The Universal Appeal of El Diablo

[Los Feliz Slim]

Slow Play Ray,

People who have phone relationships with me ALWAYS expect something completely different than what they get when they meet me. I have a pretty Jewish last name, I'm a talent agent, and I've been doing this a long time (started when I was 23), so they expect a little old Jew when they meet me. I am, however, tall and Aryan looking. When I meet a business person who I've known for a while on the phone, they usually spend the entire time shaking their head saying "Wow."

Online, of course I think I'm very much like myself IRL. But, I imagine other people to be much different IRL than online. I think on 2+2 I'm pretty boring compared to some of the characters around here, but in person I'm somewhat of a character. I guess I think that people are more likely to be extroverted online rather than in person. In other words, I imagine that a lot of posters are probably more boring in real life than they are here, while I imagine the opposite about myself.

Odd.

[Howard Treesong]

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I'm gonna lock this soon unless it expands into a broader discussion of online communities beyond simply restating how much I rule.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've never met El D IRL, but I'm led to understand that he is not quite so handome as Patrik Antonius and also that he did not have any tackles for losses in 1995. So I'm sorry to say that I dispute his characterization of this thread so far.

[El Diablo]

Howard,

At least I'm not a f'ing lawyer.

[7ontheline]

I'm sure a number of posters here have read Malcom Gladwell's Tipping Point and I wonder how his archetypes apply to internet communities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point_(book)

The notion of a Connector with a wide social circle is not directly applicable - everyone here can read anyone's posts, and most people do not actually know each other. That said, perhaps people like El D are read by more than most and thus exert influence. I think on a forum like this one El D acts as both a Salesman and a Maven - people certainly do flock to his opinions and fall in line with them, and he has the credibility to produce this response. (Due to his known poker skills and business/real life success; as stated previously, this kind of credibility is not available in many other forums) Al, I'm sure your GF has a much better analysis. Anyway, that's the first thing I thought of upon reading this thread.

[Dids]

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does anyone else wonder how their own real-life persona compares to their online persona? i do. i know a few people from 2+2, perhaps i should ask them.



[/ QUOTE ]

Much like Diablo said, I'm nicer in real life because I just don't hang around the kind of idiots that bring out my more caustic side (although there's some folks at work that get that).

Beyond that, I'd like to think I'm reasonably similar. Enough people have met me that could probably tell me if I'm right or wrong.

[ahnuld]

fwiw most people ive met irl from 2+2 have been similar to their online persona. Its the lurkers who are totally weird.

[Dids]

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fwiw most people ive met irl from 2+2 have been similar to their online persona. Its the lurkers who are totally weird.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've been very surprised at how many 2p2ers I've met that are just utterly normal folks. The last like giant 2p2 vegas clusterfuck I was at, there was only one person who I felt was just really obviously "from the internet".

Part of that just seems to be that there's a lot of 2p2ers for whom 2p2 was their first, and still only real internet experience (at least in a the folks I've met) so you have people more focused on something like poker than just random recreational internetting.

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
S,

My real life personality is very much like my online one, except I'm much less of a dick because I tend to avoid people who irritate me rather than get involved in stupid arguments like I do here. In a lot of ways, my online persona here is like a caricature of me in real life with lots of parts hyper-exaggerated. I also use this place to vent a lot, which reduces my stress IRL.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow. This is almost exactly the way I would describe, and have described, the difference between my IRL personality (genuinely nice guy) and my online personality (pro bono a-hole). I attribute the fundamental causal difference to the fact that "none of you people matter." I avoid people that I genuinely would not get along with in IRL, but have also learned that real life interpersonal relationships with family, friends, coworkers and bosses are too important to damage or destroy just to be right.

Also, my understanding is that El Diablo is 10 feet tall and shoots fireballs out of his arse.

[tuq]

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So, knowing that posters are always trying to knock El D off his perch, does anyone have an example of El D losing one of these battles?

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I do. There was a thread a bit back in BBV about the rapdurr house or whatever the hell it was called and El D was getting owned by his own jealousy. Given El D's tendency to be incredibly tricky at times I suppose it's possible he was feigning jealousy, but it all seemed too perfect.

Anyway, that aside, El D rules of course. On the rare occasions I've taken exception with his opinion he's given nearly flawless rebuttals which have left me with "yeah you win, I'll STFU now". It's also worth noting that both the volume of his posts and the fact that he posts across nearly every forum (strat, off-topic, etc.) makes him easily the most ubiquitous poster on the site.

[tuq]

Dids,

I helped organize the Phoenix get-together last summer and like you was surprised at the "normalcy" of everyone. We spanned probably 25-30 years in age and certainly played different amounts of poker (heh, actually everyone there but me played seriously large amounts of poker, the only difference being some favored online and others B&M).

Although maybe we're attaching an unfair stigma to meeting people on the internet, because for years I was part of a Links LS (golf sim) community and met a few of those guys - mostly married middle-age types - and they were all more normal than otherwise.