Whither gothdar?

Paul Hodkinson (who reads this, but if he wants to reveal his journal that's up to him ;-) says in his book Goth (this is not an exact quote) that goths tend to spend a lot of time in the subculture ... so if you say you're not a goth but you spend quite a lot of time there and look like one, you're a f*cking g*th.

From the gothdar poll, my new rule of thumb might be: if you know what "gothdar" is without further explanation, you're probably a goth. If it's always on involuntarily, you're definitely a goth, or at least a pervy goth fancier. (ronebofh?)

Do your eyes spot goths before you've consciously noticed them? Does someone trigger your gothdar then you have to try to work out what set it off and whether it was correct?

The obvious question is: why gothdar? Why is it always on? What does it do for (or against) you?

The stages of goth.

DENIAL: "I am so not a goth."
ANGER: "Fuck you, I'm sick of goths!"
BARGAINING: "I wear these boots because they're comfortable, and black happens to be slimming on me. Look, my jacket is brown."
DEPRESSION: "Oh Ghod, normals actually suck worse."
ACCEPTANCE: "Listen, kid, I see gother things than you after my morning dump."

Update: Further stages, prompted by mr_tom:

EMERGENCE: Oh all right I'll go to the goth night at the pub. I can tell them to play Sisters instead of crappy EBM.
ACCEPTANCE: My goodness, these sxxy deth chyx are fine.
RE-CONNECTING WITHOUT LEARNING: G'day, luv, nice boots!
NEW LEARNING AND HOPE: Ow. Never mind, there's another one over there.
LIFE WITH NEW INSIGHT AND UNDERSTANDING: Perhaps if I pick up sxxy deth chyx my own age. Oooh, g'day. Nice boots!