You ever notice how any given community will try and establish a status hierarchy based on whatever traits that community values, and assign levels of 'worth' accordingly?

Maybe I'm not stating it clearly enough so some examples might help. When I dabbled in 'professional gaming' it was clear that people's worth in that little world was directly related to their skill in the game (noobs, pros, etc). I guess any group will do this; some might use beauty or money as the all important factor in assigning merit, or capacity for violence, but it's always something. Every group assigns merit to its members according to some internal system of bad or good.

The same thing seems to apply to these forums -- live players, internet pros, celebrities, random people who go deep in tournaments, whatever. Some are revered and others are hated. What's strange is how strong the hate really is. It's not just appreciation of skill but seemingly real anger towards anybody who is 'bad' at this game. Just read some of the rants towards some particular group/player.

It's sad really. Who cares if someone's good at poker or not, why get all worked up over it? Why are human beings like this?

This is a poker forum, what do you expect? If someone comes on here and makes a ******ed post in (hsnl,msnl,nvg,bbv,etc), that person will get berated in true form. However, eventually that person will start to understand more and more about the game/how to successfully utilize the forums and eventually get better and be better from it. The forums here are used as a learning tool for some and a socializing forum for others. Either way, everyone works their way up and gains respect. It's just how the world works.

Because if we weren't like this we'd be ****ing extinct.

/thread

I don't think petty hate/judgment based on an arbitrary skill is necessary for survival, and I was making a larger point beyond just forum etiquette.