Like it or not... this is a site where some people want to escape from their real life world for a bit and some people want to bring their real life into it. Those will clash. We've seen it recently with Dudebro and those who find his schtick droll... and we're seeing it with Grom and paulhicks... it's been before and it'll be here again.

But the folks who keep this place light and fun and yes, sometimes as harsh as a smack to the face, will also help us keep this place an ALTERNATE-REALITY - which it is and should be.

Community - yes. Real life - no.

So if you don't want to see the real life stuff or have people comment on your real life stuff... don't bring it in here. Feel free to... but be prepared for the sometimes wicked cajoling that will come from people you've spent time with... your brothers (and sister(s)) on this site. My best friends in RL are the ones who will say the wickedest shit to me about the most personal things in my life... and they are also the ones I count on the most when things are REALLY bad.

So here, in this alternate reality, don't try to edit brother Hick's comments to the point where we are reduced to vanilla conversations about the weather... the only variation from the discussions about silly skill choices. We will be bombarded with sob stories and will have no outlet but to cry in our beers... and we will all get bored really fast.

Thank you Grom, for seeing paulhicks comments for what they were in this age of "Was that Sarcasm being typed??!"... and thank you, paul, for providing the "escapist icing" a lot of us like to lick off as we leave the cupcake of real life sitting there - soggy and pathetic (though we will still eat that later and like it every bit as much :)