I'll bite. I post for a variety of reasons:
1) COMMUNITYI have been a part of this community from the the very beginning. Originally it was a place to joke with and learn from like-minded people. At the start, it was only about sports: recruiting guesses, game analysis, and insider observations from practice. That bubble was pleasurable. Here in a little corner of the emerging internet, you could talk about something you loved with other people who loved it too. In sports, we had the big bad PAC10 opposition with all their greater traditions and higher rated recruits, and Cal was always a seeming underdog, but you could come here and feel empowered because even if we lost a game we could laugh about it and celebrate the Cal experience and make it our own. This place made Cal more than just the sporting event, it was a culture of eternal fatalistic optimism. And, sometimes, we even won.
Our first controversies and tensions were around who should play, or plays that should have been called, and then if coaches should be fired. Like the sports world in general, sports banter became more aggressive and hostile and taking a position. The first divides in the community appeared.
Then, the real world started to leak in. Greater sports, university, and political issues became part of the debate. It has been a slow decline in the quality of discussion, and slow increase in partisanship aimed at "winning" some greater contest of political sport (or typically more about making others feel that they are the "losers") then it is about supporting a sense of community and learning from one another. In short, we went the way of the internet and are in a lot of ways no better than any SEC or 4Chan board. We have sock puppets and trolls and people who just want to argue. What used to be a haven and a feel good part of my day is now a mixed source of angst. So, community is the main reason I post here, but much of that has been lost.
2) KNOWLEDGE There is such an interesting group of accomplished people on BI that I often get exposed to information and opinions that I would have never otherwise gained. This is when BI is at its best.
3) HABITFor better or for worse, BI is built into my daily routine. It's one of about 5 sites that I check without really even thinking each day. It's the digital equivalent of walking to the end of the driveway and getting the morning paper. I wish it still had all the positive connotations of "starting my day off right."
4) CATHARSISBe it a devastating loss in football or something devastating in the political theater, there is something cathartic to put your words down and having your "community" affirm and echo your experience. This post itself is a good example.
5) DEFENSE OF THE GOODEthical positions in both the sports and political realms are increasingly drowned out by "having a take," ""if you aren't cheating you aren't trying," "greed is good," and "win at any cost" rationalizations for the degradation of principles and the higher mission of life and sport. In some small way, and with full self-awareness of the pompousness of this claim, I believe that posting here contributes and defends a worthwhile counter argument, that seeds are planted, that if enough people contribute to the persistence of good, it disseminates.
6) ANTIDOTEPositions here I disagree with are the same I hear stated on the news and by some friends and family. Posts I make and others I read, give me a sense of relief and affirmation (you can perhaps call it confirmation bias) that not EVERYONE feels these things and that there are really rational, factual antidotes to a lot of the poison of partisanship.
7) ACCOUNTABILITYMaking a record of a position offers some limited accountability for my own thoughts and for those who disagree with me. Unfortunately, there is a rise in never admitting you are wrong, moving the goalposts, and just out and out denial of what is written in black and white. Somehow I feel like this discourse, if you can call it that, helps to create digital footholds in an increasingly post-truth, gaslighting reality.
8) IMPROVE CAL SPORTSThis of course used to be the primary objective. But in the years since and the way the chatter has evolved, this gets lost. The hope is that by the critical eye of a community and the collective celebration of the best parts of the Cal experience, the powers-that-be are guided and steered.
9) DRIVE TRAFFICI post to drive internet traffic.
10) PASS ON TRADITIONSLike seniors (or in this case senior citizens) passing on traditions to freshmen, this place is a reservoir of Cal culture, nostalgia, and history. This library passes on our collective version of fandom and perhaps is part of expanding and entrenching our fan base. How else would one know the meanings of (we need a pinned Bear Insider glossary by the way):
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