3128: Thread Meeting

Thread Meeting

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Title text: Hey, so did you ever finish your video series about Cassie and the caterpillar morph? I loved the first three, but never ... no, sorry, I get it, this isn't the place. Sorry! Sorry.

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Explanation

Many people have different sets of acquaintances from different parts of their lives, and there's not much overlap. For instance, they have colleagues at work and friends from different hobbies. People encountered in online forums are often very separate, since they may be anywhere in the world and even have quite differently eclectic tastes that they never mention. People find it surprising when there are overlaps in unrelated spheres.

In this comic, NorthLakeKayak and AntaresMike are two participants in an online thread (presumably about boating, or maybe specifically kayaking). NorthLakeKayak recognizes the username AntaresMike as also used by someone he remembers from a different forum about Animorphs, and apparently not a likely username to have been independently claimed by someone else.

As children, the most striking example of this type of compartmentalization is that we think of teachers as only existing in school. They're actually people with real lives (as also referenced in 2808: Daytime Firefly), but we find it extremely weird when we encounter them in some mundane place outside school, like at a restaurant or store. The comic makes the point that encountering the same person in two unrelated online forums is analogous to this.

This strip shows NorthLakeKayak excitedly identifying AntaresMike, and referencing the Animorphs forum, then appearing to realize that's off topic for the forum, and awkwardly trying to transition back to discussion of kayaks. The title text continues these theme, presumably within the same forum thread, specifically wanting to discuss a video series AntaresMike had done. This is followed by a correction (either self-censoring, or in response to an unseen reply) with apologies that "this isn't the place" to discuss such things.

Very often, the culture/rules of a particular forum will encourage relevance to the forum's raison d'etre, at least in its main threads, and fellow users will get to know all about their on-topic obsessions but usually only see hints of other individuals' alternate pastimes and hobbies. Additionally, it's possible that AntaresMike prefers to keep their interest groups separate. Animorphs fandom is a particular niche and nerdy interest that some people would hesitate to discuss it around people who aren't part of the fandom, either out of embarrassment, or out of fear of boring people. If that's the case, AntaresMike might not appreciate having those interests discussed in front of a kayaking forum. If the forum has a Private Messaging feature, this off-topic personal discussion could be taken there. Conceivably, the message from the title text was taken 'off-thread', but the author still finds their own excited tendency to blur the boundaries between subject matter embarrassing.

The alt text references Animorphs #19: The Departure. In this book, Cassie, a girl with the power to transform into animals, is trapped as a caterpillar after she exceeds the two hour limit on morphing. The video essay likely focuses on this book because it contains elements that stand out among the series, such as that the caterpillar form can uniquely "reset" its morphing time limit by metamorphosizing into a butterfly, or that it introduces the recurring character Aftran, a former member of the Yeerk Empire who chooses to defect and start a peaceful resistance group.

Transcript

[A portion of a thread in an online forum is shown. It has one post and a reply to that post.]

[First post:]

[Stylized A avatar] AntaresMike

[To the right of AntaresMike's username are a grayed-out star, plus sign in a circle, and illegible text in a box.]

You could also check out this kayak model. I attached a motor to mine, and it's a little bit of a kludge but it works great.

[Below the first post are grayed-out icons of a word balloon, two links from a chain, an arrow, and illegible text.]

[Reply (indented with a line connecting from AntaresMike's reply to NorthLakeKayak's):]

[Cueball picture avatar] NorthLakeKayak

[To the right of NorthLakeKayak's username are a grayed-out plus sign in a circle, and illegible text in a box.]

Oh, hey, AntaresMike! I know you!

Honestly I didn't realize you existed outside of the Animorphs fandom. I haven't seen you in forever!

Uh. So. How are you doing?

Kayaking, I guess.

Anyway yeah that model is great.

[Below the reply are grayed-out icons of a word balloon, two links from a chain, an arrow, and illegible text.]

[Bottom caption:]

Running into someone on a thread who you know from a totally different part of the Internet feels weirdly like running into your teacher in a store.

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Discussion

Can't believe this still hasn't been explained, it's been a whole 164315 minutes since this released. How am I supposed to enjoy it now? 2a01:5a8:479:b635:b4cd:4b3e:238a:dfc (talk) 16:08, 13 August 2025 (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Oh, hey 2a01:5a8:479:b635:b4cd:4b3e:238a:dfc, I know you!

Honestly I didn't realise you existed outside the Alien Vs. Predator Slash Fiction fandom. I haven't seen you since you described an even more squicky use of the plasmacaster than usual. 82.132.187.138 16:40, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

omg hiii 82.132.187.138! I think we've met in some forum where we pitted our web series together. I'm so proud of the Xronology (my series) for coming out on top, but your "Bottom Simulator 1993" wasn't too bad either! Caliban (talk) 16:44, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

This is the earliest I remember a comic being released in a looong time stevethenoob 19:31, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

One solution to this is to set up a personal website and link to it in your bio, while linking to all of your accounts from there. This way, people can discover your other interests via that personal website. —megan talk contribs 17:24, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

Given that I never use any (exactly-the-)same username twice, anywhere, this sounds like the absolutely last thing that I'd do. (I'm happy that you don't know whether I'm any (or all!) of @jimmy_wales, @realdonaldtrump, @KensingtonRoyal, @zuck, @FoxNews, @jairmessiasbolsonaro, @randallmonroe or anyone...)

In fact, I haven't got a 'bio' anywhere, except my CV/Resumé (which only lists my real-name email address that I don't use for anything but that) and what little I can get away with on any corporate system. 92.23.2.228 20:20, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

That's a good way to do it. What's linked can never be fully un-linked on the internet! Fabian42 (talk) 20:35, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

It helps that I got any possible internet self-promotion out of my system well before there was any 'social media' (and mostly before there was even 'the web') when it was all a far more pseudonimous text-only environment.

What doesn't help is that I also rejected things like LinkedIn as 'fads', like MySpace or Facebook (it'll never catch on!), to possibly tangible professional detriment. But I've muddled along. ;) (And it might even have helped not to have any embarassing skeletons in my closet, in anything easily googlable.)

But, hey let millenials be millenials and Zs be Zs, as well as the Gen Xs/Boomers that didn't come in well past the Eternal September. I'm sure they also mostly muddle through. 92.23.2.228 21:50, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

I have an interlinked network of main accounts with similar usernames. For some platforms I have alts, and for some platforms (like this one) I have no main account and only a different username. This stops issues with employers looking up my stuff if I use different writing styles on different accounts—not particularly difficult to do.

Also, did the wiki admins finally figure out how to do X-Forwarded-For? —megan talk contribs 08:10, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

(I can't figure out if that's a bad thing because it means people show their IP addresses to random strangers, or if it's a good thing because you can show everyone your vanity IPv6 address with the suffix set to ::1337. —megan talk contribs 08:14, 14 August 2025 (UTC)

I call these "internet loops"! Could also be someone randomly knowing someone else I also know or other roundabout way to rediscover someone. It happened a bunch of time with a specific Minecraft content creator's community for me, where someone found my comment on an Avatar fan video, I spotted someone else on a maths video with very few views, other people there liked the same music and someone joined a Pokémon-themed Discord who has one of the Minecraft community members as shared friend. And some people there already knew an Undertale creation of the owner. Fabian42 (talk) 20:35, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

I have never understood the "seeing your teacher in a store is weird" thing. My daughter behaves that way, but she behaves in such a clichéed "Like...oh my god, that's just so totally...like...you know?" teenage way about everything that I have no belief in its genuinely being a problem. I saw teachers out of school, when I was a kid. It wasn't odd. It was just seeing people I knew in the town where we both lived. Yorkshire Pudding (talk) 20:24, 15 August 2025 (UTC)
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