Totse was pretty amazing for me. I was a lone deviant, but I found a community of people who didn't give a shit that I was interested in fucked-up stuff (at the time, explosives and drugs) and who knew a ton of fucked-up and interesting stuff themselves.
I think it hit the sweet spot; other bulletin boards had and have uptight, ridiculous rules, so that expressing too strong of an opinion or strange beliefs or whatever means a warning or a ban. Even some subreddits are like this; and, of course, unlike Totse, Reddit has the karma system, which is basically designed to create circlejerks (hey! let's make the most visible and popular stuff even more visible and popular!). But the 'chans go too far in the other direction, to my thinking... without usernames, shitposting becomes the name of the game, and it's hard to really form a connection with the people or the community, or know who knows what they're talking about, etc.
Totse gave me two of the greatest, most important things in my life. Through one Totse user, I learned how to learn... and how to control my emotions, and how to be diligent, and how to solve problems. He basically shaped my entire personality to this day, and is directly or indirectly responsible for anything difficult I've ever learned. He was the most intelligent person I've ever met, and I'm arrogant enough to usually reserve that for myself... but, for once, I have to make an exception and say: nah, this guy had me beat. He could understand anything he came across, and then explain it to anyone... it was amazing. He taught himself entire textbooks of university-level advanced mathematics that I still don't understand, and without any help at all.
He killed himself one fall, and I still want to punch the fucking wall when I think about what we all lost that day.
Through another Totsean, I learned how to debate, research, and structure propositions, and that guy shaped both my beliefs and the process I use to arrive at them. But the most important thing of all was the user who introduced me to some chick he knew. It was random, totally un-serious, just some spur-of-the-moment "say hi k bye" fancy...
...and eight years later we're married and still together, and she saved my life and changed it more completely than I could ever have imagined. Totse is literally the reason I'm alive and the reason I'm happy. I'll always worship at the Temple, because half my damn life is connected to it.