For the past two years, I have lived on the edge of ICQ message boards. When I first joined ICQ, I was uncertain what to
expect. I posted a
message and the 40 Something Friends and Family message board. Wow, did my life change. I soon
learned that ICQ message boards could be either your friend or your foe. I also learned that the boards could take over my life.
ICQ message boards is a virtual community of people looking for different things. Most that post are people who are lonely and don't have people to socialize with on a daily basis. Therefore, they come to the message boards offering one of the following: love, advice, services, release of anger, or just their friendship for a fellow poster.
My joining stemmed from a relationship that had went sour. I was running from reality and hoping to find friendship and other intelligent life forms to debate. I will tell you, I found all of the above there. Unlike most message boards, ICQ does not have moderators. One can post virtually anything they choose to post without worrying about a moderator booting you from their system. ICQ also offers an anonymous way of posting. Therefore, you can post your most private thoughts and opinions under an anonymous signature.
I love the people that post on ICQ and have learned that my time spent was not in vain. I did overcome my soured relationship, met my fiancee, and have spent hours debating with people that I will never meet. I have posted opinions on virtually every topic known to man. Often those opinions are not the favorites among the residents (posters) of ICQ and I will debate until nothing is left to debate. I have also learned that there are a lot of lonely and angry people out there.
ICQ has brought me many smiles and many tears. If I were to estimate an average time I have spent on ICQ, I would say that I have spent more than 10,000 hours in the last two years posting to those message boards. I have also spent many hours chatting with the members of the boards as well. I am slowly moving away from the ICQ community, but it is a great place to visit if you need to get away from reality.