Things on Self-Storage Talk, the industry's largest online community, are starting to get hairy.

As part of the global "Movember" movement, a charity endeavor encouraging men to grow facial hair from scratch to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer and men's health issues, Self-Storage Talk is getting involved. Moderator Madman, a Canadian self-storage owner and avid community servant, decided to grow his first-ever "flavor-saver" moustache, beginning Nov. 1. He turned first to SST, the official forum of Inside Self-Storage, to share his cause, drum up donations and support, and encourage other male SST members to participate in Movember themselves. He's actually found quite a bit of support from female members! The ongoing discussion is "Let's Be Mo' Friends: Moustache in November for Prostate Cancer."

In the thread, Madman shares a link to his "mospace," or online donation and progress page. He also shares images of his moustache growing in, including the one to the right.

What do moustaches and prostate-cancer awareness have to do with self-storage? Well, directly, nothing. But campaigns such as Madman's perfectly illustrate SST's secondary use: to form a community and be an outlet for people to connect, even if their connections don't have anything to do with self-storage. The primary use of the forum remains to ask and answer questions related to industry topics, such as marketing, day-to-day management, legal issues and insurance, but it's the secondary use that keeps most people engaged and active.

Interested in joining the fun? Becoming an SST member is free and easy. Create your username by going to www.selfstoragetalk.com and clicking on "Register" at the top of the page.