You don't need a cowboy hat, but you should want one.

If you don't like the apparent restriction, reframe the "cowboy hat" silouhette as the fedora badge of terminal onlinitude... some folks look good in a fedora, and do good work wearing it. Indiana Jones comes to mind. They're not always a mark of obnoxious social cluelessness.

It's worth noting that in the few days of idly stumbling through the site, while my own content from previous days remains relatively unengaged, the cowboy hats actually appear rare. My guess is that they dominate threads between the regulars and fade away rapidly in the long tail of slow discussion.