Well I can say that the thought of a chatroom, or even a private instant-messenger chat has crossed my mind before. I mean, many members do allow themselves to be emailed privately, so it can be as simple as emailing someone and asking about instant messenger, but, it's not as simple as it might seem. I've never really talked to anyone in email from this forum except on a very rare and brief occasion, and to be completely honest, I've never really given much thought as to why or why not, I just haven't. But thinking about it now, there are a lot of reason why a group atmosphere oriented towards objectivity and networking, that contains people that have been actively doing the Work for years and years, cannot be replaced. If I am going to discuss concepts of the Work with somebody, it is easy to disagree or lead to a false conclusion because we can both be ignorant of something. And if I have a question about the work, I wouldn't want to say "Oh I have this guy/gal's IM screen-name, why waste the forum's time when I can just talk to them real quick and sort it out?". Cuz this is bad, as now I'm avoiding a broad and objective/critical network in favor of a biased 2-person analysis. And most likel both of us are not anywhere close to where Laura and others are, and any conclusion we come to can be distorted, biased, or totally wrong. So the above example is one good reason why I wouldn't want to end up replacing this forum with private conversations, which can end up in both of us going astray due to our mutual ignorance.
This is why this network exists.
That, plus, I wouldn't want to accidentally befriend an agent either. After the whole deal with EsoQuest I'm pretty paranoid about who is who - after all this IS an anonymous internet forum, regardless of the fact that many of us have the same screen name and avatar for years which could create a false sense of familiarity and even create an attachment/affinity for the person. In the end, we have no clue who is on the other side. EsoQuest was around for a long time, and turned out to be a sexual predator. Shocked the hell out of almost everybody. So as much as I've interacted with many members for years, some of them in casschat too, I just don't know. I can most likely trust mods and admins, but we can't just all add the mods to our IM buddy lists either, I'm sure Anart would just LOVE to have a couple thousand new buddies on her AIM buddy list (assuming she uses any IM). That, and, mod or not, one person is still much more biased than the network together, regardless of who it is.
In closing, as much as I love this group and this forum, you're my home away from home, and as much as I've grown attached to many members that I've interacted with for a long time now, I don't think I can trust myself to not lead you guys astray without the constant supervision of the entire network. Really, it's not you, it's me. I don't trust myself not to accidentally/ignorantly give bad advice. I can trust that if I do this HERE, somebody will correct me. But in private, well, no. I don't trust you to give me sound advice without, again, critical analysis of the whole network. And finally, I don't trust you guys not to end up going psycho on me, causing me to go through years of counseling and hypnotherapy to get it out of my system. And similarly, I can't prove to anybody that I am not a psychopath or an agent, and it would be a pretty dumb thing to do if anybody assumed that I am not. *pinky to side of mouth* Muaha. Muahahahaha. Muahahahahahahahahaha. Muahahahahaha.. Muahaha... hah.. erm.
So that basically rules out any discussion of esoteric concepts. That leaves idle banter, chatter, empty socializing, talking about movies and stuff. Great, that's what your sleeping real life friends are for anyway. K I think that settled that question pretty convincingly for me lol
