Its one of the first thing any would be recruits asks.. and still now its hard to express what drives me to such obsessive ends. I like the ideal, that many computers although weak, unimpressive and inexpensive (relatively) can work together to acheive a comman goal or purpose, one which may usually be require a supercomputer or many mainframe hours to calculate and crunch the numbers.
Secondly it goes towards our competitive nature, we like to feel we are contributing, that we are competiting team against team, individual against indivdual. This competitive nature is partially what feeds the upgrading frenzy which is seen year round, as people strive to have the better system, the faster CPU, more RAM... it goes on.. but this is very similar to the fiearce competition between some teams, and individuals that feel this must be better, or very must improve their output or general contribution.
On top of this, and far more importantly its a way in which we are united, as a community, a global conglomerate of cultures, countrys beliefs. We run different systems, OSes even different projects yet, we can met and chat and enjoy fun rivals in the form of gauntlets, feel the sense of acheivement when on works hard to reach a goal, and gain the respect and confidence of a group which judge you on a totally different level to those in what some call the real world. Here ones physical appearance, age, occupation is irrelevant, instead we measure ourselves and each other but how knowledge and our willingness to help others understand, its this willingness to help others and encourage their growth that ultimatly leads to self growth and the courage to be oneself. This affect is not only seen online, in this gloabal DC community, but it evades our lifes is "real life", maybe only the assute may notice but the growth is there.