Cosmik has a very well thought-out discussion up on n3rfed looking at the Vanguard Beta Community. Already a much-discussed topic, he bring some interesting sociological and psychological analysis to the party (along with the required snark).

We can still distinguish who speaks what language (although I swear half the people that count English as their first language cannot type it), but on the other hand we have no idea what DeathWolf69 looks like. To aid us in determining whether DeathWolf69 is cool enough to share our toys with we use additional markers like “which web sites and forums are visited” (the Vanguard Beta boards in the case of the fanboy firing squad), and “which games are played” (EverQuest in the case of the fanboy firing squad).