Editor's note: I know life on the forums is rough, but I had no idea that folks from one game's forum would launch a virtual attack on another game's forum. Jay provides some insight into what it's like to be a dedicated forum poster. -Jason

Once upon a time, in my own little corner of the Internet, I was a minor celebrity. It started out innocently enough; I was playing the original EverQuest at the time, and I started reading the forums for tips. A few days after that, and with much trepidation, I posted for the first time.

It all went downhill from there.

During this point in my life, I was working in a boring, dead-end network-admin position. Once I had the network running the way that I wanted, I had very little problems, so my job turned into answering the same dumb questions every single day. I was also working for what is still, to this day, the worst boss that I have ever had.

This guy was a raging prick who treated his employees like crap and refused to acknowledge hard work. As a result, I was generally not inclined to give him 100 percent or extend myself in any way. So I had a lot of free time on my hands. But the trick was that I had to at least appear to be working. Otherwise, the boss would assign me busywork outside of my normal responsibilities.

After modifying the server to not record my browsing history (the boss also did not trust anyone), I set my sights on the Internet. It kept me behind my computer, and I was well versed in the delicate art of Alt+Tab. Browsing webpages quickly gets quite stale if you do it all day, so I decided to start getting more focused.

My primary leisure activity at the time was EverQuest. I had several high-level characters at that point, and I wanted to start something new, so I decided to make a Bard. For those of you who are unfamiliar with EverQuest, Bards in the original game required the manual dexterity of a Teppanyaki chef to play effectively. True to my own nature, I decided to research the topic exhaustively before making my attempt.

My first stop was the official EverQuest forums.

After gathering quite a bit of information, I decided one day to be helpful and answer a question posted early in the morning, when the board wasn't that busy. I second-guessed myself for about 15 minutes before clicking the "post" button, but fortunately my information was solid, and I got a friendly "thank you" from the original poster.

That's about all it took to get me hooked.

Over the next year or so, I established myself as a respected forum regular. I answered questions, posted tips and guides, and started interjecting my posts with more of my actual personality, which tends toward dry humor and snarky wit.

At this point, I was friends with most of the forum regulars and even corresponded a time or two with the community managers and forum admins. As this phase in my forum life began to level out and become more routine, I set my sights on what I perceived to be a great problem: forum trolls.

Sure, the admins would ban people who got out of hand and broke the rules, but sometimes their responses were not timely. In addition, the trolls started evolving into slightly smarter beings and did not actually break any rules. So I began my illustrious career as a forum vigilante -- protector of truth, justice, and innocent first-time posters.

Some of my threads were truly legendary and known to many in that small community. I defended nearly every minority group in existence from attacks and off-handed remarks. I argued successfully with well-researched responses on many topics such as history, current events, mathematics, physics, computer programming, foreign languages, music, and origins of comic-book characters.

I successfully argued to the point of capitulation on the part of the original poster in an epic 14-page thread on how he had absolutely no legal backing (and essentially no case) when he threatened to sue Sony for (and I'm not making this up) "stealing his bandwidth" after they (with a bit of controversy) put ads on the client screen that players see when connecting to the game.

During this period, I also defended the EQ forums from a multiple-user incursion made up from people who were active participants in the Star Wars: Galaxies GAT (General, Any Topic) forum. After they tried and failed to gain a foothold and stir up trouble in my community, I sent them packing back to their "wretched hive of scum and villainy."

At some point in this mix, I began beta testing EverQuest 2. Shortly after the game debuted, I made the EQ2 forums my new home. During my stay there, I took up much the same role that I had before.

About a year after that, all my hard work was acknowledged by Sony in the form of an invitation to Fan Faire. (this is Sony's equivalent to BlizzCon.) I was offered airfare, hotel accommodations, an all-access pass to the convention, invitations to private parties, the opportunity to meet with the developers of the game with other select players, and a whole bunch of free swag.

I was elated and, needless to say, I accepted the invitation. Vegas, here I come!

Attending the Fan Faire was an overwhelmingly fun experience for me. I was recognized by more people than I ever imagined and received more handshakes and hugs than I thought possible. People actually liked me and appreciated me. Several of the developers thanked me and commented that I said a lot of things on the forums that they weren't allowed to.

Despite all of the validation and positive feedback I received during those few days, my life on the forums essentially came to an end about 6 months later.

At this point, if you're still reading, you may be wondering what could possibly have caused me to give this all up. The answer is surprisingly simple and uncomplicated: I got a new job.

I was finally offered a position in the IT field that paid more, engaged me, let me to learn and experience new technologies, and made me truly enjoy going to work again. This new position didn't offer me hours of unfilled time behind a desk. There was no real conflict for me. Real life trumped my online fame and fortune.

Since then, I haven't really devoted any time to posting much of anything, anywhere on the Internet.

One day, however, I was listening to the Geekbox podcast, and I heard about this website called Bitmob....