The modern terms have the suggestion of recompense built into them. That’s kind of interesting. That built in skepticism that sincerity has anything to do with it.
Whatever acrimony these message board combatants may have had 25 years ago, there was a tacit acknowledgment that they shared the same interest and maybe the same damage that kept them on message boards. The idea of being a ‘tourist’ was alien because there were no tourists in message boards.
Go back another 5-10 years and it gets even more constrained. Imagine lobbing an accusation that someone who bothered to dial up to rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc wasn’t sincere. Heh.
Anyway, if you auto-replace ‘you’re not a true fan’ barbs to ‘haha, you have a greater sense of balance and priorities in your life‘ it makes an already silly situation even funnier.
