It could get dicey, engaging with people over the internet. I mean, can you imagine the response if he did show up, his ownself? The nutters would crawl out of the woodwork in the blink of an eye. He'd get bombarded with questions he'd probably not want to answer, comments about his movies/weight/lack of fighting in recent flicks/etc. he'd probably not want to see and expressions of undying love and devotion that would make his skin crawl (unless he got off on that sort of thing) and no graceful way to deal with any of them except to ignore them, or risk getting even more bad press by what he did answer (especially if the answer wasn't to the liking of the person asking the question/making the comment).
It's also way too easy to forget that this is a public board, and that one is not having a private conversation with one individual, but a very public one with hundreds (or more!) looking on and "eavesdropping", and not just those who are registered here, either.
I observed, for example, that when the papers were reporting on his testimony against the Mafia and the Nasso lawsuit, on another website that was "keeping an eye" on Steven, the person reported that he went to the official site and checked the message board to see what the fans were saying about the testimony and/or the lawsuit, and all the fans were talking about there was his weight, and nothing at all about the lawsuit or the testimony, as if his weight was more important than his personal safety and well-being, at least as far as the fans were concerned. So, it should be noted that it may not just be "us" who are necessarily participating in this on-line conversation.
Steven doesn't strike me as someone who is very easy around people, anyhow, and the on-line community, as any community, has its share of, shall we say, less than friendly inhabitants.
A conversation with the calm, kind and friendly elements would soon be lost in the backwash of trolls and nutters, and he'd beat it out of here faster than you can say "Under Seige", as he did on the official message board.
Granted, the offical message board was poorly moderated and I doubt anything like that would happen here, but a few such could easily slip past the moderators here (I mean, even they have to sleep and go to work/school/whatever and have dinner, too!).
There's also the time factor. I mean, we've got time on our hands to hang out here, but does he? Realistically, I'd say not.
However-!
That doesn't mean he shouldn't acknowledge his fans, of course. And you're right, Amos, it's not as though anyone could "hit" him physically through the internet. But there are "hits" he could take that would be far worse, considering his adversarial relationship with the press (and people in general, it seems, sometimes). He's probably safer staying out than coming in.
-TD, playing Devil's Advocate - oops, that would make Steven the Devil. But he's not, so that would make the foregoing TD wrote as Steven's Advocate, except I'm not - okay, how do I get out of this one?
-TD, looking around nervously....
