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Good question JB, and particularly timely given recent tragic events...
In the immortal words of Jimmy Chitwood, “I don't know if it'll make a difference, but I figured it's time for me to start playing ball”
Observations...
I think most of us here come, as I do, from a different era, one where words were important and valued. If you had something to say, or more importantly something to write it better be pretty darned important and if it was worth writing it was worth REALLY thinking out and writing well. We did this both out of respect for the word, the thought and out of respect to the reader/listener. In other words, a man or a woman was as good as their word...and their word was their bond. Particularly the written word.
And in my era if you took the time to write, and stamp and mail you meant it and you stood behind it. If you took the money to call (and it was expensive) you made those words count and you chose your calls carefully by time, content and callee. I would like to think many here still hold those same values of communication and that in part is why I stay.
The internet and phone technologies have certainly fostered communication but in the process of making it easier, have we collectively have lost our souls and our character and some of our humanity? I ask my boys all the time, “What is it that you value? Because with every move you make, you make a statement about who you are, and what you value. Live for something, take a stand and choose your values and battles wisely. If you win with your values, you teach and lead. If you go down you need be go down standing for something” I have made it a point to offer them the value of communication with substance and thought to balance the bombardment they get electronically. Has it worked? God, I hope it will. Without real communication that has depth, not just cheap self created celebrity drama we are less of a species.
I think that for many the internet is a sad excuse for real human communication and many have fallen into a pattern of thoughtless babble: a throw away level of endless, pointless, useless, self centered chatter/twitter with out substance...both phone portion and the written portion. In that process we all risk a great deal. We risk and are paying a price for de-sensitizing our communication process, dumbing it down, and spilling it over into our lives and treating all the people around us like twitter friends.
That being said...the technologies also offer some amazing opportunities. If by hard work (Bottle washer Bob and Julie) and example you can engage and circle the right individuals with the right values and character and intent you can pull together an amazing community from a wide diversity of geography, backgrounds. viewpoints and experience. We all can grow, we all can learn, and sometimes cry, together. While I believe that baseball is a method to greater good and greater values, I also believe at times that it is not just baseball, but the deep character and values of the posters that pull us in, hold us here, and draw us close. And I think that really shows in times of great tragedy in our community.
When many of us post here, we choose our words carefully, and we trust that by building that credibility that we will be heard on a deeper level and that our words hold some sort of lasting value, first on the screen, then in the hearts of others (because as human beings that connection is what we want). Over time maybe we develop some credibility and trust. When some people post I pay attention. I hang on their words. I have come to trust their words and trough their word’s their character, not their looks, or their bank accounts, or where they live, or good looking they are. Will you show me your character through your words? Or will you show me your stupidity? While there is a pecking order of son’s ability here, it is not the only measure, and I would like to think that it is not the most important measure. I would like to think that it is character and humanity.
I actually have come to believe that if we do this thing right we sometimes offer as much or more of our character in our words than we do in our real life. I have met some posters in real life and they are online mirrors of who they are in life. I can assure you that Justbaseball is both a man and leader of incredible heart, intelligence and sensitivity. 08Dad just as intelligent and though out as his posts. CABB just as caring, kind and appreciative. In other words, the Intelligent and the compassionate are the intelligent and the compassionate. The knee jerk flitterers and twitters are the knee jerk flitterers and the twitters. The measured are the measured. The Jerks are the Jerks. Internet or not, you are as good as your word. For better and sometimes worse, We say things here that we would hold back, out of fear or social convention. Maybe the internet also gives you a chance to be more of who you are. Maybe I can choose my friends by their posts and value them greatly.
And for those who I have not met in person, I have to believe that I know them, Woodman and Play Baseball are family people and clowns with hearts of pure Gold. (I smile just thinking about them) CD has real convictions, and is a bit more serious but I do not doubt his sincerity to get it right, and I trust his values. TR? Well, I cannot think that TR is any different in real life than on the internet, and while I may not agree with him, I’d love to get an earful of his heartfelt direct opinions and I am certain that he’d offer them. I am sure that Infield 08, is just as compassionate and wanting to help as she seems. I could go on and on about many others as well...And most amazingly when I looked at the photo of JT for the very first time, and I saw that smile, somehow I already knew him and I knew that I was going to miss him more than ever.
Do I need to meet them? No. If I am right/write I can make my point here character to character, soul to soul without the distractions, and built in judgements that real life often brings, colors and those that sometimes destroy relationships. Does it make me value them any less? No. Remember in my world, You are your word. Our shared humanity is what I value on line or off. I’d like to think that is one of things I stand for and foster in others. I'd like to think that it is one of the things I bring to this community in some small measure and that I will leave to others to carry on when I go.
I do think that the HSBBW is a wonderful, and rare and close on line community. One that seems to engender friendship, useful information, real communication and, for lack of a better description, Love. This is not just the usual twitter/pointless babble and self centered one way statement making and desperate need/cry to be heard that characterizes and describes so much of the cyber world. And that I can let go of. There is often real human substance here, not always, but it does exist and we see that so clearly in times of community crisis.
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(and then rolls eyes again that I can't use a perfectly legitimate word without getting censored 
)and others as our sons started competing with and against each other in college. Its good to see some of the oldies still here.