- 16/11/08
- 7,543
- 135
- 0
Everyone seems to celebrate their 1000th post, and I've decided that I want to take this as an opportunity to let everyone know how much I've appreciated you giving me a "home" on this forum. When I first found RWI, completely by sheer dumb luck, I had intended to do what a lot of people seem to be after: find the answer to the one or two questions I had and then go on with life.
But I was fortunate in my first few posts to have been answered by a number of people to whom I took an instant liking, and who remain my favorites to this day. I discovered that the forum is filled with members who are knowledgeable and clever, generous in sharing their wisdom and experience, passionate in their interests, highly entertaining, and happy to provide commentary on just about anything (mostly unusual erotica but I'm not picky). I got hooked early on and I haven't looked back since.
I know that most of my posts have been a waste of bandwidth for most of the true watch connoisseurs. Fortunately, no one reads my posts looking for watch enlightenment, so they don't get disappointed anymore, and it doesn't surprise anyone by now that I don't actually own a (functioning) rep watch. So why hasn't RWI been able to get rid of me?
Well, I've met a large number of people I honestly respect and admire. And whose company I tremendously enjoy. I remember mentioning it early on, when it was just an impression, but since then, I've seen multiple examples of this--the people around here are just classy, decent people (well, a lot of you anyway). There's more than one instance of each of these, so I hope that no one feels self-conscious, but I've seen people give away every watch portion from band links to entire timepieces for no other reason than out of generosity and camaraderie. I've read post after post after post where people share praise, admiration, and thanks for the others they've met here. I've seen people enter raffles and contests and then give away their prizes because they've already won something before and want to share the good fortune. I've seen people devote hours and hours of their own personal time to raise money for the less fortunate and to educate the less experienced. And I've seen an administrative team who, despite having lives of their own (or at least I'm making this assumption), prowl this forum tirelessly in seach of lost sheep to save.
Maybe some of you don't find this so unusual. Maybe I'm just jaded from years of real life. But where I work, I see a lot of people who are not necessarily at their best. This I expect. But then I have coworkers, who, despite having good intentions when they got into this line of work (I hope), have become cynical and have learned to mock others, presumably as a way to cope. Elsewhere, it seems that I'm always seeing or reading about those who are trying to benefit themselves at the expense of others. So sadly, this world is not rife with populations of people who are trying to give and share what they have, and with humility and good humor. By contrast, here, when the occasional person (usually someone who hasn't been around long enough to know better) raises some plot to take advantage of someone else, even if it seems justified, he is immediately pounced upon by multiple others until he realizes under no uncertain terms that this is completely unacceptable. You can see how this would be a refreshing change from the rest of the world.
Finally, out of all of these fantastic people, I've isolated a handful that stand out among the rest that I am proud to consider friends.
And there are a very select number of whom I would not trade for anyone in the world.
All of you know who you are.
Whether or not one actually collects replica watches, RWI is still the best forum out there. (you don't have to adopt that as your official slogan if you don't want to)
Love, ahw676
But I was fortunate in my first few posts to have been answered by a number of people to whom I took an instant liking, and who remain my favorites to this day. I discovered that the forum is filled with members who are knowledgeable and clever, generous in sharing their wisdom and experience, passionate in their interests, highly entertaining, and happy to provide commentary on just about anything (mostly unusual erotica but I'm not picky). I got hooked early on and I haven't looked back since.
I know that most of my posts have been a waste of bandwidth for most of the true watch connoisseurs. Fortunately, no one reads my posts looking for watch enlightenment, so they don't get disappointed anymore, and it doesn't surprise anyone by now that I don't actually own a (functioning) rep watch. So why hasn't RWI been able to get rid of me?
Well, I've met a large number of people I honestly respect and admire. And whose company I tremendously enjoy. I remember mentioning it early on, when it was just an impression, but since then, I've seen multiple examples of this--the people around here are just classy, decent people (well, a lot of you anyway). There's more than one instance of each of these, so I hope that no one feels self-conscious, but I've seen people give away every watch portion from band links to entire timepieces for no other reason than out of generosity and camaraderie. I've read post after post after post where people share praise, admiration, and thanks for the others they've met here. I've seen people enter raffles and contests and then give away their prizes because they've already won something before and want to share the good fortune. I've seen people devote hours and hours of their own personal time to raise money for the less fortunate and to educate the less experienced. And I've seen an administrative team who, despite having lives of their own (or at least I'm making this assumption), prowl this forum tirelessly in seach of lost sheep to save.
Maybe some of you don't find this so unusual. Maybe I'm just jaded from years of real life. But where I work, I see a lot of people who are not necessarily at their best. This I expect. But then I have coworkers, who, despite having good intentions when they got into this line of work (I hope), have become cynical and have learned to mock others, presumably as a way to cope. Elsewhere, it seems that I'm always seeing or reading about those who are trying to benefit themselves at the expense of others. So sadly, this world is not rife with populations of people who are trying to give and share what they have, and with humility and good humor. By contrast, here, when the occasional person (usually someone who hasn't been around long enough to know better) raises some plot to take advantage of someone else, even if it seems justified, he is immediately pounced upon by multiple others until he realizes under no uncertain terms that this is completely unacceptable. You can see how this would be a refreshing change from the rest of the world.
Finally, out of all of these fantastic people, I've isolated a handful that stand out among the rest that I am proud to consider friends.
And there are a very select number of whom I would not trade for anyone in the world.
All of you know who you are.
Whether or not one actually collects replica watches, RWI is still the best forum out there. (you don't have to adopt that as your official slogan if you don't want to)
Love, ahw676
