What message boards do I participate in and why?
SoWal because I love the community, and I'm talking people and place. I talk to the people I know as wonderful, living, breathing human beings and to the ones I hope to meet and become friends with one day. SoWal the message board is what connects me to SoWal the place when I'm not there. If I weren't interested in the latter I wouldn't bother hanging around the former; what would be the point?
Facebook though not so much as some, but that's just me. Like the Kitty, the phone is always going to be #1 on my list as a means of keeping up with family and friends. But for checking in on all the various unconnected people in my life (by "unconnected" I mean family people, college people, neighbor people: the people who know me but not each other) FB is a marvelous invention. It's like one-stop shopping!
TripAdvisor because I rely on it so much for reviews, and I figure if you take something of value from a board, you really ought to offer something of value in return. I always try to get my hotel and sightseeing reviews up. Lynnie--there is a forum on TA for travel-specific questions. I believe Beachbum Aggie answered a question a year or two ago on the condo complex where we own (Aggie is that you talking about Hidden Beach Villas?).