Gaffer Tape has a good point, in that we are the "outsiders" of the fan community, at least by official designation. This place gives us a sense of belonging, like any form of outsider community.

We are also bonded by an unrivaled passion for the films. I don't think a lot of fans of the official party line would go to the lengths to preserve the films and their obscure anxillary products and bootlegs, etc., the way we have. We are obsessive, but not in a creepy "I must collect every Star Wars doll" way, we just really, really like the films and appreciate the historical context of them, and most people don't dig as deep into the history as we do, nor put so much effort into appreciating them.

This makes it difficult to talk with "normal" people about the films, because we have such density of knowledge about everything. It's sort of the academic's dilemma, you can't go to a place like TFN and talk to twelve year olds about using an X0 player to capture the 1993 DE and 1986 JSC Laserdiscs, or whether Luke's lightsaber was recomposited in 1997 or 2004. It goes over their head. So, if we are a community of experts on the original versions, this is our equivalent of conferences and peer-reviewed journals. It's the only place to share, check, and expand the knowledge base.

Finally, disaster creates community. Nothing brings people together like a crisis. You can live in a neighbourhood for years and hardly speak to the people in the house next to you, but when there is a disaster in the neighbourhood suddenly you will discover a bond that you never knew was there. If Lucas hadn't suppressed the original versions, we wouldn't have needed to bond together to fight it out. If the original versions had been remastered on DVD and then Blu Ray right from the beginning of both formats, there would be no dedicated website to discuss them. So, in a weird way, this wonderful website and all the people that I've met on here--this is the one unintentional gift that Lucas' behaviour brought.