Dear Khush,
Why? Why do you continue to use this lowly forum as a medium when your talents could be used on a global scale? Is it a fear of branching out? Sentimentality? Is the truth that you actually like the people here? For what purpose?
Also, what's your favorite thread on NWR?
Best,
Pondering in Purgatory
Well, yes, I do like the members here so that keeps me coming back. I could branch out, I suppose, but that takes time. This isn't the first forum I've dominated though. Years ago, around 2000 - 2003, I used to frequent a forum that was just a small group of different friends and some distant family on it. Maybe 20 -25 people and I dominated that, too, over time. It gave me a basis for a lot of forum antics that I do here. That forum was a bit different though. Unlike this one, where we have an account set to our name so that no one else can really post in it, that forum you would just enter your name anytime you made a post. As such, you could use someone else's name for your post if you wanted. So, one time, I knocked a thread off the main page by bumping up the 20 or so threads below it so that they stayed in order and then recreated the thread I knocked off by reposting the same comments of each user in the order they appeared and their name but added in some extra comments of them all talking about how great a user I was and other vain type statements. That threw 'em for a loop.
But, I guess I just like forums because it is easier to play off of others. There's a few times, I wondered about trying my hand at stand-up comedy. At work, sometimes my co-workers and I would be talking about something and I'd come up with something funny or just say something I purposely knew was stupid for a laugh but it would work and sometimes I could riff on it for awhile. In fact, one year, for the annual company get-together/supper/thank you, it was held at a comedy club in our city where you had your dinner and then watched a few stand-up comedians after. It had its moments but there were a bunch of times too where the jokes didn't really land. The following Monday after that happened, we were talking about the night and one co-worker, in particular, who always seemed to like my joking manner was saying that she thought I was funnier than anyone we saw that night. Now, I hesitate to share this story because it sounds a bit like the usual Khushrenada ego-pumping and if its so easy, why don't you do it? But I fully recognize there is a difference between making a few people you know well able to laugh and doing that with a crowd of strangers. Moreover, I'm not trying to do it for an hour or two steady. We have a brief conversation, something funny is said, we laugh and move on until another similar occasion arrives. So, yeah, maybe when you string it all together, I could be found funnier but there's a big difference between coming up with a quip in a conversation and having to monologue. I feel like maybe I've come up with one or two minutes that might play out well as stand-up material but I don't have the right mentality I think for it. I was actually thinking that what I'd rather do is have a partner and make it more similar to a conversational style where you set each other up and deliver a kind of punchline and riff on a subject like I've done at work or on these forums. It's why most TV comedies have a cast of characters that can all deliver different funny lines as they play off one another. If I know somebody and their personality then I can figure out more angles and ways to play with that and how to make them laugh.
It's a big reason why I've stuck around on these forums. We all project a type of image and personality even if they aren't accurate of who we are in real life. This allows us to play off one another and since I think that is my comedic strength, I'm able to do that pretty well so it keeps me here. It's not something I can see myself doing on Twitter. That's a bit of a one man show medium. Reddit would be too vast to try and learn different personalities to figure out how to play off them. Forums are the right place for my strengths and that's why I'm pretty passionate about them over other types of internet communication that exists. Not that they don't have their purpose or usefulness for certain things but I just feel it's still the best way to simulate friends hanging out and conversing. Since I do know many of the users here and their online persona, it makes it easy for me to jump in and create something funny or appealing to the users here rather than going to other forums and slowly learning and connecting with people there.
The other thing to keep in mind is that for a long time, I was considered a more serious poster here. Sure, I could pull some funny stunts in mafia or once in awhile I did take the lead in something Funhouse related but a lot of other users were sort of the stars of the Funhouse and I just enjoyed coming and seeing them do their thing. It was only when they started disappearing and posting less that I began to takeover and carry on the Funhouse spirit. I'd say that from 2011 or so onwards has been when I've truly achieved the moniker of being the life of the forums for still trying to find ways to entertain users here and provide forum games and new topics of conversation or experiment with an idea of some kind. Basically, it kind of happened because I wanted to remind people of the fun that used to exist in the Funhouse and all over the forums and my efforts were received positively enough that I just kind of kept going from there and found this sort of role for myself on these forums. It's been a long work in progress. It's like Conan O'Brian. Sure, he'd have some good moments in the early years but there was still a lot of learning that he and the writers there went through but after 6 years, that show was at the top of its game and the best thing in Late Night for a good 6-8 years. I think that's where I am right now. I've been able to develop to peak Khushrenada comedy so why would I suddenly leave it now? Didn't really work out for Conan once he tried to move on.
As for favorite thread, wowsers. Threads come and go and there's been so many over the years. Even I've forgotten a bunch of things that I've made. There are times when I was bumping up threads to sticky at the top of this forum I'd come across things I'd forgotten about by other users or myself. I was trying to think of a thread that may have been popular for awhile or lasted a long time that I really liked and surprisingly the Sony Getting Hit Hard Lately is the one I kind of drifted towards. Call it fanboyism but I really like that time from late 2006-2009 where Sony really struggled a lot with the PS3's reception and their efforts while the Wii took off. There was a lot of funny things happening then and the internet was ready to pounce on them. If it is a thread of mine, again, I'm not sure why but the thread that has stuck with me the most in the past couple years is "There is no Mod". I was in a mood that day and wanted to make a statement but do so in a humorous and subversive way and I just remember as I was making that thread and post how much I ended up laughing to myself and how well it kept its salty edge yet still blended so well to be humorous. Part of me loved imaging the idea of a forum with those rules as well. It felt special at the time and might be one of the best encapsulations of my forum personality here.
Topic: The Khushrenada Inquisition (Read 6102 times)
