What's your favourite thing about the NTWF?

[♥ Azzie]

I want to hear from all of you, and I figured we could have fun with a thread like this. What's your favourite thing (or things) about the NTWF?

I'll start: My favourite thing about the NTWF is how I feel like we're all a big family of people who kind of understand each other. Also I love all my amazing friends.

Your turn!

[Tam]

<3 This thread!

I love that it's a place where people from around the world — whose backgrounds, personalities, and non-writing-or-drawing-related-interests are incredibly diverse — can talk to one another on the same level, as if we've known each other our whole lives.

[Terra]

It's all about the people here, really.

There are so many kind, funny, open, intelligent people. Like Tamia, I love how diverse we are, and how there are people from all around the world. But what I think I love the most is that I can be silly and ridiculous and make a total fool of myself, and that people respond in kind, like it's totally normal, and don't make me feel stupid. If that makes sense. XD I feel more comfortable being myself and being totally open here than I do with people I know IRL, a lot of times. (I mean, besides keeping in mind typical Internet safety guidelines.)

[Robyn]

Well, as a lot of you guys might know, I'm sick a lot. Nothing life-threatening, but it does tend to put a lot of my social life on hold, and whenever I go through bad bouts I get out of touch with a lot of my IRL friends and am pretty much just stuck in the house. It's so comforting and rejuvenating and great to be able to maintain friendships online with you guys here at the NTWF without having to worry if my health will get in the way. I feel like the bonds I've forged here with so many of you have been effortless to create and are pretty much effortless to maintain, and yet they're so STRONG, as Tamia said, as if we've known each other our whole lives. <3

I /really/ don't like to make a big thing out of what's going on with me (which, if this is news to you, that's why XD it's just something that is kinda hard for me to deal with as it is and while i know i'd get a lot of support from you guys, i hate for it to be something that dominates me & my conversations and i try to talk about it as little as possible). I'm trying really hard to keep everything awesome and get well enough to snag a part-time job around town and get stronger and go back to college soon. And you guys help with that more than you'll ever know.

Just waking up and being able to say, "OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO TALK TO FRIDAY AND SELM AND KRIMZ AND CANDY AND EVERYONE AND HEY LOOK RIKKU AND REVE POSTED ON MY NANO THREAD OMG AND LOOK TAMIA AND ICON JUST SENT ME SOME PMS" is fantastic. Knowing that my social skills and my circle of friends are in fact determined by my personality and not just my physicality is just...probably the best thing ever. XD Very reassuring in times of trouble. Not that there's many times like that, but still!

Everyone here has such a good sense of humor; you guys make me laugh every day. And isn't that the best medicine after all? :3 I love being able to share my work with people who create equally fantastic stuff, as well as people that create EVEN BETTER STUFF. I look up to and admire so many of you other forumers. You inspire me and make me strive to be better than I am.

And most of all, you guys get me. <3 I can always be myself around you.

...so yeah i have a lot of favorite things about this place lol sorry for the wall of text XD;;;

[Deleted]

What I love about NTWF is that it has helped me better myself in many ways - creative as well as personal.

I also love that we are all different and able to benefit from these differences.

I am also very attached to this place because of all the things I've shared with you guys.

[PFA]

I love how we're all so different, and yet so much alike. <3

[izzywizard]

I love how helpful and friendly everyone is here.

[Deleted]

Personally, I love that we are all so tight with one another. We know each others names, details of lives, families, friends, habits, hobbies, fears, dreams ... we actually know something of each other beyond a screen name and an avatar, and that kind of knowledge breeds compassion and real empathy for us. I know for me the more I know about someone, the more inclined I am to lend comfort when things are rough for them. ^_^ And I love that people here know me in a way that many others don't. ^^

[Rikku]

Oh! Oh the people. So the people. <3 I mean, I honestly don't think I've met anyone on here who isn't amazingly beautiful and talented and clever and kind and it's glorious, and everyone is just so friendly and welcoming.

Other than that?

This ... this feels like home.

It feels of home and safe places. It feels of refuge and sanctuary. It feels of the place where you come home to after a hard day's living, a place where you can settle down and stretch out comfortably into yourself. Because you can be yourself, here. Because this is home. Here is where I made my first cautious forays into who-I am. Well, and also NTAG, but here after that, anyway, and here more so because there is so much variety to this place, there is so much difference. The NTWF is a glorious improbable playground where you can stretch and run and make whatever you choose and always be in the very best of company, and it is a safe place, and it is a home. And I'm not just talking here. Seriously, I wouldn't be who I am without this place. I wouldn't have the values I do today. There are so many people and concepts and things that I wouldn't have known I loved if it hadn't been for this place, and for that alone I love it with - hang on - a silent ferocity that only animals can match, and, um, that quote fit a lot better when I only had the feel of it in my head than when I actually sought it out - I thought it was 'with a kind of fierce devotion' or something? - but hey, it fits well enough. So does the bit a few sentences later.

'Despite the fact that I was seldom there, it was good to know there was one place in the city where I wouldn't be kicked at, chased, or spit on. It helped when I was out on the rooftops alone, knowing that Trapis and the basement were there. It was almost like a home you could come back to.'

... Remove the almost, obviously. xD And most of the angst (which is deserved in context, thoroughly). But that quote still has the silver-sweet ring of truth to it. I KNEW I COULD FIND SOMETHING IN THE NAME OF THE WIND TO QUOTE. HA. PATRICK ROTHFUSS IS AWESOME AND INCIDENTALLY HE'S DOING NANO THIS YEAR THERE ARE NOT WORDS.

Huh. Actually. Another thing, that. This is a place where you can say things and be understood. Whoever you are, whatever you love, there's probably someone here who loves the same things you do, as much as you do; and if there isn't, well. Introduce it to some people, and maybe they will then. Spread the things you love and the things you make and the rest of us will do the same because that's what we do.

My favourite thing about the NTWF is the NTWF.

[Deleted]

I love the people.

Seriously you are all so awesome. Even if I don't know everyone as well as I know some, I respect and admire pretty much everyone here. This Forum is such a nice place to come to because eeee people being creative and being witty and being civil and kind and awesome and amazing. It makes me happy. And it is a place I can be myself, heart-on-my-sleeve, something I really struggle with in real life... it's so nice to find a little corner where you can be you, stripped down, no pretences, and people will embrace that. I can write about my life as if it were something interesting and people will treat it with care, like it is something interesting, and say things like "oh you have pretty words and such a wonderful way of viewing the world" instead of "honestly rv we don't care about you and your life get over yourself".

^__^ This place has really shaped me into the person I am now, and I really like that person. And that is because of you and you and you and you and all of you, for encouraging me, for making me laugh, for suggesting I listen to this band, for suggesting I listen to that band, for telling me to read Neil Gaiman, for listening, for inspiring me in so many ways, for simply being.

[insanepurpleone]

I just love the community of this place. It's not something I've seen to the same extent in any other forum I've been to. I mean, there's stuff about Neo which is how we all got here in the first place, but it goes so much deeper than that. You can start a topic on almost any subject and people will be happy to discuss it. People will give you reassurance when you're down, and answer your silly questions without thinking they're silly at all.

On that note, people really are just nice to each other. I feel like that's a cheesy word to use, but it's true. There's the stuff mentioned above, and really, people are just generally helpful and respectful. Sure there are bumps in the road, but even people who completely disagree on a topic can find ways to figure it out and at least disagree in a respectful sort of way instead of resorting to name-calling or whatever childish behavior tends to pop up so many places on the internet, you know? We treat each other like real people, not like faceless usernames floating around the internet. And that makes the NTWF a really nice place to call home. ^^

[Celestial]

I love all of you guys. <3 You have so much personality, so much spirit, so much awesome and so much kindness. You can be trusted with anything and while there may be disagreements, there will always be tolerance and compromise. No matter what, even if we disagree, we will always be there for each other. To put aside differences like that and just love is rare and precious.

I love how I can truly be myself here because everyone is so kind and so understanding. No matter what I do, no matter how much of a fool I make of myself, you would never hate me for it and neither do I have to be afraid of it. This is the one place I don't have to try to prove I'm worth something.

And finally, I love how you guys introduce me to nerdy, epic stuff like Homestuck and Doctor Who. ^_^

[Deleted]

I love how mature the senior members are.

I'm an easily shy and intimidated person, and I was welcomed with open arms by legends like Kat and Rider and Herdy and and I don't really rememer who else. But the NTWF is one of the few places on the internet where 'status' isn't lorded over people, and both new and old members mingle freely.

Also everyone here is mostly nuts. It's very reassuring to come back here and read some happy nonsense in the MQ thread. <3

But seriously. Everyone here is nice. I feel safe, like I can post my views and even if I come off a little too harsh, I have people who are willing to take the time to reason with me and try to understand my point of view while opening up my perspective. Like I can come safely out of my closet comfort zone and be met with people who understand my fears and insecurities and love me for them and not just despite them.

I love the NTWF because it's like the best kind of family.

[Deleted]

The love, warmth, fun, silliness, and the fact that it's kept safe. I've found some very very good friends on here, and I'm comfortable sharing things with you that I wouldn't be able to tell a friend from school. You're like family to me.

[Lizzie]

...What's not to love?

I love it all. I love what everyone's mentioned and more. I can't pick a favorite because it's just that great.