Especially where I live (Lexington, KY) there are not a plethora of true hackathons to choose from. There are a few smaller language-specific groups that do some event but SW is by far the largest of it's kind in Lexington. So I jumped on SW when I found out about it. It was neat just not really what I was looking for. I get most of my "hackathon"-energy out by just meeting up with friends to work on an idea on a weekend.