Clay_Allison wrote:
YA was initiated? Link to that, we almost never initiate females here!
that's kinda like saying that the PLO almost never initiate Jews when they join...
nah, there are a few human females here, and some Texan ones
although it's a mortal sin around here to talk about never being initiated, I wasn't as I got in under the <I>impressive first posts clause</I> i.e. I blew off a few pages on military, law and guns stuff that seemed to impress I seem to remember, you'd never know it to look at me eh?
initiations are to give the community member a sense of belonging, a hurdle to overcome that everyone else has also done (in longerstanding communities at least, few older posters have been initiated as they were her from the start) and to give the place an air of exclusivity, note how many carry notes of who initiated them in their sigs as a badge of pride and belonging, a common focal point and base of the group mentality etc
hence the few little fanclubs and associations thathave been springing up over the last few months, a clear symptom of the increase in posters, the 'kyhm Forums' have became too large to be seen as one group now, so it's self-splitting into internal factions as any large group does.
depending on the dedication of time and effort to the group these things will all mean more to the individual, hence the bad reaction 'n00bs' have when being jumped on and initiated, they don't want to be a part of the group *that* badly, so shy away from it even more rather 'passing' the test and getting into it
what? how did you guess I've got a sociology degree...