There is a sickness rampant on user forums. The need to be recognized, to be noticed, affirmed. It drives members to find new and titillating things to post about. To be in the spotlight, no matter how briefly or superficially. Kind of like that Andy Warhol "fifteen minutes of fame" thing, only with a pathological element, a need, a craving, added.

I once had a friend. He ended our friendship when I refused to give him some inside information connected with the company I was working for at the time. He got angry, even petulant. In awe I witnessed a middle-aged man act like a little boy whose mother refused him a milkshake. The value of our friendship was plain at that moment. Because I wouldn't help him be a hero for a day by giving him a tidbit to post online, I was now his enemy, our friendship over. There is something very harmful, even toxic and evil about a community that engenders this kind of behavior.