Conclusion:
Sotonians – an example of what can happen when good people are afforded the respect and trust to decide for themselves how they want to live (yet choose to carry on being a bunch of playfully pisstaking ‘muppets’ anyway), and work together to create an enjoyable environment in which to share life, one driven by mutual respect, rather than top-down dictation or pressure to conform to a set of rules imposed from above.
I’ve found that in building and growing this model of interaction – Sotonians has effectively given itself one all-pervasive self-regulating rule – which could best be expressed in variants of: “be good to each-other” / “don’t be a cunt”.
It is a very refreshing ‘posting experience’, compared with ‘the norm’. We literally rise or fall by the virtue of our own content and conduct, and how we respond to the feedback we receive upon it; rather than whether or not a sad little gaggle of internet warriors have latched onto one post that they didn’t like, and already decided that you are an irredeemable cunt, to be mocked and hounded forevermore.
Congrats on creating such an forward thinking model, and to the members here for making it work so well. No matter how good an idea may be, it only works effectively when everyone buys into it and pulls in the same direction. You have ended up with a place that is enjoyable to visit and spend time, which keeps me coming back every day, often when I should really be doing more work instead.
Also, it is great to (playfully) be able to call someone a cunt and have them laugh and ‘like’ your post, rather than punching you in the face.
There’s only two things I can think of that I’d suggest could still improve the Sotonians experience further:
1). Please can we have a better/improved text editor with some more sophisticated options (at least being able to preview our posts would be most welcome)? It’s the one thing that after all this time has passed, still frustrates me on a daily basis with its restrictive limitations (on formatting, word-count limits per post etc).
2). Fulfilment of the promises on the invitation email for the seventy-seven dripping wet virgins, hundred year old bottle of single malt, Saints Season Ticket and the infamous racy images of Lou and intiniki at the Spa Baths. It said these would all be PM’d to us on sign up and checking our profiles for the first time. Is it just me, or have the rest of you still not got yours yet either?
TLDR ; Nice place, lots of virgins, exceptional single malt, compromising images of Lou and Niki, and the unmissable opportunity to enjoy my immersive and wonderfully written scholarly thoughts about the forum. It’s not that long, just fucking read it you lazy cunts.