1. I am bored, and reading/writing is entertaining.

2. I'm interested in people and how they think. It's a lot easier to just isolate their thoughts in text on a forum than running around trying to meet people.

3. I want to bounce my ideas off other people and have them prove me wrong. I assume I'll meet a lot of people here that think differently than I do, and I want to hear their points of view. My greatest fear is that I might reach a particular conclusion or worldview based on limited information or faulty logic.

4. I'd like to think there are others out there with goals similar to my #3, and that I'm doing them a service.