The ancient art of shouto boxing

Long forgotten in the mists of ancient digital systems, amongst the shamanic masters of Cybersyn, Telnet and Gopher, there was an ancient art... Instant message. Realtime Feedback. Telex to telex. Tesla was the magician, Marconi was the original founding father, Morse the original seer. This site has something really compelling on it. The shout box. 10 lines. Real Time. Free for all. Its restricted palette makes for some great verbal encounters. I've had fun on the shout box. I remember the days of yahoo's labyrinth of chat, and I know the jungle of stickam, but AnD has something special. One chat room, 10 lines. Totally egalitarian. Totally public. And what's more people respect it. They behave nicely. Occasionally there's a little heat, but nothing compared to a forum set to high flame. I'm probably the rudest currently in the ring, and that's me minding my manners. There's something wonderful about the shout box. It's so gloriously simple in this sprawling web of confusing and sometimes psychopathically detatched and cynical multi-protocol multimedia mashup. And it presents the user with an inviting blank canvas, and breeds real human encounter. Yay for AnD and the ancient art of shoutoboxing.