All joking aside, (and, I've, really, dropped into a joke kick, these past few days!), domain registration habits can offer us a peak into our own state of mind. However, it's not always easy to take that step back and look at ourselves and the process objectively.
Besides providing a central hub for resource, trade and the general dissemination and filtering of ideas, a forum is a community. Over time, the community aspect has risen in stature and has become the single, most important, personal benefit that I derive from being a member at NP. I must have sensed this intuitively, because, although, I was attracted here by the, generally, friendly and welcoming environment, the agenda I brought with me didn't, exactly, place community up at the top of the list as a high priority. For those of you who view community as some warm-fuzzy concept that's nice but unnecessary and who, are now, expecting me to deliver some sort of a "rah-rah" speech aimed at recruitment or, better yet, meant to act as a pacifier that members can suck on to bolster their self-assurance that "this is the place to be!", let me define and demonstrate my meaning of community.
Community does offer a friendship, comradery, and sense of belonging that are beneficial for one's psychological well-being but beyond that, a community is a place where relationships develop between members that are based upon respect and a level of trust and understanding that goes deeper than what will often be visible in the discussion threads. During the course of the three years that I have been hanging out at NP, I have developed something that is available to every NP member: an informal network of friends who act as confidants - people who I can go to for advice, who can act as sounding boards and who will help me stay on course on those occassions when I, all to often, start to veer off course or dive off at the deep end.
One of these trusted associates received a long PM from me, earlier this week and prior to the OP of this discussion relevant to the very topic we are discussing. The PM began w/ soliciting an opinion about a name that is in his area of specialization, continued on to discuss psychological attachments and how their set and setting can blur our objectivity in decision making and than went on to discuss the importance of maintaining the present focus and making evaluations from that perspective, other focus issues, procastination and more! I haven't received my bill for this weeks session yet, but I bet it's going to be a whopper! (Oops. There I go w/ the jokes, again.)
Well, all joking aside, I wanted to share, ("share" is such a nice, warm "commuoty" word, isn't it?), what has helped me has helped me keep my my addictive tendencies in check, maintain focus and perspective and has helped stay the course, given the rocking ship that I am.
