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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9294768" data-attributes="member: 6799660">I think this is one of those cases where we've ended up pretending we're a lot farther apart than we are. IMO everyone knows there's a point too far with agreeing to participate in an activity and then not substantively participating. Also IMO everyone knows that hobby activities do not have requirements on how seriously you take them unless everyone agrees to it ahead of time. I also suspect most groups land on a general accepted set of upper and lower bounds that new people have to figure out*, and conflicts related to someone drifting over those bounds that map to the general quality of conflict resolution a given social circle has. *hopefully with help from the existing participants.I don't know why you would join a book club if your goal wasn't to read books and then discuss them. I think the question is -- if you joined one and found you couldn't always read the allotted book in a given week --  would you be considered in violation of an expectation/social contract/doing the rest of the club a disservice?I'm not going to make friends here with this statement. I like this place. I like the people here. However, I have not seen specific evidence* to convince me that it is a bastion of elite TTRPG skill. This makes sense -- there are no qualifications for joining, and the only selection criteria for wanting to join/stick around are enthusiasm for TTRPGs and desire to discuss it. I'm sure many gamer quality metrics that you might define as skills probably do correlate fairly well with dedication or enthusiasm (or those at least are quasi-requirements). Desire to discuss (particularly on a forum platform) seems a lot more loosely linked. *To be clear, any given forum participant could well be a top 1% gamer, I just don't have sufficient evidence to convince me of it one way or the other.Look, I'm going to make an exception to my previously stated 'I think this is rare' comment for this one thing. Cell phones and people who cannot stay off them* -- sometimes to the point of being disruptive to those around them**-- are one this decade's major social adjustment points.  Doubly frustrating since they are generally not-optional devices for people in the modern world. You are not wrong in this, nor wrong in your frustration. IMO, though, I think it's too universal of an issue to treat it as a RPG issue. Also that it really isn't in the same category of issue as someone not taking the game seriously in other fashions (not knowing the rules, etc.). *especially if they have social media attached to them.**or themselves, cue anecdotes of people walking into hazards while staring at their phones. I was diagnosed as an adult. You should consider looking into it with a behavioral healthcare provider. I found tools and medications that drastically enhanced the quality of my life and the ability to function in my career, volunteer work, etc.</blockquote>

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