Why we joined the forum and our current reason(s) for being a member

[Joal 555]

I've been thinking about how my reasons for being a member of this forum have changed since I first joined in 2009.

Why I joined

I expect that many of us joined because it gave us access to a lot of sneeze related material and also the opportunity to talk to like minded individuals who share the same fetish. That was certainly the case for me and initially, that was my primary motivation, being a forum novice and unaware of the other benefits of being part of an online community.

Why I'm still an active member

Within maybe a year or two of joining, my primary focus had altered - the main reason I'm still an active member, is because I love being part of this community and the feeling of "belonging" that goes with it. I've met some wonderful people (both online and physically met some too) and built some great friendships. Of course, the sneeze material is an added bonus (and thank you to all who continue to provide it!) but it's no longer my principal reason for being here and it rarely excites me like it used to do.

So if anyone wants to share their thoughts, I thought it might be interesting for others to post about why they joined and how their views on why they are a member have changed (or haven't, as the case may be!) over time. It might be helpful to readers of the thread (but not compulsory!) to use the same two headings as I have used above.

[MaiMai]

This is a really interesting topic, Joal!

Why I joined: Gotta be honest, here...I have no idea! I'm pretty certain I just joined up on a whim, thinking 'eh, why not'. I don't think I ever really expected to become that involved in the community, it was more of a 'well, I like reading stuff here, I guess I might as well make an account!'

Why I'm still an active member: I started writing and posting Supernatural fanfiction, and after that, it all kind of snowballed! Within a month I was validated, and I started talking to people in the chat room as well as getting to know other Supernatural fans and writers. After that I had a period of time when I was unable to go to school very much, and I was so, so bored, and the forum pretty much saved me! I was at a new school, where I didn't know many people, that I couldn't even attend half the time due to health issues, and I needed something to occupy me and people to talk to. I ended up finding both of those things in the forum - I threw myself into writing, and since I was spending so much time around here, I started making more friends and becoming closer to the people I already knew. I realised how awesome the people here are, and how much I enjoy contributing! I have a lot of good friends here now, that I would never want to leave.

That was long, but...I joined up for no real reason at all, and I'm still here because of a combination of pure coincidence (or perhaps fate ), the people and the writing!

Edited August 16, 2015 by MaiMai

[Sawyer]

Another great topic, Joal!

Why I joined

I was 13 and had just discovered minutes ago that I wasn't alone in my obsession with sneezing! When I was that age, I pretty much made an account on every website I could, and this one was no exception! It was especially important for me to finally get to talk about my fetish, as well as gain access to the abundance of material on here. Seriously, I felt like I was never going to run out!

Why I'm still an active member

Less so for the content these days (although my fetish is no less strong than it was when I was a teenager!) and more for, like most people, the feeling of belonging and the sense of community that comes with it. We have such a diverse group of people posting here, which is really cool to me. I've made so many friends on the forum, especially in the past couple years, and I love being able to share this with them. Also, I really like keeping up with the, uh, what's the word? The antics that seem to happen around here every once in a while.

[NoV]

Why I joined

I joined in 2010 because I had been lurking around sneeze fetish related websites since 1999 and I thought that after 11 years I may as well... Seriously though, I had been sponging sneeze-related material (fics, wavs, videos, etc.) off websites for ages and felt that it was time I did something to contribute to the community. I used to write sneezefics for myself – now they are there for everyone

Why I’m still an active member

I still enjoy getting access to sneeze-related material and the SFF is a handy place to have it all linked in one place. I’m too lazy busy to put serious time into hunting the corners of the web that sort of content and I take my hat off to those that do and post links here. I enjoy reading and posting sneezefics, and following the forum dramas, the humour, the ebb and flow of members. I am not much of a chatter (you won’t find me frequenting the chat room) but I have made some friends on here with which I exchange PMs and e-mails, and occasionally indulge in the odd collaborative project or trade. I greatly enjoy the feeling of being in some small way part of an online community.

When I can, I visit at least once a day and certainly start to feel a bit tetchy if I have not been able to check the forum for over 24 hours

[PuddinPop]

Me next, me next~!

Why I joined
I joined to become an active part in this community. It wasn't really to talk about sneezing as such, but to share and comment on great things that I'd seen and also discuss other things with other people. I had a really bad experience with an individual online some years before I became a member here and was deterred from becoming a part of a community online but I'm so glad I came out of that and signed up!

Why I'm still a member
Honestly, the only reason why I'm still a member is because of the people here. If I didn't have the friends that I do have, I probably wouldn't want to have an account. That being said, I enjoy being a part of the staff. To know that I am contributing in a way that benefits the entire forum is really a great honour and I will hopefully continue to do so for many more years to come. Honestly, I have never found a place quite like this one. Most people are so friendly and it really is like we are all just "normal" people who share a common interest - I honestly wasn't expecting that when I first joined I have so much fun here, writing stories, taking part in trades, being involved in RPs, talking to people for hours about absolutely nothing, I just love the people here and honestly wouldn't like to think what would have happened if I never signed up >w<~

[bloom]

Why I Joined:

I don't really care that much about sneeze material in the form of stories/obs/art (not that those things aren't nice, they've just never been the primary mechanism by which my fetish is fulfilled), so I joined pretty much to chip in in discussions in General Discussion and Off Topic. I joined the forum with this account right after the community on another forum I used to post on disintegrated to a degree where it was no longer enjoyable and I was kind of half-looking for a replacement, too, I guess. (I ended up getting far, far more involved here than I ever was at my former haunt.)

Why I'm Still Active:

I'm trapped

No, uh, a combination of things, really. Force of habit is one, although definitely not the main reason. The sense of community and the possibility of attempting to make it even better. Knowing the things I have to say are seen by a wide variety of people and I'm not just screaming at my own ass, and knowing I'm providing that same feeling for other people. Having a place to contribute material, when it strikes my fancy.

But the primary motivators are the friends I've made here and sharing this place with them. I don't think I'd be half as active or invested or interested without the close friendships I've made with people from here, because it gives us endless material to talk about and to use as springboards into other discussions. This place would not be anywhere near as fun without the friendships I've made here, but what also makes me happy is that in the event the board somehow exploded, the opposite isn't true - we'd no longer talk about forum-related activity but we're all so close now we'd never run out of other things to talk about.

Also,

I really like keeping up with the, uh, what's the word? The antics that seem to happen around here every once in a while.

This. A lot of this. (Have I publicly proclaimed my love for Sen lately?? )

[•.*°•☆. Q .☆•°*.•]

Joal, this is such a sweet topic! I love it.

Mkays so my turn:

Why I Joined

When I first found this forum, it was pretty much just as I was discovering that the fetish was a thing and not just myself being a total weirdo. It was like the second website I found after TG's origial website and I was like YES. YES THERE'S OTHER PEOPLE LIKE THIS TOO. I WANNA KNOW CAN YOU SHOW ME I WANNA KNOW ABOUT THESE STRANGERS LIKE ME (ok with maybe a touch less musicality but CLOSE ENOUGH). And, also, I'm a blabbityblabberface, very social, so I had to make an account right away. I had a lot of questions to ask and opinions to share. And there was so much delicious fic and art. And there was a media center! It was like. Magically unreal, I felt like I'd found a place I belonged and like it wasn't weird here.

Why I'm Here Now

Honestly, I still love having people to relate to, who understand me, who I don't have to hide what I honestly consider to be a huge part of who I am from. And I made a bunch of friends here, and I just love hanging out with youse guise. I don't go in for the media section as much anymore, and I've gotten more picky about the stories and arts sections since I joined, but when something good pops up in those places damn is it a gem. Plus! Who else is going to read my indulgent sneeze fics whenever I get up the motivation to actually write them? Idk, the forum is a great place for me to chill and relate to folks, and the sense of community is heartwarming uw u <3

ETA:

I'm not just screaming at my own ass,

Edited August 16, 2015 by _Amy_

[Nas]

I'll go!

Why I joined:

I joined because I figured I'd feel less alone if I made an account. I was a pretty angsty 13-year-old, and I had just gotten away with making a fanfiction account, so I decided to just go for it. My parents had left me alone for whatever reason, so I figured that it was now or never. After learning that I had a fetish, I didn't want to have to keep it a full "secret". I guess overall, I wanted to make friends on here, and just meet people who already understood the fetish. And of course, I liked reading obs and stories, and part of the reason I joined was to tell the OP that I liked their work.

Why I'm still an active member:

Well, at first I was still dealing with some shame attached to the fetish, and there were times where I wouldn't go on here for long periods of time. I guess I'm an active member because I have fun here. I've met some really amazing people on here, and I love this community. The chat room is awesome, and I love that I don't have to hide anything here. I check the forum about twenty times every day in the summer (unless I'm on vacation or something). I love the Youth Board, and I now post there almost every day, because everyone is so friendly there! Like Puddin, I also like being a member of the staff!

I feel like I could say so much more but I don't know how else to explain why I love the forum so much!

[Snufaleeze]

Oh gosh, this is going to be difficult. It's time to go deep into my soul!

Why I joined:

Well. I first found this place when searching for sneezing stuff and I found the obs and had no idea what this was. It was just bizarre that a bunch of people wrote about sneezes that they have encountered. After reading those for a while I ventured out and started to get a look at the actual site and to see if I could figure out what the heck this was. I came into this not knowing what I had with sneezing or even knowing what a fetish was! I literally looked up the definition of fetish on Google! Honestly it scared me. This was whole other realm of my sexuality I hadn't known and was about to explore. So as I got further and further into this site I learned more and began to realize I wasn't as much as a freak (I still am though! ) as I thought and that these are my people! So I got the courage and joined! So I guess the reason I joined was to feel less alone with this weird fetish. I like knowing others enjoy this as much as I do and I cam freak out over it to someone somewhere!

Why I'm still an active member:

I just generally enjoy this place. I like communicating with you people. I like reading all the obs and stories and interesting ideas or games that are posted. I like coming up with my own and sharing or reminiscing an observation that I liked. It's all so fun!

So yeah. Deepness at it's finest.

[Juto]

I hope it's okay for me to comment on this thread even though I only joined this site 3 months ago.

Why I joined:

Like so many others I constantly found myself missing that one specific chapter of a beloved book or episode of a favourite series in which one of characters has a bad cold/allergy attack and is cared for by the other characters. And it seemed like no matter what I asked Google to find me in relation to this, the mighty oracle of search engines pointed my in this direction. After months and months of lurking, stalking my favourite writers and mentally voicing my comments on various topics and discussions, I started returning to this site on a daily basis. At some point, just reading about my favourite characters, many great writer's OC's and the various other topics on this forum I finally decided to join so that I could try my hand at writing my own sick/caretaking!fics and join the discussions.

Why I will still be active many years from now:

During the last 3 months I have been in contact with so many wonderful people. Some have been for collaborative purposes, pitching ideas back and forth for new and more interesting and original sick!fics, others have been for more discussion/role playing purposes, giving me the tools to deal with a side of me that I have never been comfortable with. My fetish have always been linked to embarrassment to the point where i literally can't sneeze or show ill-related weaknesses in front of others, but the amount of positive feedback, support and discussions on here are helping me to come to terms with it. I keep returning to this site because this is the only place I don't have to be embarrassed. I've discovered that some people are actually enjoying the fluffy caretaking!sick!fics that I love to write and halfway across the world from me is another fetishist who enjoys MY sneezes. And last but not least, I've gotten the opportunity to thank some of my greatest YouTube sneezers who are active members on this forum.

There will no doubt be times in my life where I will be less active tham I am now, but this forum is effectively fulfilling a need I didn't realise a had untill I joined. I see no reason why I wouldn't still be an active member many years from now ☺️

[tenderwarrior]

Oooh, this is fun!!

Why I joined

I was just figuring out that I had this fetish and was super pumped that there was so much sneeze material to look through. I don't think having a "community" was in my mind at all when I found this site. I was much more into the material than anything else.

Why I'm still an active member

Well, I've been doing the same RP for two years now... so that's a major reason. I've also met some great people on here, too, and I think that's why I'm still here. Of course the material is still good to look through but I don't think I need an account for that. I like the community and like the people I've met. Also, the drama that sometimes pops up now and again is always a good source of entertainment.

[Arty]

The reason I joined was because I was curious about my fetish. I mean, who could I talk to about it. Then I lurked on here before becoming an actual member. Never looked back since.

Why I'm still an active member:

This community became more then just about sneezing or whatever. I found people from all across the globe who were different and yet similar in some things I liked. I found an online family that I could talk to and help you guys in anyway I could.

Plus I love you guys. ..my soul was glad stolen and sacrificed to this place of awesome, intelligent and crazy people.

Arty loves you all.

[TwinklingStars053]

Well, I've only been on this forum for about 5 months. I hope you guys don't mind me joining in.

Why I joined:

I really like a lot of the content on here. As lurker, sometimes when I read a story or article I liked, I wanted to leave my feedback. So that's mostly the reason I joined. The other reason is because I wanted to be able to talk about my fetish with understanding people.

Why I'm still active:

I know I don't post very much on here, but I really am grateful for this forum. Prior to lurking on here, I was very ashamed of my fetish. I would sometimes deny it even. I truly thought I was alone on it and I felt like something was wrong with me. I basically felt horrible and I kind of hated myself a bit because of it. When I discovered this forum, I felt so much better knowing that I'm not alone. Basically because of this forum, I now feel more comfortable with this part of myself and I am no longer ashamed of my fetish. I also feel much more open minded now when it comes to sexuality.

I hope that wasn't too much information.

[tma]

Why I Joined

Well... I transferred to this particular forum from Bondi's old Beseen forum. But the reason that I became part of this here SF community- was mainly stories. LOVE me some lovely SF stories! And I created an account and crawled out of lurkerdom to ask some questions about this whole thing. Like I think actually my first question might have been if I was weird for liking *guys* doing "wrongness" (aka "OnTopicness"), because at the time I was lurking it seemed like mostly guys liking female material and some gals who liked female material. I thought that maybe I was odd within this "odd". lol!! I *should* have known better though since I'd read many lovely targotgirl male SF fics on her site, but.... I wasn't thinking. Mostly though, I was into sharing stories, reading stories and commenting, and Off Topic conversations.

Why I Stay

Y'all haven't booted me yet. I vary with the amount of time that I spend actively on the forum, but... the main thing is that I've made a lot of really super-amazing actual friends. People that I would still love even if this *place* somehow dissolved into nothingness. There have been people here who've helped me through some less than fun parts of my life and who know me better than most if not all of my "real life" peeps do.

[buffysummers]

Why I joined

I only just joined so I can't comment on wether or not I will stay But I mainly joined because lurking was getting boring and I was feeling a bit "alone" keeping everything to myself. I like the idea of having a place to share things I don't normally share with other people, and maybe meet some nice people with common interests in the process. So far it's been been good so I'm not leaving yet!

[IcyFlame]

Why I Joined

Well. It was Christmas Eve, and I had finally figured out that the rush I got from sneezes was actually a fetish, and I had already been looking at stories on here for quite sometime. So I find all this awesome stuff, and I just decided 'screw it this is my present Merry Christmas to me' and joined then and there.

Why I'm Still An Active Member

Probably because I can write one mean sick fic and I have so many ideas, I'm nowhere near done with this site heck I've only just begun. I love writing sick characters just as much as I love reading sick fics. I feel like I can still contribute so much, and I've already met so many amazing people and I wouldn't trade that for the world.

[David]

Why I Joined:

I was probably around 14 at the time (I'm 28 now, so this was wayyyyyy back in the day) and really just kind of was amazed other people felt like I did about sneezing.

Why I'm still active:

I'm not really active, per se, but I'll post every once in a while. Usually most of my fetish related activities (when I'm single at least ^.^) involve visiting a few youtube channels that are devoted to compiling exclusively sneeze-related videos.

[Nervous-Bean]

Why I joined:

-well, when I lurked around on it, before an account, I read so many of the amazing stories an art and etc etc and I was just hit with the most amazing feeling that there's a forum JUST for this fetish and I exploded with happened every time I saw an update on some stories or drabbles or something. XD I also didn't know this forum existed but I knew about a sneeze fetish and other forums and people who had them. When I saw this, I lurked for a long time and then I finally joined because I wanted to comment and interact with this community.

Why I'm still active: beeeecause I'm still kinda new and I don't want to just leave xD besides, I've made some cool friends and I enjoy looking at the things people post as well as talking with the other people on this forum. It's also an AWESOME way to get updates in the media on sneezing and stuff

[Mr. Black Cherry Berry Tea]

Why I Joined

-To be 1000% honest, because the Hurricane Hannah series of stories were my FAVORITES OF ALL TIME EVER and then when the adult stories board got split off from the regular/main story board I couldn't access those stories any more. And to get access you had to join up, and then to get approved you had to actually, you know, post, so...

Why I'm Here Now

I mean to be 1000% honest, it's still at least 50% because I really, really, really, really, really like reading and writing sneeze fiction and this the the main place for that so... here I am!

-But increasingly as I get to know more and more people it's because I actually have friends here and it helps me the more and more I come to terms with/define for myself exactly how the sexual part of life is going to work for me (or how I want it to work for me anyway).

[sneezelove123]

• Why I Joined - I've had the fetish all my life

Why I'm Here Now - I finally feel like I can talk about it!

[BananaTree]

Why I Joined:

I found this place by accident and realized I wasn't crazy or alone! Mostly I just wanted to see how others felt and join in.

Why I'm Here Now:

Are you kidding? Why would I leave? This is my daily socializing! I love this place

[Kaze Wo Hiku]

Why I Joined: Because I've never really had a place to talk about this, always kept it to myself. I started just reading sneezefics (cuz I love them) and then lurked in other sections and started reading replies from others and realized I wanted to start commenting. And tell writers/artists how much I enjoy their work.

Why I'm Here: Kinda weird answering this since I'm still really new but this is really the only community I've found about this and it's basically my only place to talk about it so I'm sticking around.

[March Hare]

Why I joined:

All credit goes to Google, no joke. First, there was the little bit of heaven called the Sneezefic Archive, and then... holy nutcakes, an ONLINE COMMUNITY devoted to that which I thought set me apart from the rest of the world. Un-be-leeeevable. I joined with (probably, at times, highly annoying) eagerness, devouring fiction, writing obs, playing with my stupid manga-fan-ness, pouring out the deepest FEELS of my (traceable?) life in the real world and making a couple of invaluable friends in the progress.

Why I'm still here:

After ten years, I have lost most of my considerable taste for sneezefic, but every once in a blue balloon something still comes along that rings my nethers. Also, like I said before, some of my best friends roam here, and also sometimes I want to say things which make me happy the Pit exists.

[High on Lullabies]

Why I Joined
I honestly don't remember. I would assume because, once upon a 2004 evening, possibly after several ciders on a uni night out I searched for something on Google and there this place was.
I am one of those who never actually knew what a sneeze fetish was until I found the forum. I just came, I saw and realised 'hang on, that's me!'. Some very kind folk made me feel welcome shortly afterwards and I stayed.

Why am I still here?
Uhm...I own the place?
More seriously I feel like I still want to give back to somewhere that has given me both a huge part of who I am and also several of the closest and best friends I've made and possibly will ever make. So until either I feel (or am told) it's time for me to go, I'm afraid you're stuck with me! Oh and I do enjoy the job, that helps.

[TheMaster]

Why I Joined

Because I loved reading the fanfic on this site, and eventually decided I wanted the ability to tell the authors how much I love their stories. And I thought that maybe one day I'd be confident enough to post my own stories.

Why I'm still here

The fanfic is still great and while I've still not gathered up the confidence to post my own stories the RP board I feel has helped me build my confidence and writing skills, on top of being an amazing community.