What Proportion of Residents use the Forums?

I have mixed feelings about forums. Often they give me a lot of information that would have been very difficult to otherwise find. They can open me to new ways to approach a game, and encouraged me to try things I would not otherwise have tried. Because I like to write, they also give me a small outlet for expressing myself.

However, they can be a little similar to public places. Just like colds and flu, attitudes can be "contagious". Forums that are healthy and happy, tend to spread that attitude even to members that are not. I've gone into forums before that were mean cranky places, often hostile and sarcastic to newcomers, and based on changing membership over the years, and the attitude of its most outspoken members, seen them literally blossom into a warm open helpful place. The reverse can be true as well.

Frustrations and anger about serious problems in a game can really fester in a forum. Members who were only mildly upset about an issue, can become obsessively fixated on issues and "pick up" new frustrations from others. It's like picking at a scab, where they know it doesn't make them feel any better but they just can't stop.

In some games, I have advised newer players NOT to frequent forums until they are fairly well established in a game. While forums often are a huge wealth of information, often information that can really help a new person, they also have a potential to completely transform your *feelings* for a game, sometimes to the better, and sometimes just ... to the bitter.

Every member of a forum is like a cell in an organism and helps define that forum. Frustrations can easily spread at times and put the entire organism at risk. But members can also heal the group, too. I've seen that happen more than once, where a few people literally transformed the "style" of a forum, especially ones that are highly committed to making it a helpful open source of information, welcoming to new members and above all, patient at working for changes.

As said, only a small fraction of people really use forums. It can be very easy to think that a prevailing point of view on a forum, expresses its membership. Almost always however that is not the case. It is a tiny select minority, who usually influence each other far more than they influence or represent the game itself.

at least 4 or 5 times a week we'll have a conversation that will start with her asking "I wonder why this happens..." pertaining to SL, and my answer is "Well on the forums they said this....".

What about "Which residents use the forums and not Secondlife"

Going by some of the threads and answers I am sure there's a few.

The several "Epic Threads" of recent months, started by people with ridiculous ideas, that became a pages long group comedy routine are priceless. People who were normally at each others throats were playing off each other in jokes, and everyone was having fun.

/me hugs Brenda, and buys her a pair of shoes.