EP vs Similar Worlds

I miss quite a bit about EP, including so many of the people. It was more of a community than I find SW to be - at least it was before the downhill swing toward the end.

The site itself, was more customizable and offered more flexibility and freedom. For instance, creating experience groups with names that actually made sense instead of cookie cutter names under broad headings, that so often, fail to offer anything appropriate.

There were separate sections for the Q&A, the stories & poetry, and
erotica & fetish, so it wasn't a jumble, and you could find what you wanted. Plus, for the most part, you didn't have to see what you didn't want to see. There was also an option to create your own mini "library" of stories that had spoken to you, thereby making it easy to find them again as well as the author's new writings. There were some incredible authors and you could spend hours getting lost in reading their works.

The chat function was amazing, even though it had its quirks and unfortunately didn't extend to the Australian users.

The whiteboard was your main "homepage" where everyone would interact with each other by leaving messages, jokes, emojis, etc, that were just right there on the page when you first logged in. No searching around for things and no missing something that made you smile.

It also seems like people engaged more with each other back then in general, in an honest, genuine manner. Not everyone was on the up and up, of course, and while you had to be careful, the majority of users were pretty cool.

You could post anonymously at one time, experiences which were painful, raw, or embarrassing, and others could respond in kind. It helped so many, until a few took it too far with nasty insults, bullying, and bad mouthing others, both in posts and subsequent comments. (This is why we can't have nice things.)

People were interested in sharing experiences, authoring stories, offering support, and having a good time - rather than trolling for political, religious, etc. questions to beat each other up over.

When Apple began offering EP as an app, it truly went downhill quite quickly and in the end it was gone due to spiteful people & one horrific event.

I was there from the beginning of 2008 until the last day in 2016.

But, all that being said, people are different today than back then. They expect and demand different things and feel entitled to say and act how ever they want. Consideration and courtesy has been lost to a tremendous degree.

I believe being on that site (whose initial popularity was based on word of mouth rather than advertising, by people who cared about the site) was most likely a once in a lifetime thing. I doubt we see anything like it again, anywhere. 🤷🏼‍♀

@SW-Admin I have been encouraged to tag you in this for suggestions at the next update. Do with it what you will.