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Grammarchist
Jan 28, 2013

I grew up in the middle of nowhere without access to the internet. I knew nothing about the world or culture beyond what was on television, which in my area was generally Fox News.

Something Awful was something I'd heard of from friends back in the early aughts (Hardy Boys photoshop thread I think), so when I finally went to a state university with a cheap laptop it was the only place I thought to visit. I loved the ghost stories threads, not so much for the ghosts as the stories of other people around the world getting into misadventures and talking about their hometowns.

This was the first place I ever encountered LGBT issues, and it helped prepare me to be a better friend to my cousins when they were looking for family who would support them. It showed me that you didn't have to be a raging rear end in a top hat to be funny.

The Something Awful Christmas threads got me through lonely winters at school, and when I got stuck unemployed during the Great Recession after graduation they gave me something to look forward to. Those festive karaoke sessions are an indispensable part of my holidays now, and probably kept me from self harming when Depression hit hard in 2017. Just knowing there are so many fun, kind and creative people out there is enough sometimes, even if the world is cruel.

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DOMDOM
Apr 28, 2007

Fun Shoe
I made a cool friend from England through a Close Combat LP I ran for awhile. Ended up putting together a vacation that included stopping by. He was kind enough to let me and the gang stay at his flat for a few days and showed us the wonders of East Finchley, London.

Years later I was at rock bottom and made a depressing E/N post. It was god awful and I was rightfully banned and told to seek help.

I did. I can't credit that with turning my life around, but it was one more nudge to add to the growing pile of concerned friends and family.

As the years have gone on, I feel much wiser and older. This place definitely helped temper some of that early 2000s edgelord that I just could not let go. Look, some words I'm always going to find funny, but what I thought used to be PC overstep actually turns out to be called "being a loving decent person."

This place has entertained me for many years. Even in it's diminished state, it's still my go-to for almost any topic. It's really interesting to see how this community has aged and grown over the years.

Hedrigall
Mar 27, 2008

by vyelkin
I want to just share some good vibes in the form of a quote from the smartest frog in the world

“Well, I have a dream too, but it's about singing and dancing and making people happy. It's the kind of dream that gets better the more people you share it with. And I found a whole group of friends who have the same dream, and that makes us sort of like a family.”

dads friend steve
Dec 24, 2004

I’m 16 months sober and the (then GBS) alcoholism thread was the major catalyst that helped me get from “maybe I drink too much” to finding a recovery group that worked for me.

That was just off the top of my head. I’ve been here almost 16 years and I feel like I’m a better person than I otherwise would have been without it

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

dads friend steve posted:

I’m 16 months sober and the (then GBS) alcoholism thread was the major catalyst that helped me get from “maybe I drink too much” to finding a recovery group that worked for me.

That was just off the top of my head. I’ve been here almost 16 years and I feel like I’m a better person than I otherwise would have been without it

Congrats on the 16 months, and congrats on today.

Matlack Radio
Jun 2, 2006

SA helped me understand how much a person's words and personality can shape and influence the point being made. In my early years here I would continually read a post and say to myself "That's a good point." only to have someone come along and write a direct rebuttal which made exact sense. And as soon as I internalized that point the first person, or some other goon would come along and point out all the fallacies inherent in the (until recently) perfect rebuttal. Eventually this helped me realize two things: 1) I am a naive and gullible person 2) Most things in life are complex. The lessons that spiraled from those two realizations have led me to be a happier, confident, and (most importantly) more useful member of society.

I once described my ideal afterlife as being some sort of omnipresent god, able to listen in to other people talking forever. The closest I will ever come to my dream of apotheosis is lurking here with all of you.

Zonko_T.M.
Jul 1, 2007

I'm not here to fuck spiders!

This forum has helped me learn how to fix my bicycles, helped me identify weird plants sprouting in my backyard, led me into some really great media that I wouldn't have even known about without it, and it introduced me to the McElroy brothers and their weird little media empire, which has in turn introduced me to some really wonderful local people who have become friends. It helped expose me to a wider slice of the world and made me more accepting of people different from me.

corgski
Feb 6, 2007

Silly goose, you're here forever.

sebmojo posted:

i joined sa in 2012 to be an eve goon, and while i was waiting out the three month posting period I saw a new thread for weekly flash fiction. 8.7 million words and 410 weeks later, I'm still there, having written just short of 200,000 (bad) words.

I have yet to complete the tutorial for eve online.

Playing the J4G long con I see, nobody would ever suspect a mod! :v:

sebmojo
Oct 23, 2010


Legit Cyberpunk









I know! Soon the time will be right...

SneezeOfTheDecade
Feb 6, 2011

gettin' covid all
over your posts
Y'all are amazing. I love this place.

Haschel Cedricson
Jan 4, 2006

Brinkmanship

Blackula Vs. Tarantula posted:

I'd probably be a libertarian right now if not for these forums. I know that's not as important as some of your stories, but I'd be a much worse person, and I wouldn't even be aware of it.

Edit: oh right, the cooking! I have always loved cooking but I learned so much from goons with spoons.

Same here. I actually voted for Bob Barr.

Seeing Libertarians getting dunked on and having no actual retorts of substance was an eye-opener, and now I'm a socialist.

WITCHCRAFT
Aug 28, 2007

Berries That Burn
Things I have gained from somethingawful:

Goons With Spoons improved my cooking skills and encouraged me to be creative and try new dishes. I wouldn't call myself "a foodie" (ugh) but now I really enjoy the act of preparing, sharing, and eating food and take pride and confidence in my cooking ability. I've worked several side jobs in restaurants, and if I hadn't learned what I did from Goons With Spoons I would probably have spent that whole time washing dishes. It's not a culinary degree, but knowing your poo poo in a kitchen will secure that job and the respect of your coworkers.

How to lift weights. I think in high school we did one month in gym class (which was once a week) in the weight room. I got nothing out of that. YLLS taught me how to lift safely and build an efficient weekly workout routine. Once I knew what I was doing, I was shocked at how much progress and how much healthier I felt going to the gym 2x a week for 40 mins.

The biggest thing is my sense of humor and all the laughs and stories from years of posting on this dead gay forum. It doesn't sound as impressive as the first two, but I think this is where SA shaped my life the most. I've been here for about half my life at this point. It's one of the only things I have consistently read and contributed to over that time. Other online communities have come and gone, but SA is the only place where I always feel at home. It always felt (and still does) that no matter what you want to talk about, there's a thread for it somewhere on SA. And I'll always feel at home in that thread, even if I never posted there before.

Oh also PHIZ has enabled my craving for bad music that none of my IRL friends will like when they hear it, and I think I now have a terminal case of Weird Person Musical Taste. The ambient/drone thread in particular is guilty of this crime. But on the other hand, I don't think I ever would have really gotten into stoner/doom/sludge metal without following that forum, and I have made many work friends from sharing those genres on the work radio.

TCC has given me a good knowledge base of several drugs I thought about doing at one time, and am now glad I never did. Like maybe if I never came to SA I would have bought some research chem Chinese Internet Dust and lost my job/partner or maybe even be dead????

edit: TCC also taught me how to clean my glass pipe, which I have also had since I was a teenager and newborn goon. Got some real potent and disgusting iso hash out of that thing after not cleaning it for like 5 years...

WITCHCRAFT has a new favorite as of 05:12 on Jun 27, 2020

Brain Curry
Feb 15, 2007

People think that I'm lazy
People think that I'm this fool because
I give a fuck about the government
I didn't graduate from high school



WITCHCRAFT posted:

TCC has given me a good knowledge base of several drugs I thought about doing at one time, and am now glad I never did. Like maybe if I never came to SA I would have bought some research chem Chinese Internet Dust and lost my job/partner or maybe even be dead????

I got a bunch of 2C-E from a vendor someone posted in TCC before the inevitable edit/probation. Doing it with my friends resulted in some great experiences and we’re all still employed and married, so maybe it could’ve been even better.

ChickenWing
Jul 22, 2010

:v:

sebmojo posted:

I have yet to complete the tutorial for eve online.

i love stories with happy endings

BlankSystemDaemon
Mar 13, 2009



Just this week I rounded 4 years with no evidence of disease after getting a diagnosis of a very aggressive form of cancer that'd already spread.
SomethingAwful helped me a LOT in terms of dealing with cancer because it let me seriouspost about hardware in the packrats thread (to the point that I'm now the #2 most frequent poster, and about to take the #1 spot), laugh with people in too many threads, and share my worries in the cancer support thread over in TGD, or even just practice a form of escapism when I need to, to avoid thinking about if the cancer comes back (which is usually something that puts me in a panic-like state, unless I can keep my mind busy), which I do by simply burying myself in a thread.

Another good thing from SA that stands out are the GDQ chat threads which FAU ruined (although admittedly they were way too loving horny, but at least that got us :chast2b:). Those were insane at times, and I loved every bit of it. :jpmf:

And finally, :emptyquote:!

JacquelineDempsey
Aug 6, 2008

Women's Circuit Bender Union Local 34



Looking at the weather today reminded me of another thing I absolutely love about SA: the annual Hurricane Hoedown threads.

When I lived on the eastern coast in VA, it frustrated me to no end that the local news sites would have their content buried behind paywalls. Like, I know you gotta keep the lights on and all, but I'd like to stay informed about evacuations and such?! Some news/info should be available for free, and goons always delivered. That thread not only kept me informed with boots-on-the-ground coverage from states south of me as a storm creeped up the coast, but I saw plenty of offers of goons offering other goons a place to run and find shelter on high ground. Warmed my cockles.

When Irma came knocking in 2017, I'd moved to the western part of the state so I didn't have to worry about it too much myself, but my father, who's in his 70's, couldn't get out of Key West. After Irma laid the smackdown on FL, I was stuck in radio silence with him for an agonizing week. I knew he'd holed up in a fairly safe location (a hotel rated for CAT 5's), but he had no power, no phone, no internet, and I was worried sick about him. Again, goons kept me informed so I wasn't having rolling panic attacks every 5 minutes. Just knowing, thanks to goons, that KW hadn't been completely leveled let me sleep at night.

dads friend steve
Dec 24, 2004

For all it’s problems, the early incarnations of YLLS and Ask/Tell had a big impact on me growing up. I started reading SA in high school and was skinny and unathletic growing up. I also was extremely shy and didn’t really make friends or connections with people.

Reading some of those basic lifting threads put me in the mindset that i can improve how I look and feel better about myself. I learned that talking with people is a skill and that I need to invest in it like I would anything else.

SA being SA, the thread I remember most was a talking to women thread that kind of predated the whole pickup artist thing. I think the OP eventually got outed as a piece of poo poo, and I imagine the thread as a whole has aged very poorly. But the message of “you need to actually be someone worth getting to know. Talking to people is a skill, so practice it and be mindful. And spend some time on your hygiene you goony gently caress” came at a very important time for me and I think really helped

It’s not nearly as harrowing as a lot of your guys’ stories, but for me it really captures a lot of SAs character.

Animal-Mother
Feb 14, 2012

RABBIT RABBIT
RABBIT RABBIT
Something Awful helped me survive a deep emotional depression. I hope it sticks around because I might need it to survive the deep economic depression that's about to happen. I feel like this will be the last bastion of sanity and truth on the internet.

Spinz
Jan 7, 2020

I ordered luscious new gemstones from India and made new earrings for my SA mart thread

Remember my earrings and art are much better than my posting

New stuff starts towards end of page 3 of the thread

dads friend steve posted:

I’m 16 months sober and the (then GBS) alcoholism thread was the major catalyst that helped me get from “maybe I drink too much” to finding a recovery group that worked for me.

That was just off the top of my head. I’ve been here almost 16 years and I feel like I’m a better person than I otherwise would have been without it

Best thing I've read in days

Fantastic :dance:

dads friend steve
Dec 24, 2004

Spinz posted:

Best thing I've read in days

Fantastic :dance:

Glad to see you’re still hanging around spins

exquisite tea
Apr 21, 2007

Carly shook her glass, willing the ice to melt. "You still haven't told me what the mission is."

She leaned forward. "We are going to assassinate the bad men of Hollywood."


About six years ago I started getting really into long distance running with the aid of the running thread in YLLS. Since then I've run six marathons and would like to take a crack an an ultra someday as well, if people can ever go outside again. Running has probably had the single greatest impact upon my quality of my life as an adult in terms of health, looks, and just generally preserving my own mental well-being. The malaise and poor fitness I see emergent within a lot of my friends who are now reaching their mid-30s hasn't affected me, and I hope it never will. I run nearly every day, for around 2,500-3,000 miles a year, and I'll probably keep going until my legs fall off. I'm just in impossibly good shape from what I ever imagined for myself, and I definitely wouldn't have taken it this far if it wasn't for the running thread's experience and insight. It's weird how hobbies become habits become obsessions that you build your entire life around, but running has been that for me.

GoutPatrol
Oct 17, 2009

*Stupid Babby*

Something Awful changed the entire course of my life. I did my student teaching in the fall of 2010, and in the fall of 2011 I finished my Masters in education to be a social studies teacher, but didn't get a teaching job over the summer, after about a half dozen in-person interviews. So it was go back to the supermarket deli for 8.50 an hour because no school system near me had sub opportunities, or just go to something stupid. And there were several threads in Ask/Tell and Tourism and Travel that I liked to read: Peace Corps threads, USA Jobs stuff, and the China/Korea/Japan/Taiwan ones, so I knew that going abroad and doing something, probably an ESL teacher was an idea. And after reading all of those threads, I knew that Taiwan would be my first choice if I could get a job there.

Almost 9 years later, I'm still in Taiwan, teaching social studies like I wanted to in the first place, and married, planning to have a kid next year (if everything goes right.) I have no idea what my life would be like now if I hadn't been reading SA to know about this kind of stuff.

PainterofCrap
Oct 17, 2002

hey bebe


I have innumerable stories and anecdotes of things I have learned from these forums since 2001. What's been posted so far are very powerful; mine are more subtle in how they have helped to shape my view and understanding of the world as each generation brings its perspective. As an old boomer, at times it can be a little maddening to watch people feel their way through life experiences I've already had...but the solutions were at times ingenious and elegant, far more than my own...so although I have been that "appeal to authority" guy (hopefully with a light touch most of the time) I have learned and thus profited more from yours.

Time and again I've been educated by your life experiences.

The most important thing was the prevention of permanent damage to my relationship with my son over the issue of employment. As a boomer I did work hard and take opportunity to get my career going...in 1985, and I have been constantly employed in my chosen profession since then. I last rented in 1992. Between those two arcs, I lost complete perspective on both the job and rental markets in the US. On these forums, over & over, I developed a picture of how lovely the job market had become coupled with the hideous increase in rents.

After a year of hectoring my kid to "go out and find a full-time job, what's with all this part-time crap" it finally worked through my thick skull/experience (now dead as dinosaurs) that that last two generations have worked harder than I ever had to to find even marginal part-time work, usually multiple jobs...and that it's cheaper to own a home around here than to rent - if you can get over the hump of accruing a down payment.

I had a long talk with my son, and expressed my mortification and apologized for being so far out of touch. Thank you all, and I look forward to more years of enlightenment (and idiocy!)

On a lighter note: I nearly had a nervous breakdown during the Bush years, so Trump was just...I couldn't. The forums have allowed me to keep track of political current events without succumbing to the holocaust of idiocy. Like using a camera obscura to watch an eclipse without burning out your retinas. And current events, and the righteous response by free thinkers, has given me hope.

And finally, a direct example.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3812091

CherryCat
Feb 21, 2011

That's a strawberry.

College Slice
I lurked for years before actually registering, and it was these forums that helped me realise just how abusive the relationship I was in at the time was. I only wish I had registered sooner and had the courage to post in E/N about it.

I eventually got out and moved away, and still having the community around made the whole thing so much easier. I'm frustrated that I don't have the eloquence to explain just how important the forums were/are to me.

I don't post a lot, and haven't posted for a long while of late, but I'm glad to be a goon, and glad to have had the forums in my life.

Aggro
Apr 24, 2003

STRONG as an OX and TWICE as SMART
I joined SA when I was 14, and it blows my mind to realize that I've been a part of this community for more than half my life. Goons have helped me through college, medical school, and all of my post-graduate training. I finish my training next month, and I have a massive network of goon medical professionals to thank for their endless support. I've also met goons while living in a half dozen different cities, and each time it's been a great experience.

Goons have also answered every stupid question I've ever had, and I am a more well-rounded and educated person because of it. I love these dead gay forums and I hope they last forever.

Grraarrgghh
Feb 12, 2012

"Bernard, float over here so I can punch you."


My post will be pretty mundane comparatively (like holy poo poo I'm super happy for everyone in this thread), but even the mundane makes a difference.

Coming out of the late 90s/early 2000s Steakandcheese/Newgrounds/Ogrish-era, I was a regular on the ever-edgy SA-sister site FuckSociety.ca/TheFriendSociety.com, which on it's best day was basically a small-time SA-lite centered around Newgrounds flash-toon creator Dave Teatro (the Bananaphone guy). There was a migration after a few years, and I first joined SA in 2003 at 20 and i can say without any sense of irony (but a lot of shame) that SA is so important to me because the soul of the site has more or less mirrored my social views, political stances and humor for the entirety of my adult life.

As the site has grown, so have I. It's uncanny how I went from an edgy shitlord to what approximates a functional adult, but more than anything, SA gave me empathy by presenting so many different views and stories.

I 100% without a doubt believe I too would be some sort of giant rear end in a top hat has I not posted here/left during one of the many purges.

HelloIAmYourHeart
Dec 29, 2008
Fallen Rib
My dad always told me not to get in debt and to save part of every paycheck, but I credit BFC (mostly for introducing me to YNAB and the Bad With Money thread) with my current financial stability.

The old E/N dating megathreads were pretty influential in a very "what not to do" way.

And a shout out to the Birth Control Megathread for convincing me to get an IUD ten years ago. I haven't had a period since!

scorpiobean
Dec 22, 2004

I'll have one sugar coma drink, please.
I haven't posted much for as long as I've been here and my lurking has been in waves, but I've gotten such entertainment out of the forums, got some great support while struggling through grad school, and I interacted with some awesome goons through SASS. I also grew up very conservative and I think lurking certain threads helped me to reevaluate my beliefs and helped me to learn to be a better ally for my LGBT+ friends and friends of color (though I'm still always learning). Its been wild seeing the evolution of this forum and I'm glad I'm part of it. Maybe I'll even start posting more :3:

The Mighty Moltres
Dec 21, 2012

Come! We must fly!


scorpiobean posted:

Maybe I'll even start posting more :3:
:justpost:

BlankSystemDaemon
Mar 13, 2009



:jpmf:

small ghost
Jan 30, 2013

I don't like, talk to people without prompting and stuff so tho I've been lurking here on and off over a couple of accounts since prob 2005ish I've not managed to acquire any kind of goon social network or a goonwife/husband, sadly, but this place has still saved my sanity a couple of times. I came back in 2011ish after a couple of years hiatus, at a point where my own abusive relationship situation was really deteriorating, and it was a sanctuary because I knew my ex didn't/doesn't have an account (he was an EVE player who got...upset with me when he found out I was a goon lolol. shoulda joined goonswarm just to annoy him really.)

People in the E/N breakup thread gave me the perfect pithy comeback to him when we had split up and he was playing mindgames, and empowered me to cut him out of my life. E/N was also incredibly kind in a typically blunt goon way when I posted a panicked thread about a horrible situation I was in a year or two back that I couldn't discuss with anyone irl.

I've learned a poo poo ton in general from this site, especially from SAL, A/T and PYF, from how traffic works, to how to do basic construction tasks, to advanced chemistry. And people rag on the Everest threads (for good reason) but they genuinely changed my perspective on the region, the mountain, and educated me about the impacts and human cost of extreme tourism, which in turn helped me understand what modern colonialism looks like.

I also want to acknowledge that the PI bird thread is the best resource for learning about pet birds anywhere on the internet; I regged this account just to read the archived threads for that sweet sweet birb content. Still the best thread on the forums.

skeleton warrior
Nov 12, 2016


Reading interesting and informed people talk in D&D and PYF has definitely made me a better and more progressive person, even if it hasn’t done much good for my avatars.

This place has been a constant solace to me: a place where my trivia-addicted brain can learn so many interesting facts; a place where I am constantly entertained by great writers making great comedy; and when my depression hits a tipping point, a place where I can anonymously whine and sob and feel heard.

Y’all are awesome.

Sitting Here
Dec 31, 2007
I joined this site to impress a goon and we're still together. He liked to show me Fashion SWAT articles and FYAD threads and I liked sitting real close together looking at his laptop.

SA on a whole has helped me become funnier, more informed, and more political. That said, most of this is a retrospective on one community within the site.

In 2012, I was in a really dark place with some hosed up family poo poo. One day, someone posted a flash fiction contest down in Creative Convention with the stupidest writing prompt I had ever seen: A man agonizes over his potatoes. It was so dumb that I felt personally challenged to try to write a good story with that as its basis. I don't think I succeeded, but I won the first Thunderdome, which was the first time I had ever won anything based on my own merits, even if it was just a goofy contest.

And then it kept going, and more people joined. Meanwhile, I was in the middle of a catastrophic depression and still dealing with some heinous family garbage. Someone reached out to me, said some stuff. It was the right stuff at the right time. I started to feel like something other than a prisoner in my own life.

The Thunderdome community grew into a sort of friendship machine. We were spilling guts (our own and each other's) in this farcical flash fiction combat arena, basically playacting like pro-wrestlers, and I think the ego-scouring nature of the contest created a community of people who value honest critique over placation. The friends I made there are people who I trust to shoot straight with me, and I try to offer them the same thing in kind.

Early on, all my characters were passive. Their stories just happened to them, and I was rightly critiqued for that. As I learned how to write people with agency, I learned that I had agency over my life. I didn't have to tolerate cruel people. I could get therapy. I could do bold things, gently caress up, and learn from it. I don't want to sound bootstrappy here, but the practice of writing people with agency helped me understand how I had taken my own for granted.

Goons have been so kind to me. In 2014, I spent a weekend in San Francisco with a goon I'd never met in person. She gave me a spare key to her house and said "here's where we keep our weed and booze, go explore and have fun." Neither of us murdered the other afaik.

In 2015, I went to Boston with the aforementioned person and we spent a weekend at yet another goon's house, this time with several others I'd met through Thunderdome. It was my first trip to the east coast. Saw the inside of a mad scientist's lab (there were rat guillotines).

I met a lot of local writer friends, too. The Pacific Northwest is perhaps a bit overly goon-saturated. What's up Seattle LAN frenemies!

In 2018, I was a bridesmaid for a Thunderdome friend! I met Pick there, at the goon containment table. She was nice!

In 2018, one of my oldest IRL friends (also a goon) wrote his best, last piece of fiction and then took his own life. Because of SA, we had 50 pieces of fiction to give to his family after his passing. He had destroyed most of his other art and writing. I have one of his old journals, wherein there are notes in his handwriting about judging Thunderdome, and it makes me think about how many little connections were made because one long-since-banned poster prompted us to write about potatoes.

At the end of 2019, a prodigiously kind group of New Zealand goons helped me visit their country. That was pretty much the last time I felt unreservedly happy. I came back home and the world fell apart.

But you know, as long as the tubes are still online, and we can still shitpost side by side in the face of hell, i think i'll be okay. love you goons, goatman bless.

Sitting Here has a new favorite as of 23:51 on Jun 29, 2020

Antivehicular
Dec 30, 2011


I wanna sing one for the cars
That are right now headed silent down the highway
And it's dark and there is nobody driving And something has got to give

JacquelineDempsey posted:

This is going to sound insane but... the GBS Sardine thread. I started reading on a lark and decided to try sardines. Turns out, they're really loving tasty! Plus, they come in pretty printed cans! I make art out of junk, that's my jam, so I started making collage art of sardines out of sardine cans. Not only did that thread take a liking to it, but I had an SA-Mart page selling them that got sticked by a mod (think it was NYC Tattoo?) just because it was so bizarre.

I've got one of the collage sardines! It is weird and cheerful and makes me happy when I look at it.

I registered on SA in my mid-twenties, so I don't have a lot of the goonyouth experiences, but it's still meant a lot to me. I've had some great times at local goonmeets and met some very good friends, one of whom I'm going to be a bridesmaid for next month. I'm also living the goonspouse dream, albeit in reverse -- I registered for the forums because I was reading SA on my now-fiance's computer and decided I wanted to post.

Like sebmojo and Sitting Here, I think I've found the Thunderdome writing contest to be the most important thing about SA; it really helped me reconnect with my long-neglected love of creative writing and improve my skills, and it's a great group of people, besides. I love that thread and the forum that spawned it.

The Mighty Moltres
Dec 21, 2012

Come! We must fly!


Last year, I was going through some financial dire straits.
I could barely afford to pay my rent, let alone feed myself.
I posted about it and a couple of very kind and generous goons, one of whom you absolutely know, wired me some money to help me out. (They shall remain nameless unless I'm told otherwise by them.)
I am forever and eternally grateful to these goons, and really just the forums as a whole.
I always knew that no matter how bad of a mood I was in, I could come onto these dead gay forums and belly laugh the night away.
Cheers friends.

Lysistrata
Sep 12, 2003
Anyone who truly believes he has friends is a fool.
I don't have as dramatic a story as some goons, but SA definitely changed my life-- and helped to change the lives of others who never even knew about it.

I adminned a community for almost 20 years, and took a lot of the rules (and the emotes :fap:) from SA. My community was modeled on SA in a lot of ways, and watching the mods here taught me what to do and what not to do in my own space. As a result, it is now a healthy, thriving little place, completely free of nazi/terf bullshit, and people credit me and my wife with the same kinds of things people are talking about in this thread.

That's all down to SA. I learned from everything I saw here, and I applied that knowledge as best I could. Even when the mods made mistakes here, I saw it, and learned how not to make those same mistakes. Now, I've been able to step down and take a break with full confidence that my community will still be safe and healthy when I get back.

People have told me that their lives were irrevocably changed for the better because of the community I ran, but that credit belongs to SA and all the lessons it taught me. I love this place; I'd have left it if Lowtax was keeping it, but I'm so glad Jeffrey is buying it. This place gave me so much, and helped me to give all that to others. I owe SA a lot.

SulfurMonoxideCute
Feb 9, 2008

I was under direct orders not to die
🐵❌💀

Some of my best friends I've met through here. I have yet to meet up with them irl but many I chat with every day. I hope to meet them in person someday.

Inceltown
Aug 6, 2019

Picnic Princess posted:

Some of my best friends I've met through here. I have yet to meet up with them irl but many I chat with every day. I hope to meet them in person someday.

Prepare to be disappointed.

Ugly In The Morning
Jul 1, 2010
Pillbug

Inceltown posted:

Prepare to be disappointed.

Every goon I’ve met IRL has been fun to hang with. I mean, in the ten years I’ve been regged (as of today!) that’s been like four goons but still, all good people.

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SulfurMonoxideCute
Feb 9, 2008

I was under direct orders not to die
🐵❌💀

Inceltown posted:

Prepare to be disappointed.

I've already had them on various forms of social media for years. I know what I'm getting into.

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