Sure, it's a form of role-playing, but it also gets people to thinking. If you've noticed the Extra Information down at the bottom left of the main forum pages, you may have noticed that the unregistered users often outnumber the registered ones by 8 to 1. Suppose one single person sees someone's post on keeping your shoes beside their bed instead of their closet, and they think, 'You know, that really makes sense' and they do it. And then a week or a month later, an earthquake or explosion blows their window into their bedroom window at 3 a.m. Has this forum served a useful purpose?

IMHO, if someone even THINKS about what they could do in an emergency, those thoughts may come back to them in the crucial instant that they really need to do something. Even something as seemingly inconsequential as keeping a flashlight beside the bed could make the difference between life and death or injury, and being able to help someone else.

And, if you come right down to it, this whole site is based on What If.... Only a tiny fraction of the people here will probably ever need their kits or their food storage for anything. But if you need it and you don't have it.... THAT'S when the S really HTF.

Besides, new people are constantly joining the forum and some of the old ones leave. Ideas are constantly being refined and adjusted to current conditions.

And if you stop thinking, your brain rots.

Sue