>>5
Good post

>With how slow they can be, with several getting only a handful of posts a month, it feels like you might as well just be typing your thoughts in a text file.

Not exactly true. I can't speak for everybody, but I always write out my posts with the expectation that someone will reply. Maybe not today, maybe not this week, but someone will eventually. The feeling of pressing "reply" is a different feeling than pressing ctrl-s for this exact reason, there is a chance that someone out of your control will reply to you and incite further discussion.

I also fully agree with >>6. When people receive immediate replies, it becomes the expectation for everyone involved. Fast places (like 4chan) are a cesspool because everyone wants to reply to everyone immediately and receive replies immediately, with 0 thought put into the posts 99% of the time. But with slower speed, there is less incentive to make your posts as fast as possible, and it's even discouraged since anyone who's been on this site for even a day will realize that some of these posts/threads are multiple years, and even more than a decade old. So with infinite time to collect your thoughts without worrying about the thread expiring, you're allowed to create meaningful discussion at your leisure. The Post Office is a great example for this in my opinion. Bus Stop is in a weird spot because most discussion is taken moderately serious, but because posts expire after 24 hours, it creates a different dynamic.

I took about 3 hours writing up this reply. Not all 3 hours of it used to thinking/typing, but because I'm at work and I would write a little here, a little there, knowing full well this thread isn't going anywhere.