What is your set-up?

[ithil]

At least a discussion forum lends itself to SOME shadow of human interaction and communication.

Which a solitary hobby does not preclude.

Nicknaming your "box" and publishing its pet peeves, measurements and turn-ons would constitute a profoundly distressing lack of mentality

Why (modulo the irrelevant jabs)? He's a computer hardware hobbyist who painstakingly built and tuned a piece of equipment. If he enjoyed it, I see no problem with what he spends some of his spare time on. Some gamers name their characters and construct elaborate backstories. Do they have a 'profoundly distressing lack of mentality'?

This has very little to do with my own assessment of Reason's social defectiveness, which was done in MY room.

That tells us that you can. Ask yourself whether you should. Power and justification do not go hand in hand.

98.99 percent of the denizens out there in NeverNeverLand couldn't hold a candle to Pete. They haven't the education, the eruditeness, or the "mileage". Pete's earned his right to say "STFU" in more places than the Lurker Lounge.

Without already knowing Pete, his arguments can only be weighed on their merits, not his authority. Authority is a sometimes useful heuristic for estimating merit and should be neither ignored nor blindly followed. Those who listen to Pete realize his arguments have both authority and merit, but he earns his right to say "STFU" because he is justified in doing so.

Only because they either haven't been pushed, prodded, found truth or simply realize the waste their time has been.

When I was younger, I spent many hours playing computer games. I don't begrudge the time I could have spent more wisely. I had fun, and I learned from it. Growing up is a part of life, and it doesn't stop at age eighteen. If you're lucky, it never does.

Life was NOT meant to be lived in a box, with a box, or from a box.

Life is a funny thing. Its possibilities are what you make of it. I won't pass judgement on what STL will make of his life.

Maybe I see possibilities.