass fella but he's got a life in the waking world just like the rest of us and can't read and analyze each and every blog for front page status. So if you read something and it makes your mango peach heart swell, shoot him a PM saying so.

Anywho, I was just thinking about the past few blogs about Dtoid and wanted to put this out there. I love this damn place and its because of the people in it. Lets all make it the best community we can.