The Dire Cafe is Uncle Bear's latest experiment in internet technology, offering "social networking for escapist geeks". What's an escapist geek? That's a question that's been debated ad infinitum at Uncle Bear, but the basic definition seems to come down this: escapist geeks are slightly less intense versions of normal geeks.

I'm not sure if that definition will hold up in the long run, but if you like to talk about comics, science fiction, fantasy, horror, movies, or RPGs without having the conversation devolve into mindless fanboy ranting, then you'll probably fit in just fine at the Dire Cafe.

The Cafe itself seems to be filling the same niche as the on-again, off-again Uncle Bear forums, but with a few extra "social" bells and whistles like audio and video, private messaging, tagging, etc. Thus far, it seems to be working better than the forums, and I think it's successfully creating that informal, casual geek atmosphere that Uncle Bear is shooting for.