A friend sent this to me and well, it’s so spot on, I just had to share.  If you’ve ever participated in a forum about anything, this is how the drama (and I do mean DRAMA) unfolds…

How Many People Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb in a Community Forum?

1 to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently

1 to move it to the Lighting section after 2 have argued to move it to the Electricals section

7 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs

5 to flame the spell checkers

6 to argue over whether it’s “lightbulb” or “light bulb” … another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid

2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is “lamp”

15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that “light bulb” is perfectly correct

19 to post that this forum is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb forum

11 to defend the posting to this forum saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this forum

36 to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what supermarkets are offering discounts on brands of light bulbs, and what customer service they expect in a lightbulb shop

4 to say that they’ve been disappointed in Lightbulb Live for the last 4 years

12 to ask why those 4 keep going to Lightbulb Live only to complain about it

1 to break the news about the new limited release light bulb

1 to post that the news was already broken in another thread and start a poll about reading entire threads

12 to post that they shouldn’t mention limited releases because someone might buy them to resell
1 to insist he has every right to buy and sell lightbulbs

1 to obsessively insist that no-one should make profit from lightbulbs on this forum

5 to post that they’ve collected 11 of the limited edition lightbulbs already so might as well get the whole set.

32 to not bother posting because there’s no post count showing anymore

8 to say that their electric company sent them 4 free lightbulbs, when quite clearly they would have preferred the moon on a stick.

6 to post thinly veiled criticisms of forum staff’s management of lightbulbs

15 to post that forum staff can do exactly as they want with their own lightbulbs

6 to pretend they were just asking innocent questions about lightbulb management and didn’t do anything wrong

1 to ask that forum staff backup all mention of lightbulbs so they can write a book about their really interesting life with lightbulbs

11 to reply that it’s not a personal lightbulb anecdote storage facility

7 to post URL’s where one can see examples of different light bulbs

4 to post that the URL’s were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL’s

13 to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including pictures, and add “Me too”

5 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy

4 to say “didn’t we go through this already a short time ago?”

13 to say “do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs”

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

These are my favorite two:

6 to pretend they were just asking innocent questions about lightbulb management and didn’t do anything wrong

and

1 forum lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again.

So do I miss running a forum?  You just read the list…what do you think?