[Aaron]

Mostly because I'd feel like a real jerk if I didn't do something to foster the discussion about resource depletion & PO specifically. Like understanding the topic somehow obligates me to participate.

It's messy... often offensive... sometimes painful... & always interesting.

I use discussion forums to learn about all manor of topics... companies lie for profit. Regular people with no vested interest will give you the real scoop.

So if i wanna learn about which TV is best... I find a TV forum.

For me this place is like that, but for the bigger issues.

I enjoy the focused nature of sites like TOD... but the format & level of discussion tends to exclude many folks from the discussion. (Which is why you find so much "off topic" material here.)

Want to geek out on peak oil? You can do that here...

But we also recognize the benefit of diversity.

Thanks to everyone who participates...

\Your dog wants info.

[jasonraymondson]

I simply keep coming here out of habit and hoping to hear more about mortgage resets and bank closures... what I consider to be the most telling issues.

Peakoil is pointless if the world economies crash and we end up with 40 percent unemployment; people living on the street dying of dysentery, and new plagues developing, due to millions more poor not having access to health care.

I came here because gas prices were going up and I wanted to know why, and I freaked out, and because the site freaked me out, I have developed an attachment to it. I am doomer, I always have been ... as a child growing up, I was exposed to the horrible nature of humanity, more horrible than many, if not all of you can even begin to understand.

I find myself permently locked in a struggle of hope | love | concern & doom | hate | loathing

This site provides the opportunity for me to live out each of these without the fear of losing the respect of the real people in my life. This forum provides a safe haven and a sounding board for my issues.

[Pops]

I was looking for a "survivalist" site without the survivalists.

I wanted to talk about how to position myself and my family as best I could for either a quick bad or slow bad scenario specifically involving energy. I had been hanging around several prepper kind of sites and there were certainly lots of folks knowledgeable in the skills I wanted, but even here in the ether it's better if you fit in and mentioning PO on those sites then was like bringing it up on a NASCAR board.

Like someone just said, there are lots of places on the internet to get information on anything from raising chickens to protecting your savings to careers of the future to living on less but there just isn't a place like this where any of those questions and a thousand more are automatically weighed with an eye toward the future of cheap energy.

We did a good job.

[AgentR]

Why here... hmm.

I do enjoy poking people that think human nature can be altered, and that we could choose to do something that would "save the planet" or some such nonsense.

The site itself, for all its wild divergence in topics, DOES contain a fairly substantial amount of information that is useful for a variety of contingent purposes.

It also seems to collect a fair quantity of philosophical imminent doomers; the ones who at one time would stand on the street corner with signs proclaiming the end of the world; or spent their money building fallout shelters, etc. I always wonder what these people will think in a decade when Americans are still driving to work, still wasting energy living in huge homes with big, well maintained lawns, and still buying fruit that travelled several thousand miles to sit in a bowl and not get eaten.

So, you say, get out in the garden and do something... I suppose it's a good enough exercise, but for most, they've never even thought about what would be required to get 4-5 million food calories a year out of their garden. So are they really preparing, or just doing nothing more than the ones typing at a terminal late at night? Ludi's posts on permaculture sent me on an interesting math trip that I'm glad to have taken; but also made it quite apparent that in my particular urban "forward position" gardening is pointless, and at the redoubt, its peasy-easy simply because of the amount of land, sun, good soil, and water.

What is the best way to preserve this situation, such that the redoubt remains available for fall back this year, next year, or twenty years from now? Simple; stay forward, work my job, entertain none of the fancy purchases and obligations that my peers seem to prefer.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'M')os still doesn't understand why I was upset.

http://peakoil.com/psychology/please-as ... 53574.html

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '
')Do you still believe this worldwide depression really is only about bad housing loans?

[hillsidedigger]

The several message boards I read and post in are generally gardening, homesteader or survivalists type places and so many of those people are wanton breederists/cornucopians with very literal views of how religion is to be interpreted.

So far, PeakOil.com seems to have generally reasonable posters.

[Graeme]

Yes, I also initially joined for information and "news" but I think that what we read is really a small slice of reality that the news media tries so hard to portray. We are often misled so I come back to find out about another slither. Generally, I try to provide a positive balance to the mostly negative views about our future. It doesn't have to be dark. The future will undoubtly be full of surprises either way. And we don't have to take life and our discussions tooo seriously.

[outcast]

It used to be to learn more about the issue. At first I believed it could cause a lot of doom, but eventually the pro-doomer argument kept adding up less and less, combined with the general inconsistencies, factual errors, and often illogic, I'm not conviinced anymore. Combining all of that with the often sick and psychologically disturbed doomers that really want it to happen for totally unrelated reasons really convinced me the hype and doom mongering is BS.

Why do I stick around? Habit mostly.

[uNkNowN ElEmEnt]

At first I came cause my mom told me too. Then I came cause I didn't believe it. Then I got stuck when I realized how screwed we are.

I come here to be engaged, to learn and to broaden my own narrow life view with the excellent posts and view points. Half the time I don't care what it is, I still like to hear waht everyone has to say and as evidenced by this thread especially, there is a lot of quality in what you are all saying, even if it isn't strictly peak oil related.

I also like that there are people who will call me out, Call me on my facts if they aren't straight, and where a lot of the posters aren't afraid to debate and argue even.

IRL most people are too afraid to upset the apple cart or step on anyones toes, all the conversations are so tame and boring. I like that people here have more of an honesty and openness and are frankly more blunt. its bloody refreshing. Thanks guys and gals.