In my case, my guy doesn't get it at all. He actually thinks it is pretty strange that I post online to people I will never meet.

His doesn't go online, but had me show him a motocross message board one time, and he read wrong info there and said, "Why would people lie on the Internet?"

Was one of those who didnt get messages myself (This is one of the very few i post at.) They all just looked like a bunch of cluttered words and are easy to dismiss when you stumble across one . . . but once you start reading them, its crazy how fast you can get hooked.

My husband doesn't get it at all. He doesn't even have Facebook or email! He gets on CL sometimes but that's about it.

TPP, you could put a gun to my guy's head, and he would not at all know how to get on CL.

I do all his marketing for the business, and he has never wanted to partake in the online part of business...damn, wish he banked online...

For the most part, they don't. Over the years I have tried to put a number of my friends onto the various message boards I read/posted at, but most were apathetic. I haven't invited any of them to post here, because I know that many just wouldn't be interested. I think when it comes to message boards, the individual has to (as Robbie said) 'stumble upon' one for themselves to really get how addictive they can be. Recommending a message board to someone who isn't into them can be like leading a horse to water.

No. A huge part of my online time at one point was various boards and many people don't get the appeal. Once my mom snooped over my shoulder while I was on the Internet probably thinking I was looking at something questionable. She was befuddled to see that it was just a music msg forum.

Most of the people in my life do.
My sister is on here obviously as well as one of my friends.
My brother goes on various forums as well.

I doubt it.

I think I would feel kind of strange if somebody I knew read my message board posts. I am 100% honest on any message board and use examples from real life, and I wouldn't want somebody to read all that and either wonder if I was talking about them or wonder who I was talking about.

The guy that owns hunting land adjacent to my dad's land told me last time I saw him that he had googled me and my son and then he had a ton of questions about what he found. Nothing scandalous, mostly stuff related to my son's sport. But being asked questions like that was a very strange thing.

From time to time my sister has ribbed me about my forum and blog obsession. I echo Robbie's sentiments about the person sometimes needing to discover them for themselves to 'get' it. Message boards can be like a reality show that seems silly or uninteresting on the commercial, but once you're lured into watching it is addictive.

My wife and I both belong to many message boards and have for 12 years. It's one of our hobbies as yard sales are also a hobby. We have different interests so I belong to several boards she has no interest in and she belongs to several I'll never visit. Most of our friends have no interest in computers much less message boards. Different strokes for different folks.

I think I'm the only I know who really does it. Although I've never even bothered to ask any of my friends/family.

Remarkable isn't it? I'm in B.C., you are in New York; we are strangers to one another, yet we communicate freely about all sorts of mutual interest. We really aren't so different even though we are in different countries on opposite coasts. I've conversed with people all over the world via message boards. That has to be good inn that it brings the world closer together.

The people closest to me are my husband and my kids. Hubby probably doesn't "get" it, but he doesn't pick on me about it. The kids both play MMORPG's and also play XBOX and PS3 with others online, so they do enough of their own virtual chatting.